18th OECS BRIDGE CHAMPIONSHIPS

18th OECS BRIDGE CHAMPIONSHIPS

DOMINICA

July 7th - 10th, 2005

The "Emerald Isle" of Dominica in the West Indies was the host for the 18th edition of the OECS Bridge Championships. The tournament was held at the Fort Young Hotel in downtown Roseau.

For those early arrivals, the first event on the schedule was a Thursday Evening IMP Pairs. With 23 pairs participating, first place went to Antoine Delcourt & Eric Javelot from Martinique, closely followed by local veterans Allan Guye & Henry Volney.

On Friday, the serious business got under way with the Open Pairs - 1st session. The French dominated the top five, with defending champions Delcourt/Javelot leading the way with a score of 63.94%. On their heels were fellow Martiniquans Guy-Alain Germon & Laurent Desportes at 63.78%, fresh from their strong showing in the IMP Pairs. The Open Pairs - 2nd session was won by Bajan veterans, Michael Gill & Leslie Atherley, with 59.17%. Dominicans Richard Green & Foued Issa scored 58.73% to tie for 2nd with the overall winners. In the Open Pairs - Final Overall, Germon/Desportes combined their double seconds into a solid victory at 61.25%. Meanwhile, locals Green/Issa leapt over the defending champs to take second at 58.21%.

The major competition got under way on Saturday with the team events. The OECS National Team Round Robin had hosts DOMINICA (Richard Green, Allan Guye, Foued Issa, Henry Volney) at the top of the table with 71 VPs. The fight for 2nd place and a spot in the finals was won by ST. LUCIA (Dexter Theodore, Johnson Cenac, Irwin Smith, Ian Hippolyte), with 67 VPs. They had a tough time with perennial contenders ST. KITTS at 65 VPs and ANGUILLA (fresh from their 1st CACBF appearance) at 64 VPs. In the OECS National Team Final, DOMINICA wiped out the 3 IMP carryover deficit, winning the first half 32 to 10 and held on to defeat ST. LUCIA 56 to 44.

In the Open Teams, the Pool B - Round Robin was won again by GILL (Michael Gill, Leslie Atherley, Charles Hollingsworth, & Alan Moss from Barbados) with 79 VPs. Hot on their heels, looking for an opening, was DABRETEAU (Jean Yves Dabreteau, Eric Javelot, & Antoine Delcourt from Martinique and Jean-Philippe Humbert from French Guiana) who notched 76 VPs, despite their captain's efforts. GILL only won 2 matches, but both of those were blitzes and in the other two, they picked up 14 & 15 VPs.

Top spot in the Open Teams Pool C - Round Robin was taken by GERMON (Guy-Alain Germon, Laurent Desportes, Vic Baranes, & Roger Leclerc from Martinique) with 75 VPs, BLITZING their three matches. In a distant second place at 45 VPs was DEPRADINE (Roglyn Hinds, Colin Depradine, Anthony Newton, & Harley Moseley Barbados). Wonder if Rog and Colin decided to change captains, as they ended up in the same place as last year! In the Open Teams Final, GERMON decided that there would be no repeat winners as they hammered GILL in the first half 59 to 3, and then tacked on a 39 to 24 second half, to win by a large margin, 98 to 24.

VIP's French Quartet won the Consolation Swiss Teams with 68 VPs, taking all four of their matches. Second place at 51 VPs were another foursome from Martinique (Michel Faillet, Claudette Amoyel, Perrine Cottrell, & Phillipe Cotrell).