Local scrabble players contest Caricom championships in preparation of Caribbean tournament

From Kaeiture News:   Local scrabble players contest Caricom championships in preparation of Caribbean tournament
Two weeks ago, scrabble players convened in the Mining Town of Linden to compete for honours in the Earl Vigilance Memorial championships and Leon Belony amassed 5 points and joined national champion, Abigail McDonald and top seed, Moen Gafoor, inscribing his name to the lien trophy.

Abigail McDonald

Fred Collins

Former national champion, Fred Collins turned in a top performance but had to settle for second place, with similar points as Belony but a lower spread.  The players will convene once again this morning to continue the intense rivalry when the Guyana Association of Scrabble Players (GASP) stages the Caricom Open Championships at the Malteenoes Sports Club.

If one is looking for evidence of the intensity of the championships one only needs to examine what transpired in Linden. Belony lost to Collins who in turn lost out to Grace Hercules. Ruby Cummings lost to Hercules, Belony and Cave but rebounded to win her other games to finish 4th and cart off the prize for the best player outside the top ten rankings. When one notes that several top guns did not participate in the just concluded tournament but will be contesting today, the prospects of a highly competitive tournament are high.

The youngsters are also coming into their own and one could anticipate the keen challenges of Hercules Wayne Cave and Michael Benjamin, all turning in improved performances in the previous tournament. Activities get underway at 09:30hrs when the registration period begins up to 10:00hrs when the first tile would be moved. Prizes would be awarded for the top 3 players and the best player outside of the top 10 rankings.

Meanwhile, today’s tournament would be used to select 8 players to contest in the Caribbean Championship slated for the Bank of Guyana Sports Club between August 23rd- 26th next.

Reigning team champions, Trinidad and Tobago is expected to field a strong contingent while Barbados is also expected to add to the competitiveness of the tournament. Former national champion, Fred Collins is currently the Caribbean individual champion and he is keen on retaining that accolade. Officials of the GASP said that they will field a strong team based on the performances of the players in this morning’s tournament.
Players are reminded that failure to be at the tournament venue at the stipulated starting time would result in their clocks being activated in their absence. A registration fee of $500 would be collected from each player.