Californians Win at Bridge Contest

Six world champions joined forces last weekend to win the Open Team Championship, principal event of the 10-day North American Bridge Championships in Atlanta.

Winners in Atlanta were four Californians who won the 1985 world team championship: Peter Pender of Forrestville, Hugh Ross of Oakland, Chip Martel of Davis, and Lew Stansby of Castro Valley; joined by Steve Robinson of Arlington, Va., and Peter Boyd of Falls Church, Va., members of the team that won the 1986 world team championship.

The team of Eddie Kantar, Jim Robison, Danny Rotman, all of Los Angeles, and Larry Cohen, Beverly Hills, finished in third place. A team headed by Beverly Hills physician Gene Freed took fourth place.

In the North American Swiss Team Championship, likewise held last weekend, winners were Marc Jacobus of Las Vegas, Jim McDonough of Helena, Mont., Joe Silver of Montreal, George Mittelman of Toronto, and Allan Graves of Vancouver. A team headed by Rhoda Walsh of Los Angeles and Mark Itabashi of Rancho Palos Verdes took second place.

Earlier in the tournament Bob Hamman of Dallas and Ron Von der Porten of San Francisco won the Blue Ribbon Pair Championship, chief pair event of the tournament. Gene Freed of Beverly Hills, Mike Passell of Richardson, Tex., Mark Lair of Canyon, Tex., Ed Manfield of Arlington, Va., and Kit Woolsey of Kensington, Calif., won the Men’s Teams. Jan Martel of Davis, Calif., Dorothy Truscott and Joyce Lilie, both of New York, and Lisa Berkowitz of Harmon, Cove, N.J., won the Women’s Teams. Jim Krekorian and Paul Kiefer, both of New York, won the Men’s Pairs. Mickie Kivel of Potomac, Md., and Judi Cody of Annandale, Va., won the Women’s Pairs.