Supremos in Gulf Scrabble Test

May 30, 2008 - PRLog -- MANAMA, Bahrain - World-class players, champions and other high-rated exponents of the brainy game are poised to battle across the board in the three-day 18th Gulf Scrabble Championship at Ramee International Hotel in Bahrain.
   The region’s 30 top competitors in Scrabble 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 and game in competitive play.
   From the usual 40 players, the playing corps has been pared down by one-fourth when Scrabble clubs in four countries found it difficult to meet their national quotas last year. With 30 entrants, the competitive edge is even more challenging.
   With over 250,000 words, inflected forms and plurals permitted, found in an authorised word list, with both American and British entries, Scrabble has thousands of freaky options likely to give apoplexy to an English teacher.
Word oddities like “sierran,” “adularia” and “euouaes” are among those that word whizzes may plonk down for a 50-point bonus score if not “phoneme,” “zoozoos” or even “bushpig.”
           Organised annually by BSL, founded 24 years ago, the 225-game GSC has seen Bahrain players take the championship title nine out of 17 times.
Qatar has relinquished its three spots, pleading work commitments for its players.
Vacancies were quickly filled by Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Nineteen of the 30 entrants have competed in a World Scrabble Championship, and four-fifths of the Gulf’s top 10 are taking part in the GSC once again.
The defending champ is Akshay Bhandarkar (UAE), three-time Gulf titleholder and ranked fifth in the world.
           Competitive Scrabble is dominated by men though three women are in the fray – two fewer than last year.
           An American, Bahraini, Indians, Filipinos, a Kenyan, a Mauritanian, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans and a Sudanese are in the playing corps.
One teenager is in the GSC – three last year – while two newcomers make their debut, three in 2007. The average age of players is 35, seven years younger than last year.
Scrabble has a universal appeal with the occupations of players running the gamut, from accountants, architects, a business-development manager and engineers to a geographer, medical technologist and teachers. The GSC is under the auspices of the General Organisation for Youth and Sports.
           Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company has signed on as a silver sponsor while Bahrain Petroleum Company is a bronze sponsor.
            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 the Council of Australian Players Scrabble Associations.
Scorekeeper Rogy Joseph returns to input the results while Dubai-based Makbul Manji is undertaking an annotation of table-one games which will be uploaded to a special site.
           Manji is also providing the apple-shaped board used in the East and Central Africa Scrabble Association championships, also for table one at the GSC.
            The GSC 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 GSC opens Thursday [editor: June 5] with a forum on topics of interest to competitive players: Gulf representation in the third World Youth Scrabble Championship, an altered game format and returning to a 40-player championship.      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 Dadabhai Travel 40th playoffs, culminating in the presentation of the 22nd Bahrain Cup.
            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 GSC games conclude on Saturday, participants will be singled out for skill categories and placements at the awards programme with prizes for the top three places.
            Scrabble manufacturer Mattel has contributed three WSC boards to the GSC as prizes while the Dubai-based Galadari Ice Cream Company is giving out 20 vouchers for Baskin Robbins ice-cream as prizes. Scrabble is celebrating its 60th anniversary of going on the market.

   
Gulf Champions    Norbert Saldanha (UAE), 1991
   Naween Fernando (Bahrain), 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997
   Roland Filio (Bahrain), 1993, 2000
   Akshay Bhandarkar 1996, 1999 (Bahrain), 2007 (UAE)
   Dean Saldanha (UAE), 1998
   Cecil Fernandes (Oman), 2001     
   Chris Abordo (Bahrain), 2002
   Ricky Gonzalez (Saudi Arabia), 2003
   Selwyn Lobo (UAE), 2004
   Ralph Lobo (Oman), 2005, 2006
   
Gulf Top 10  Akshay Bhandarkar (UAE)
    Asad ul Haq (UAE)
    Salah Salih (Saudi Arabia)
    Ralph Lobo (Oman)
    Selwyn Lobo (UAE)
    Mohammed Zafar (Bahrain)
    Sanath Hemachandra (Oman)
    Nestor Javier (Bahrain)
    Ben Filio (Bahrain)
    Wimal Fernando (Oman)

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Founded 24 years ago, Bahrain Scrabble League is considered the premier of 15-20 Scrabble clubs in the region. BSL is under the Bahrain Scrabble Committee of the General Organisation for Youth and Sports.

Website: www.bahrainscrabble.com