By Steven Gruzd

The 1999 South Africa National Scrabble Tournament was held in Johannesburg at the Jabula Recreation Centre on 7-8 August 1999. The field was increased from 40 to 44 participants, and it was pleasing that so many Capetonians made the trip from the land of Sea and Mountains. The format was 18 games over two days, straight Swiss-pairing, with no repairing of players. At the AGM it was decided that the format for the 2000 Nationals in Cape Town would change – perhaps reintroducing the qualifying round on the first day, and Cup and Plate sections on the second day. King-of-the-Hill pairing will be applicable for the final three games.

The tournament ran quite smoothly, and I saw a sight I don’t think will ever be repeated – all 44 players were ready to tinker with the tiles at 7:30 am on the Sunday!

The lunches were scrumptious and the teas were too. Sadly, I didn’t get to spy on too many games, as I was glued to the computer screen adjudicating challenges at a rate of knots.

Going into the final round, Trevor Hovelmeier was in the lead, with 15 wins out of 17and spread that would have made Rama Margarine proud. He was playing Kevin Jacobs. Hot on his heels was Lanre Oyenkule from Nigeria and latterly Cape Town –on 14 wins. Kevin and Trevor’s game was extremely close. Trevor played AVENUED and CEDI towards the end, and surprisingly Kevin didn’t challenge the incorrect AVENUED off the board (Strangely enough, I had AVENUED on my rack when I played Trevor in a friendly on Sunday night!). Kevin’s final play was RAUN, and he ended up winning by just 9 points! Those points proved to be very costly for Trevor, as he failed to overtake Dylan Early in the national ratings by just 3 points, and thus narrowly missed out on a trip to Melbourne for the 5^th World Scrabble Champs in November 1999. Lanre won his last game and became the first non-South Africa South African Scrabble Champion.

Venus Feldman won the Highest Game, Trevor the Highest Word – 140 for CAZIQUES, and Toji Asimeia the Weirdest Word hands down for ZASTRUGA – something to do with windswept snow, although Llewellin Jegel’s IPOMOEAS came close. As a result of the Nationals, Lanre now tops the SA ratings, followed by Steven Gruzd. Steven and Dylan Early qualified to represent South Africa in Melbourne. See you all in the Fairest Cape in 2000!