E hairline short of a victory

Phew!!

 

Such was the utterance as could be heard distinctly when one-time National Champion Charles Micallef realised much to his relief that, despite losing in the last round, Moira Fenech (seen in photo), who had registered a very comfortable win in her final game, had fallen short of snatching the lead and victory of the Sette Giugno One-Day Tournament from him by a mere five spread points. 

 

Despite such a narrow defeat, Fenech can take solace and courage from her rise to fifth on the National Scrabble Player Ratings List, as she waits to face Theresa Brousson or Kevin Pirotta in the best-of-five final of the Rich Red Spring League.

 

Third seed Mario Saliba avoided slipups against lower-ranked opponents to place third. Conversely, Albert Zammit outdid some of his stronger opponents to place fifth overall and take home the Ratings Prize. 

 

Click here to download final standings. 

 

(penned & published by Nicky Vella Laurenti, photo credit John Chew)