In the first few days in November, Fiona played in 2 scrabble tournaments in Malta - here is her report - thank you Fiona!
The Malta Scrabble club hosts an annual tournament which is attended by players from all over the world. I thought that some November sun, combined with Scrabble sounded much nicer than rain in Blackwater! There were a number of tournaments – I attended the one day early bird, and the main three day event. ! I was joined by a countdown friend, Tom, for the early bird – it was Tom’s first tournament and he’d spent the plane journey learning the 2 letter words! I played people from England, Scotland, Ireland, Malta, Australia and India, and lots of other countries were represented too – a truly international event
The warmup day didn’t go particularly well Scrabble-wise, but I played some lovely people and won 2 of my 9 games. The main tournament was 25 games, and I won 10, but many of the games were very close and I finished with a positive spread which I think is a tournament first for me! I also got my highest tournament score of 549, and averaged 392 points per game so despite the low win rate I was happy enough with how I’d played.
Over 34 games there were lots of bonuses! My favourites were SUIVANTE and DEADEYES, and my highest scoring bonus was ADJOINS for 117 points. Others included DRACONES, MONIKER, TRITONE, SEAMIEST, ROTARIES, BLEMISH, TALENTED, UNREADY, HOARSER, RURALIST (twice!), TILLERS, SALLIES, TERRIES, MEALIER, MENDINGS, CURRANTS, INSOFAR, ROISTER, RUSTLING, SONNETS, SAURIAN, WEDGIES, UNSTAGED, RELISTS, STUNNERS, LISTENER, DETAILS, STOUTLY, AVIATED, IONISING, EGOTISE, SERRATE, ENTITLES, PEASANT, FAIRIES, OUTLIER, ABIDING
There was a 5 point per word penalty for challenges, so a lot of invalid words stayed on the board. 5 points shouldn’t be too much of a deterrent, but I did have one game where my unsuccessful challenge swung the game to my opponent!
The hotel was lovely, and there was a small sandy beach nearby which was deserted at sunrise. The sea was the perfect temperature for a swim! The Malta Scrabble club had arranged a meal out and a tourist day, and those were a lot of fun too. I’d definitely recommend it if you fancy some winter sunshine!
One of my games – I didn’t challenge IFFS – I should have, it’s invalid!
