Thailand, Indonesia share bridge glory
Thailand, Indonesia share bridge glory
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia and Thailand shared the pride at the Southeast Asian bridge inter-club championships in Manila on Tuesday.
It was the Thai men who stole the limelight, however, as they scored a historic victory that ended Indonesia's 15-year supremacy in the annual event.
Thailand's representative team, ROSC, silenced the home crowd with a 63-33 win over YASC of the Philippines in Tuesday's final. ROSC, the only Thai team to reach the knock-out quarterfinals, then toppled giant killer Pattimura of South Jakarta 41-37 in the semifinals.
Pattimura had sprung a surprise in the quarterfinals when it upset defending champion and 12-time winner Volta of Manado, North Sulawesi. In the other semifinal YASC edged out Pertamina of Central Jakarta.
For 15 years, Indonesian clubs had total control of the annual the tournament which began in 1979. Volta, Pattimura, Garuda of East Jakarta and Lippo Arangam of Central Jakarta have all won the President Soeharto's trophy.
"The tournament has seen encouraging progress despite our upset defeat. The bridge situation in the region seems to be balancing out.
"We will have to keep an eye on other countries more than ever from now on," Volta's ace player, Hengky Lasut, said.
Hengky and his fellow bridge wizard Eddie Manoppo managed to lead Volta to no more than fourth place in the round-robin group matches en route to the quarterfinals.
Pattimura took the third place after beating Pertamina 13-7 in the playoff.
Pattimura's women salvaged Indonesia's pride when they grabbed the Madame Tien Soeharto trophy. The South Jakartans fielded Lusye Doyoh, Joise Tueye, Sarce Pontoh and Tian Arwin Budisusanto to thrash home favorite Santiago 65-28 in the final.
It was the second victory for Pattimura after 1993 in Denpasar, Bali.
Pattimura made it to the final with a 56-16 rout of ROSC of Thailand. YASC claimed its final berth after downing TAS 55-25 in an all-Philippines semifinal.
Indonesian teams have now taken the symbol of Southeast Asian women's bridge team supremacy six times since the initial competition in 1983. Thailand and Singapore have won four and five times respectively. (amd)