Date:08/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/08/stories/2008090856801700.htm

Sport - Bridge

Texan Aces lifts trophy

R. Jayaram

New Delhi: Spearheaded by U.S. based Gopal ‘Texas’ Venkatesh, a group of IIT, Chennai engineers of the late seventies’ batches lifted the Naresh Tandan Trophy and a cash prize of Rs. 3 lakhs in the annual HCL prize money bridge tournament which concluded at the NOIDA Radisson on Saturday.

Their team, Texan Aces (G. Venkatesh, J.M. Shah, B. Prabhakar, S. Sunderram, P. Sridhar and Delhi based Rajeshwar Tewari), prevailed over Sunil Machhar’s team from Mumbai by a margin of over 100 IMPs in the final on Sunday.

The anchor pair in the HCL finals on Sunday was definitely the Sunder-Sridhar combine who played all the three 16-board sessions brilliantly (the fourth session was not played).

The home team, Kiran Nadar’s Formidables surprisingly failed to qualify for even the quarterfinals. Formidables had won the Indian team selection trials in March this year and have earned the right to represent the country in the forthcoming World Teams Olympiad to be played in Beijing in October.