Latest update December 19th, 2024 3:22 AM
Novices battle as GASP wraps up inter-active sessions
Flashback: Leon Belony explains a critical point to one of the novices during the first session while Yvonne Murray (left of Belony) assists one of the lasses.
More than seventy-five students who over the past six weeks received expert tutoring from the more seasoned scrabble players would pit their skills against each other when the Guyana Association of Scrabble Players (GASP) concludes their inter-active sessions with a tournament at the old Guyana National Service Sports Complex, Carifesta Avenue this morning.
The students were engaged in extensive training sessions where senior members of the GASP tutored them in the intricacies of the sport.
The sessions, which were held on Saturday mornings and facilitated by the top seeds in the GASP, were initiated with an aim of widening the awareness of interested persons who had initially complained that although they were interested, they were incapable of becoming fully involved because of a lack of knowledge of the finer aspects of the game.
Furthermore, after Abigail McDonald had defeated Fred Collins and stripped him of the national title, the interest level heightened to a greater extent. The executive of GASP convened and discussed the issue and following those discussions, they decided to arrange an inter-active session during the August holidays with the primary aim of launching a school tournament sometime soon.
The activity was widely supported as school children along with some adults participated in the sessions. Most of those that attended were satisfied with the tactics employed by the top scrabble players and the improvement level was immense.
As such, the competition should be keen as each participant will obviously want to prove that they have benefited immensely from the sessions. Indeed, if one is to judge from the rapid improvement of most of the participants, a competitive tournament is envisaged.
Yesterday afternoon, Kaieteur Sport spoke with the President of GASP, Moen Gafoor. He was indeed heartened by the level of support over the past weeks and complimented the other executives who all unselfishly gave of their time towards the success of the initiative.
Gafoor felt that the initiative was well supported which served as an indicator of the vast numbers of people that were interested but simply could not access expert guidance in learning the game.
“I think that this is the start of something good and the members of GASP will attempt to maintain this level of interest by arranging similar programmes in the future,” he promised.
One of the other executive member and past President of GASP, Colin Chichester, was also heartened by the large turnout. He was also amazed at the fast rate at which most of the participants inculcated the lessons taught.
Asked to identify individual cases Chichester declined while intimating that almost all of the participants had demonstrated the alacrity necessary for success. He is optimistic that the objective of the exercise, which was to create a wider interest in the sport thus fostering wider participation, has been achieved.
He said that GASP would now venture into the second phase of the exercise and initiate discussions with the Ministry of Education on ways of drafting the sport into the curriculum.
Meanwhile, players are asked to assemble at 08:30 for a prompt start at 09:00hrs this morning. Trophies and other lucrative prizes would be at stake and the facilitators would be better able to ascertain the benefits derived by the participants.
(Michael Benjamin)
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
The stakes are high in Guyana’s democracy
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- In any vibrant democracy, the mechanisms that bind it together are those that mediate differences,... more
Let the asylum seekers go: a first step for Venezuela to rebuild relations in the Americas
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – The government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela has steadfast support from many... more
Weekend Cartoon
