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Other young players who have laid their tiles for the London Scrabble League
On 16th May 2004 Jessica Pratesi set a record at the Sunday Chigwell Drive. At 8 years and 5 months she became the youngest ever person to attend and play at a Drive beating a record previously held by Andrew Perry who was 9 years and 4 months in his first drive on 8 April 1991 - even beating Austin Shin who was 10 years 3 months when he first attended a drive on 12 March 2000. So who would be the youngest ever person to play a London League fixture? We are looking at seven prospective candidates, Mark Nyman, Harvey Freeman, Richard Evans, Allan Saldanha, Daniel Simonis, Andrew Perry and Paul Howard. Mark burst onto the scene as a 13-year-old in late 1979 after seeing his dad play a London League match. Mark went on to become World Scrabble champion in 1993 winning one or two tournaments and Sunday Drives in the process but never won a League season. Harvey first entered the National Scrabble Championships (NSC) in 1976 and in the 1980 NSC he was 14 when he came second to Joyce Cansfield at the Connaught Rooms, Holborn. He joined the League in 1977 as an eleven year old after his début in the NSC and twice won London League seasons in winter October '87-March '88 and summer April-September '91. Richard was 9 years 11 months when he first went to Redbridge Scrabble club having won his age group in a Save the Children sponsored Scrabble event. His sisters, Jane and Cathy, joined the Redbridge club the following week. They were 15 and 12 respectively. They attended the Sunday drives in Bayswater from an early age and had often helped out Angela in subbing for League matches. Richard's short spell playing League matches was in the late 90's, being much older and an already established 180+ rated player. Allan made his League début in the winter season of 1986-87 aged 9 and a few months. He started playing Scrabble when he was 7 and took all the headlines competing in the NSC from 1989 until he won it in 1993. World Championship player and won London League in the winter season of October '93-March '94. Andrew made his League début in the winter season 1991-92. He was also aged 9 and a few months. Andrew with his dad, Steve, spent a short time in the League before moving to Faringdon near Swindon. Andrew competed in the National Schools Championships in the mid to late 90's and was a member of the English team which played in the World Scrabble Championships in Kuala Lumpur. Also débuting in 1991 was Sandie Simonis' son, Daniel Simonis. Daniel was 15 when he joined the London Scrabble League in the spring of 1991 and 17 when he won the inaugural Drive Cup in 1992. In his first League season he played 12 fixtures and finished 24th. Finally Paul. Paul made his début at the beginning of the September '99-March '00 season aged 11. He won a gold medal at the Mind Sports Olympiad at 12 and was a winner of the Most Improved Player award in October '00-March '01. A regular on the Internet Scrabble Club he rejoined the London League in 2006-07 after a short break due to finishing schooling. So it is between Andrew Perry and Allan Saldanha. Actual records of their first League matches will have been long destroyed so they will just have to share the honour of "youngest member" until someone happens to find the relevant fixture details. |
UK YOUTH SCRABBLE CHAMPIONSHIP 2010
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Fifteen young players aged between 7-16 contested the UK Youth Championships on the 5th June, held at the Idsall School, Shifnall in Shropshire. Of the fifteen, five were ABSP rated and had previous tournament experience - the others had workshop practice on the previous day run by Chair of the Youth Committee of WESPA, and co-organiser, Karen Richards. The event was fully ABSP rated with Mattel, represented by Philip Nelkon, providing travel Scrabble sets, books, scrolls for the newbies and shields for the main winners. Kim Hands and Sarah Wilkes were also on hand to provide assistance and guidance to the less experienced players. Originally advertised as 3 events: a UK Championship, a recreational division and a teams event for the non championship players. With the small turnout it was decided to amalgamated the UK Championship and recreational division, awarding prizes to the new players after 4 rounds. There was no team event. Jack Durand from Highgate won the recreational event with 3 wins from four games, and a 237 spread. His only loss coming at the hands of Jessica Pratesi! Jack also won a prize for the highest game score of the newbies; 415. Shrinidhi Prakesh, from Staines in Middlesex, was second with 2 wins and one loss. Kiran Pal, from Hockley Heath, Solihull, came third with 2 wins and 2 losses. Leah Pendlebury, from Barry, Wales, and local Shifnal player, Gemma Davis, also finished with two wins. Kiran, additionally, won the highest scoring word prize by playing ZA for 66. After four games the 5 rated players played on for three more games along with three willing newbies. Shrinidhi, Leah and 7-year-old Kiran. Pairings had been predetermined so that all rated players played each other once during the tournament. The main prize on offer was not just the title of UK Youth Scrabble Champion of 2010 but a fund of £500 towards the costs of representing the UK at the World Scrabble Youth Championships in Manila this coming December shared out for the lucky qualifiers. The UK have four places available. All was going according to ratings. The five rated players performed way above their normal average creating a vast chasm of experience and level of play between them and the newbies. Some of the new players showed great promise and need more practice by attending tournaments, learning the basic words and have a local club member tutoring them to the finer points of the game. It does take time and patience. There were three important results. Natasha Pratesi's 379-373 win against Joe Knapper was enough to oust Joe from fourth spot! That win with Joe and massively larger wins against three of the newbies earned Natasha that valuable fourth spot in the table with four wins and 475 spread. Tim Butcher won 424-293 against Oliver Garner to claim second place. His wins against Natasha and Joe along with large wins over three newbies gave him a finish of 6 wins and a 1079 spread. Oliver came third with five wins and 974 spread and in addition took home two other trophies. The highest game score of 554 achieved in the last round and the highest scoring word prize. In fact he had the three highest scoring words! FRIZ for 93, GATHERS for 96 and DWARVES for 103. Top rated player Jessica Pratesi won all seven games with 1149 spread to become 2010 UK Youth Scabble Champion. She never found it as easy as it sounded. But it almost came to an end in round four against Tim Butcher. Jessica takes up the story: "I had only played Tim once before and I thrashed him so I was looking forward to doing it again but he got both blanks in two bonuses (SNOOTILY and RAILINGS) and I trailed by 72 points. I thought the game was out of reach after I tried FARINGS** as an outplay which Tim challenged off! "But then Tim had a no-go with QIS/TOS**, which gave me the chance to try the other plausible bonus I saw... FARSING. It scored 79 and I won the match 377-356. See final board here. "This was the second match between numbers 1 and 2 on the standings which was another must win situation and the win was made harder by agonising waits between the first four games as the newer players went overtime and made everyone (adults and kids!!) very tired. "I was now the sole leader on four wins with some sort of ridiculously high spread (+717)". Jessica's final thoughts: "I was pleased to finish on an easy game (beating sister Natasha) and was no longer bothered by a fly that troubled Joe (Knapper) and I in the previous game. So all's well that ends well "I was a little surprised at the end result as I rarely end up in form after a short while off the board so I'm assuming I lived up to the expectations that Karen was setting on me, explaining to the other youths that I finished 11th in the WYSC last year and am the best under 18 in UK. At least I can now prove that second part as I have the trophy to prove it". Averages. High Wins. Standings. Scorecard. Stats. Total Scores. Wallchart |
WORLD YOUTH SCRABBLE CHAMPIONSHIPS 2010 (8th-10th December)
 .  . Jessica Pratesi set off Saturday morning with mum Diane when the snow was still affecting air travel across the UK and Spanish air controller's strikes affected everything else! Two hours late leaving Heathrow meant a missed connection and overnight stay in Paris. A transfer to a Hong Kong flight on Sunday lunchtime plus late departure meant a second transfer and wait in Hong Kong. Arrival in Manila was Monday morning 05.00 our time - midday theirs. Manila is eight hours in front of the UK. After an exhaustive journey normal Scrabble resumed. 86 young players were expected for the fifth World Youth Scrabble Championships at the Great Eastern Hotel in Quezon City. The winner being the one winning the most games over three days comprising 24 games. Day one was curtailled by one round for the gala dinner. The opposition was tough and older, epitomised by the way virtually all of the country's top players were to be found studying cardboxes on Zyzzyva on their laptops during the game breaks! Rules were strict. No glasses or bottles of drink allowed on the table and once the game was finished you HAD to leave the playing area. 82 actual players played with Jessica well of the pace with 4 wins out of seven and down in 27th place on day one. Only two players were on maximum seven wins; Oluwafemi Akinlosotu from Nigeria and Ng Li Ki from Singapore. Day two: Jessica was the leading UK player in 14th after 18 rounds with 11 wins and ahead of team mates Tim Butcher (40th, 8 wins) and Jack Durand (73rd, 6 wins). Nigerian Akinlosotu did not have it all his own way, after 12 straight wins he lost three out of the next four and now was tied with Preedee Khongthanarat of Thailand and William Kang of Malaysia on 13 wins. Day three: Jessica beat Looi Yih Feng in round 23; 475-337 and placed 5th! Her final round opponent was Malaysian Ker Jen Ho, who she had played in round one! A win would secure fifth place and maybe deny Ker overall victory. Going into the last round Ker led with 18 with fellow Malaysian William Kang also on 18 wins. Yet they didn't play off for first place?! Ker beat Jessica 418-334 to reach 19 wins and 1576 spread to become WYSC champion for 2010. William had lost 357-460 and finished third with 18 wins and 1283 spread. Thailand's Preedee Khongthanarat nipped inbetween them with a 417-251 win and finished on 18½ wins and 1459 spread. With Jessica's final score of 15 wins she finished in 9th place. Other UK placings; Tim Butcher came 45th with 12 wins and Jack Durand came 66th with 10 wins. Jessica Pratesi played VEERINGS for 158 and with it tied for Highest Scoring Word prize of the tournament with Pranav Kaarthik of Qatar who played SELECTED for the same score. Final positions can be found here. |
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©2011 Mauro Pratesi
