ESU Scrabble Tournament 2017

The English-Speaking Union organised the 3rd edition of its Scrabble Tournament last Friday at Greenwich University Pakistan Mauritius Campus Branch. It’s Selena Issur who was crowned winner following preliminaries and semi-finals.

The last activity of the English Speaking Union (ESU) for the year 2017, namely the Scrabble Tournament, took place on Friday 8th December at the Greenwich University Pakistan Mauritius Campus Branch, Ebène. It is in a friendly atmosphere that sixteen participants took part in the game.

One of the most famous board games in the world, Scrabble offers more than just entertainment. The board game beneficially impacts on health in multiple ways at any age. Besides helping to enrich spelling and vocabulary and develop mathematical skills, the Scrabble game aids in reducing the risk of cognitive decline, namely keeping away from dementia and Alzheimer’s diseases in the case of older adults. Scrabble thus provides emotional and mental benefits by keeping the mind engaged and rendering it stronger.

The Vice-President of the ESU, Mr Prem Burton, stated that the ESU is trying to promote the Scrabble game among senior students and adults. “People in Mauritius play scrabble but nowadays they play mostly online. We have managed to organise it and we hope to continue increasing people’s interest in the game in future.”

The 2017 tournament started with preliminaries, which saw the participation of sixteen players. The aim behind the game of Scrabble is to score more points than one’s opponent. A player collects points by placing words on the game board. Each letter has a different point value; so the strategy becomes to play words with high scoring letter combinations.

Eight players were qualified for the semi-finals and four players competed for the winning shield. It was finally Selena Issur who won the third edition of the ESU Scrabble Tournament. The other finalists were Rajnish Burton, Vinesh Paupiah and Zakiyyah Oodally, who also received a shield from the ESU.

The ESU seizes the opportunity to thank all participants and those who benevolently gave their time to help run the Scrabble tournament, in particular Deepak Maunthrooa, who was the Master of Ceremony for the competition.