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NSC 2009 Commentary: Round 24

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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, 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 24

Dan Stock is so proud. A table in his division 5 has a 11-letter word on it! I walk over and see REEVALUATED. It it on a board between Donna Leigh (Menomonee Falls, WI) and Lisa Green (Charleston, WV). I check out the in-progress game and figure out that Lisa played HAJ. Donna replied with EVALUATE through the second A for 65. On Donna's next turn, she played HONED/EVALUATED. On Donna's third turn, she front hoooked with RE to play REEVALUATED to the triple. A few more plays have been made afterwards and I see RANTINGS*. Dan Stock says, "it is easy to remember that is a phoney. RANTINGS* and RAVINGS* only one of them is good and it takes a C front hook."

Janet Griesel (Madison, WI) in division 5 suggests to Patty Hocker from the NSA that there should be a SCRABBLE MOM sweatshirt. I see the gears turning in Patty's head.

Tristan Vanech (Venice, CA) is playing Doug Szymkowiak (North Ridgeville, OH) this round in div 5's table 1. I'm having a hard time reading Doug's name badge and I look at Tristan's sheet and he has Doug's full name spelled out perfectly. On their in-progress board I see nUTRIAS for 90 and NIDERING for 83, I think both made by Tristan.

As I walk by a game between Michael Bassett (Port Clinton, OH) and Marie Gier (Gainesville, FL), I see Michael put down GENOISe.

Battle of the Daves at table 1 in division 3. Dave Leonard (Buffalo, NY) vs. David Gremaud (St. Louis, MO). I think it was Dave L who played GATEAUs.

Joel Horn (Boston, MA) touches my sleeve gently to get my attention. He has just ended a five-game losing streak by winning this round with a 546. Go big!! In this game, he played REJOINDER to the ER for 104 points! Other fun plays: WUdDIER, AEDILES, UNCOILS, and SOOTIER.

Erica Norris Bodrazic (Phoenixville, PA) tells me about a game yesterday. She had most of the vowels in the endgame. Her opponent had most of the consonants and a blank. So, in the upper right part of the board, beneath FOND, she played URD which fell one short of the triple lane and hooked to make FONDU. Her opponent had no real response other than to play DeV, from the D in URD, burning his blank. She replied with XIS/URDS down the triple lane which pulled her very close. With the tiles from her opponent's rack, she was able to achieve a 380-380 tie result!

Alex Fiszbein (South Lyon, MI) had a big win this round against Ross Brown (Kanata ON), 571-277. I see Alex's JETLAgS/JO/ET for 92, AMOEbEAN through the second A for 83, and STANDING for 86.

Fellow Canadians (despite Adam being tagged as a New Yorker for this event), Max Panitch (Toronto ON) and Adam Logan (New York, NY) squared off this round. Max got down SCOURGED from the S for 76 and OUTBREED through the B for 63. Adam played NEURAXON through the A for 69, FrIsETTE to the E for 77, and VITIATED to the D for 82. Adam's win, 440-423.

Becky Dyer (Austin, TX) finds me taking notes on a game and waits patiently for my attention. She has played her first ever 10-letter word and through disconnected tiles to boot: mATURATION through the T and ON for 86 points! She won that game, 467-260. She is walking on a cloud right now. Way to go, Becky!

Battle of the Bs: Bradley Whitmarsh (Attleboro, MA) vs. Brian Bowman (Villa Hills, KY). I see that they had a tit for tat game. Brian played FARINOSE for 62, Brad played OUTDOERs for 82. Brian DERIVATE for 80, Brad MYELINE for 81. Brian LOITERED for 72, Brad LIAISON for 85. Oh, and Brian made a 94-point outbingo of dEPOSITOR through the TO for 94 to lose the game to Brad, 478-497. Go figure.

Ben Schoenbrun (Ardsley, NY) patiently waits for me to see his opponent's beautiful triple-triple. When I get there I see that Amnon Igra (Sacramento, CA) played HUMANOID through the A for 185 points. He went on to win this game, 529-383.

Kenji Matsumoto (Amherst, MA) had a nice game this round with Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR). Kenji points out Dave's ODONIOIDS through the DO. I see Kenji's NAYSAyER through the first Y and FLURRIED. Dave tried FUNICULA*, but Kenji called it off. At game's end, Kenji had won by 4. After the recount, Kenji had won by 7, 475-468.

Judy Cole (Concord, MA) calls me over to see her great overlap in her game with Cheryl Melvin (Muskegon, MI). Cheryl had played HErOINE for 68 and Judy nestled RENTING on the triple lane above, ceaing RE/Er/NO/T(I/IN/NE for 95! She also got down aMOEBae for 86.

Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) had her reverse game this round with Sammy Okosagah (Baltimore, MD). It as her turn to get three bingos at the very beginning. I see her HEROiZE through the first E for 80, Sammy replied with TUTOYED (wow!) which blocked her LACEWORK (a play she has always wanted to make), so she had to settle for COOKWARE instead. Robin's next bingo was ESCAPAdE through the second A and then Sammy had HANDLERS. Her win, 441-340.

A proud Robert Gillis (OXR, AL) (creator of the famed Bob's Bible), lets me know about a 10-letter word that his wife played. Marsha Gillis (OXR, AL), he reminds me, has a rating in the 900s. She found ADENOSINES through the ADE. Wowsa!