Scrabble Tournament 2010

The inaugural schools Scrabble Tournament was played out on Saturday June 19th, 2010 at the UFCW local 175 & 633 premises at Argentia Road, Mississauga. The event germinated from an idea to hold an event for the first time where alumni associations from both Boys and Girls Schools would interact along with their families irrespective of age.

Invitations had been sent out to alumni associations of Royal, St. Joseph’s, St. Peter’s, Trinity, Methodist, Visakha and Jaffna schools. The participants accepting the invitation were teams from the alumni associations of St. Bridget’s Convent, Holy Family Convent and STC OBA. A fair crowd gathered, from which 20 participants commenced play against opposing players on 10 tables at 10.15 am.

At the end of the first round of play, it was evident that the team from St. Bridget’s would pose the strongest challenge to emerge winners of this tournament. The 6 members from STC held on gallantly for 5 of them to go on to qualify for the next round of play.

The next round saw STC’s DR Weerasinghe matched against SBC’s Robin Ramakrishna, SBC’s young player Vimalan Raviraj vs STC’s Malik Majeed, STC’s Janice Sinnatamby with STC’s Jehan Ahamed, and SBC’s Kaveri Raviraj with STC’s Hiran Adhihetty.

The word play and skills of playing Scrabble really came to the forefront with the formation of words, double words, triple words unscrambling at a rapid pace. Some of the combinations produced by several of the SBC players scoring as much as 80 points with one play, and seven letter words on more than one occasion. STC’s Hiran Adhihetty, Jehan Ahamed and Malik Majeed were left far behind on the points board and at the end were left ‘mind boggled’ and ‘wordless’ by the speed and finesse of their opponents from SBC. STC’s DR Weerasinghe won a very close game from SBC’s Robin Ramakrishna.

Now the stage was set for the semi finals with four players left to match their wits and skills in crafting words from the English language. Final scores by this time were reaching the high 300’s and even the 400’s. This was Scrabble played at its best. Observers at the tables were treated to an educating experience on how the game should be played.

16 year old Vimalan showed exceptional knowledge and skills and was matched with Janice in one table, with Kaveri against DR in the next. As expected from the word go, the pace was fast and furious. The wordplay reached new heights in triples, doubles, 7 letter words in the art and subtlety of playing to win. Vimalan in this game scored 454 points which was the highest in all games in the tournament to emerge victorious.

Not to be outdone Vimalan’s mother, Kaveri, left her opponent DR trailing and looking on with disbelief as she rolled out complete 7 letter words on two occasions to record the highest single word score of 80 points for the entire tournament.

The finals were a family affair with SBC’s Kaveri pitting her wits against son, Vimalan. No quarter was asked for and none given in this battle for supremacy by mother and son. Once again the skills and finesse displayed was a delight to watch by all those who gathered around the table.

The final game was won by Kaveri with 410 points against Vimalan’s 345 points.

Kaveri Raviraj emerged the Champion Scrabble Player and St. Bridget’s came out as the Champion Team of the inaugural tournament.

All those present were treated to an excellent lunch and other refreshments served by the organizing committee from STC in the excellent facilities provided by the UFCW.

The STC OBA Canada will continue this event next year too by further expanding into a Family Day that will hold competitions for Chess, Carrom, Cards, Checkers and other games in addition to Scrabble.

All in all a most enjoyable day spent by everyone who graced the occasion.