World Scrabble Championships…McDonald delivers lukewarm returns in two days of intense competition

Dec 06, 2013 Sports

After two intense days and 15 rounds of word forming activities in the World Scrabble Championships, Prague, Czech Republic, National Scrabble champion, Abigail McDonald has endured mixed fortunes and has only managed to amass 5 points and a negative spread of 218. Barbadian, Orlet Bullock did not fare much better and has scored 6 points with a negative spread of 132 while Trinidadian, Leslie Stewart, finished day two on 7 points and a negative spread of 323.

Abigail McDonald

McDonald surrendered her first game to American, Dave Wiegand (-27) but rebounded in her second game with a win over Englishman, Terry Kirk (48). Thereafter, she lost to New Zealander, Peter Sinton ( -148), Englishman, Martin Harrison (-146), American, Jason Keller ( -87),  Muhammad Shabaz (-77), New Zealander, Nicholas Cavenagh (-12) and  Anlaug Frydenlund of Norway ( -15).
The local scrabble queen then notched up 3 successive victories against Pakistani, Mohammad Inayatullah (76), Fadlan Satria of Indonesia and won by a spread of 67 and Peggy Fehily of the Federal Republic of Germany, whom she narrowly defeated by a spread of 2.
She then lost to Englishman, Austin Shin (-8), New Zeelanders, Howard Warner ( -17) and Blue Thorogood ( -110) before ending yesterday with a victory over Villam Snabel (SVK) by a spread of 236.
Meanwhile, five-times world champion, Malaysian, Nigel Richards, lost games to Gerald Carter of Thailand (-80), Ming Hui Hubert of Singapore (-51), Englishman, Martin Harrison (-84) and Canadian, Joel Wapnick (-73) but still finished the second day leading the point standings on 11 points and a positive spread of 820. The tournament concludes on Sunday. (Michael Benjamin)