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CNSC 2008 Commentary: After the Tournament

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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.

SCRABBLE with the Stars

Vivienne Muhling, a beloved member of the Toronto SCRABBLE club, held her third annual SCRABBLE with the Stars Celebrity SCRABBLE Tournament this evening, in support of Performing Arts Lodge. PAL is a subsidized residence for members of Canada's showbiz community, serving the needs of those who have difficulty finding affordable housing after devoting their lives to entertaining Canadians. The event, attended by more than 200 people, celebrities and regular folks alike, was a grand time!

There was a silent auction, a Mexican feast, and game play around tables of four with one "star" at each table. Before the games began, comedian Colin Mochrie auctioned off the services of three of our North American SCRABBLE stars. Adam Logan, Joel Wapnick, and Robin Pollock Daniel were sold for between $900 to $1,000 each to high-bidding tables that wanted their exclusive help throughout the game. He then turned the mike over to John Chew, who directed the actual game playing. Members of the Toronto SCRABBLE Club roamed the room offering their services too, for $20 per tip. John raised $120 himself as he canvassed the room.

Even I walked around (American interloper that I was) and offered some tips on rack management "well five Is isn't a good leave and this is why," "do you think you'll be more likely to find a play with 8 tiles? (or 9?)," "Yes QUILT is a good play, but you have an ER in that rack, too," "No, ENO isn't a word and yes it makes about as much sense as QIS, you are right," etc.

I knew it was going to be an exciting night when Heather McCall (Toronto SCRABBLE club and event committee member) greeted John warmly and asked if she'd remembered to ask him to bring the scoresheets. She had not. However, not one to be daunted by anything, he ran to the hotel's business center, printed off a copy of the event scoresheet he'd designed and sent to Heather via e-mail, and had copies printed off lickity split. Then there was the entering of 200 names into the spreadsheet.... How he does it all, amazes me....

After about an hour of game play, each of the ~40 tables turned in its scoresheet to John (whose official title there was "SCRABBLE Master," will we ever be able to fit his head through a door again?!") and he typed as fast as was humanly possible to get the results into the spreadsheet before the room was through with its coffee and desserts.

Meanwhile Colin Mochrie and his lovely wife, Deb McGrath, were at the microphone, handing out the silent auction prizes. An OSPD IV, signed by the stars, was auctioned off for more than $200!

Some of the Toronto club members who acted as greeters and event volunteers were Diane Brown, Ross Brown, Brenda Megannty (positively vavoom in a little black dress with patent leather pumps!), Mad Palazzo, Gene Rawlins, James Wallenberg, Jillian Bathgate, and probably more that I'm forgetting.

Two CNSC contestants were seated at a table with a star (at least one of them donated for the spot) at their table: Salvatore Desiato (Toronto ON) and Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON).

As we all know, four people at one board can be an even more imbalanced experience than the one-on-one play that we're used to in our clubs and touranments, but despite this, some real strong play was unearthed.

One player, a young producer of an early morning television news program, stuck out as burgeoning SCRABBLE talent. He arranged his first rack into the name of a famous composer (one with a Z, even Robin Pollock Daniel saw it and remarked on his unplayable find) and caught my eye repeatedly with his strong board vision and word-finding ability. Toward the end of the round, I heard a "Hey Sherrie!" I looked over and he was holding up his rack: POLITER. He looked at it questioningly. I said, "Yeah! Nice word! Nice find!" And then hesitatingly, he placed it down a triple lane, hooking to make QI and another 3-letter word for 94 points. The three people at his table had to pick up their jaws from the floor. He was truly a terrific player. I introduced him to John and suggested he find the time to visit the Toronto SCRABBLE club as he had a home away from home waiting for him. He was pleased with the attention, but assured me that his mother was far better and beat him more than half the time. I gave him the NSA web site address and suggested a membership as a birthday or holiday present. His eyes flashed as he said, "She is impossible to buy for! This is a great idea!"

Amidst fun comedy bits several prizes were awarded (due to assisting John with the score data entry, I was unable to get the silent auction winners recorded).

Highest individual score: Ryan Crips 330

Highest Celebrity score: Semi Chellas 293

Highest Scoring Word: Ryan Cripps POLITER 94

Best PAL word: Sue Mohan PLAY 13

Highest Combined Table Score: Scotiabank 1 (at table 2) (Gordon Pinsent, Jamie Anderson, Jim Gervais, Dan Kochanowski, coached by Robin Pollock Daniel). This last prize was the highlight of the event, because this table had won the Robin Pollock Daniel auction the year before and they loved her so much that they were bidding $1,000 for her during the Adam Logan auction. Colin Mochrie was so funny, saying, "Yes, we know you want Robin, but we're bidding on Adam now, can we please keep focussed?" I have a feeling that they would have bid $2,000 had another table kept in the bidding for her! Anyway, as did Adam and Joel at their tables, Robin went around the Scotiabank table, helping each player with his rack, so in the end, the score of the table was quite high (imagine four Robins at a table!), well above 800 points. When their team's name was announed, Robin rushed over to them and they all stood around the table high-fiving and cheering like a a baseball team that has just won a pennant! Okay, so perhaps a better analogy is that they acted like they had just won the Stanely Cup! At one point, I thought they might even pick Robin up and pass her around atop their heads! At the very end of the night, Colin Mochrie presented Vivienne with a gorgeous bouquet of long, long red stemmed roses. At barely 5 feet tall in her beautiful evening dress, Vivenne was only slightly visible behind the event podium. Her eyes were full of tears as she managed to thank everyone for coming.

It was a totally fantastic night of commraderie, fundraising (we found out later that the event netted more than $40,000 CAD), and merriment around the game we all love. It was the perfect end to a wonderful nearly weeklong celebration of the 60th anniversary of SCRABBLE. Thank you, Alfred Butts!

And, thank you, John Chew. In a past SCRABBLE News, you were referred to by the NSA's John D. Williams, Jr. as the "NSA North," by him and his staff. There were many times over the past six days when I looked over at you in your dress shirt and tie and saw that you were the NSA North, talking to waves of reporters, arranging for foreign language interviews, fitting in TV crew snippets between finals rounds, and writing press releases at 2am (not just one, but three!). You and your army of annotators (metaphor!) have done terrific work: keep it up!

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. 

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