Mumbai, November 8: Dhampur from Delhi took the early lead as the Tolani National Masters Bridge Tournament got underway at the Ashok Ruia Bridge Centre, Andhreri Sports Complex here on Wednesday.Dhampur, comprising A Goel, K Mukherjee, S Ganguly, A Sadhu, S Saha and K Roy tallied 68 VPs after three rounds, to lead their nearest rivals Monatona from Mumbai by 11 VPs.A total of 19 teams are in the fray for the top prize of Rs 40,000 from which eight teams will advance to the quarter-finals after ten rounds of 12 boards each.Local teams occupied the fourth and fifth spots, with Railways A slipping into the third place with 56 VPs. Following Railways are Jimmy Mehta with 54 and Dr. DK Rao also on 54. Defending champions Formidables from Delhi are in sixth place with 53 VPs, while India Blues, another fancied local team are seventh with 48 VPs.Dhampur began in a strong fashion, securing the maximum number of VPs 25 in their first two games.Top five after rounds-3: Dhampur (Delhi): A Goel, K Mukherjee, S Ganguly, A Sadhu, S Saha, K Roy 68 VPs; Monatona, Mumbai: (D K Poddar, M P Athavale, S Choksi, K Anklesaria, A Anklesaria) 57 VP); Railways A, Calcutta: (S Bhattacharjee, S Roy, Manas Mukherjee, Ashim Mukherjee, R Roy, A N Banerjee) 56 VPs; Jimmy Mehta, Mumbai: B Ukidve, R Bhivankar, Raj Mohan, B G Ogale, C P Deshpande) 54 VPs; Dr D K Rao, Mumbai: (Sandeep Karmarkar, Ian Concession, Dr Subir Roy, Ivan Alphonso, Prakash Dalvi) 54 VPs.
