Kalumba Paul & Sikazwe Kelvin venture into South Open Scrabble Championships

 Two Zambians, Paul Y Kalumba and Kelvin Sikazwe took a trip to the rainbow nation, South Africa, to have a taste of the scrabble brewing in that Country. Kalumba, who had played in SA at club level in 1994, had problems recognizing Steven Gruzd (so did Steven) as they had met many years ago, and they have both grown (and married – sorry girls). It was a nice reunion. Quiet Kelvin Sikazwe was meeting Steven for the first time.

Paul was hosted by Steven Gruzd and Kelvin was hosted by Trevor Hovelmeier (I hope I got your name correct Trevor). Both are very grateful for the very hospitable families.

Well here I go again discussing comfort and hospitality when I said you would find information about our participation in the SA Scrabble tourney.

 Well Kelvin was unbeaten in the first six rounds of the 16 round tournament. He had already beaten one of the SA top rated players within the first six games. He must have quickly run out of ‘steam’ because he went on to lose 8 of the remaining 10 games. I think he was too comfortable in Trevor's home, next time let him sleep on your stoep (I don’t know if this Afrikaans word is in SOWPODS). All in all Kelvin won 8 and lost 8. He was position 17^th/31. He improved his rating to 1535.

Our jovial Paul Kalumba was on a seesaw. He won the first 2 games and there after he never seemed to get any two games in a row. He ended up with 8 points and lost 8. He was positioned 15^th/31, two places ahead of his Countryman, because he had a better spread. Despite having been placed better than Kelvin, he got a lower rating of 1516. Kalumba was however in contention for the highest non-bonus score from as early as round 2. He played QUAYS and got 89 points. However URWIN SAVAGE-REID shattered Paul’s hopes for any Prize, when in the last round, he played (AQUAE) for 98 points.

Hats off to the SA scrabble executive, you made our stay worthwhile. What you don’t know is that we went and had a very nice time at Monte Casino. We enjoyed being out the in SA, on and off the scrabble board. We will be back.

For more details on the tourney please visit http://www.geocities.com/sanspa/2001_sao.html.