Go to: Commentary Games Players Photos Reports Standings

Back to NSC 2009 Live Coverage

NSC 2009 Commentary: Round 21

[ ]

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, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, After the Tournament.

Round 21

Ben Schoenbrun (Ardsley, NY) played Kay Patterson (Columbia, MD) this round and he lost the game by 5 points, but he found it unusual that he and his opponent ended the game with the same time: 10:02.

Bradley Robbins (Windham, NH) is playing Gigi Miller (Sparks, NV). I see DASHIER, ENDEARS, and NATuRAL on their board. They are in the endgame and I see Bradley reach in to count the tiles in the bag, first flashing his palm before going in and upon coming out. Good form!

At the next board, Stephanie Steele (St. Paul, MN) is playing Dave Leonard (Buffalo, NY). SINUATES and DREARIER are the bingos so far.

The buzz as this round wrapped up was all about Nigel's amazing endgame play at table 1 in division 1. If you can view the annotated game, please do, as you almost need to "see" this to believe it. At the end of his game wtih Joey Mallick (Cape Elizabeth, ME), Nigel held AEIBCD?. His annotator points out that Nigel spent a full five minutes on figuring out this "out in two" play. He played BI horizontally, which created VINE vertically. On his next play, he played out with DECAGOnAL through separated GO and AL tiles, creating BIn. The play was "only" 28 points, but caught Joey iwth IULT. Nigel's win, 390-378. Needless to say, the players converged on this board, shaking their heads at the play. Win Inthara (Orlando, FL), said "This is scary...."

I'm seeing some nice, long words on a just finished Marty Gabriel (Charleston, IL) vs. Robert Quigley (New York, NY) board. CRAFTInG through the R and TrUMEAU for Robert and WEIGHER and ACINOSE for Marty. I also see the pretty nonbingo double-double LIMBATE for 44, which drew a challenge. This is Marty's win, 506-356.

Division 2's Ryan Fischer (Charlotte, NC) shows me his game with Heather McCall (Toronto ON). The first play of note was Ryan's OZoNATES followed by Heather's AUNtLIER. Then Ryan played two nice words in a row: ORIENTED through the T an d then CHAMOIX through the O for 50. Through the R from her first bingo, Heather played TROLLIES along the bottom triple row for 59. It was Ryan's win, 436-359.

Margaret Sutherland (Davison, MI) tells me about her game with Heather Steffy (Cleveland, OH). Each played a bingo: Heather's SIgNORA for 75 and Margaret's DIAsTER for 74. However, the thing that most tickled Margaret was that after Heather played QUINCE for 54, Margaret played an anagram, CINQUE, through it. They ended the game in a tie, which held up during the recount! 402-402!

Jim Burlant (Phoenix, AZ) is feeling like a statisitical anomoly. He didn't have a tie game until today and he had TWO of them! First with Joev Dubach (Somerville, MA), 368-368; and then with Ted Gest (Washington, DC), 351-351.

There have been many dinner meetings held this week at the wonderful Thai9 restaurant in the Oregon District, three or so blocks from the Convention Center. Tonight, Chris Cree (Dallas, TX) and John Chew are hosting a NASPA Appreciation Dinner for the group of volunteers who have done the most to help get NASPA off the ground. Having been at a couple of these dinner meetings, I have to say, they've all been delicious!

We end today with the same four atop division 1 with a slight shuffle. Nigel Richards (MYS) is two ahead of the pack at 19-2, Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR) is the sole 17-4, and Adam Logan (New York, NY) and Rafi Stern (Seattle, WA) are 3rd and 4th respectively with 16-5 records. Division 2 is remaining consistent with Thomas Reinke (Middleton, WI) at the top wth 20-1 (the best record in the event) and Sam Hollington (St. Catharines ON) in 2nd. Matt Robin (Sterling Heights, MI) rounds out third with Gabriel Wong (Vancouver BC) and Steve Oliger (Holtwood, PA) nipping on his toes. Division 3 has been consistently led by Dave Leonard (Buffalo, NY) and four others are two games behind him: Errol Wilson (Brooklyn, NY), Gigi Miller (Sparks, NV), Charles Merlis (West Hartford, CT), nd Stephanie Steele (St. Paul, MN). Max Karten (Barrington, RI) rides the top of division 4 with Chris Canik (Austin, TX) and Aaron Daly (Sioux Falls, SD) 1.5 and 3 games back. School SCRABBLE star, Tristan Vanech (Venice, CA) remains atop the division 5 board with Andy Murphy (Greensboro, NC) at 15-6, too, and Dave Krook (Mississauga ON) and Tina Totten King (Charleston, WV) just half a game back. It's anyone's division to win! So much excitement! Until tomorrow.