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Scrabble Association deserves ‘high five’ after an intense year of activities
Despite her continued credible display of word forming skills and her vast knowledge of unconventional words, National scrabble champion, Abigail McDonald would be the first to admit that the Guyana Association of Scrabble Players (GASP) enjoyed a remarkable year.
Leon Belony
To begin with, competitions are more intense following several implemented initiatives by the executives to improve the lot of its members.
Maybe, the most significant milestone was the successful staging of the long overdue Annual General Meeting (AGM) and the election of office bearers following several failed attempts due to the absence of a quorum. When the meeting was eventually staged late last year, top seed, Leon Belony was elected to the helm with several other top seeds the likes of Abigail McDonald, Fred Collins, Prudence Edwards and Moen Gafoor among others, elected into the executive body.
Shortly after acceding to the helm, Belony and his executives organized a fund raising tournament and donated the registration fees to two orphanages, the St John’s Bosco Boy’s Orphanage and the St Ann’s Girl’s Home. Gasp members also made donations and the GASP matched the total and eventually, the two orphanages received more than $60,000 along with toiletries and other items which were handed over at a simple ceremony at the tournament venue after the activities had concluded.
But the AGM and the fund raiser would pale in comparison to the Tri-Nation tournament between Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados which the players from the ‘Land of the Hummingbird’ won. Guyana started off on solid footing, defeating defending champions, Trinidad and Tobago on the first of the three days tournament but faltered on the second day after Barbados inflicted a drubbing on them that virtually dampened their hopes of winning the championships for the first time since it started.
For the record, Trinidad and Tobago had regrouped after a day of rest and returned to defeat Barbados and retain the coveted accolade.
The outstanding player of that tournament was Orlet Bullock, a St Vincentian who represented Barbados. He had earlier suffered a humiliating loss to former Caribbean champion, Fred Collins in the team championships but returned to defeat his nemesis, who incidentally was the reigning individual champion, and claimed the Caribbean Individual Scrabble crown after turning in an impressive display, amassing an impeccable 8 points with a positive spread of 1081. His predecessor could only manage 5 ½ points with a positive spread of 231.
While the other positions were inconsequential, Davraj Deonarine a relatively new player from the Enterprise Scrabble Club was singled out for worthy mention after amassing 5 points from possible 8.
Once again, the input of Corporate Guyana stood out when Mr. Gafoor extended heartfelt gratitude for their contribution which amounted to more than US$6000.
The year is less than one month old and already the new executives are planning the yearly itinerary. Foremost in their mind would be the acquisition of the Tri-Nation trophy but they will have to wait for the next edition of that tournament sometime next year.
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