CARACAS, 2001

21st Central American and Caribbean Zonal Bridge Championships

May 25th - June 2nd, Caracas, Venezuela

Hotel Radisson Plaza Eurobuilding

Earlier this year, I over-nighted in Caracas on my way back from Guyana to Costa Rica. I stayed at the Hotel Eurobuilding as a guest of the Federacion Venozolana de Bridge. Eduardo Rosen, the chairman of the Organizing committee, picked me up and we toured the facilities and the hotel.

So, I knew a lot of things beforehand. One, the players would enjoy the luxurious hotel and the breakfast buffet - the first meal is the important one in these tough schedules.

I also realized that there would be a lot of movement and in the end, there was more than we had expected. Fortunately, Eduardo found me a great team with which to work.

Fernando Gonzalez from Bogotá and Jacqueline Quintero from Caracas were my other TD's and just about ran the side events themselves. They also co-coordinated room layouts with Carlos Diaz, my facilities manager and member of the Venezuelan National Open Team. Perhaps that is why Carlos missed the semi-final (or was it the surprise result vs Costa Rica). Mind you, Hanoi Rondon was up late every night as well with the Daily Bulletins, and yet he was on the winning Open Team.

The saviour of the week had to be Jorge Guerra on the Duplimate machine. Before the players arrived, we were fortunate to be able to duplicate a lot of boards and he learned well. So, when the events began, I was just able to tell him what to do. Then, about halfway through the championships, he came out of our office and said to me that the machine had a problem. We checked it out and one of the two O-rings that feed the cards from the hopper into the reader had broken. I thought we were lost but he convinced me that the machine would still work. In the end, he was right, as he was able to baby it all the way through. I will be sending it to Sweden immediately for maintenance.

In the office, we had some more gems - Omara Pena, Elizabeth Caraballo, and Jenny Battan were all my executive assistants. Omara entered scores and produced results on our large TV screen in the lobby as well as for the bulletin. Her only bad habit was always having something done when I asked for the second time. Elizabeth and Jenny handled the tough chore of registration as well as their continuous battles with the photocopiers. If there were any problems with the hotel or its facilities, I simply told them and it was resolved.

The slave labour came from the caddies, of course. They were organized by Jacqueline and Carlos, and were constantly at work. If they weren't collecting pick-up slips, passing boards, cleaning & supplying the tables, we had them moving tables and screens at all hours. A special vote of thanks goes to Jorge, Jose, Reuben, Rouceau, and the Hamaoui boys.

The organization was great, and our moves from room to room went smoothly. On Friday night, the opening ceremonies were ably MC'd by Teddy Phocas. Jean Louis Derivery, Secretary of the WBF, announced plans for a TD and Club Management seminar for the Zone later in the year. It will be shared with South America and probably be in Caracas.

After the speeches, we moved from the Salon Caracas to the Salon Venezuela (or was it the other way around) for a feast of wine & cheese and natural fruit cocktails with plenty of delicious hors d'oeurves. New friends were made, old ones brought up to date, and lots of discussion about the future of the Zone.

Now, to the games. Saturday and Sunday we played the 4 session Zonal Open Pairs, won by Venezuelans Perla Slimak and Paolo Pasquini.

Monday morning, the team captains received their round-robin schedules and learned that there would be no smoking during the 10 board segments. I thought that was the minimum effort we could do in changing towards the Olympic principle. I made my first effort at co-ordinating Convention Cards for the National teams, but some people did not get the message.

The Monday to Saturday Zonal National Open Teams championship was successfully defended by GUADELOUPE. The Zonal National Ladies Teams championship lasted from Monday to Friday where hosts VENEZUELA regained the title. The Open Teams championship was also played from Monday to Friday with the local team HANOI emerging victorious. The National Seniors Teams participated in the Open Team Round-Robin and then GUADELOUPE copped the first CACBF Seniors title.

While the teams were battling it out for the major titles, the 4 session Continuous Pairs was played from Monday to Thursday in the afternoons. Lucy Sibolich and Guena Shneiderman did very well in three of the sessions to take the overall with almost 64%.

Those teams that failed to make the knockout phase of their event had a second chance in the Zonal Swiss Teams. This two-session event was dominated by the local ZIGHELBOIM sextet with 111 VPs. Playing with Odette were Steve Hamaoui (now residing in Italy), Open Pairs champs Perla Slimak/Paolo Pasquini, & organizers Mimi Bernazzani/Sara Birnbaum.

On Friday, we had an interesting situation. We wanted to have a two-session mixed and the Worldwide Bridge contest. So, we made separate sections for the WWBC - in one, only Mixed Pairs (who would play the Mixed 2nd session in the evening) and in the other, players only in the WWBC.

The JAMAICAN pair of Rosie Mahfood and Karl Lee won the Zonal Mixed Pairs with a whopping 63.13% over the two sessions, while in FRIDAY's WWBC #1, Venezuelans Carlos Goldstein/Andree Dichi had a massive 72.02% game. The last time that I looked, they were still in the top 10 worldwide.

In SATURDAY's WWBC #2, things were winding down but we still found 50 pairs that wanted one more go. Venezuelans Marina and Reuben Benchimol found victory at last with 61.92%. In 2nd, at 60.44%, were a pair of Colombian National Ladies team members, Clara Benedetti/Tobi Eisenstein. A late pairing of CACBF Junior Team member Carlos Diaz & Junior Co-ordinator Felicity Reid produced a 3rd so maybe we have some hope in Rio later this year.

Representing the CACBF in the WBF Junior Teams Championship in Brazil will be Carlos Diaz, Hanoi Rondon, & Jacqueline Quintero from Venezuela; Colin Yhap from Guyana; and Thibault De Tessieres from Martinique. I hope to oversee some practice sessions on the Net so watch for us.

GOOD LUCK TO OUR THREE CACBF TEAMS IN THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS IN BALI !!!