Leading Scrabble players have two cracks at McDonald

Feb 26, 2010 Sports

Some of the top players who

– GASP hosts Youman Nabi and Phagwah Open Competitions

By Rawle Welch
The country’s leading word formers will have two opportunities starting tomorrow and Monday to stop the juggernaut Abigail McDonald from continuing her imperious form which has not relented since her return from the World Scrabble Championship in Malaysia.
Starting tomorrow, the country’s leading players will battle in the Youman Nabi Open Competition at the Chamber of Commerce Building on Waterloo Street and this will be followed by the Phagwah Open to be played on Monday, at the Malteenoes Sports Club.
With the Caribbean Series slated to be staged in Trinidad and Tobago next month, most of the country’s best known exponents of the word forming game is expected to face off against each other, especially with the prospect of gaining selection to the national team.
Among those anticipated to participate in the back-to-back tournaments are former national champions Fred Collins and Ulric Harris, James Krakowsky, Ewart Adams, the father and son combination of Rudolph and Orlando Michael, Moen Gafoor, Floyd Carmichael, Grace Hercules, Abigail McDonald, Nicholas Grant, Ruby Cummings and Leon Belony.
McDonald, whose single loss was to Hercules, is not expected to experience that lapse once again, but the deceptive Lindener has shown a penchant to defeat the more established players with her other scalps being Collins and Krakowsky, two players rated in the Top Five.
Collins on the other hand has not been the same player for sometime, but then again, most of the players have been displaying admirable improvement over the past two years and it could be a case of the proverbial ‘changing of the guard’.
Perhaps, the player who could cause major damage is Krakowsky highly regarded as the ‘sleeper’ in the local set-up and someone expected to do well at the regional tournament.
Carmichael is also one who possesses the potential to beat any player on the local circuit and coupled with and the improved form he has shown in the past few tournaments, leaving him out of the reckoning might not be wise.
Gafoor is another player with promise and could spring surprises so all this sets up some intriguing battles over the two days of competition.
The ‘old stager’ Harris has been a shadow of himself for sometime now and he too seems to be lagging behind the new stars in the sport.
All in all, it promises to be two days of intense rivalry.
Trophies are up for grabs.