hysical stamina meets lexical expertise in fight against cancer

At the crack of dawn on June 7, while most people in Malta were sound asleep in the sweet assurance that they could have a lie-in, a group of determined people woke up to start their daily cycling routine in preparation of an impending challenge that will see them pedal their way from Vienna to Milan as part of the 2018 campaign organised by the Alive Charity Foundation to raise funds for cancer research and treatment. 

But 7 June being a public holiday in Malta, the cyclists' early morning drill is followed by something rather different and unusual for them:  a Scrabble One-Day Tournament, where, together with a group of seasoned players from the Malta Scrabble Club, they will indulge in building mosaics of words with a hundred tesserae picked at random out of a bag.

While these words will give a special meaning and purpose to the Sette Giugno Scrabble One-Day Tournament, organised by the Malta Scrabble Club in collaboration with the Alive Charity Foundation and with the support of Artisan Foods, it will otherwise be business as usual for the likes of Theresa Brousson, who will be looking to follow up on her record eleventh National Championship victory earlier in the year.

But in view of the participation of former national champions Charles Micallef and Mario Saliba, Brousson's route to her second title of the year is bound to be somewhat uphill. 

(penned & published by Nicky Vella Laurenti)