KARACHI: The Horlicks 17th Inter School Scrabble Championship turned out to be another monstrous event with over 750 players participating under one roof, at Ramada Plaza, here on Sunday.

According to the tournament director Tariq Pervez, it was one of the biggest scrabble tournaments of all times in the world and the biggest tournament of any single sport in Pakistan.

Players from around 100 schools and colleges took part. For the first time shuttle buses were arranged to transport such a large number of players from different parts of the city. There was a large attendance from other cities, too. Players from as far as Peshawar flew in to participate in the event.

BVS Parsi school emerged as the most formidable force in scrabble, bagging the highest number of positions in all age groups. Sabir Khwaja from Hyderabad and Mohammad Hussain from Quetta also finished among award winners. The chief guest Ms Tooba Hussain distributed prizes among winners.

A group of 80 top performers (under 18 years of age) will be chosen for training; 10 players will finally be chosen to represent Pakistan at the World Youth Scrabble Championship to be played in France in August.

Pakistan is a proven force at the youth Level in scrabble having produced a world champion and two runners ups besides many other accolades in recent years.

Winners:

Category ‘A’: 1- Monis Hussain Khan (BVS Parsi School); 2- Rahim Asif (BVS Parsi School); 3- M. Raza Yasin (BVS Parsi School)

Category ‘B’: 1- Syed Imaad Ali (BVS Parsi School); 2- Umna Saad (Jaffer Public School); 3- Dominique Rodrigues

Category ‘C’: 1- Mahrukh Zaim (Arts & Science Academy); 2- M. Fayzan Farooq (Jaffar Public School); 3- Muhammad Usman (Army Public School)

Category ‘D’: 1- Basil Ali Khan (Jaffar Public School); 2- Aleeza Ahmed (St. Jude’s High School); 3- Danial Iqbal (The City School PAF Chapter)

Category ‘E’: 1- Maryam Pardesi (St. Michael’s convent School); 2- Nadia Aslam (SM Public Academy)3- Imaad Amin Rajan (The City School PECHS)

Category ‘F’: 1- Murtaza Darbar Habib Public School); 2- Muhammad Hussain (Paragon Educational Academy, Quetta)3- Sabir Khwaja (Aga Khan School, Hyderabad).

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2016