Gafoor retains top spot among word formers

Sep 25, 2023 Sports

GASP Annual general meeting on the cards…

Kaieteur Sports – The intense battle for top honours continued when the nation’s top scrabble players threw down the gauntlet in a fiercely contested championship at ‘Chicken King,’ Melanie, ECD last Saturday afternoon.

Gafoor (2nd R) shows off his hardware with other winners (L-R) Basil, Belony, Jacobs and Krakowsky.

Moen Gafoor entered the tournament bent on avenging a previous defeat to James Krakowsky at their previous encounter at Flava’s, Charlotte Street Georgetown, approximately one month ago but once again, was relegated to the loser’s end by a spread of 102. A determined Gafoor shrugged aside that loss and registered victories over Jonathon Sobrian (111), Robert Williams (110), Michael Benjamin (234), Leon Belony (131) and Winslow Jacobs (315) to amass a final tally of 5 points and a positive spread of 799.

Before the loss to Gafoor, Belony had chalked up decisive victories over Benjamin (195), Jacobs (171), Krakowsky (86) and Curtis Liverpoole (153). He also closed off with 5 points but a lower positive spread of 711.

Curtis Liverpool continued his good showing on the board and can consider himself unlucky after failing to fill the final podium spot to Krakowsky, whom he defeated in the second round. Both players finished on 4 points apiece but it was the latter player, with a positive spread of 396, as against Liverpool’s 253, that filled the spot.

The prize for the most bingos was fiercely contested between Gafoor and Belony and at the end of the penultimate round Belony registered 3 bingos and looked set to cart off the honours. However, in a resurged effort Gafoor opposed Winslow Jacobs and sealed the prize after registering 5 bingos to snatch the honours from Belony by just a solitary bingo (15-14). Once again Christina Basil earned the prize for the best emerging player.

Meanwhile, the next tournament, the Carlton Murray Memorial championship, is slated for October 7th, at a venue to be named. The organizing committee has also revealed that the Annual General Meeting (AGM) will get underway before the commencement of this tournament. The various executive positions and the aspirants are still to be released but sources revealed that this would be settled in time for the elections.