air and on fire

She was crowned by her opponents as Malta's Sportsmanship Scrabble Champion. Eight months on from that honour, Christine Strawbridge (seen in photo) has again worked her magic on her adversaries to claim the title of 2018 Spring League Champion, her first ever league title.

To do this, Strawbridge climbed up from fourth rank to reach the final where she beat the top seed Nicky Vella Laurenti by 3 games to 1 in a best-of-five-game encounter.  This impressive surge has further lifted the veteran player to seventh from ninth on the National Player Rating List, where she now lies above the second seed Moira Fenech, who was dumped out in the quarter-finals by eventual fourth-placed Mario Camilleri, and the third seed Josephine Mayo who overcame Camilleri in the final for third place. 

In Section B, Kevin Pirotta finished second behind winner Albert Zammit. The latter finished first also in Spring League 2 thanks to a win in the playoff against top seed Sammy Mangion. Frans Farrugia placed third. 

Mario Camilleri converted a loss into a prize by scoring 451 to register the highest losing score of the leagues.

(penned & published by Nicky Vella Laurenti, photo credit Bryan Priest)