The 5th day of the 65th Winter Bridge Nationals saw Indian Railways A winning the Ashok Ruia Gold Cup. Amarnath Banerjee and RP Tripathi won the 1st Elimination of the Shree Cement Match Point Pairs.
Read about all this and more as BridgeFromHome continues to bring you coverage of the event.
Ashok Ruia Gold Cup
Team Indian Railways A lifted the Ashok Ruia Gold Cup in a tight, keenly contested match with Team Mavericks.
Three of the four sessions were close with the difference in each session being less than 15 imps. However, Indian Railways won the third session convincingly by a 41 - 15 margin which was responsible for the eventual 19 imp victory.
In the play off for third pace Team Shree Cement beat Team Monica Jajoo by 25 imps. While the play off was scheduled for three sessions, the teams appear to have agreed to play 2 sessions only. It is hard to conceive of a team conceding a session with a difference of just 25 imps.
We have to say that we have seen this practice among the top teams in many a third place play off. We don't know whether this is good or not. Maybe you, gentle readers can chip in with your opinions.
The Final results can be seen here
Shree Cement Match Point Pairs
After 5 rounds of 10 boards each, Amarnath Banerjee and R P Tripathi headed the field into the second elimination with Bhabesh Saha and Satyabrata Mukherjee in second place. K R Venkatraman and Swarnendu Banerjee were in 3rd place.
42 pairs will qualify for the 2nd elimination where they will be joined by pairs from the Gold teams event. The non qualifiers play the Silver Finals
Click here for the full result
The Dealing Team
Over the past couple of days, we have seen interesting deals. Today, we are going to see the team that makes the boards and provides them to us. The service provided by them is simply invaluable as it allows us all to play the same boards and discuss them and refer to them in future for analysis if desired.
Below is a video of the prepared deals being rolled out. A key element in the rolling out process are the caddies who share the deals with us. In the photograph above, as well as in the video, you see Ranjit Chowdhary, better known as Babli, one of the key members of the caddy team.
Today's schedule
Today, the Shree Cements 2nd eliminations will be over 5 sets of 10 boards each. The non qualifiers are playing the Shree Cements Silver finals which will be played over 3 sessions of 18 boards each.
In Conclusion
We have picked up a quote by Ms. Vasanti Shah, a very senior player regarding the facilities being offered at the venue.
What an excellent event!
A large comfortable playing arena. Unfortunately only 51 teams, though the venue could have easily managed 70.
Several tds, scorers and dealers doing their job efficiently.
There was congeniality all around and enough helpful helpers
Food from breakfast to high tea adequate
Rooms at the venue were bright and cheerful. The staff was extremely polite, efficient, and eager to help.
One of the most comfortable and memorable winter nationals I have attended.
Now the most important facility
The organisers have kept on standby an ambulance 24x7 for 9 days at venue with a first aid box and a stock of medicines for normal needs.
So thoughtfully covering every eventuality
One, my BP shot up and I got terribly ill. I thank my stars that I was here. Dr Anupam Rai immediately sent me in the ambulance to huge Government hospital and college complex
Swift caring action, all tests, and a night at ICU with several doctors constantly monitoring and talking to me.
No amount of thanks are enough to the organizers who have silently and thoughtfully tried to cover every contingency
We hope you have enjoyed our coverage.
Please do share your comments in the space below.
Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.
congratulations Indian railways. congratulations marvericks outstanding fight moreover a newly formed composition. team shree Cement well done and last but not the least team Monica jajoo did pretty well in the qualification and match against Indian railways. ultimately one is to win. Not necessarily always the better. many good teams could not make it. in bridge certainly consistency matters.
everybody praised the venue, so within a limited capacity it’s a good show and we must appreciate the organisers for stay, food and playing arena
so far my personal opinion is concerned apart from ranking point of view the playoff 3rd 4th is meaningless. Had there been a bronze medal it would matter else pointless. ranking points for the semifinal losers could be equally distributed. afterall 1st and 2nd matters and earlier times there was no such third fourth. we are to be more pragmatic.
no appreciation is enough for amarnath Banerjee, his exemplary mental strength is very very appreciable. we have seen such examples in other sports but in bridge also he has proved how important is one’s zeal for life. we the bridge players must extend him all support mental and financial both to sustain the living.
last but not the least Tripathi. a good friend and always a good caretaker of amarnath taken all the hidden stress and agony to play with him.
ultimately the bridge wins.
Thanks for writing in.
Yes indeed, well played by Amarnath Banerjee
And hats off to Raghunath Tripathi for taking care of him.