9TH CACBF SOUTHERN REGIONAL

Port of Spain, Trinidad

January 24th-26th, 2003

For the 9th edition of the popular Southern Regional, we played at the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain. Thanks to Cyril, Jaik, & the TTBL; we had a full weekend of bridge with old friends, as well as good times back at our hotel and all at a great price.

During breaks in play, Clayton & Peter gave us some pointers about the silly mid-ons & gullies playing on the pitch and we listened to the neighboring steel band school practicing for Carnival. On the morning of the last day, we were even treated to the finish of a marathon. Ah the Trinis, they found our weakness - distraction!

We arrived Thursday night and were treated to Joe's hair-raising ride from the new POS airport terminal to the hotel. The Bajans and the French joined us there Friday morning as we prepared for the games to begin.

The 1st Session of the Open Pairs was played on Friday afternoon. The local Vets (Mervyn Hilton-Clarke & Clifford Murray) dominated the field with 65.48%. Almost a full board behind, at 62.59%, were the Big Boys from Cayenne (Serge Folio & Jean-Philippe Humbert) while the Bajan Boys (Dave Blackman & Tony Watkins) were lying 3rd at 61.63%. Strong games from locals Phyllis Busby-Earle & Winston Charles had them in 4th at 58.88% while the Howards (Pat & Joe) rounded out the top 5 with 56.56%. When the steel band began to play, I knew that we were lost as the Trinis had found our Achilles Heel.

After a break for dinner, the field went back at in the 2nd Session of the Open Pairs. Once again the Trinis dominated the top spots, headed by the Howards with a fine 66.42%. The Colonels (Mahendra Mathur & Ramesh Budhiraja) finished strong in 2nd at 64.64%, while the Vets continued their success in 3rd with 59.91%. They just nipped the Bajan Boys at 59.76% who were closely followed by the Big Boys from Cayenne in 5th with 59.02%. We retained some measure of respectability, just finishing out of the money.

In the Open Pairs Overall, there was just no catching the Vets. Their two strong sessions led them to the victory podium with 62.69%. Meanwhile, the Howards gave them a run for their money in the final session and fell just short at 61.49%. The Big Boys had been throwing their weight around to finish in the top 5 in both sessions, and grabbed 3rd overall with 60.81%. With the Bajan Boys also above 60% at 60.70% in 4th, there were obviously some key encounters in the last session. Taking the last of the top 5 spots overall were the Colonels at a distant 55.35%.

Everyone was invited to Roger Vieira's new club and casino, although some begged off due to the early start on Saturday. Bright and early in the morning, the Open Teams Round Robin started with two pools - Pool A with 6 teams and Pool B with 7. We played twelve board matches with everyone playing the same boards, so there was lots of excitement.

In Pool A, the local THOMAS quartet (Oswald Thomas, Hugh Spicer & the Colonels) won when they needed to, thrashing DABRETEAU (the Brothers Jean Yves Dabreteau & Gilles Rougy from Martinique and the Big Boys) in the last match to tie them at 89 VPs and qualify for the final due to their victory. The French were flying in our pool, having won every match up until the last one, including a first round victory over our team. We ended up in 3rd by ONE VICTORY POINT, despite our 25 VP victory over BURTON (Bajans Hyacinth Burton, Jeffrey Newton, Roglyn Hinds, Colin Depradine) in the 5th and final match in our pool. That was a wild one - seven (7) slam hands in the 12 boards - 3 for N/S and 4 for E/W. The combinations were #15: West AJT8 9 KQT9864 5 who opens 1D and North bids 3H to East holding KQ74 KJ A AT9876, #17: West holds K A KQ975 K87542 and hears 2D Flannery by North then pass from East and 2H by South with East having J943 J62 AT3 AQT, #19: West passes with QT2 J6 AT9 AT543 after South's 3H opener and East has to deal with North's comic 4NT holding AKJ8765 - QJ7 KJ6, #20: North opens 1D and rebids 3D with Q9 AJ AKQ864 932 so South holding AK74 KQ74 72 A54 picks their poison, #21: North starts with 2D Flannery on Q985 AQ742 AQ74 - and catches South with AKJT KJT85 962 9 who must handle club interference by the opps, #22: West having T9 AT632 AJ4 QT6 and hearing East open 1NT on A4 KQJ8 T63 AK52 was the worst combination but rolls with the clubs breaking and a favorable diamond layout, #23: North holds J J865 AK853 AT7 and hears South open 2D Flannery with 8643 AKQT7 7 Q96.

The Trinis cleaned up in Pool B, taking the top three places. The place in the final was won handily by the national team HART (Trevor Hart, Deen Seeteram, Roger Mapp, Nicky Inniss, Chris Galt, David Clarke) with 118 VPs. In 2nd place, another local contingent MAPP (Pamela Mapp, Florrie Kelshall, Pat Debysingh, Denise Josa, Pat Howard, Mohan Seepersad) racked up 108 VPS. Despite winning the most matches in the pool, the SANCHO group (Cyril Sancho, John Gillette, Swami Galt, Antonio Nadur, Steve Afoon, Hugh Williams) had to settle for 3rd at 103 VPs.

This made for an all Trini Open Teams Final on Sunday afternoon, with the power packed HART team emerging victorious over THOMAS. HART built up a big first half lead and refused to succumb in the second half.

Meanwhile, there were lots of interesting developments in the Consolation Swiss Teams. With 4 matches of 5 boards at VPs, it was going to be a turkey shoot. Our first match saw us win 15 IMPs on 4 boards, but lose the match when Clayton Bruce picks up the trump queen in a slam for 17 IMPs. In the last match, we played the leaders (the Brothers & the Big Boys) and another one-hand disaster at both tables left us in second place. DABRETEAU wins yet another Swiss with 53 VPs, us in second at 50 VPs, while a strong finish from the Trini/Bajan connection (Barbara Johnston, Nan Collins, Austin Atherley, Morris Blenman) slipped them into 3rd at 49.

The last event of the weekend was the Mixed Pairs. As Cyril so kindly said in the awards ceremony, cream finally rose to the top. Pilar and I had a monster game of 67.75% to take 1st place, while Bajans Hyacinth Burton & Michael Gill grabbed 2nd with 60.55%. The Howards continued their successful weekend together with a 3rd place finish at 60.21%. Locals Debbie Fletcher & Oswald Thomas were 4th with 58.40% while another good performance from Austin Atherley & Morris Blenman at 56.19% rounded out the top 5.

When the games were over, we all sat down to another great meal followed by the awards ceremony where the ever-present Florrie Kelshall seemed to have the most fun. Most of the visitors then retired to the hotel for refreshments & games, while we had the pleasure of visiting with Trevor Hart and his family to watch the Super Bowl. Despite the outcome, it was a real treat to watch on a big screen with surround sound and the ABC feed!

When we returned to the hotel, the celebrations were still going on until the early morning hours. Fortunately, our flight was not until midday.

The Trinis have promised to repeat as hosts for next year, and we will look forward to a little quieter playing space.