E summer of warm extremities

Brousson, Saliba, Farrugia and Cutajar register big net gains in summer leagues.


Two leagues, two extremes 


Malta’s hot summer of Competitive Scrabble can be boiled down to this simple formulaic expression. 


In the Azure Summer League, Theresa Brousson and Mario Saliba, both old and mighty in terms of competitive strength and experience, shone brightly to not only place first and third respectively but also warm up their national player rating by several degrees


In the Turquoise Summer League, the ice thawed quite spectacularly off Rosanne Farrugia and Marvic Cutajar (seen in photo), who turned up the heat on their opponents to register an unprecedentedly high wins tally and ratings points increase. With Farrugia soaring as high up as second in the Beta Group behind Albert Zammit and ahead of Maria Scicluna, the two fledgling players can bask in the knowledge that they are mastering the sport.


The icy feeling left by the loss in the final of the Rich Red Spring League melted away from Brousson’s mind as the reigning National Champion dropped just four games from a total of thirty played to take home a second league win of the season and bubble up back to the top of the national ratings


Initially ranked fourth, Saliba played radiantly to make it to the final faceoff between the top three, where he narrowly missed out on the runner-up spot, which was taken by David Delicata


Following her sizzling triumph in the Rich Red Spring League, Moira Fenech cooled down to first in the lower group of the Azure League, ahead of Albert Zammit in second and Josephine Mayo in third. 


Mayo stayed on the boil as she retained her initial premier rank to win the Turquoise League ahead of Kevin Pirotta and Alfred Xuereb, second and third respectively. 


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