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Abigail McDonald enforces dominance as GASP open scrabble championships conclude
National scrabble champion Abigail McDonald bounced back from a second round defeat to Colin Chichester (95) to walk off with the premiere podium spot when the Guyana Association of Scrabble Players (GASP) staged an open scrabble competition in the pavilion of the Malteenoes Sports Club Thomas Lands, yesterday morning. She amassed 5 games and a positive spread of 381.
Abigail McDonald
Moen Gafoor surrendered two games, in the first round to Kamta Ramnarine (3) and a final round defeat to McDonald (140) but still managed to finish in the second spot with 4 games and a positive spread of 534. Leon Belony was the third place finisher, also with 4 games but a positive spread of 126, while Ulric Harris closed off the podium spots with 4 games and a positive spread of 46.
The dynamics changed somewhat in the latter half of the day with the morning sessions belonging to top seed, Ulric Harris who trudged off to lunch with an impeccable 3 games and a positive spread of 220. Orlando Michael (26), Kamta Ramnarine (164) and Colin Chichester (30) were his victims. Ashwant Satamand, a relatively new player from the Enterprise Scrabble Club continued his good showing in the first two games with victory over Rudolph Michael (83) and Maurice Munro (40). The young player then fought a courageous battle but eventually surrendered a close game to Moen Gafoor (40) to close off the morning sessions on 2 games and a positive spread of 83.
National champion Abigail McDonald started with a win over Ruby Cummings by a spread of 78 but surrendered her second game to Colin Chichester by a spread of 95. She then made amends with a win over Kamta Ramnarine by a spread of 63 before going off to lunch with 2 games and a positive spread of 46.
Gafoor also started badly, losing narrowly by a spread of 3 to Kamta Ramnarine but made reparations with a victory over Grace Hercules by a spread of 167 and the Satamand win.
When the players resumed after the lunch break Harris sunk his hands deeper into the top prize with a victory over Julian Skeete with a 32 spread victory. It proved to be his last hoorah. Gafoor followed suit with a victory over Chichester (198) but Satamand dropped his first post-lunch game to McDonald by a spread of 70 and subsequently lost his other two games to drop out of contention.
Gafoor picked up pace in the penultimate round and destroyed Harris by a huge spread of 146 shortly before the loss to McDonald. Chichester lost to Michael Benjamin by a spread of 85 even as McDonald improved her chances for the top spot with a crunching victory over Leon Belony (226).
At the start of the final round Gafoor had rebounded from his first round defeat to lead the standings with 548. McDonald then burst his bubble. The players received lucrative prizes donated by several business entities. The date for the next tournament will be announced soon.
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