7th CENTRAL AMERICAN PAIRS & TEAMS

April 19th - 21st, 2002

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA

The 7th "Central American" will go down in history as the "Invasion of the Booty Snatchers", visitors taking home most of the laurels.

Friday afternoon the onslaught began in the 1st Session of the Open Pairs, with Big Ed (Eigil Hoigelle) & Jairo Hernandez from Nicaraugua posting a massive 68.17% to lead the field. Mina & the Volcano (Amina Beepat from Guyana & Sjietsen Tjon-Atsoi from Suriname) were one of the favourites and followed closely with 66.40%. Hollywood (Steve Allen) & I were still in the battle, lying 3rd with 65.78%. Locals rounded out the top 5, with recently re-united Gloria Chapin & Sam Butler having a fine 60.89% for 4th and Kiko & Segundo (Enrique Kellerman & Barry Wilson) at 58.53% in 5th.

Here's a nightmare for you, holding s Q8743 h 52 d T7 c 9532 in 1st seat with nobody vul, you decide to create some action and open 2 spades (5 to 10, 5 spades & 4 or more in another suit). Partner starts the torture with a game forcing 2NT and you have an easy 3 clubs. The nail-pulling continues when pard bids 3 hearts. In your mind you know it must be right to pass, but partnership confidence takes hold and you dutifully bid 3 spades (emphasizing the best feature of the hand). Pulling out the rack, partner bids 4 diamonds and the opps wake up with a trouble double, meaning that you are in for it now. Hoping the laughter will not be too loud when you lay down the dummy, you belatedly support partner and bid 4 hearts. The smart double by LHO reminds you that you could have passed 3 hearts. As you hope for only a small telephone number and prepare your excuses, partner bids 5 clubs and it goes pass. All of this messing around and pard really wanted to play in our suit? Well, whatever pard is looking for, you do not have it and so it goes ALL PASS!! LHO leads a heart and partner tables the following collection of absolute jewels, s - h AKQJ9 d AQJ c AJ764. RHO had not enjoyed the auction holding s KJT9652 h - d K9832 c K, and decided not to ruff the opening lead so you make SIX!

After the mealtime frivolity, play began in the 2nd Session of the Open Pairs on Friday evening. A tremendous performance by locals Nora Abdelnour & Helena Bakalarz had them topping the session with 63.07%, while Mina & the Volcano had another solid 2nd with 62.69%. The Big Boys (Sergio Spinola & Andres Asturias) from Guatemala were 3rd at 58.92%, just ahead of our Venezuelans (Alberto Dhers from Miami & Jose Estefano from Caracas) with 58.71%. 5th went to locals Jo Degener & Karen Solie at 53.85%.

When the scores were finalized, the Open Pairs - Final Overall was dominated by Mina & the Volcano. Their two 60+% sessions were just too much for the field as they grabbed 1st place with a whopping 64.55%. Hollywood & I rode our strong 1st session to 2nd place at 57.54% and the Central American Cup, but our below average 2nd session left us well back of the winners. The Big Boys from Guatemala came in a solid 3rd with 56.18% (any size intimidation there?), while Bid Ed & Jairo had to settle for 4th at 56.11%. They just staved off the challenge from their fellow Nicaraguans, Reidar Sundet & Mauricio Horvilleur, who ended up 5th with 55.53%.

Want another bejeweled hand? Partner opens 2 spades in 2nd position favourable, and you hold s AJ82 h AKQ8765 d - c A3. You end up in 6 spades with declarer holding s Q9764 h 3 d KT65 c JT4 on the lead of the King of clubs. With Kx of spades onside, the grand was there but safety play held you to six.

Saturday morning, the team event began with eleven entries. Having only two sessions for the Round Robin Teams, organizers were forced into running one of those deadly pair-type movements where teams played three boards versus every other team in each session. This movement makes it hard to gauge how you are doing, but at the lunch break, the BEEPAT foursome (Dennis Beepat & Jacky Rampersaud along with Mina & the Volcano) was leading in most of their matches. The rest of the field was in a logjam for second, with a half dozen teams leading in 5 or 6 of their matches. When the second session had finished and the scores calculated, the pre-tournament favourite BEEPAT had demolished the field. They won 9 of their 10 matches and finished well in front with 154 VP's (75%). Our team, MAC GREGOR (Hollywood & I and Pilar Vitoria & Eduardo Piza), won only 6 of our matches but three blitzes vaulted us into 2nd place with 126 VP's. 3rd went to the Venezuelan/Costa Rican DOUMA combo (Alberto Dhers & Jose Estefano and Bill & Louise Douma) with 7 wins and 119 VP's, just nipping RUSS' Guatemalans (the Big Boys and Bela Russ & Daniel Sanche) in 4th with also 7 wins but 117 VP's. Rounding out the top five but out of the playoffs were locals MC LENNAN (Ian Mc Lennan & Rati Mellado and Jan Nysse & Ted Blauw) with 6 wins and 106 VP's.

Another tough hand after one of our 2 spade openers, but this time the opponents had the problem. LHO starts with the dreaded 2 spades, partner bids 3NT, RHO passes, and you hold: s AT

h KQT763 d AK76 c 4. Mina opted for the straightforward 6NT and the Volcano brought it home on a pseudo squeeze.

Saturday evening was free so the players took the opportunity to drown their sorrows and sample some of San Jose's night-life. Sunday morning they were back to the tables for the Finals of the Teams and the Consolation Swiss Teams. The BEEPAT foursome won the Open Team final, 125 to 60, over the DOUMA quartet. Their 56 IMP halftime lead proving too much to overcome. In the Central American Cup final, MAC GREGOR's Costa Ricans 63 IMP advantage at the break proved too much for RUSS' Guatemalans as they succumbed 124 to 46.

Victorious in the Swiss were the other Guatemalan representatives, BAILEY (Joyce Bailey & Carmen Luengo and Yolanda Chan & Rafaello Cassani). Their 39 VP total pushed them clear of the four- team dogfight for second place. Tied for that honour with 32 VP's were O'REARDON (Marlene & Tim Butt from Canada and locals Ulla Suarez & Dick Frost) along with LOBO's locals (Jaime Lobo & Jozef Best and Florita Firchow & Sidney Ferencz).

The victory lunch and award ceremony were highlighted by the recognition of the work done in Guatemala by Joyce Bailey and Gonzalo Correa from Bogota. They translated the WBF Teaching Program into spanish, and we look forward to seeing the results published on the WBF's website.

Kudos also to our TD, Bruce Zuckerman, for a job well done.

Check out the Masterpoints that you won.

UNTIL NEXT TIME, good bridge in the Tropics!