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National Scrabble c/ships looms…Fred Collins prevails among top seeds
More than 25 players, grouped into three categories, started the competition and after a tense battle for honours between the 4 top seeds, former National and Caribbean Scrabble Champion, Fred Collins amassed 3 points and a positive spread of 216 to capture the honours in the Class A category when the Guyana Association of Scrabble Players (GASP) staged a three tiered tournament at the Playland Italiano Restaurant, Enterprise ECD, Monday afternoon last.
Intermediate champion Orlando Michael (left) receives his trophy form the sponsor.
Orlando Michael notched up 5 points and a positive spread of 323 to win the Class B category while Romario Gonsalves scored 4 points with a positive spread of 527 to take the Class C category.
With the National Championships scheduled to get underway soon, the top seeds, Collins, Moen Gafoor, Abigail McDonald and Leon Belony, gave an inkling of the stiff competition in store. They competed in a round-robin, playing each other twice where each player scored a win to eventually end on a 3 points stalemate.
Eventually, the spread was used to establish the overall winner and it was Collins with the largest of 216, mainly due to his heavy drubbing of Gafoor by 194, who carted off the top prize. McDonald placed 2nd with a spread of 74 while Belony and Gafoor, who both accrued negative spreads, placed 3rd and 4th respectively.
Enterprise player, Devraj Deonarine, continued to retain a rich vein of form but though he had amassed a similar amount of points as Michael, he had to settle for the second place spot by dint of a lower spread of 213 while Ruby Cummings closed off the podium spots in this category after amassing 4 points and a spread of seventy one.
Chetnauth Persaud won 3 games with a positive spread of 295 to take the second place in the beginners’ category while Ricaldo Purnwasy earned 3 points and a positive spread of 168 and placed 3rd.
Wazeer Dilipchand finished 4th with 3 wins and a positive spread of 95. Proprietor of the Playland Italiano Restaurant, Shankar Dyal sponsored the tournament.
The players will continue practicing at the Malteenoes Sports Club on Thursday evenings in anticipation of the Nationals scheduled for mid June. The top 15 players will automatically qualify while another 10 will be chosen from a Qualifying tournament to be held on June 9 at Malteenoes Sports Club. This is an open tournament but players will not be required to pay an entrance fee.
Several players have earned automatic qualification by dint of their rankings and are asked to indicate their intention to participate by June 3rd. A non refundable entrance fee of $2,000 must be paid to the treasurer, Colin Chichester.
The winner of the National Competition will have the opportunity to represent Guyana at the World Scrabble Championships scheduled for Prague in the Czech Republic from December 3-8 next.
McDonald is the defending champion after defeating Collins two years ago and successfully defending against Belony last year.
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