Eelebrating the advent of a new Scrabble season

Malta Scrabble Club

Just like Christians before Christmas, members of the Malta Scrabble Club are living this short break from Club events in the heat and light of four candles, each candle repesenting the promise of a particular kind of event and enjoyment in 2018. 

 

The first candle that is burning sheds light on the competitive aspect of the 2018 Scrabble season. This will come aglow almost immediately, on 8 January, when the 35th Malta National Scrabble Championship lights up the stage. The event will get a healthy boost of brilliance from the likely participation of Malta's number one player, Theresa Brousson, who will be chasing a record 11th National Championship title. Reigning national champion David Delicata and newly crowned Autumn League Champion Charles Micallef will undoubtedly make this chase a very arduous one for her.

 

No sooner will the spotlights on the MNSC turn off than they will swifty shift their bright focus on the 11th Malta International Scrabble Open (MISO), which comes ablaze on 28 April at LUZZU Conference Centre in Qawra with the 11th MISO Early Bird, followed the day after by the 11th MISO Main Event, and a couple of days after that by the 11th MISO Late Bird. Maltese Scrabblers will be shining their light on this event in the hope of not being outshone by a galaxy of star players from overseas.  

 

The competition candle will keep burning all through the year and its seasons with the Spring Leagues, Summer Leagues and Autumn Leagues, and with no fewer than eight one-day tournaments and one two-day tournament.

 

However brightly the competition candle glows, the new Scrabble season would be dark and cold without a second candle that is burning. From sumptuous buffet lunches served in the midst of the Club's day tournaments, through the 11th MISO BBQ Dinner and the 35th MNSC Annual Presentation Dinner, through the 11th tourISMO to the Yearend Party, the social candle will give Scrabblers plenty of time and opportunities to mix and mingle and make mirth with each other and with each other's relatives and friends.   

 

A more solemn light is being shone by a third candle, the ceremonial candle, which will light up the Club with many a formal Presentation of Prizes, allowing the Club to celebrate and honour its winners and participants. 

 

Less visibly perhaps but certainly as intensely, the administrative candle will glow through the Club's Annual General Meeting and the meetings of the Club's committees, illuminating the path for the Malta Scrabble to follow in its quest to grow and prosper further. 

 

(text by Nicky Vella Laurenti, photo production & formatting by Bryan Priest)