Team Antigua and Barbuda will be pushing for a fourth straight World Domino Championships title when the Antigua and Barbuda National Domino Association (ABNDA) hosts the 2025 instalment of the World Council of Domino Federation tournament from August 10th to 18th.
President of the National Domino Association Carol-Faye Bynoe said triumph in this year’s tournament will be historic as Antigua and Barbuda would become the country with the most World Domino Championships title.
“Our biggest rival is Barbados, and Guyana don’t come anywhere close to the rivalry that we have to put up with against Barbados. Prior to us being three-peat winners because we won the last three tournament, Barbados had been the ones winning it for a long time. They are actually tied with us right now in having three titles under their belt, so this is why it is so important for us to win this one because we will create history and the fact that this year is the 20th anniversary for WCDF. We are hosting it here on homebase and so we really want to make an impression,” she said.
Antigua and Barbuda first won the tournament in 2016 as hosts before going on to win additional titles in 2018 and 2023.
Bynoe said plans for this year’s hosting of the championships are on course with government already having made a commitment to play a major role.
“In the host country, the government’s responsibility are the venue and transportation. We have already met with the Ministry of Sports and the relevant persons in the ministry like the minister, the PS [Permanent Secretary] and the director so the government is on board. The John E St. Luce building is part of their contribution and the transportation of the teams from and to the venue during the tournament will be done via the school bus system,” the domino boss said.
Twelve countries are set to compete in various forms of the mind sport throughout the tournament with only one team taking home the championship, while cash prizes will also be distributed.
Bynoe however highlighted that one of the most difficult tasks the body has faced thus far, is finding affordable but suitable accommodations for the more than 300 players and spectators expected on island for the tournament.
“These countries, they are paying their passage here and they are also paying for their accommodations, and what we are trying to impress upon the hotels managements is that the [players] just want somewhere to rest their heads when nights come. When we pick them up at 8 in the mornings, they don’t return to their rooms until about 10 or 11 in the nights,” she said.
“We’ve been trying to get favourable rates and we wrote to several hotels around the island. We had actually gotten a list from tourism authority and we looked for the most suitable hotels to apply to but are being told the same things by the majority of them: they are upgrading their hotels, they are adding on and repairing certain things so they don’t want to make a commitment as yet or they don’t want to give us a rate yet and all sorts of things so that is what has been happening. We still are trying to negotiate with some,” Bynoe added.
Teams from Anguilla, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts & Nevis, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, USA, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Montserrat, will join hosts Antigua and Barbuda for the championships.
They will compete in four hand team, three hand male team, three hand female team, male pairs, mixed pairs, king of domino and queen of domino.
