End of year review: Scrabble

By Bruno Mugooba

The 2013 scrabble calendar began in Jinja at Mukagwa Club where Richard Geria won his third consecutive Scrabble on the Nile tournament.

His dominance was however broken by his fiercest rival Edwin Mugisha who bagged the Mbarara, Spa and Bakuli open titles. Geria, though, continued to dominate during the Bandores, Bodaboda and World Youth Qualifier.

But the two had their impressive run in the past five years broken after veteran Chris Ntege and Godfrey Meko won the Lira and Soroti open respectively.

But to have new talent bloom to the scene, Scrabble Association of Uganda came up with an initiative that saw them launch the inter university and inter secondary school tournaments.

This was a big success as a number of youngsters came to light and have in subsequent events managed to give big guns a run for their money. The ladies participants Assumpta Nakyanzi and Rose Kisembo have struggled to feature in many tournaments though.

Season 2013 also ended with young star Phillip Nsubuga finishing 70th out of 136 to scoop the overall best debutante country trophy in the World Youth Championships held earlier this month in Dubhai. He beat off challenge from other debutantes from power houses Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.