Somewhere in the Nilgiries, not too far away from Ooty is this small town called Coonor. While it vies with Ooty for beauty, it also boasts of a vibrant bridge community which plays bridge, both online and face to face at least 4 times a week.
This town also has been regularly conducting an annual bridge tournament over the past several years which has kept on growing in popularity. In the last few years, this tournament has been dedicated to the memory of Major Lakshmanan Srinivasan.
Popularly known as Lachchu, he spent a couple of decades in the army and then went on to head the Madras Management Association in Chennai. He was a keen bridge player aspiring to make his mark in the sport. He had a couple of successful outings in the Nationals in Bangalore and then Jaipur where his team qualified to the knock outs in the Silver Category.
Unfortunately, his dream was brutally cut short in 2017 when he died of a massive heart attack. His association with Bridge was short and and his life in Coonoor even shorter. But his family and the Nilgiri Bridge Association have together ensured that the memory of all that lingers on in Coonoor.
The 2024 edition
Roshanth and Krishanth
This year's edition attracted 35 teams to the main event, a participation many organizations would die to have in their tournaments. People from all over the country; Kolkata, Pune, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Bangalore and Chennai, to name a few of those cities participated in the event. A number of these players joined some of the local pairs and helped make the event the roaring success it was. People of all ages participated, right from young Roshanth, aged 9 and Krishanth, aged 14 to Dr. Nalin Parikh, aged 95!
Here is a small view of the goings on on day 1
Dr. Nalin Parikh did his hometown proud when his team, Hills and Seas qualified for the Super League. In fact three of the six qualifying teams had residents of Coonoor in them. These included Captain Ravikumar Manian, one of the prime organizers of the event, Hema Vikram, Deepa Jacob, Sharon George and, of course Dr. Parikh himself.
At the end of the first day, the Coonoor Club hosted a cocktails and dinner. The dinner was simple; Dosas, plain and with fillings, both veg and non veg. It can be safely said that everybody had a grand time.
This event also saw a number of women participants. Once again, in the qualifying teams, there were no less than 8 ladies playing. These were, in alphabetical order, Deepa Jacob, Haripriya, Hema Vikram, Mini Naidu, Raksha Mehta, Sharon George, Uma Rajesh and Varalakshmi
Here is a short video of the Super League
Team Lakshanam - Champions
It was perhaps only fitting that the team formed in Major Lakshmananan's name managed to lift the trophy. They beat almost all the other teams by convincing margins. This team consisted of Captain Ravikumar Manian, one of his long time partners, Hema Vikram, Narayan Iyer, Varalakshmi, Mini Naidu and Priya Ranjan Sinha.
Our congratulations to all the team members.
Results
To be perfectly honest, this piece isn't about the results of the event. It is noteworthy that the pair of Shyama Prasad Chatterjee and Saila Ranjan Das came first in both events (from the East West side in the IMP Pairs and from the North South side in the MP Pairs)
Well, I do hope, dear readers, that you have found this article of interest. Do share your comments on the article itself. It would give the author a lot of encouragement.
Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.