ABACO - Half Check is the meeting place for a rousing game of dominoes from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily in Murphy Town - weather permitting.

 A group of 50 men make up the Half Check Association, with eight teams usually being represented when tournaments are held.

 Association leader Rockland Boodle said dominoes is a game that brings them together in the community.

 On Tuesdays, grilled food is prepared and served and the men pool their funds to purchase drinks. Chicken souse, wild boar and dough, pig feet souse and crab soup are customarily the items served on the menu courtesy of Jason Davis, an association leader.

 Boodle and Davis are responsible for organizing tournaments, and others help control the scoring. Don Wilmott, a member, said there are always those who think they can avenge themselves but in the end they get beaten in games every time.

 Under the elongated branches of a coconut tree that cast shade over the roof of the domino shack, a sense of camaraderie looms over the group during their games. Excitement builds as the seated players check their dominoes for their next play.

 Wilmott said they plan to contact teams from Nassau, Grand Bahama, Eleuthera, Exuma, Jamaica and the United States to come to Abaco to play in tournaments. Within the next two months they hope to rent one of the halls on the island to play in with a team from Nassau.

 "It will be an island-wide event, and we are looking for the best players throughout the islands," Wilmott said.

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