Newly-crowned champions

Although they are not new to victory, they hadn’t savoured its sweet taste for a long time. These were the parallel fortunes of David Delicata and Frans Farrugia, newly crowned national champions of the first and second divisions respectively.

The two men’s paths to victory were very different. For while Delicata strolled to victory on the strength of gargantuan rates of almost 80% of the games played won and over 3 bingos per game, Farrugia slugged it out till the very end against eventual runner-up Anna Borg.

In second place, far behind Delicata, was second-seed Moira Fenech and former champion Sammy Mangion, who clinched third place just ahead of thirdseed Mario Saliba.

Alfred Xuereb placed a close third in Division B, while Marlene Calleja beat Reno Zammit by some distance in the B Division Partial Championship.

Delicata (shown in photo) will be hoping to use the momentum of his sixth National title to eke out a top three finish in the 10th Malta International Scrabble Open, which runs from 28 April to 4 May at the be.Hotel in Bay Street, St Julian's.

The national champion will be up against a glittering field of international players, which includes Evan Berofsky of Canada, defending Main Event champion David Webb of England, and Piotr Andronowski of Scotland, as well as Delicata’s old Scrabble nemesis, the ten-time national champion Theresa Brousson, who recently returned to the scene after a two-year absence.