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NSC 2002 Commentary: Round 8

Congratulations to our new National Champion, Joel Sherman!

See also: video clip 1 (2 MB), video clip 2 (2 MB). (video courtesy Roger Cullman)

Go to: Before the Tournament, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, After the Tournament.

Round 8

In the "now they tell me department," Joel Sherman (Bronx, NY) had on a shirt yesterday with these words across the back: "I beat Nigel Richards." This is a tribute to the fact that we're glad Nigel Richards (Malaysia) is here. Long recognized as one of the strongest SOWPODS (the combined British and American dictionaries) in the world, this is the first time he's played in an NSA-rated tournament.

David Andrien, one of our word judges, is from Vancouver, BC, Canada. Not coincidentially, his hometown angle helped him pick out that four of the top five people in division 6 are from Vancouver!

And another fun statistic, division 6's leader, Bill Kinsella (Sumas, WA), is the well-known author of Shoeless Joe, which was made into the movie Field of Dreams.

Ron Barker (Boise, ID) one of the famous Barker twins, ran in a 5-kilometre race yesterday before our games began, and won his division with a time of 19:39.

Ann Sanfedele, word judge, noted that in one row of games going from one end of the room to the other, 11 different colored sets of protiles were being used!

In division 2, Ann Ferguson (Mountlake Terrace, WA) defeated Gregg Foster (Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA), 426-376. Gregg managed to play DOgGIEs for 66 and SENARII for 69. Ann got down ROUSTING through the I and GLITZ for 50. Ann used to direct the Seattle SCRABBLE^® club when Gregg was a member and he always lost to her then, and it looks like it keeps happening now.

Linda Oliva (Woodbine, MD) defeated Nicholas Fall (Thunder Bay ON), 535-228, in division 5. She opened with YOUNGeR for 80 and later played IGNITED for 74 and SLiCERS for 89. When I asked him how he was doing, he asked for a pat on the back. I don't think he's having a great beginning to his day!

A monster division 1 game unfolded this round between Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON) and Mark Fidler (Waltham, MA). Their combined scores were 1,035: 621-414, Evan's win. Mark pulled me over to see the board as it was the highest combined score game he'd ever played. Preternaturally good-natured, Mark was just delighted to be in that game and he didn't seem to care that he'd lost! The plays that put the game score so high were Evan's triple-triple RAPHIDES through the P for 212, TONUSES for 80, and VERNIX (selected by me since it is such a fun-looking word!). Mark contributed INITiAL for 74 and VAULTERS through the L for 82 to the board.

In division 2, Brenda Megannety (Toronto ON) defeated Jim Miller (San Diego, CA), 374-337. The game was pretty straightforward with each getting a bingo: Brenda's BASTIONS through the T and Jim's STABILe. I think their deep purple tiles caught my eye!

Waheed Thompson (New Orleans, LA) won in his game against Roger Cullman (Toronto ON), 372-313. Roger got down the lovely gESTATION for 68 through the disconnected S and A tiles. To see how remarkable a play this is, imagine a rack of tiles: EIONTT? and then see an S, blank spot on the board, A. This is a tricky find even for a top-rated player! Roger also played BEACONS for 82. The game's victory came with Waheed's excellent outbingo of EXTERIOr from the first E down the triple lane for 95.

We have many visitors during NSCs, but none makes us happier than this one! An Associate Product Manager from Franklin Electronic Publishers is here today. She is going to be handing around a questionnaire and getting a feel for the possibility/need of an OSPD3 Franklin.