Go to: Commentary Games Players Photos Reports Standings

Back to NSC 2009 Live Coverage

NSC 2009 Commentary: Round 29

[ ]

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 29

Our final day of play! Division 1's top table has been turned to a right angle with the rest of the division and surrounded with black cording to keep the restless natives out. I'm going to pretend to be not restless and sneak in a time or two.

The NASPA raffle with prizes donated by Gene Tyszka (Mississauga ON) and Bob Schoenman was conducted earlier this morning, Gene reports, in front of Allen Pengelly (of division 4 directing fame) and Nigel Richards (MYS). The first place winner was Keith Hagel (Waterville, ME) and the second place winner was Linda Nervis (Dayton, OH). He won the wooden board, she the acrylic folding board and six others won sets of Protiles. The list of those names is not right here at the moment. All proceeds from this raffle have been dontated to NASPA.

Event MC Alan Stern (Shadow Hills, CA) led us on a rousing verse of Happy Birthday to the NASPA membership coordinator, Mad Palazzo (Richmond Hill ON). Mary Rhoades thanked Wilma Pitzer (Englewood, OH) for her greater Dayton tourism info and Lois Greene (Dayton, OH) for donating the linens that we've used throughout the event.

The 19 and under set gathered for a group photo in the front of the room, but we missed several. We'll hang a reminder banner next year!

We've got three rounds this morning and to make it easier on those who have to leave, we've moved the prize cermony up from 2:30 to 2:00!

Last night, I took a gander through the after-hours room and ran into Roy Kamen (Covina, CA). Yesterday afternoon he sat beside Eric Harshbarger (Auburn, AL) and watched Eric play and get away with WYSIWYGS*. He was astonished that someone in division 1 played that word and that anyone accepted it! I asked Eric about it this morning and he said, "What you see is what you get! It is good in the world dictionary without the S. I had no doubt it was good, just not sure if it took the S." Well, he was half right. It is good somewhere, but not here in the singular form, but with that S on it, as the dictionaries stand now, it isn't anywhere! A fashion aside, Eric has always been Mr. Lego to me, but now he's "retired" from that field, having given away all his Legos and there is another player here with a red Lego board (Eric's is black) and yet another player with a Lego rack!

We've got a meeting of the titans at board 1 this round. Both Nigel Richards (MYS) and Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR) have been NSC champs and Nigel has won the worlds. Lots of titles, plenty of talent!

As I walk by the div 2 top table, I hear "140." Thomas Reinke (Middleton, WI) played LANOsITY through the A for a triple-triple. I glance over their paperwork and see that Eric Tran (Calgary AB) opened with FOU and Thomas played UREMIAS/FOUR. Erik played ANEMONES and won this game, 459-422. Thomas explains that he's gotten used to losing, having not won the last five games. His winning lead was so commanding that he's still in the running even with these steak of losses.

Game in progress between Kenji Matsumoto (Amherst, MA) and Christopher Sykes (Cambridge ON). URODELE for 68 gets played by Kenji.

Two Thais square off this round. The former world champ, Panupol Sujjayakorn (THA) vs. Nawapadol Sayavesa (THA). Panupol plays REMOvERS through the first E and Nawapodal comes right back with DRATTED. I also see LENTOIDS and SLAGGIER on their board. Panupol's win, 480-365.

I see TENORITE for 59 go down in a Andrew Solomon (Barrington, IL) vs. Scott Appel (Trenton, NJ) game and Scott's head is just a'shakin'. On their board I see NIDGETS, POLeAXED, ImAMATE, and EXCITED. I find out later that it was Andrew's win, 476-302.

We lost Chris Wiegand as the division 2 assistant yesterday because she went off to play in a bridge tournament near here. Luckily, Jeremy Cahnmann drove down from the Chicago area (for a baseball game, a play reading, and heck, why not work a bit, too). I asked her how her day went and she said, "We won!" There were 48 teams and of them all, she and her friend came in first. For those that speak bridge parlance, she earned 8.7 gold master points, which she assures me everyone who plays bridge long enough earns. Division 2 leader John Robertson said, "I did miss Chris, but Jeremy knows a lot about baseball, my favorite topic, so..." Chris makes clear that John never asked her about baseball, so he can't be sure of her level of expertise....

Of this bridge/SCRABBLE thing in the Wiegand family, the last time Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR) won the NSC, he and Chris went on to compete in the Bridge Nationals, too! Though Chris' tournament wasn't a nationals, it would be great if they both won!

Jim Fonti (Port Jeff Station, NY) is "in character" today. I study him, sensing something is different and then decide I've never seen him wear such "heavy" eyeglasses before. I snap a shot of him playing Terry Aitken (Stratford ON) and only as I get closer to do realize that he is "in costume." There are no lenses in those glasses and he has a spelling bee T-shirt on. He shrugged and said, "hey, if I dress the part, maybe I'll live the part!"

Tyler Hannan (Winchester, KY) played Gabriel Wong (Vancouver BC) this round. Theirs was one of the first games to finish up and the slips are being shuttled up to the pairing table as fast as she can get them there by Diane Firstman. For most of the event, the slips would be turned over in a lump, but since each round today is paired on the results from the round before, they need to be in quickly. Anyway, I've distacted myself. The second Andy Saunders saw the scores, he started running toward me, which made me start running toward division 2 to find the board almost all picked up. John Robertson, sensing that the board should remain up, was already asking Gabriel to "make it so." Poor Gabriel was at the losing end of this 640-335 win by Tyler. Tyler made his way back and the two of them got it up again for the "photo op." Gabriel played GITTERNS and the rest were Tyler's: LETERREd*, AUBRIEtA, GUNWEARS*, and UINTAITE. The first phoney was a simple mislay. He had been wanting to play LETTERED but at the last moment was worried about an opening and switching things around. It was one of those "what was I thinking?" moments for each of them.

Hold the presses. Big News in division 5. This division is awash with School SCRABBLE students (Tristan Vanech (Venice, CA), Ruben Radlauer (Los Angeles, CA), Stephen Winston (North Salem, NY), Hannah Lieberman (Charlotte, NC), David Steinke (Indianapolis, IN), Evan Winston (North Salem, NY), and Jon Canik (Austin, TX)), a School SCRABBLE Mom--Amy Krafchick--is assisting, and Cathy Steinke (Indianapolis, IN), another SCRABBLE Mom is playing. So, these two moms have been group moms for most of the week, keeping their eyes on the younger set. One of them, Evan Winston (North Salem, NY), was winless for the bulk of this event, save for one bye win. And, the skies parted this round and the sun poured down onto Evan and he won his first game at this year's NSC. By the time I got across the length of a football field to that division, much of the players with complete games were standing and watching and cheering on Evan, who was jumping up and down and pointing at the board saying quietly, "I won! I won! I won! I really won!" And not only did he win, but he defeated the number 1 seed in division 5, David Goldberg (Loveland, CO). Dave was a great sport, congratulating Evan, flashing his winning smile at everyone, and explaining how he was just "outplayed." The game ended, 266-262 in Evan's favor. Evan said, "I even got stuck with the J and still won!" Congratulations Evan!

Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (THA) is standing over his completed game, speaking in Thai to Panupol Sujjayakorn (THA) about the game. He tells me that he played Michael Baker (Porland, OR) and I said, "Isn't he nice?" And Pakorn said, "yes he is very nice. He wished me good luck on the game and the promptly slapped down COQuITO." This made us all laugh. The game stayed close enough throughout and Pakorn thought he just might win, but his last rack was OIUU and Mike's was CEEELS? Pakorn jokingly groused about this bad luck in drawing drek from the bag at the end. Mike's win, 397-395.

I run a little tournament in the Northeast called BAT (Boston Area Tournament). We had our 28th annual event this past April. Max Karten (Barrington, RI) played in it two years ago and won the one-day newcomers event, earning free entry to this year's event. So, he played this year and won division D in the main event. I am thinking that he won't qualify to play in C next year because HE JUST WON DIVISION 4!! The first division to have the winner determined! Max will be gibsonized for the next two rounds because he is just too "awesome." He's only played in a few tournaments and I'm told he may well have won them all. Hearty congrats to him for his strong showing and championship win!