Finton Lewis – RIP 🙏

MY WAY

".............I've lived a life that's full.
I traveled each and every highway,
And more, much more than this,
I did it My Way"

 

This Frank Sinatra superhit epitomises Finton and how he led his life - On his own terms!

One of the most popular figures in national bridge; the world and his brother knew Finton, not only for his bridge prowess, which was top dog, but also for his affable and pleasing nature and his ethics and fair play.

Finton influenced innumerable bridge players, with his explanations and advice, both solicited and unsolicited, on bridge situations and knowledge. True to his vocation of being a teacher (yes he taught Mathematics), he even gave lessons on life and living.

Inspite of being a national champion several times over, he would consistently promote fresh raw talent. Almost 40 years ago, in 1986, fresh from winning the Ruia Gold Cup the previous year, the sought after rising star, Finton, played the prestigious National Pairs championship,the Holkar pairs, with a beginner then, taking her through the rigorous 4 eliminations, right into the finals.

That beginner, who became a fan of Finton, like many of us, is our inimitable Vasanti Shah. Incidentally, the very next year, in 1987, he won that same blue riband Holkar Pairs with Anil Padhye. Guess Vasanti had trained him well. 😁

As Finton's very close friend and original teammate, Ivan Alphonso, rightly stated in his eulogy, Finton saw a feature in every hand. He followed the 'DO' mantra; Disturb Opponents. He was lethal in match point pairs, seldom allowing opponents to play at the one and two level. He never gave you an easy ride. The corollary to that was that sometimes he would be caught with his hand in the cookie jar, doling out phones numbers as penalties. Minus 500 onwards was normal for him, as were the stepping stone and entry shifting squeezes, endplays, and Merrimac coups. His card play was rated amongst the best in the country. That was Finton. Always a dichotomy.

I will survive

This Gloria Gaynor song besides being one of his favorites, became his mantra for life. Uncontrolled diabetes, prostate surgeries, the Big C, Colon cancer, more surgeries, chemotherapy, gangrene, and a foot amputation didnt deter Mr Alexander Finton Lewis. Like the Phoenix, he would rise from the ashes again and again.

The man was a never say die enigma.

His last hosanna, so to speak, was winning the gold in the Super Mixed Teams in the 2018 edition of the Asia Cup. He went on to represent India in the Asian Games in Indonesia, that year.

 

Finton was obsessed with Opening Leads. He even made me buy a book on opening leads by Mike Lawerence.

To cite his brilliance, i will give you an example :

You (Finton) hold :

♠️ 1053
♥️ Q1094
♦️ 873
♣️KJ10

The bidding goes :

LHO     RHO
1♦️       1♠️
3♦️*    3NT

3♦️explained as good 6 card diamonds or long diamonds with a spade fit and a better hand.
What do you lead?

Obviously the suits to attack are hearts/clubs.
RHO seems to be prepared for a heart lead. So you zone in on the club suit.
Did you lead a club?  That's half your battle won.
Which Club did you lead?

Finton figured that LHO is likely to have a singleton club. And if the singleton was the Queen, Leading the Jack would block the suit in Finton's hand.

Finton led the devastating ♣️ K!! And struck gold. Sure enough, dummy produced the singleton Queen. His partner had A9xxx of clubs. They took 5 tricks for down one! Finton made the unblocking play at trick one with his lethal lead of King from KJ10.

Brilliant.

All in a days work for Shri Lewis.

A Kibitzers Nightmare

I was kibitzing the above when Finton was partnering Ratanlal Kejriwal in the finals of the Maharashtra State Championships in 1991 which they won. Finton, was the only person in the bridge fraternity who never ever arranged his cards. His suits were all over the place. And to complicate natters ,he would take 3-4 cards randomly and shift them. So when he led the Club King from K,J,10 I thought he had pulled out the wrong card from his random collection. Serves him right i thought. Then the penny dropped. The lead was delberate and brilliant.

His health went on a down hill slide last few years. While playing the Otters Club pairs on 20 Nov 2025, word trickled in that Finton had moved on.

At his burial they lowered his mortal remains into the grave to the strains of - My Way. So apt

"And now, the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
I've lived a life that's full.
I traveled each and every highway,
And more, much more than this,
I did it My Way."

Rest In Peace My Friend.

Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.