MOEN Gafoor managed to hold onto the lead, while Robert Williams made a surprising jump to third place position as the second day of play in the COURTS National scrabble Championships continued yesterday at the Bank of Guyana Roof Gardens. Suffering only one loss to Leon Belony, Gafoor finished with 13 wins and a positive spread of a whopping 3196 points.
Entering the second day of competition after straight wins on the opening day, Gafoor dived straight into a string of wins beating Mohandram Ramnarine by 467 points; Maurice Munroe by 240 points; Orlando Michael by 237 points and James Krakowsky by 153 points, before going under against Belony for six points.  

Gafoor recouped for a win against Karen Bobb Semple in his final game adding a final 272 points to his spread.

The tournament’s number one ranked player, Abigail McDonald pulled off an upset against the tournament’s number two, Belony, while retaining a firm hold on the second place position with 12 wins and a positive spread of 1641 points after the completion of 15 rounds.

With just one day of play remaining, Gafoor’s closest competitor said she is trying not to read too much into how things are going, but is nonetheless pleased with her performance thus far.

“I feel pretty, pretty good. It’s not over so I’m trying not to think too much about anything. There’s still 8 games remaining, and I’ve lost two games so far. But anything can happen in the next eight rounds so I don’t want to think too far ahead.” The two- time defending champion told Chronicle Sport yesterday.

Despite her win against Belony, who McDonald had projected to be a tough opponent, the victory was dampened by her 55 point lost to Krakowsky in the second round, which was preceded by her win against Michael for 100 points.

Meanwhile, after an unanticipated win against McDonald yesterday Williams continued to surprise as he forces his way to the top. Williams ended with 11 wins and a positive spread of 1480 points overtaking yesterday’s third place man, Fred Collins.

With 10 wins and a positive spread of 1193, Collins was pushed all the way to sixth after he was also overtaken by Krakowsky and Belony, respectively. Krakowsky, who had only four wins on Saturday, added another seven wins yesterday while putting together a positive spread of 1332 points. Belony follows with 10 wins and a positive spread of 1632 points.
Play in the competition will continue today with another eight rounds.