Helen Lydia Sciberras of Attard is the winner of The Times word game competition, which ended on January 8.

Ms Sciberras will be flown to Dubai from February 6-14 for a holiday courtesy of Mondial Tours.

She also won a Lm50 shopping voucher to be spent in at any of the retail outlets in the departure lounge of Malta International Airport and a one-year membership of the Scrabble Club.

Outgoing and an extrovert, Ms Sciberras, a former teacher, is a bubbly grandmother-to-be and mother of two. Philanthropic work in Attard parish keeps her active. She has visited several European countries such as France, Greece, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Italy.

Ms Sciberras will be travelling on the Dubai tour on her own, a fact which may daunt others, but she has travelled alone before and is very excited to be visiting Dubai for the first time.

The word game, which appears every Saturday, requires readers to find a nine letter word from a group of nine letters once a week and then mail to the Times the six nine letter words every six weeks.

Ms Sciberras, an avid lover of such games, works out the nine letter words starting from the last letter in each but usually guesses the solution on her first glance at the nine letters.

The Dubai trip includes such excursions as the Dubai shopping festival at the Global Village, built purposely to house the festival, a tour of the 7-star Burj-al-Arab hotel, with optional excursions offering a visit to the emirates of Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman and an optional dhow night cruise, with dinner on board. An exciting desert safari in air-conditioned jeeps, including a buffet meal and belly dancing as entertainment is another option.

The current word game series runs until February 19 and will entitle the winner to a trip to Croatia and Slovenia in addition to a Lm50 shopping voucher to spend in any of the retail outlets in the departure lounge of Malta International Airport and a one-year membership in the Scrabble Club.