Scrabble players hold first tournament

A faithful group of Scrabble players hoped to spell "victory" last weekend.

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The Sunday Scrabble Club held its inaugural grand tournament at the Columbia County Library on Jan. 26-27. Fourteen players competed for prizes.

The club is about a year old and typically meets each month at the library, but the players were ready to try something new.

"In our normal meetings, we play, but there's a lot of socializing, and a lot of coffee drinking and cookie eating and things like that," said Sherryl James, a co-founder of the club, "but this will be a little bit more serious for us."

James, who officiated the tournament, said the club is not sanctioned by the National Scrabble Association, but it still follows in-house rules, just without as many restrictions.

The original club members jumped at the thought of a tournament, James said.

"We normally have 12 to 15 people that come once a month on Sundays to play and everyone was really excited," James said. "In fact, when we put out the idea for the tournament we got some new players in."

The two-day tournament was set up with a double-elimination format. Each game lasted an hour or less.

After the first day of games, the championship was held Sunday afternoon.

James said she hopes to continue the event annually. Gigi LePan agreed.

"I think it's really catching on," said LePan, who founded the club with James. "I think it's just that people have realized it's a lot of fun and it gets the family together."

James said the Friends of Columbia County Libraries donated nearly $300 for additional boards, refreshments and a gift certificate for second place.

Alan Riechman finished in first place and won a two-day stay at the Little River Marina at Thurmond Lake; LaPan finished in second place and won a day at Tuscany, A Classic Italian Day Spa; Margaret Gordon finished third and won two flying lessons at Bush Field.