En ant's eye view of Scrabble

Marlene Calleja stands tall in Yearend 1-Day Tournament

 

Looked at from the top down, there is not much to write home about regarding the Yearend 1-Day Tournament, held on 8 December 2020. The first, second and fourth seeds, Theresa Brousson, Nicky Vella Laurenti and Josephine Mayo, finished first, second and third respectively, the former finishing unbeaten for the second 1-day tournament in a row.

 

Casting a look from the bottom to the top of the final standings table, however, the name of Marlene Calleja stands out perched several places higher than her initial position at the bottom of the field. In climbing up from the bottom of the rankings of the last 1-day tournament of the year, Calleja got the better among others of her friend and former fellow rookie in 2005, Josephine Mayo. By keeping her spread below the -100 mark, Calleja held off the challenge of the Zammit duo, Albert and Reno, for fourth place and the ratings prize. 

 

Marlene Calleja

 

Her buoyant performance and consequent gain of 29 rating points lifts Marlene two places up the ratings ladder. So too does Albert Zammit with Reno bagging 16 points to reach his highest rating of the year. Further up, Theresa Brousson adds 7 points to her rating to establish a year high of 1928 at the very top of the Maltese competitive hierarchy.

 

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