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CNSC 2008 Commentary: Round 6

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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.

Round 6

We have a new annotator. Gregg Foster is taking a break this round and Peter Hopkins has stepped in to annotate board 2.

As I was walking toward table 1, I caught the paper annotator and the comptuter annotator with their heads bent toward each other (I think they are kinda sweet on one another) and I wanted to get a quick shot of them, so I quickly transferred my notebook to my other hand. Problem in, said notebook weighs about 15 lbs and it didn't transfer at all smoothly, falling to a heap in the floor, making a huge clatter, and worse, scaring Tony Leah (Ajax ON) who was deeply engrossed in his game. He turned around to check out the ruckus and I was so embarrassed. Just what they need at table 1, people tossing heavy objects onto the ground midgame!

After recovering from my mortification, I see that this table is virtually vibrating with the excitement of the game under way. It is a Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) vs. Tony Leah (Ajax ON) slugfest and player had just played a bingo-bango-bongo! First it was Robin's turn: TERTIAL for 62, BURGEON for 96, and DOZiESt for 115. Then it was Tony's turn: SINUATE for 79, INVECTED for 71, and ERRATUMS* for 80. I was told later that he could have played MATURERS. I walked up to the board, and Robin had her head in her hands, saying over and over, "I'm a (bleeping) idiot". First, she missed REPTILIA, and admittedly hard find, but she said she KNEW something was there. Then, she challenged INVECTED because she remembered from some prehistoric tournament that she had challenged a word, possibly with VECT in it, and that it wasn't a verb, and maybe she should challenge it now and balance the universe. When it came back good, she of course had to make the game even more exciting by not challenging ERRATUMS, because she knew MATURERS was good but couldn't remember if there was or was not an acceptable anagram. She was able to set herself up nicely in the endgame, playing off QI and setting up either CASK for 42 or YACK for 39, thus ensuring the win. When the game is over, that end of the room erupts in laughter. Robins contends that she had NO IDEA that Tony had played three bingos in a row, too. She was just so focused on her own game. The annotators (there were four!) were laughing, wondering just how she could have missed this.

At lunch there was a vegitable soup offered. Yikes! You think they would have asked! We would have helped them with that spelling!

On a Geoffrey Newman (Brampton ON) vs. Evan Kramer (Vancouver BC) board, I see DETRAINS, STOrYED, and ReDTAIL.

Sue Tremblay (Carlsbad Springs ON) and Shaun Goatcher (Mississauga ON), in unison, pull out their brand spanking new Franklin electronic dictionaries (get your own at the Word Gear section of this web site!) and check out plays they made and could have made in their game. By the time my camera is out, they are done with the Franklins are have moved onto turning in their paperwork. I take a photo of the completed board and Shawn confesses that NURLIER* isn't good. It requires the front hook K to be acceptable. He also played ANTHErID and she got down ELASTIN. Sue's win, 411-371.

John Chew finds me and brings me down to a just finished game between Jeff Parsons (Logy Bay NL) and Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON). Zev shows me his rack and points out the only two openings on the board. Both required him to play a 9-letter word through disconnected tiles. He held AEONRST and played through a T and Y. Can you figure out his find?* He earned 89 points and the win, 464-392.

John Dungey (Mitchell ON) comes over to ask me to see his board. His opponent, Salvatore Desiato (Toronto ON) opened with ZA and John replied with SCRABBLE through the A for 62! Sal later put a D on it! Sal played SAVORINg from the S and ALIENOR, but when John played HEROINS/ALIENORS down the triple for 91, it just "made my day," said Sal. John's win, 443-361.

The last games to wrap up this round are Geoffrey Newman (Brampton ON) vs. Evan Kramer (Vancouver BC) and Ron Hoekstra (Kentwood, MI) vs. Grant Rowland (Mississauga ON). The latter game was into a protracted recount and when every single person had left the floor and they were still there, I suggested they fill out their paperwork and get some lunch before they missed it. A common scene: Ron lingering at a table, sometimes by himself, for as long as he can between rounds. He is always thinking, that one!

Lunch is served upstairs on the mezzanine: soup, sandwiches, salads, etc.

*Zev played ATTORNEYS through the first T and Y for 89.

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