NEC BRIDGE FESTIVAL SITE
Teams and players Daily Bulletins
Hackett Repeats as NEC Cup Champion
Team Rosters: 21st NEC Cup (Final)
Team Name & Members
| Hackett | Paul Hackett, Jason Hackett, Brian Senior, Alex Hydes |
| England/USA | Sally Brock, Barry Myers, Karen McCallum, Cenk Tuncok |
Team Hackett (Paul Hackett, Jason Hackett, Brian Senior, Alex Hydes), led by captain and progenitor Paul “Papa” Hackett—aka “The One-Armed Bandit—came back from a disaster of a Day Two performance in the qualifying swiss to survive to the KOs with barely more than a single VP to spare. In the quarter-finals they narrowly defeated the top qualifiers, China Dalian Aoxin, by 5 imps, then sailed into the finals over a game New Zealand team. And now they stand (at least the Hackett part of the team) as the NEC Cup Champions for the second consecutive time. Those who have followed these bulletins this week will recognize just what a harrowing journey this has been for them (surviving tribulation not always of the opponents’ making).
The runners-up, England/USA (Sally Brock, Barry Myers, Karen McCallum, Cenk Tuncok), came through the swiss consistently ranked in the top eight. Their most serious threat came in the quarter-finals playing against Wuhan Dongfang BC, where they led by 5 at the half and won by just 13. They picked off a good Ziyijia team in the semi-finals but in the final the little engine that could…couldn’t. Hackett broke the match wide open in the second quarter, pulled further ahead in the third, and never looked back, sailing to victory by a comfortable margin. Our congratulations and thanks to the winners, the runners-up, and all the 2017 NEC Cup competitors.
