NEW DELHI, Aug 13: Wellknit, comprising Raj Kumar, Sundaram, Sridhar, Albuquerque, Krishna Kumar and Badri, played superlatively to lead the Swiss league after four rounds with 83 victory points in the seventh Modipon Gold Cup Bridge Championships here, today.

The leaders began with a bang, humbling Delhi's Nikita Kamal 25-2, narrowly lost to Dhampur 14-16, but rallied to beat C V Rao 21-9 and BuildIndia 23-7 to be well ahead of the pack.

Nagpur's Khandelwal, comprising Rajiv Khandelwal, JM Shah, SK Iyengar and Anal Shah, were in second position with 73 victory points.Khandelwal lost their first round match against Asian Security Limited 12-18 but thereafter put up a spirited fight to overcome Bombay's Monotona 24-6 and Delhi's Dhampur Sugar Mills 22-8 and edged past holders Formidables 16-14 to take the second place in the league.

Strong contenders ITC, comprising Anand Mehta, Anil Pandhye, Venkataraman, Kirbakaran Murthy, Subhash Gupta and Vinay Desai began on a sedate note drawing their first round match with Delhi's MK Modi 15-15. But they picked up momentum beating Haldibari 17-13, Ramson Computers 23-7 and Teloijan Tea Company 18-12 to be close behind with 73 victory points. Pre-tournament favourites Formidables also kept their hopes alive, scoring 73 VP after four rounds.

Other teams in contention for the quarter-finals were: Sonachal (71), BuildIndia (71), DVE Bhalla (69), Dhampur Sugar Mills (68), Teloijan Tea Company (68), MK Modi (66), Ramson Computers (65) and C V Rao (63). The top eight teams will qualify for the knockout stage.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.