A battle of words with a cup of coffee

Pleasant Game

Seven contestants from Bangalore went head-to-head at the regional final of ‘Barista Lavazza Cafe Scrabble’ at Garuda Mall recently. The event was held across eight cities in India over two days. The game consisted of six rounds, each lasting five minutes. All the players were given the same set of letters. The contestants battled it out, sipping cups of coffee and biting into pastries. It was a close game right to the very end. Sadly, there could only be one winner and that was Michael Jones from London.   

 
Michael, who has been touring India with his friends, says, “I have never participated in a scrabble competition before. I think taking part is the most important thing, regardless of winning or losing. I learnt two new words  —‘Om’ and ‘Ko’ — which I have added to my scrabble dictionary,” says Michael, who had secured 92 per cent of the
total number of possibilities. All the players who participated in the event received gifts from the cafe.   

“I came across the event by accident and filled up the form. It’s been a very good
experience for me — it was good fun. A friend of mine and I do this quite often. It’s a very interesting game that goes really well with coffee,” says Sujata Ravi, who was the runner up. She secured 90.8 per cent of all the possibilities. Rohit Manohar and Rosalyn Patel, two other participants, came across the form for the event at another outlet that they frequent. “The combination of coffee and scrabble is perfect. Scrabble has become a forgotten art in the world of tabs and cellphones. The quality of English is also dipping in the process. The scrabble culture should definitely be encouraged in coffee shops,” opines Rosalyn. 
 
Nilanjan Bhattacharya, COO, India and SAARC at Barista Lavazza, says, “We are happy and proud to bring back the magic of scrabble at our cafes and are confident that this re-launch will go down very well with our patrons and give them an opportunity to bind over a cup of good Italian coffee with their friends, family and colleagues.”