For the first time in the sport’s history, Trinidad and Tobago has qualified to represent the Central American and Caribbean Bridge Federation (CACBF) Zone 5 of the World Bridge Federation, in the Ladies World Team Championships. Also known as the Venice Cup, the event will be held in Veldhoven, The Netherlands, from October 15-29, 2011.

However, it will be the second time that the CACBF will be represented by a TT Bridge Team internationally, as in 2007 the Open Team of Trevor Hart, David Clarke, Mohan Seepersad, Bobby Persad, Roger Mapp and Roger Vieira were winners of the Zonal Open Championships and played in the World Open Championships (Bermuda Bowl) in Shanghai, China, which is the equivalent of the Ladies Venice Cup.

The Trinidad and Tobago Ladies Bridge Team, captained by Pat Howard and comprising Denise Josa, Lisa de Meillac, Deborah Fletcher, Jackie Thompson and Alana Xavier, were victorious against Jamaica, Barbados, Bermuda, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Cuba at the CACBF Zonal Championships in Cuba between May 20 and 28, and emerged winners after a very close final match against Guadeloupe.

The national ladies team had won the CACBF Zonal Tournament in 2005 in Costa Rica, but did not qualify to play in the Venice Cup because they had not taken part in a prior international tournament, as is required by the world federation. However, they made sure this time and fulfilled the requirement through participation in the 2008 World Mind Sports Games Tournament in Beijing, China.

The women’s journey to the Venice Cup started earlier this year when, again for the first time ever, an all-women’s team of Howard, Josa, de Meillac, Fletcher and Thompson, eclipsed the men’s teams to win the annual National Open Bridge Tournament organised by the Trinidad and Tobago Contract Bridge Association. Xavier, who was a member of a joint men/women’s team in that tournament, has since been added to the Ladies Team, which before going to Cuba won an annual invitational tournament in Barbados from May 6 to 8.

Says the very proud captain who has been playing the game for about 30 years: “Seems we made the right decision to play as a ladies team under the ladies umbrella in the Cuban tournament, and allowed our male national runners-up to represent the country in that Open Tournament. But they didn’t qualify for the Bermuda Bowl which will also be played in the Netherlands in October.”

Teams in an open tournament may consist of all men, all women, or a mixture of both. It was only about five years ago that the local women decided to compete for national selection by taking part as a team in the Open National Tournament. Prior to that, the team was selected by the management to compete in the ladies competitions of the international tournaments.

Howard, a TTEC employee for the past 30 years, which is when she also learned to play bridge, “thoroughly enjoys the game”.

“I love to be challenged and this is a very challenging game. Always a card player starting with my grandmother and aunt, this was just another card game to learn,” she told Sunday Newsday. Her advice to anyone interested in learning the game is to read a lot of bridge books on the play of the hand and defence, and try to get to play with a partner stronger than you who can teach you.“I was fortunate my husband, Joseph, had the patience to put up with me, and also to play against stronger opponents,” she said.

Her partner for about 15 years, Denise Josa, has been playing competitive bridge for about 20 years. A housewife, who teaches bridge two days a week, she feels that the ideal age to begin the game would be late teens or early twenties. Like Howard, she finds the game extremely challenging and also “felt great winning the National Open earlier this year, since it was something we had been trying to do for a long time”.

De Meillac has been playing Bridge for about 20 years.

“It fills my life as I can’t imagine what I would spend Saturdays doing - probably spending money in the mall. We play usually twice a week but will have to practise a whole lot more to attend the Venice Cup in Holland,” she said.

“ The younger you start the better … In fact we did a pilot programme of introducing bridge to some primary schools after last year’s SEA and the children responded amazingly. Bridge has been proven to be a great learning tool and is taught as a subject in many first world countries. It was quite amazing to see the large numbers of young playing in an international tournament in China in 2008.”

Her partner, Debbie Fletcher, who learned bridge in her teens says, “Bridge is a partnership game and I have been fortunate enough to have had a steady, tolerant partner since the beginning, and this is very important.”

A director of Peake Technologies Limited, Fletcher works full time but finds time to play bridge twice a week, which she says “is way too little.

“We should be playing every day, five hours a day, with a trainer, if we want to get to international standards. Additionally you should be reading, studying and practising. As with most sports you have to be able to play at international competitions in order to play against better players all the time.”

Strangely enough, Fletcher never liked card games, but loves bridge, and never thinks of duplicate bridge as a card game. Like the rest of her team, she says “it is challenging”.

“The more you learn the more you realise how much there is to learn. No matter what level of player you are, you can enjoy it immensely by always challenging yourself to improve,” Fletcher said.

Again, like the rest of her team, when asked about winning the National Open earlier this year, she said, “It’s about time.”

Alana Xavier is the baby of the team and has only been actively playing since 2008, when she partnered with Kalifa Howard to represent Trinidad and Tobago in a youth competition in Beijing, China. She plays once a week in the Contract League and went to extra practise sessions when she was invited to join the ladies team.

“I was honoured when they asked me to join the team to go to CAC, since I was not on the original team that won the Open National earlier this year,” she recalled.

The sixth member of the team, Jackie Thompson, a Trinidadian living in Barbados, was taught at age 12 by her mother, Barbara Johnston, who represented the country both on the open and the ladies teams for many years. Thompson first played for the national ladies team at age 19 while attending the University of the West Indies in St Augustine, and did so until 1977 when her first child was born. And although she was still playing bridge locally until 1986 when her family went to live in the United States, this bridge fanatic was not active on the international scene again until 1992.

Thompson re-entered the international scene playing for the Philippine ladies team, as she lived there from 1991-1996. She was president of the Philippine Contract Bridge League and was a director at their regional tournaments. Returning to the US, Thompson joined the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) and became a club director, managing a large, full-time club seven days a week with two games per day in Washington from 2000 to 2005, when she went to live in Barbados, where she remains very active in the league. She is still participating in Asian tournaments as a lifetime member of the Philippine League and says proudly, “I was the non-playing captain of their ladies team when they played in the Venice Cup in Shanghai, China, in 2007. I played on the Barbados ladies team in Beijing First World Mind Sports Games in 2008, was on the team that won the CACBF in 2009, and played under the Bajan flag that year in the Venice Cup.”

This Bridge devotee rejoined the Trinidad ladies team in 2010, and the rest is now history.