28th INTER GUIANAS TOURNAMENT

CAYENNE, FRENCH GUYANA
APRIL 13-16, 2001

The trek began in Georgetown, just after another tumultuous national election in Guyana. The protestors were out in force, and the night before we left, they had blocked the East Coast road. No matter, we loaded up the vehicles the next morning at 3:00am and set off on the adventure. Sure enough, we got turned back after 10 or 20 miles when the roadblock was too big to go over or around. Back to G'town where we waited for things to be cleared up and finally got under way around noon.

Because of the late start, we were unable to catch the Suriname ferry on the Berbice River so had to overnight with some friends in the area. Of course, we had to play some bridge so it was not an early night. The next morning we crossed the river and proceeded towards Paramaribo where we spent the night at a hotel. Some of our group went off with the Surinamese (fraternizing with the enemy) while the rest of us went wandering around downtown looking for a restaurant. To make a long story short, Zelina Mann walked into a police station and soon reappeared with a policeman who took us in his car to a place to eat. Pretty impressive when you roll up to a place in a cop car and walk in to the stares of the public.

We had a mid-morning start the next day and got to another river & ferry at the border with French Guyana around mid-day. There we met the Surinamese players and took over the ferry's early afternoon crossing. Once we all cleared the authorities, the run into Cayenne was smooth, arriving at the Hotel early evening.

Fortunately, this gave us until the afternoon of the next day to settle in and prepare to play some bridge. The French took us all out to dinner & drinks that night, where we met Francois Vilespy - the TD imported from France. His English was not too bad but his Spanish was great so we got along well from the beginning.

Friday afternoon the games began with the 1st Session of the Open Pairs. One of the pre-tournament favorites, the J's (Jivan Adhin & Jim Loor) from Suriname played true to form and opened up a massive lead with 67.69%. Clustered far behind in 2nd to 4th were locals Jean-Jacques Leothaud & Jean-Philippe Humbert at 60.9%, Guyanese Colin Yhap & myself at 60.80%, and locals Yveline Chauvier & Christiane Kieliszczyk with 60.64%. The Surinamese held the next two spots with Raymond Stelk & Leen van't Leven rounding out the top five at 56.69%.

After a pleasant break for dinner, the combatants were back at in the 2nd Session of the Open Pairs. However, the J's from Suriname gave notice that they were not to be messed with as they topped the second session as well, scoring an unbeatable 65.51%. Some of the Beepats from Guyana (Amina & Royston) got warmed up with 63.03% while the P's from Suriname (Piem Reiziger & Pieter Sonneveld) showed why they are on the 'A' team with 59.44%. A couple of local pairs finished out the top five in the second session, Rita & Claude Martin with 56.03% and Serge Folio & Yves Oliveri at 55.83%.

As expected, when the Final Results of the Open Pairs were tabulated, the J's from Suriname were well clear of the field at 66.65%. The steady P's from Suriname slipped into 2nd place with 57.34%, just edging out the Beepats (A&R) in 3rd at 56.78%. Mind you, their margin over 4th place Jean-Jacques Leothaud & Jean-Philippe Humbert 's 56.73% was miniscule. Surinamese Raymond Stelk & Leen van t'Leven were in a solid 5th with 56.07%.

We had a disappointing second session and our teammates were not much better so things looked bleak going into the team event. Suriname's 'A' team had just finished 1/2 in the Open Pairs and part of their 'B' team was in the top five. It looked like we would have a tough row to hoe to maintain the trophy from last year.

There were eight teams entered in the Open Teams, with each "Guiana" having an 'A' team and a 'B' team, with two extra teams from the host country. For the Open Team event, all matches count but for the Inter-Guianas Team Championship, only those matches among the 'A' and 'B' teams count.

After the first day of competition, the pre-tournament favorites Suriname 'A' (the J's & P's) led the field with 21-9 & 16-14 victories over their counterparts from Guyana. Guyana 'A' blitzed Suriname 'B' 25-2 while Suriname 'B' took Guyana 'B' 19-11. This put Guyana in the lead for the Inter-Guianas, 59 VPs to 58 for Suriname. Piem Reiziger described the next day's competition as World War II - the Guyanese being the English, the Surinamese being the Germans, and the French being the battlefield.

In the end, Suriname 'A' was too much to handle as they won all seven of their matches to top the Open Teams with 158 VP's. Guyana 'A' was in second with 137 VP's, victorious in five of their encounters. Suriname 'B' won only 3 of their matches and placed 4th in the Open teams with 91 VPs but two of their wins were in Inter-Guiana matches. This proved to be the deciding factor as Suriname regained the Inter-Guiana Team Trophy by 136 to 132 from Guyana. Congratulations on a fine performance are in order.

Also, kudos to our hosts who provided for all of our needs, and to the Hotel Kric Krac where we spent a great week-end.