A PICTURE WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS
Two of the original Calgary members from the T&T Organettes
who travelled to Winnipeg in 1988 to play an All Fours fete match
which is today called the Western Canadian Championship. We
pay tribute to these men, Ivan Mahelal and Henry Patram, as
founders and builders of this association. It's great to have them
graced our annual tournament every year for the last 32 years.
Thank you guys for your many contributions over the years and
may God bless you both.
Even though the first card tournament between Winnipeg and
Calgary took place in 1988, the planning stage of it took a couple
of years before this idea became a reality.
It is believed that Avi Ali (the President of the Manitoba All Fours
Association) used to travel a fair bit as an employee of Prudential
Financial Inc. While visiting Calgary and meeting with the local
Trini guys there, Avi and the gang came up with the idea of staging
a 'fete' match between the two cities. Avi would come back to
Winnipeg and would try to sell the idea to the MAA executives,
Gerry Sankar, Andrew Dickson, Carl Arjoon, Ongkar Binda...just
to name a few.
The challenge was accepted and Calgary sent a contingent of
21 players in 1988. In 1989, Winnipeg returned the favour by
travelling to Calgary. It was quite an experience for most of us.
Later on, Edmonton joined us and thus created Team Alberta.
It's been thirty two (32) years now. No one thought the competition
would last this long. Over the years the need for something like this
kept growing stronger and stronger. Here we are today, each province
trying to outperform the other, not only in winning the tournament
but also in preparing the best possible meals and entertainment.
(If anyone has more info on the WCC, please send
it to the MAA President. Thank you.)
The MAA would like to pay tribute to the original 21 players from
Calgary who made the trip to Winnipeg and made this tournament
possible. The following is a list (to the best of our knowledge) of
the names that went to Winnipeg the very first time, as compiled by
Henry Patram. The MAA would like to thank Henry for submitting
this list to us.
- Ivan Mahelal, - Henry Patram, - Lincoln Patram, - Wally Broske,
- Merlin Traboulay, - Pat Acham, - Cas Mohammed, - Greg Quan
Chan, - Fitzroy Quan Chan, - Sam Moonsammy, - Wayne Morris.
Deceased (Our Fallen Soldiers)
- Spencer Tracey, Danny Mahelal, - Amral Ali, - Lloyd Ali, Keates
Patram, - Jai Rambaran, - Harry Chatoor, - Knolly Mohammed,
- Horace Gopeesingh, - Ozzie George (non-player).
Most importantly, these 21 players are to be commended for
taking the initial steps in organizing the event and travelling to
Winnipeg.
Some of the faces are no longer with us but the many wonderful
memories they have given us will always linger on in our minds.
