T H U R S D AY : A P R I L 2 8 , 2 0 1 6
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LOTTO RESULTS
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Nietes leads Pinoy Pride 36 By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Chihiro Ikeda (left) rode on an explosive frontside charge for a two-under 69, leading amateur Bernice Ilas (right) by two at the start of the ICTSI Beverly Place Challenge in Mexico, Pampanga Wednesday.
Ikeda nets a 69, leads by 2 CHIHIRO Ikeda rode on an explosive frontside charge to wrest control then birdied the last hole to cushion the impact of a faltering finish for a two-under 69 and a two-stroke lead over amateur Bernice Ilas at the start of the ICTSI Beverly Place Challenge in Mexico, Pampanga yesterday. A perennial contender but never a winner on the fledgling Ladies Philippine Golf Tour, Ikeda took one big step in her pursuit of the elusive crown, taming the flat par34-37 Beverly Place Golf Club layout with three birdies at the front
then birdying the par-5 closing hole to negate her bogey mishaps on Nos. 10 and 17. “The course is tricky that’s why I’m wary to commit mistakes,” said Ikeda, a former SEA Games gold medalist who had a number
of runner-up finishes in the fouryear-old circuit. She bucked the bunker laden layout with superb iron play, ramming in birdies on Nos. 1, 7 and 9 inside five feet only to lose her rhythm at the back. “I just hope to keep my lead and finally win. My last victory was way back during my amateur days,” said Ikeda. With majority of the other pros groping for form despite coming off back-to-back stints in the Taiwan LPGA Tour here, Ilas assumed the early challenger’s role with a two-birdie, two-bogey stint for a
71 while Ilas’ The Country Club teammate Mikha Fortuna missed grabbing solo third with a bogey on the par-5 17th and wound up with a 73 in a tie with Lovelyn Guioguio, who gunned down four birdies but had the same number of bogeys with one double bogey in hot, humid condition. “I took it one shot at a time and made sure I stayed focused throughout. Everything went great and I enjoyed playing with the pros and to have learned from them. I am blessed to have played well today (yesterday),” said Ilas.
Ceres-La Salle makes KO stage after scoreless draw CERES-La Salle played Selangor to a scoreless draw Tuesday in the 2016 AFC Cup Group E encounters at the Selayang Stadium in Malaysia. This allowed the team from the Philippines to earn their place in the knockout stage with one game remaining after notching their third draw against two wins in five games.
SYLVIA LOPEZ ALEJANDRO
Selangor moved into second place in Group E with their 2-2-1 win-drawloss slate. Because of this, Selangor needs at least a draw in the final group game at Singapore’s National Stadium against Tampines on May 10 to make it to the next phase. Selangor struggled to break through
the Filipinos’ defense, but their Liberian star Patrick Wleh nearly scored following a substitution after 19 minutes. Ceres made an attempt before the 30th minute mark, but a well-struck free-kick from Stephan Schrock was blocked inside the box. Mauro Olivi then dribbled through the right side of the Ceres defense. But
his shot from a tight angle was turned around the post. Olivi then went close with a wicked low shot from outside the box and it rolled just past the Philippine post. Schrock then tried to score again, sending in a long ball into the path of Adrian Gallardo, who pulled his shot wide. Peter Atencio
THREE top fighters from the famed ALA Gym will see action in the “Pinoy Pride 36” fight card aptly titled “Legend in the Making,” a tribute to WBO light flyweight champion Donnie Nietes, the longest-reigning Filipino world champion, who will battle Raul “Rayito” Gracia at the University of La Salle Coliseum in Bacolod City on May 28. Two other ALA boxers—Milan Melindo and King Arthur Villanueva—who are both striving to regain their rankings following controversial defeats last year, will be featured in the attractive card presented in cooperation with the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN. While it may not be as riveting as the massively successful “It’s About Time” presentation at the Cebu City Sports Center last April 23 before 25,000 cheering fight fans, the Bacolod City card headlined by Melindo, who is a favorite son of Murcia, a town on the outskirts of Bacolod, is bound to attract a huge crowd. This is because fans clamored for ALA Promotions to give them another chance to see Nietes in action after he won the accolade of surpassing the longtime record of the late, great world junior lightweight champion Gabriel “Flash” Elorde. Nietes, who won the world light flyweight title with a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision over Ramon Garcia Hirales, the identical twin brother of “Rayito” Garcia on October 8, 2011, faces the 32-year-old southpaw, who is determined to avenge his twin brother’s defeat and has an impressive record of 36-3-1 with 22 knockouts. But the 33-year-old Nietes (37 wins, 21 knockouts, with one highly questionable loss in Indonesia to Angky Angota early in his career) is aiming to cement his status as a true legend of the sport.
Bocchi plays golf with Cruijff I AM reprinting famous bridge player Norberto
Bocchi’s column here. Another myth has gone. RIP, Johan Cruijff. The passing of Johan Cruijff put the world to a halt here in my city Barcelona. The importance of Curijff for football, FC Barcelona and the Catalonian people, is enormous. Here in Barcelona, people constantly compare Curijff to God. I think that’s not right. I mean, he was good indeed, he was great, but he was no Cruijff. I will tell you a true story. I have played golf with Cruijff a full day in 2010. There, he told me about his interest in other sports. Hearing that I was from Italy, he started talking about volleyball. Italy had the best volleyball team in the world in the nineties, but Cruijff was a fan of the sport and of the Dutch team led by legendary coach Ari Selinger. He teamed up with Selinger and told him how to win against the Italians. He went even as far as suggesting to lose a match in the group phase of the 1992 Olympics here in Barcelona, so they would get the almighty Italians in the quarterfinals as opponents. In a thrilling match the Dutch indeed beat the Italians. Four years later, the Dutch team again beat the Italians, this time in the Olympic final in Atlanta. So you can say that Cruijff robbed Italy of two Olympic volleyball gold medals. Then I told him about my sport, bridge, and my team and ranking in the world, and about the upcoming World Championships, Cruijff-as an avid amateur
card player-knew the sport and was very interested to hear about the promising Dutch team. He said-smiling-he would contact the coach and join the staff in the preparations for Veldhoven. “I will tell them how to beat Italy, just as in volleyball”, he said with a big smile, and we laughed out loud. Funny as it was at the time, it crept into my head when I was playing in Veldhoven. The Dutch were so confident, smiling almost arrogantly as they walked around. When chatting with Sjoert, he casually said somewhere “but we have Cruijff. That was a big mind blow. You know by now that I didn’t play at my best in the semi-finals. Not at all. It was a mind thing. Cruijff had robed Italy again. -oOoWorld champs Brink and Drijver hired by Angelini Dutch superstars Sjoert Brink and Bas DrijverBermuda Bowl winners from Veldhoven 2011 – will play for Atalian Angelini team on the upcoming Italian Open Team Championships. These Spring Championships (as this event usually is called in Italy) will take place from April 28 to May 1 in the historic town of Salsomaggiore Terme (near Parma), Italy. In a recent interview Francesco Angelini said: “Our primary goal has always been to hire the best players”. So it comes as no surprise that Mr. Angelini has hired the two World Champions. Brink and Drijver will form a team together with Italian aces Lorenzo Lauria and Alfredo Versace (who won last year in team Zaleski). It is likely that
Mr. Angelini will also play in his new team. I feature the recent match in the Italian Championships 2016 how close the match of Angelini with Lavazza were. This was RR79 Angelini BR won over Lavazza 21-19. North Bildo ♠Q98 ♥A1065 ♦J32 ♣873 West East Tokay Versace ♠KJ4 ♠A107653 ♥7 ♥QJ ♦AQ109 ♦K7 ♣KQ1052 ♣A96 South Duboin ♠2 ♥K98432 ♦8654 ♣J4 West North East South 2♣ Pass 2♠ Pass 2NT Pass 3♦ Pass 3♥ Pass 3♠ Pass 4♣ Pass 4♦ Pass 4♥ Pass 6♣ Pass Pass Pass
West Biaachedi ♠KJ4 ♥7 ♦AQ109 ♣KQ1052
North Sementa ♠Q98 ♥A1065 ♦J32 ♣873
East Madala ♠A107653 ♥QJ ♦K7 ♣A96
South Cima ♠2 ♥K98432 ♦8654 ♣J4 West North East South 2♣ Pass 3♣ Pass 3♦ Pass 3NT Pass 4♦ Pass 4♠ Pass 4NT Pass 5♥ Pass 6♣ Pass Pass Pass The above deal in Board 18 illustrates the importance of the opening lead. The commentary of pelu said the diamond lead in the closed room allowed the heart to be gone. It was the heart in the Open Room that defeated the six clubs. Comments to: sylvia.alejandro@yahoo