Camilleri, Delicata and Delia to fly Malta's flag

Theresa Camilleri, David Delicata and Jojo Delia will be representing Malta in the World Scrabble Championships, to be held in Mumbai, India in November.

This will be the first time that Malta will have more than two representatives in these championships, courtesy of the fine results obtained by Camilleri and Delia in the London 2005 edition.

Camilleri and Delicata qualified as the top two players in the National League whereas Delia earned the right to compete in Mumbai as the highest-rated player at the end of the last ranking tournament.

The National League resulted in a direct tussle between Camilleri and Delicata. In the end, only a point separated the two players after a 48-match campaign.

Camilleri finished first on 65 points to retain the title she won for the first time in 2006, while Delicata amassed 64 points. Third-placed Cecil Muscat, who was taking part for the first time in the league, having spent many years playing the game in England, finished way behind on 53 points.

The third spot for the world championships was decided during the last event organised by the Malta Scrabble Club - a three-day 18-round tournament.

With Camilleri and Delicata not among the participants, Delia dominated this tournament, winning 17 out of 18 games.

Muscat finished joint-second with Mario Saliba on 14 wins - not enough for any of these two to threaten Delia's third placing in the overall ratings.