Seniors Scrabble Tournament
We have 84 players from all over the world playing in the World Seniors Scrabble Championship. Players are all aged 55 or more. There are players from Australia,New Zealand,France,Japan, the Phillippines, South Africa, Sweden, Wales and the United States. Some have come here just after playing in Nairobi in the WESPA Championship, the premier event of Scrabble organised by the WESPA, the World English Language Scrabble Players Association. This Seniors event is also under the auspices of WESPA, with the guiding person being Karen Richards within WESPA, who also organises the World Junior Scrabble which will be played in Malaysia soon after this event.The planning and organising for this has been done by the New Zealand Scrabble Association, with Paul Lister acting as tournament director.
The Players
The tournaments
There was a warmup tournament on the Saturday and Sunday which allowed players of all ages. This was won by Howard Warner.The main Seniors event is on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with 9, 9 and 6 games respectively.
Prizes:
Champion US$1,000
2nd US$500
3rd US$300
4th US$200
5th US$150
6th US$125
7th US$100
8th US$75
9th US$50
10th US$50
70-79 years US$100
80 and above US$100
Powhiri
Players were delighted to be led into the venue and then greeted with a traditonal Maori welcome (powhiri) with Maori songs and individual welcome via hongi (nose rubbing).