$500,000 up for grabs in Excelsior domino champs

Saturday, November 21, 2009 7:13 AM

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Saturday, November 07, 2009

One-hundred-and-ninety-two domino pairs are expected to turn up at UTech's Alfred Sangster Auditorium tomorrow from as early as 9:00 am to compete for the top prize of $500,000 in the Excelsior Domino Pairs Championship.

The runner-up pair will walk away with $200,000 while third and fourth places will get $75,000 each. The top 16 pairs will collect cash prizes ranging from $500,000 to $20,000, dominoes and gift baskets courtesy of the title sponsor Excelsior.

The number of pairs that qualified from the parishes are as follows: St Catherine - 32 pairs, Clarendon - 16 pairs, Manchester - eight pairs, St Elizabeth - eight pairs, Westmoreland - 16 pairs, Hanover - eight pairs, St James - 16 pairs, Trelawny - eight pairs, St Ann/St Mary - eight pairs, Portland - eight pairs, St Thomas - eight pairs and Kingston & St Andrew - 56 pairs.

All 100 pairs have already confirmed that they will be attending the grand finals to contest the championship and eventually walk away with the $500,000 on offer to the winner. Competition in the championship to date has been fierce and it is expected to be no different come tomorrow.

The domino pairs gained automatic qualification from the 14 parish finals which were held across the island from September 19 to November 1. The top four parish winners collected cash prizes of $15,000 - 1st place, $8,000, 2nd place and $6,000 for third and fourth places, respectively.

The Excelsior Domino Pairs Championship features mental domino as no coding is tolerated by the organisers, the National Association of Domino Bodies, which is an affiliate of the Federacion Internationale of Domino. The rules of play reflect that association's method.