E new Scrabble Champion for Malta

Fresh from his conquest of the German English Scrabble Nationals, Charles Micallef (shown in photo) has added the Malta National Scrabble Championship 2016 to his fast-growing collection of Scrabble laurels. Unlike the short but arduous German event, this was a slow and slugging competition which went right down to the wire as the last game of Micallef's final encounter, against none other than five-time National Champion David Delicata, was in effect a decider for the championship between the two men.   

 

Micallef was lost for words to describe his elation at winning his first National title, the fruit of almost a decade of hard work and study to build his word knowledge and hone his game strategy.  

 

Three time champion Mario Saliba finished a distant but creditable third after managing to fend off the challenge of the up and coming Moira Fenech.

 

Josephine Mayo felt thrilled after claiming her second consecutive title in the second Division of the National Championship, where veteran player Frans Farrugia has virtually secured runner-up position over Dominic Borg.

 

Delicata can find consolation in the fact that he played the highest number of bonus words (using all seven tiles in a single move) by amassing over a hundred such words and scoring a staggering average of over 2 bingos per game. Hard to believe he did not win it but all the more a sign of the scale of Micallef's feat in having outdone such a mighty adversary. 

 

(Updated)

Thanks to his victory, Micallef has now moved up closer to Delicata in the latest national player ratings while Mayo has climbed all the way up to eighth place. Further down the rating list, Mary Rose Caruana was the strongest riser up the rating list with a hefty gain of 127 rating points.