?SEEMS “SUKI” really wasn’t allowed to go as he pleased.
Former World Go-As-You-Please draughts champ Ronald “Suki” King appears to have been dethroned over a mix-up in travel plans, as he contends the final four games of his championship defence were unfairly defaulted after Italian organisers initially refused to pay for his flight back home.
King finally broke his silence on the mysterious circumstances surrounding the title series a month after Italian Sergio Scarpetta was awarded a 6-1 victory in Foggia, Italy.
He said that he only found out on the penultimate day of competition that the organisers purchased a one-way ticket to Italy, and when he and manager Desmond Maughan eventually worked out the situation on the following afternoon he was then advised it would be too late to finish the remaining four games.
“Suki was upset and he said he wasn’t playing on that final day until the situation was resolved but the referee was saying this didn’t have anything to do with the match so he would run the clocks from 11 [a.m.],” reported Maughan.
“So one of the organisers came before 2 p.m. and then they made arrangements to settle everything. So Suki said he was ready to play considering he knew how he was getting home, but then the organiser said it was too late to play now and they couldn’t play tomorrow either as they only had the place booked to the same Friday.
“But this came from the organiser, as the referee never said to any of us that he was awarding the championship to Scarpetta,” Maughan added.
