Report on the March 2000 Gauteng Schools’ Scrabble Tournament

Scrabble®, the world’s favourite word game, is a wonderful, entertaining tool for enhancing proficiency in the English language, for both first- and second-language speakers. In the USA, over half a million students play the game in over 15 000 schools. Educators cite its many benefits - improved vocabulary, spelling, dictionary skills, arithmetic, creativity, spatial relationships and co-operative learning.

Although the idea of running a Scrabble Tournament for High School pupils has been discussed for years, this year that dream came to fruition. Over 150 schools were contacted in November 1999 by post, inviting pupils to the first ever Gauteng Schools' Scrabble Tournament. In the end, 36 pupils from 9 schools participated. The tournament was held jointly by SANSPA Gauteng and the South African Council for English Education (SACEE).

The tournament was held in the library at Parktown High School for Girls, on 19 March 2000. It was played over 3 games. There were 16 in the senior section (Grades 11 and 12), and 20 in the junior section (Grades 8-10).

The enthusiasm of the pupils was tremendous. Thanks to generous donations from Roche and Eli Lilly (organised by Diana Mason), there were plenty of spot prizes to be given away - for categories like: first animal played, first geographical feature, colour, etc. We also had fantastic prizes of Scrabble Sets, hats, pens and floating trophies donated by Angelique Thompson, Brand Manager at Just Fun Toys.

Contributions were also received from the Benoni and Johannesburg Scrabble Clubs.

Most of the players were quite new to Scrabble, and some had real potential to become top players. One of the problems was the slow pace of the games, with many ending unfinished with half-full bags! Also some notable words were not challenged ... DURT springs to mind! In fact the tournament had to be cut from 4 to 3 games to finish on time. The pupils really enjoyed the day, and two schools, Forest High and General Smuts High, sent ten players each to the social section of the Gauteng Open in May 2000. A huge thank you goes to the SANSPA Gauteng Committee for all the hard work put into this tournament.

 

Results:

SENIOR (Grades 11 & 12)

1

Vania Mahotas

3 wins

+ 222

Forest High

2.

Adam Hooper

3 wins

+ 126

General Smuts High

3.

Nitesh Singh

2 wins

+ 136

Forest High

4.

Dennis Ah Ling

2 wins

+73

General Smuts High

5.

Refilwe Sathekge

2 wins

+52

General Smuts High

6.

Nthabiseng Moloi

2 wins

+ 25

Mcauley House

7.

Rene Kruyshaar

2 wins

- 29

General Smuts

8.

Dominique Dos Santos

2 wins

-60

Forest High

9.

Katherine Fletcher

1 win

+74

Mcauley House

10.

Phumzile Mahlangu

1 win

+30

Mcauley House

11.

Mandy Beck

1 win

-1

Westbury Secondary

12.

Patience Masilo

1 win

-85

Forest High

13.

Carmen Pedro

1 win

-100

Forest High

14.

Eileen Eva

1 win

-112

Forest High

15.

Brydo Earland

0 wins

-129

Westbury Secondary

16.

Glen Robinson

0 wins

-222

General Smuts

High Game: Vania Mahotas 300 Forest High

High Word: Dominique Dos Santos ZENITH 60 Forest High

 JUNIOR (Grades 8-10)

1

Michael Jones

3 wins

+ 195

Parktown Boys

2.

Refiloe Tsotetsi

3 wins

+ 111

Mcauley House

3.

Tom Hammond

2 wins

+ 208

Parktown Boys

4.

Keitumetse Seitlamo

2 wins

+ 92

General Smuts

5.

Feela Tshepo

2 wins

+86

General Smuts

6.

Gavin Styane

2 wins

+ 85

Krugersdorp High

7.

Matshidiso Modise

2 wins

+54

Parktown Girls

8.

Penelope Yen

2 wins

+31

Kingsmead College

9.

Nhlanhla Khumalo

2 wins

-31

General Smuts

10.

Mmoneng Gwebo

2 wins

-64

General Smuts

11.

Meghan Greenberg

1 win

+62

Kingsmead College

12.

Yakho Banda

1 win

+10

Parktown Girls

13.

Tebello Thejane

1 win

-1

General Smuts

14.

Mpho Mosholi

1 win

-54

Westbury Secondary

15.

Olivia Stanger

1 win

-63

Westbury Secondary

16.

Emmarentia Rifles

1 win

-87

Westbury Secondary

17.

Neo Maponono

1 win

-138

Westbury Secondary

18.

Rudo Sudomba

1 win

-192

Mcauley House

19.

Janice Khan

0 wins

-149

Westbury Secondary

20.

Terri Tale

0 wins

-155

Mcauley House

High Game: Tom Hammond 308 Parktown Boys High

High Word: Gavin Styane FOILINGS 83

 

 

 

 

The 2001 Tournament promises to be bigger and better than last year's one!

DATE:

SUNDAY 4 MARCH 2001

TIME:

1:30-18:30 (approximately)

VENUE:

THE SCHOOL HALL

PARKTOWN HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS

TYRONE AVENUE, PARKVIEW, 2193

011 646-5423

COST:

R10 PER ENTRANT

DIVISIONS:

SENIOR (GRADES 11 & 12)

JUNIOR (GRADES 8, 9, 10)

PRIMARY SCHOOL (if there is enough interest)

DRESS:

SCHOOL UNIFORM

 

We are also offering workshops at interested schools. Please get in touch!

If you would like more information, please contact Steven Gruzd on

É 011 268-0923 (H), 011 482-5140 (W)

š or by email steven@cde.org.za

 Link to School Scrabble in North America! http://www.scrabble-assoc.com/schools/

 Link to School Scrabble in Hampshire, UK! http://www.hollington27.freeserve.co.uk/schools.html

 

 Link to School Scrabble in New South Wales, Australia! http://www.schoolwords.com/

 Link to School Scrabble in Malaysia! http://sites.netscape.net/malscrabbleclub/homepage.html

Link to School Scrabble in Baulkam Hills, Sydney, Australia! http://www.bhsc.org.au/

 

SCRABBLE® is the registered trademark of HASBRO in the USA and Canada and JW Spear and Sons PLC, a subsidiary of Mattel, Inc. elsewhere.