The 2013 Montegrotto Bridge Festival was held from the 5th to the 10th of March in Montegrotto, a town next to Padua, Italy. Montegrotto is an ancient thermal spring place, known since the Roman era. Most hotels have their own thermal swimming pool, curative mud, etc.
The International bridge festival was born in 1964. The first name of the tourney was dedicated to Professor Bezzi, a chemist scholar; later it became Aperol Trophy, for the help of the Barbieri Brothers, soft drink manufacturers – Ahh, Aperol! – exclaimed in the advertisement the thirsty actor. For the past edition (2012) the sponsor was Mr. Loris Casadei, Chief Executive of Porsche Italia.
For the current edition (2013) the organizing Committee has lost the sponsor, but the fees and prizes are almost the same: it must be said they have made a great economic effort.
The Festival had three National pair tourney and the International Team one. It started with the “One hundred in two”, a pair tourney where the player ages’ sum must be over one hundred of years (5th-6th March). It followed the mixed or women pair tourney (6th-7th) and the open pair (7th-8th). From Friday 8th to Sunday 10th it took place the International Team event.
The responsible Arbiter was Massimo Ortensi.
“One hundred in two” . Monica Aghemo and Andrea Buratti from Italy won the first event: the National Pair “Cento in due” (One hundred in two). Second placed were the Austrian Renate Hansen and Andreas Babsch; third came another mixed pair, Franco Cedolin and Ida Jacona (Italy.
The National Mixed and Women Pair was won by Luigina Gentili and Paolo Uggeri; second came Patrizia De Lucchi with Maurizio Palmieri; third were Paola Biondi and Nerio Ricci. In fourth place there were Federica Sani with Claudio Nunes; fifth came another champion, Maurizio Pattacini with Laura Morselli Luppi.
Open Pairs. Two days after his winning debut at “100 in due”, Andrea Buratti (Italy) won the open pair as well, though with a different partner, Carlo Mariani (Italy) instead of Monica Aghemo. The latter played with another championess, Monica Buratti, getting a by no means contemptible 20th place out of 112 pairs, and before other known champions. The second place went to Arrigo Franchi and Matteo Montanari from Italy , the young pair who got the seventh place in the 2010 Champion Cup playing for Villa Fabbriche. Third is a strong pair come from the Central Apennines’ plateaus, Sergio Freddìo (Perugia, Italy) and Berardino Mancini (L’Aquila, Italy); they are already known in Montegrotto: five years ago they won the International Team with the late Enzo Bassini. Fourth were Peter Gal and Gyogy Szalay (Hungary); fifth Franca Bracco and Giovanni Bruno (Italy).
International Open Team Tourney. The winning team is Lavazza. This is the final ranking:
Lavazza 252 (Maria Teresa Lavazza, Norberto Bocchi, Guido Ferraro, Giorgio Duboin, Antonio Sementa)
Ward Platt 248 (Kiki Ward Platt, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes, Frank Multon)
Pauncz 238 (Peter Pauncz, Niccolò Fossi, Carlo Mariani, Andrea Buratti).
Opatija 232 (Stoyana Ivanov, Hristov, Zahariev, Marinovski)
Bonori 228 (Marisa Bonori, Stefano Caiti, Maurizio Pattacini, Gabriele Gavelli)
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