James Krakowsky started the year of activities on a positive note when he defeated a team of worthwhile contenders to cart off the honours when the Guyana Association of Scrabble Players (GASP) opened its season with the Gasp Open Championships at the Bank of Guyana Sports Club yesterday afternoon.
James Krakowsky (left) strikes a pose with Prudence Edwards and Julian Skeete (right) just after cleaning up a competitive field of word formers.
Prudence Edwards also demonstrated vast improvement to clinch the second place with 4 games and a positive spread of 193 while Julian Skeete made a grand return to the podium, also with 4 games but a lower positive spread 11.
Krakowsky started his march with a 51 spread victory over Orlando Michael and by the time the lunch break was taken two hours later had added the scalps of Julian Skeete (62) and Prudence Edwards to his repertoire. He returned in the afternoon session and decisively outplayed Maurice Munru (158) and Delon Moffat (283) but suffered a slight setback with a 26 spread loss to Colin Chichester.
Edwards chalked up wins over Wayne Cave (133), Michael Benjamin (71), Orlando Michael (84) and Julian Skeete (155) but dropped games to Moffat (33) and Krakowsky (217). Munru received a special prize for forming the bingo with the highest spread after playing ‘Darkies’ which netted him 98 points.
The players convene once again on February 5 next for the Yuman Nabi Open but will be involved in practice sessions at the Maltenoes Sports Club, Thomaslands on Thursday evenings.