The Guyana Association of Scrabble Players (GASP) will continue its workshop this Saturday at the Carifesta Sports Club, following its launch last weekend.
However GASP members have said that they had expected a larger turnout for its first session last week. A total of seven persons came to the workshop spearheaded by the association in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.
One of the prominent members of the association, Leon Belony, said they were pleased with the talent but expected more persons to attend.
“We were expecting a lot more persons to turn out because we knew there was interest amongst the students already. If we had managed to do more advertisement I’m sure more persons would have come out.”
The number six seeded player said he was pleased with the few who turned out and he noted that some have more knowledge of the game than others. While some had never played the game, others had a basic knowledge but needed to sharpen up on other aspects pertaining to scrabble.
Last weekend’s workshop involved tutoring on the basics of scrabble, including the formation of popular two letter words using the ‘hook’ technique while utilizing letters already placed on the board. They were also shown how to make use of premium squares on the board.
Belony informed Stabroek Sport that this week’s workshop will take on a different form, paying close attention to strategy and testing memory of words already learnt.
The workshop will continue throughout the school holiday and many more are expected to attend as GASP plans to intensify its advertising.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport has pledged to donate scrabble boards and dictionaries when interschool competitions commence in the new academic year. Both the ministry and scrabble association are yet to meet to confirm details pertaining to a school competition.
A meeting will be held next week between the two entities to discuss ordering boards along with scrabble dictionaries. The association plans to organize clubs before competitions begin in schools. They hope to establish the competition in various schools in September when the new academic year begins.
