The 30 participants in this year’s National Scrabble League, organised by the Malta Scrabble Club (www.scrabblemalta.com) and sponsored by Charles Darmanin & Co. Ltd., recently completed the first lap of this long and arduous competition.

In the first division, the contest for the title and for Malta’s two places in this year’s World Scrabble Championships in Malaysia has not surprisingly turned into a three-horse race between the three top-rated players, that is, between defending champion Theresa Camilleri, Cecil Muscat and David Delicata, provisionally first, second and third respectively.

In the second division, as expected, Frans Farrugia, closely followed by Anna Borg, came out on top after the first round of games. In the third division, Marlene Calleja and Yvonne Delia have opened a commanding lead over the rest of the pack.

Meanwhile, after Cecil Muscat’s victory of the last One-Day tournament held at the Topaz Hotel last month, another One-Day tournament, sponsored by ZEROTWO, MISTO & HI-STREET in Bay Street is scheduled for today at the same venue. For more information about this, for updated standings of the ongoing national league and for much more about Scrabble and the Malta Scrabble Club, one may log on to www.scrabblemalta.com