THE WORLD OF COMPETITION SCRABBLE – MAY
There was plenty of Scrabble news to share for May; almost half way through the year and some very prominent tournaments to come. This month's report features news from four continents!
We start in Malta, and a trio of tournaments that began at the end of April came to its conclusion at the beginning of May. The winners of each event, in order, were Leslie Charles, David Webb and Alec Webb. The Times of Malta featured the news on their website, an article we shared to followers of our Facebook Page.
The 6th Chishti Memorial Scrabble Tournament in Pakistan saw 2013 World Youth Scrabble Champion, Moizullah Baig ease out Waseem Khatri in the Premier Division. Waseem's 518 the high score for that Division.
Bangalore's Rajveer Rawlin blogged the outcome of the Bayer India National Scrabble Championship. Congratulations to Sherwin Rodrigues who emerged victorious by 2 games and margin from Charles Carneiro, whom The Scrabble Association of Delhi featured with three other Delhi Scrabble players who participated.
Ademola Ajayi won the Irish Open in May by three games and margin from Feargal Weatherhead: Theresa Scallan came third.
The Trans Tasman Challenge is a biennial event between that plays on the traditional (but friendly) rivalry Australia and New Zealand have in all aspects of sport. May saw the Australian team selected and the team chosen will ensure a strong battle for honours is assured in August, when the event takes place. The Australian team includes three former Australian Champions, the Australian # 2 (and World #15) and the 2014 Trans Tasman individual prize winner; the full team can be viewed here.
Nigeria employed a rigorous selection technique for the upcoming MSI World Championships in Lille: Rubizgist noted Dennis Ikekerogor won 34 of the 50 games that made up the qualifying tournament. National Coach, Anthony Ikolo, was quoted as saying players were expected to move into camp soon. WESPA Champion, Wellington Jighere, was among the 15 players named.
Wellington Jighere's playing style was the topic of interest in the media this past month. The tactics of winning at Scrabble was played out in the international media after two contrasting articles discussed his playing style that led him to victory at the inaugural WESPA Championship. Both sides argued feverishly in support of their contentions and whilst this debate continued within the Scrabble community, Wellington himself was asked about it by The Daily Trust. Part of his reply "It is just my style, and I'd say it is a Nigerian one and it helped me win"
African news concludes our look at the World of Scrabble in May: the venue for the second WESPA Championship was announced at the end of this month. Kenya is the host country and November 2017 will see many elite players descend into Nairobi for what promises to be a most exciting event.
Kenya did have a tournament this month: the Kiambu County National Tournament won by Macharia Kimani. Pictured is winning board in the final game against Allan Oyende, as noted by the Scrabble Kenya Twitter account.
June sees tournaments in Australia and Thailand on the WESPA Calendar - expect more news to come, especially with big events occurring later in the year.
In the meantime, happy Scrabbling!
Macharia Kimani's winning board against Allan Oyende. Source: @Kenya_Scrabble