heresa Brousson wins swimmingly

She glided through the water like a fish, completing seven laps twice over, outswimming all her opponents. 

This is how the ten time National Champion Theresa Brousson (seen in photo) fared in the two one-day tournaments held in September. In her first dry swim, on 8 September, her opponents seemed to stray tiredly into each other's paths as Brousson won all her games with only runner-up Moira Fenech winning more than half her games. In third place, Mario Camilleri led the pack of strugglers. He was trailed by Josephine Mayo, who took home the ratings prize. 

In Section B, Paul Mifsud was almost as dominant after coming in with a record of seven straight wins, two more than runner-up Kevin Pirotta and three more than third placed Albert Zammit, and with the best record of rating points gained over the two tournaments. 

The gap between Brousson and the rest of the field narrowed down considerably in the rerun, on 21 September, where three time National Champion Mario Saliba, finished just one win behind Brousson whom he also beat in a direct encounter. UK-based Joe Caruana had more than a stroke of good play to finish a very close third, while Kevin Pirotta kept himself well afloat to win the ratings prize. 

But has Brousson built enough stamina since her return to triumph in that long distance race that is the National Championhip and reclaim her national throne from the likes of David Delicata and Charles Micallef? The answer to this question is likely to stir the competitive waters of the national Scrabble scene to a level of frenzy that hasn't been seen in some time. 

(penned and published by Nicky Vella Laurenti)