16th OECS BRIDGE CHAMPIONSHIPS

GRENADA

June 27th - 29th, 2003

 

The spice island of Grenada played host to the 16th edition of the OECS Bridge Championships in June of 2003.

 

First event on the schedule was the Open Pairs, won by "Big Al" (Al James) and Duncan Finch from Antigua. This long-standing partnership rode their massive Open Pairs - 1st session score of 72.01% to victory in the overall. The Open Pairs - 2nd session was taken by Dominicaans Waddy Astaphan and Henry Volney with 61.23%.

 

Next were the team events. The OECS National Team Round Robin had perennial winners ST.KITTS (Ian Slack, Charles Gumbs, Oriel Hector, St. Clair Byron) at the top of the table with 102 VPs. The dogfight for the other spot in the finals was won by DOMINICA (Foued Issa, Richard Green, Patrick Joseph, Allan Guye) with 83 VPs, just edging out ST.LUCIA at 82 VPs and ANTIGUA at 81 VPs. In the OECS National Team Final, ST.KITTS had a 15 IMP carryover and despite losing both halves of the final, they were able to hang on to defeat DOMINICA 53 to 47.

 

In the OECS Open Teams, the Pool A - Round Robin was won by the WATKINS (Tony Watkins & Dave Blackman from Barbados and Veronique Caylar & Roger Leclerc from Martinique) with 112 VPs. They were stretched to the limit by DELCOURT (Antoine Delcourt, Martine de Tessieres, Aymeric de Tessieres, & J. Bernard de Tessieres from Martinique) who ended up with 109 VPs.

Top spot in the Open Teams Pool B - Round Robin was taken by ASTAPHAN (Waddy Astaphan & Henry Volney from Dominica and Philip Issa & Sjietsen Tjon-Atsoi from Suriname) at 140 VPs, winning all their matches. Lying a distant second at 105 VPs was RIMBAUD (Jean Rimbaud, Marie-Luce Rimbaud, Louis Suivant, & Jean Traverson from Martinique).

In the OECS Open Teams Final, ASTAPHAN jumped out to a first half lead of 35 to 10 over WATKINS and held on for a close 66 to 53 victory.

 

Anguilla's national team (Alan Gumbs, Margaret Robson, Selwyn Horsford, Rufus Bryan) won the OECS Consolation Swiss Teams with 58 VPs. Lying a close second at 52 VPs were some beautiful Bajans (Michael Gill, Eleanor Dottin, Colin Depradine, Roglyn Hinds).