Ireland Wins The Four Nations… Of Scrabble

The Irish Scrabble team are celebrating a successful weekend on the tiles after wining the Four Nations Scrabble Tournament this Sunday.

The tournament - which pits teams from Wales, Scotland, England and Ireland against each other in frantic wordsmithing – has been running for eight years and is Ireland's first victory.

The tournament took place in the Beechlawn Hotel in Dunmurry, Belfast where the four teams - with four players each – held their two day war of the words.

The Irish team consisted of two players from Northern Ireland: Paul Gallen, a former Countdown 'Champion of Champions' and Stewart Holden. From the South was Kevin McMahon from Dublin, currently living in Cork studying physics, and Feargal Weatherhead from Wexford who is the current Irish Champion.

Chairperson of the Republic of Ireland Scrabble Players Association (RISPA), John Ryan, said: "We have seen an upsurge in Scrabble in Ireland over the last couple of years and this [victory] will give us a good boost. We hope to get some publicity between now and the end of the year and we would urge people to buy a Scrabble board for Christmas - a cheap present that will last a lifetime, has in the past and will continue to outlast all of the fads.

"We knew we had a strong team with three of our wordsmiths just back from the World Scrabble Championships and they were still on form. Paul finished in eighth place, Stewart in 28th place whilst Feargal finished in 57th place. Kevin had previously been the Irish Champion and took part in the World Scrabble Championships in 2009."

Ireland won the competition with a round to spare, finishing with a total of 33 wins out of a possible 48, with the next closest team being England on 24 wins.

Scrabble Ireland said that whilst it was a comprehensive win, two of the games were won by only one point. While finishing top of the individual tallies was Kevin McMahon who proved to be the best player of the weekend winning 10 out of 12.

There are several clubs around Ireland so if you are interesting in getting involved, you can contact John by emailing Wexford.musings.2009@gmail.com, check their website at www.irishscrabble.org or even post a request on their Facebook - www.facebook.com/IrishScrabble.

Meanwhile, the Kilkenny Chess Congress begins the weekend after next and a number of International Masters have already been secured. Ireland will be welcoming Grand Masters Ivan Cheparinov from Bulgaria, Gawain Jones and Mark Hebden from England, Sebastien Maze and Fabien Libiszewski from France, Alex Baburin and International Masters Sam Collins and Mark Quinn from Ireland.

(DW)