In one of the most hotly contested dominoes competitions for the year, led by Most Valuable Player runner-up Paul Lewis, Specialist walked away with $200,000 as Club 75’s+ fifth annual competition ended Sunday night.
According to Coordinator Colin McEwan round five of the competition saw Turning Point “A” doing battle with Specialist and Frankies as Lumber and Providence drew the bye. Frankies lost in the game and became the eighteenth team to be knocked out.
In round six Providence, Lumber and Turning Point “A” did battle as Specialist drew the bye. Providence though was knocked out leaving Turning Point “A” from East Coast, Specialist from Georgetown and Lumber from West Coast/West Bank combined battling for the dominoes crown.
In the final round (round 7) the field of twenty-two was reduced to the final three and a seesaw battle ensued according to McEwan, “Lumber took the early lead rattling up a double points lead by round three but faltered badly in the closing rounds.
In round five of the final round Lumber marked only six games out of a possible eighteen as Turning Point “A” and Specialist clawed their way back into the game.”
When the final double six was played and the dust settled Specialist with a two-game (79-77) advantage over Turning Point “A” was declared the champion team as Lumber with 74 ended in the cellar.
While Turning Point “A” was left licking its wounds after coming so close they had the distinction of Jerry Chow with a maximum of eighteen games being crowned Most Valuable Player (MVP).
Chow though did not have an easy MVP as Specialist Paul Lewis with seventeen and Lumber Delon Abel with sixteen made sure he worked for it. T. Boyce of Lumber was the lone love “bird” in the finals.
The first and second place prize monies of $200,000 and $100,000 were donated by Club 75’s overseas members while the trophies were donated by F&H Supremes.
The third place prize money of $60,000 was donated by Car Care, F&H Supremes and Turning Point Sports Club and the trophy was presented compliments of Banks DIH.
The fourth place prize of $40,000 and trophy were donated by Demerara Tobacco Company (DEMTOCO). The MVP trophy was donated by Ramesh Trophy Stall of Bourda Market.
The competition which was run off in memory of Leslie Thompson, Carl Moffett, Ego Griffith and William “Natty” Fraser started since 2003 and has become an annual event on the dominoes calendar. McEwan hopes that it will become even bigger next year. Speaking exclusively to Stabroek Sport, McEwan said, “We hope to have more sponsors on board come next year.”
And speaking about the prize money McEwan said that it has doubled over the last four years but he is not looking at that. “Rather than increase the prize the committee will be looking at accommodating out-of-town teams from Bartica, Linden, etc. who have problems with travelling and accommodation.”
“The competition as a whole should be admired by the many players and admirers as it has set a benchmark for the coordinating and hosting of a successful competition (especially dominoes) that took six weeks to complete without any major glitches,” McEwan said.
Meanwhile, a seeding system for the teams that took part has been worked out and further competitions will see this in use – Specialist number one, Turning Point “A” two, Lumber three, Providence four and Frankies fifth.
The other seventeen teams that took part in the final round of the competition will also receive a seeding, according to McEwan.
The zone format saw Georgetown fielding 10 teams, West Bank and West Coast combined four teams, East Bank, Lower East Coast, Upper East Coast and East Coast combined fielding two teams each, making a total of 22 teams.
