Go to: Commentary Games Players Standings Photos tsh Prizes

Back to CNSC 2008 Live Coverage

CNSC 2008 Commentary: Round 1

[ ]

Go to: Before the Tournament, Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Award Ceremony, Final Round 1, Final Round 2, Final Round 3, Final Round 4, Final Round 5, After the Tournament.

Round 1

The first game to finish this round was one of those rare "we've passed 6 times so it is over" affairs. Mark Schellenberg (Calgary AB), holding AAEEIBDT, defeated Carl Madden (Brantford ON), 27-21. Carl's last rack was EEIFSY?.

Due to the modified Portland Swiss start of tsh-run events, the first three games are kind of a crapshoot for who gets whom. The lucky person to receive the event's #1 seed was Salvatore Desiato (Toronto ON). And, Sal gave Adam Logan (Waterloo ON) a run for his money, too. The game appeared to be played mostly on Sal's clock as he was down to under a minute before the endgame even began. Down by enough to make him nervous, Adam battled back to keep it competitive and in the endgame could make one of two bingos. He chose DIPTERAN down one triple instead of TRIPTANE down another. As it turns out, he guessed right, as Sal had a bingo that DIPTERAN blocked, which led to Adam's win, 407-391. Their game was heavily annotated with Diane Brown on paper and Eugene D'Eon on laptop for Sal and Andy Saunders on paper and Gregg Foster on laptop for Adam.

Since there were so many willing annotators, Brenda Megannity gladly stepped out of the annotation queue and let Lisa Kessler (who was seeded 52 and just missed getting to play in this CNSC by one spot!) and Chris Lipe annotate Randall Thomas (Calgary AB) vs. Ron Hoekstra (Kentwood, MI) at table 2. ANTIARiNS, SAuCIER, QUARRIED, and TARRIED are plays I spot on that board.

Deb Pyper and Su Edwards are also annotating at board 3. They got David Boys (Dorval QC) vs. Tim Anglin (Toronto ON). I see some fun plays on that board: DAUNtED, ESERINE, RATTILY, APIARIeS, and FLEXORS. Deb is a new face to me and I'm told she is a new player at the Toronto SCRABBLE club. Wonderful to see new faces and new volunteering blood!

Tables 2 and 3 are only being annotated on paper, since we don't have enough bandwith to send even one game up live, we'll figure out a way to get them up one way or another, even if on some sort of delay. Thanks to the patience of this throng of volunteers. How lucky are we!?

Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) defeated Jeff Parsons (Logy Bay NL) 457-379. His play of PORRiDGE was my favorite of the slew of bingos put down. He also did SORTIES and she played TRASHMAN, UNNAILED, and INERTIAL.

Fresh from his Early Bird win, Geoffrey Newman (Brampton ON) faced off against Lloyd Mills (Georgetown ON) this round and Lloyd lost, 391-407. Lloyd gestured to GLOVEFUl* and said, "he took it." Inquiring further, he explained that he knew it was a phoney and was hoping that Geoff would hook an S onto it so he could challenge. Despite have 3 of the 4 Ss, Geoff didn't create that hook. As if to explain taking the phoney, Geoff said, "There are so many -ful words..." I understand only too well!

HASBRO is the owner of the registered SCRABBLE^® trademark in the United States and Canada. © 2008 HASBRO. All rights reserved. "SCRABBLE Brand Crossword Game" is the proper way to refer to this unique group of word games and related properties marketed by HASBRO. "SCRABBLE" is not a generic term. To use it as such is not only misleading but also does injustice to the company responsible for the trademark's longtime popularity. All we ask is that when you mean SCRABBLE Brand Crossword Game, you say so. 

The SCRABBLE^® trademark is owned by J.W. Spear and Sons, PLC, a subsidiary of Mattel, Inc. outside of the United States and Canada. 

For more information about SCRABBLE or the NSA, or to comment on or correct the contents of this page, please e-mail: info@scrabble-assoc.com 
To report technical difficulties in reading this page,  please contact webmaster John Chew at: jjchew@math.utoronto.ca