The region’s 40 top exponents in the brainy game are set to outmanoeuvre each other at the board, taking advantage of a hook, using a triple-triple, staging a blocking game, playing bingos or phoneys, as part of the jargon in competition play.
With over 450,000 words, inflected forms and plurals permitted, found in an authorised word list of American and British entries, Scrabble has thousands of freaky options likely to give apoplexy to an English teacher.
Word oddities like “sierran,”
Moreover, as a one-off tribute to the season’s benefactor, Bahrain Scrabble League, organisers of the GST, decided to permit “gulfair” as a bonus word, earning 50 extra points and a memento from the air carrier.
Organised annually by BSL, founded 23 years ago, the 280-game GST has seen Bahrain players take the championship title nine out of 16 times.
Eleven of the 40 entrants have competed in a World Scrabble Championship and nine out of the Gulf’s top 10 taking part in the GST.
This year’s ninth WSC is to be staged in November in Mumbai, India, with the eight entrants from the Gulf decided through this month’s GST.
Competitive Scrabble is dominated by men though seven women are in the fray – two more than last year.
An American, a Bahraini, a Bangladeshi, Indians, Filipinos, a Mauritanian, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, a Sudanese and a Trinidadian are in the playing corps.
Just one contestant is a teenager – three last year – while three newcomers make their debut, just like in 2006. The average age of players is 44, two years older than last year.
Scrabble has a universal appeal with the occupations of players running the gamut, from investment advisors, accountants, architects and engineers to a medical technologist, teachers, a journalist and a training manager. The GST is under the auspices of the General Organisation for Youth and Sports.
Gulf Air is the title sponsor of the GST as well as other events taking place in 2007-08, “a monumental decision,” as BSL chairman Roy Kietzman termed it.
“Gulf Air as our benefactor is spelling the success of the GST as well as other Scrabble activities during the season.
“We’re deeply indebted to Gulf Air for its strong support and commitment to our mind game.”
Computers play a key role these days in Scrabble as adjudication, scorekeeping, fixtures and the decision of who starts the game are indicated by computer programs, essentially devised by Australian Scrabble clubs.
Rogy Joseph returns to input the results of the 280 matches with the adjudicators Zain Ahmed, Mangala Bhandarkar (Dubai), a BSL founding member, and Fawaz Jaleel.
The GST is the single international Scrabble contest in the region and is internationally rated.
Besides improving their ratings, competitors aim to get into the prize category, earn a higher ranking and contribute performance points to their team.
The GST opens with a forum on topics of interest to competitive players: the WSC, the new dictionary and the possibility of having a Gulf Scrabble association. Thereafter, fixtures for the next day’s initial match will be announced.
Over the next two days matches will be played with a pause Friday evening for dinner and an awards programme for the 38th playoffs, culminating in the awarding of the 21st Bahrain Cup, sponsored by Mohammed Salahuddin Consulting Engineers Bureau.
The Bahrain player of the year will also be cited along with five other categories of Crystal Orbs, Scrabble’s answer to the “oscars.”
After games conclude, participants will be singled out for skill categories and placements at the awards programme with prizes for the top three places providing Gulf Air vouchers for Mumbai or other online destinations.
Expected to attend the awards ceremony are Jalil Asad, Goys club affairs director, and Lee Shave, Gulf Air vice-president, sales and marketing.
Scores of players throughout the Gulf vied in past months for one of the 40 coveted seats in the GST.
