MindZine - Scrabble - World Championships 1999 Day 1

Melbourne, Australia: The southern hemisphere's top player, New Zealander Nigel Richards, leads the pack on spread (difference between points scored and points against) from two former world champions, 1995 winner David Boys from Canada and current champion Joel Sherman (USA).

Richards was the only player to win his first six games but lost to Boys thanks to early plays of GRACIOUS and SABOTEUR. During this game the bag had to be replaced as a tile had fallen from the bottom of it.

Bob Lipton (USA) made the highest individual score of the day, winning 605-345 against Australia's Bob Jackman. Lipton's bonus plays were TOTALING, EXACTION, ELVANITE and MOUSIER, and also played EQUID for 74 and HOW for 53.

Selwyn Lobo from the United Arab Emirates has made the highest word score to date, playing PRESIDER for 158 against 1991 World Finalist Brian Cappalletto, on the way to a 557-404 victory in round 3.

The UK's best hope, Countdown producer and 1993 World Champion Mark Nyman, is in a group of nine players one win behind.

The fastest player so far is Ganesh Avritsam from Malaysia who used just 8 minutes in his second game to beat Oman's Linda Pray 482-295. His first bonus play, appropriately enough, was SPEEDOS. 16 more games are to be played over Friday and Saturday with the top two going into the best-of-five final on Sunday.

1	Nigel Richards	New Zealand	7	+897
2	David Boys	Canada	7	+619
3	Randy Hersom	U.S.A.	7	+384
4	Joel Sherman	U.S.A.	7	+236
5	Lester Schonbrun	U.S.A.	6	+494
6	Jakkrit Klaphajone	Thailand	6	+387
7	Mark Nyman	England	6	+366
8	Ronald Credo	Philippines	6	+344
9	Adam Logan	Canada	6	+329
10	Arvind Abraham	U.A.E.	6	+267

Background: The 5th World Championships are being held at the Carlton Crest Hotel, Melbourne, Australia between 4 and 7 November 1999.

The event is the largest World Championships to date, with over 100 competitors from 40 countries taking part.

Favourites include 1993 world champion Mark Nyman, from Leeds, UK, a producer on UK TV programme "Countdown"; current world champion Joel Sherman, from New York, and New Zealander Nigel Richards, winner of several recent tournaments in the southern hemisphere.

This is the first time that the WSC has been held outside the UK or USA and previous winners have always been from those two countries or Canada.

A prize fund of US$35,000 is available, with the winner picking up a cheque for US$15,000.

First time invitees to the tournament include players from Cameroon, Gibraltar, India, Poland, Switzerland and Zambia.