Three East Berks players travelled to Staverton Park, near Daventry for a 15 game tournament between Christmas and New Year.

There were 4 round-robin groups of 16, and one small group of 14 (a round robin followed by 2 'king-of-the-hill' rounds).

Fiona played in the smaller E division and won 9.5 games out of 15.  Some of her wins were by quite large margins including +198, +157 and +134. The draw was also a high scoring encounter 403 points each. Well played Fiona!

Graham played in Division C, and after a slow start managed to win 8 out of 15 games. His biggest win was by 140 points, but his worst loss was by a staggering 263 points! Ouch !

Helen was the lowest rated player in Division B and a late flurry of wins, gave her a total of 7 out of 15. An excellent performance given she started bottom of the division. Her biggest win was by 100 points.

The venue was very good, with an excellent break-out area nearby where tea and coffee was on tap (sadly no biscuits!). There was even a communal 500 piece jigsaw puzzle and pool table for those wanting a different activity between Scrabble games. 

There were lots of good words played over the weekend - the three that Fiona, Graham and Helen were most proud of were DOURINE (a disease of horses), NETSUKE (Japanese clothes fastener) and JOOK (Scottish word to dodge).

Above are a couple of Helen's boards!