Abigail McDonald finishes year on successful note

Dec 21, 2009 Sports

Carts off GASP Scrabble Scramble

Abigail McDonald recently boasted that following her sojourn to Malaysia to compete in the World Scrabble championships, that she would be a force to be reckoned with, both locally, as well as at the Caribbean level.

Yesterday afternoon, the local scrabble queen supported her boast when she carted off the Scrabble Scramble tournament organized by the Guyana Association of Scrabble Players (GASP) at the Chamber of Commerce building, Waterloo Street, Georgetown.

McDonald won five games and finished with a positive spread of 237 to relegate Floyd Carmichael to second place with 4 games and a positive spread of 378. Former national champion, Fred Collins compiled 4 games and a positive spread of 158 to seal off the podium positions.

McDonald defeated Orlando Michael (44), Ulric Harris (92), Ewart Adams (122), Carmichael (40) and Collins (24). Her only blemish occurred in the very first game of the day to Moen Gafoor (85).

Interestingly, both McDonald and Collins were positioned at 4 games apiece going into the final game with Carmichael on 3 games. McDonald drew first blood when shortly after the start of the game against Collins she registered the first of three bingos (scarier) that netted her 79 points.

Collins countered with a bingo of his own (pedaled) which earned him 81 points. Undaunted, McDonald bided her time and before the game was through she had played two more bingos that saw her through by a spread of 24. She subsequently won the prize for playing the most bingos in the tournament (14).

Carmichael suffered losses to McDonald (40) and Gafoor (5) but rebounded with victories over Ulric Harris (138), Ewart Adams (33), Maurice Munroe (81) and Grace Hercules (171). The tournament was GASP final activity for the year.