Go to: Commentary Games Players Standings Photos Early Bird TSH Reports Scoreboard Prizes

Back to CNSC 2011 Live Coverage

CNSC 2011 Commentary: Before the Tournament

[ ]

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.

Pre-event Notes

Wednesday evening

John Chew ran week two of the Toronto SCRABBLE club's three-week LCT tonight. He pulled into his driveway moments before I did, after a day of driving along lovely I-90 and the QEW. We both planned a good night's rest so that we could hit the ground running the next day.

Thursday

John and I met the hotel contact and a group of Hasbro Canada employees at the Bond Place Hotel at noontime. Hasbro Canada had brought boxes of materials: T-shirts, goodie bags, and best of all: new deluxe boards. I think the boards may live a second life at School SCRABBLE area events. There are masses of students who play School SCRABBLE in Toronto!

The Championship will be situated on the lower level of the hotel, in the Piccadilly and Cambridge meeting rooms. Our group will have exclusive use of the lower level lobby, full of modernistic lounge furniture. Coffee, juice, and snacks have been put out on the tables and I think we'll even have some weekend lunches provided, too.

A couple of hours' work later, the playing rooms were looking ready, SCRABBLE games on each table and event banners scattered about. Can't wait for it all to start tomorrow!

Friday

At 7am, CityTV called the Chew home. Could John do an interview before games started today? So, off we left, a bit earlier than expected to get across town to the Bond Place hotel. Mad Palazzo and John Robertson, already at the hotel since 7:15am, were ready to help us unload the Prius and get the room set up for the morning's Early Bird. Mad threw all 98 lbs. of herself at the dividing wall sections, trying to open the room halves into one larger space. One of the hotel workers finally saved her from herself and got the wall collapsed properly, but we all did have a good laugh.

John Robertson busied himself at the paper cutter and cut up about 1,000 pieces of paper one or two pages at a time, creating the event's result slips. The man has such patience!

Today's Early Bird has 16 players, only 5 of whom are playing in the main event, starting tonight. It is wonderful that John was able to carve out time and hotel availability for an Early Bird. Now even more players will get a taste of the Canadian Nationals experience! Since we were odd, Gene Rawlins opted to sit out the Early Bird and take in some downtown sights. So, now we won't have a bye today. Another outstanding feature of today's Early Bird, unlike the main event, it isn't limited to Canadians. So, American SCRABBLE expert, Chris Lipe, is here, joining in the fun.

I think Chris will stay on over the weekend, helping us with annotation and other glamorous tournament tasks. Annotating for us this morning, Risa Horowitz and John Robertson. I'm not sure they are going live with these games, but they are doing paper annotation and may well move into live games before too long. (John: yes, the games were posted live.)

Players started arriving a few minutes into the setup. They marveled at the playing space and the projection equipment in the foyer. Ayami Imazu will be doing our data entry and she is now assisting Mad in the name tag, player goodie bag, and giveaway T-shirt setup.

Early Bird Round 1

At table 1, Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC) squared off with Chris Lipe. Ron started strong, his first two plays bingos: BEADMEn for 78 and BURIERs for 81. Later on, he got down ATONING for 68. While watching the game at the midway point, I watched Ron hunched over and moving tiles around on his rack. Suddenly, on the top triple lane, REENACT went down to the T, so no bingo. I see fun weird words: ACKEE, UTERI, WADDY, GAVOT, and GAHITS. It was Ron's win, 413-341.

Early Bird Round 2

Toronto SCRABBLE club member, Eli Shupak, is one of our early bird participants. Jeff Pancer, also a member of the club, is here today, offering game assistance to Eli, who needs help drawing tiles, keeping score, and placing words. Eli does all the thinking the game requires and he tells Jeff where to place his plays. They are a well-oiled machine! This round, Eli is playing Eric Peters. On their in-progress board, I see ERE?SIN and SANDIER. The scores are 254-209, so it looks like a good match!

Chris Lipe is playing Garth Handie this round and the annotator sheet shows that Garth tried INTERNET# and it was called off. I see Chris' 86-point ESCROWEd along the bottom triple and Garth's 70-point AUNTIEs. After the game finishes, I'm called over to the 10: DISSENTION for 74 played through the separated T and ON. It was a Chris play and a Chris win, 432-313. A 10-letter-word is a fine thing to see on a SCRABBLE board, so long, so lean, so excellent.

Jillian Bathgate vs. Jeff Parsons (Logy Bay NL): UNAIMED, DETAILS, and TWINIER on their board. I later hear that she lost by a lot and that she and Eli "couldn't take losing anymore, so they were leaving." They went out to a nearby entertainment establishment to cool off.

Ani Migirdicyan vs. David Wood (Thunder Bay ON): OUTBETs, PREcISE, and REFINES.

Tony Leah (Ajax ON) vs. Sharmaine Farini: SANIOUs and PALEATED* so far. As I watch their in-progress game, I realize that Tony is being held (later, I'm told, for nearly 5 minutes). He'd just added the D to PALEATE (which is good) and she didn't like it one bit. But she let it go. Turns out, she was right with her gut instinct, it isn't good. When the game was over, Tony and Geoffrey Newman (Brampton ON) went over Sharmaine's final racks. Turns out, she had GROYNES and if she had found and played it, she would have gotten some awesome tiles from the bag and the potential for another bingo. In the end, though, it as Tony's win, 452-375.

John Chew tells me that CHCH-TV is due to arrive at noontime to do another interview with him about the Championship. This year's location is perfectly central, so we anticipate lots of attention!

A nice game has wound up for Trevor Sealy and Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC). Getting down DUsTIEST, TRILLERs, and ENQUIRES was not enough for Trevor, who still lost to Ron, 377-424. Ron's sole bingo was RADISHES. We sat and contemplated how not simple winning a game is when you study it closely. Philosophically speaking, SCRABBLE is larger than the sum of its parts. Ron said, "Take Brian Cappelletto for example. He is well known for those no bingo 450ish games." We all nodded sagely, which didn't help Trevor pull a win out of that great game, no matter how hard we tried!

Ron said, "Hey Sherrie, I had this rack: EMNOUUY. Can you guess what letter I wanted Trevor to put out?" I wanted to say, "you are kidding, right? You think I'm ever going to get that?" And then the funniest thing happened. Testing out his Google map walking directions from the University of Toronto to the hotel (he walks twice as fast as Google maps predicts, he announces), David Boys (Dorval QC) happened by. He saw my notepad and said, "the answer is S: EUONYMUS. Ron wanted an S put out." And then he paused and said, "Well, other letters, too, and a Collins play, but let's not confuse things." I was already confused. :)

As the games were winding up, Mad Palazzo announced (she needs NO microphone) that the coffee break was set up (croissants, jam, butter, fresh fruit, coffee, and various juices) and for everyone to enjoy a break now.

More breaking news: John Chew to appear on QR77 news/talk radio, Calgary, AB, at 7:45 A.M. ET Monday morning. We think the piece will be taped.

Early Bird Round 3

As often happens at the beginning of an event, we learn what isn't going to work. This time, the internet has been an issue. We had a nice little corner nook, a perfect place for game 1. We got them a 30-inch table (a luxury in a room full of 25-inch tables) and had ample room for annotators. Sadly, wireless didn't reach that corner. Despite the fact that an ethernet jack was there, it didn't work. So, during the coffee break after round 2, we had to relocate table 1, to a more central place in the room, near working ethernet. Mad Palazzo joined John Robertson and Risa Horowitz and the three of them did the annotation for the newly located table 1 game between Trevor Sealy and Chris Lipe. Checking over Chris' scoresheet, I see that Trevor tried an early play of GRANMA*, which caused Chris to think. Eventually he decided that if it was good, he'd know it, so he challenged. Then he played SILEsIA for 68, convinced it didn't take an S. Well, he was wrong, it does. And for the entire game, it sat there, one short of the triple lane, begging for a monster play to go down. One never did. Later in the game, Chris played COESITES for 66. It was a 437-284 win for Chris. I see ACULEI, KIBEI, and AZAN on the board.

David Wood (Thunder Bay ON) and Geoffrey Newman (Brampton ON) had a fun game this round. David played three bingos: AWAItER for 87 and the back-to-back bingos of TELEDUS for 79 and then EDUCATOR for 74. Geoffrey got down LInEAGES for 62. I see a 537-315 win for David.

Eli Shupak vs. Sharmaine Farini: TIDIeST, WARMINg, and KELOIDS. The latter is a nonbingo played to the S, but pretty! A 440-295 win for Sharmaine.

Roger Cullman had a nice game with Jeff Parsons (Logy Bay NL). Early on, Roger played two bingos: PROCHAIn for 78 and FRACTION for 64. It was a 163-37 lead for Roger and he admits he was feeling confident. However, then the other shoe dropped and Jeff played SWEATER/FRACTIONS for 82. Then he got down OVERSEE/SWEATERS for 90. Suddenly it was looking grimmer for Roger. He played off BUTUT to even out his rack but the tiles just wouldn't come and the next bingo was Jeff's: ENAMORED for 62. When Roger told me this play, he said, "American spelling." I love when folks are bilingual! A 447-459 loss for Roger, a heartbreaker, really. He is now 1-2 +50, having just lost his last game by a mere 4 points.

Early Bird Round 4

Not that the break after round 2 wasn't enough, we now just broke for lunch. How do these Canadians manage to stay so svelte?! Kristen Chew stopped by to join us in the staff lunch and many of the players hung around in the foyer to share our sandwiches.

Hearing that we may want pencils, our hotel contact came down with a handful of brand new round pencils with a sharpener. Mad Palazzo, stars in her eyes, started sharpening madly. She was the one that thought she ought to use pencil while annotating so that she could compensate for errors easier.

Even more press: Redmond Shannon of CBC Toronto (TV) will come by with a cameraman this afternoon. Such great publicity!

I guess John grew weary of Chris Lipe at table 1, so he shook things up. Now we get to feast our eyes on David Wood (Thunder Bay ON) playing Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC).

I see oUTDATE and RESCiND on a game between Sharmaine Farini and Ani Migirdicyan.

Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC) vs. David Wood (Thunder Bay ON): DEFIERs for 84 gets put down by David as I walk by. I see ALTOiST, too.

"It was your turn to win this time, I guess. I only had an S and the zed," says Roger Cullman. His game with the laughing Sid Lashley is just wrapping up. ASUNdER and FUNKIER are on the board. Roger says, "I won two challenges, but lost to Sid. He played well." A 400-355 win for Sid.

On a Jillian Bathgate vs. Geoffrey Newman (Brampton ON) board, I see CENTIMOS, BEaDIER, and the fun nonbingos: HIRAGE and PuTZED.

Colin Viebrock is a newish player at the Toronto SCRABBLE club and he's decided to make this event, the CNSC Early Bird, his first foray into tournament play. Brave man! I see AbRASION by Colin and Trevor's REZOnES and AVERTING. And then MYC jumps out at me. Trevor says, "yeah, a new work from the last update, eh, Sherrie?" I mutter something about being rusty.

Eric Peters is playing Jeff Parsons (Logy Bay NL) this round. And, despite going 3 to 1 on him with bingos (SIGNORE, MALTOSE, and MALADIEs to BERLINES), Eric lost this game! This was at the very same table that Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC) won earlier with only one bingo to Trevor Sealy's 3! The table is jinxed!

Chris Lipe vs. Tony Leah (Ajax ON). Two bingos for each player. Tony's FOOTAGEs for 80 and CRAWLIEr for 63. Chris played STANDERS for 70 and the high-scoring, ouch-making GREAVES for 97. Chris' win, 411-379.

Round 5

The main event players have been slowly trickling in all day. Gabriel Gauthier-Shalom (Montreal QC) came in all smiles and asked if we knew of anyone hanging around who wanted to play. As if by magic, Andy Saunders (Guelph ON) came bounding around the corner. They have found an unoccupied table and they are busy warming up. Gabriel is a student at University of Waterloo and he's studying math. I ask if he's studying Adam's kind of math and he nods. So I guess we have another number theorist in our midst! Andy continues to help John Robertson with NASPA club 471 and he runs one-day Guelph tournaments. In their game, which was picked up by the time stopped by again, Gabriel had the win.

Part of what makes this event so fun are the new faces. This time around, I'm noticing David Wood (Thunder Bay ON), who I have known, but he is sitting at table 1, playing up a storm: go David! Every time Jillian Bathgate laughs, which is often, (despite having not such a good day, tile-wise), it makes me smile. She has that kind of infectious laugh!

Today is Jeff Pancer's birthday! He received a funny birthday card from Eli to celebrate the day! And for part of this birthday, he is assisting Eli in this event!

Trevor Sealy vs. Geoffrey Newman (Brampton ON); a pretty game. REPOSED and WALTzERS were Trevor's better plays and SENORITA and hYALOID were Geoff's. INCOMES through the O was a nonbingo double-double for Geoff and I think he also played the nonbingo VARIETY. A 455-415 win for Geoff.

In a game against Jillian Bathgate, Sharmaine Farini played a 113-point triple-triple: OUTLEARN through the A!

Jeff Parsons (Logy Bay NL) vs. Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC). Another triple-triple: Ron's ADMONISh through the N for 140. Jeff said, "nice play." Ron's reply? FLATTERY on the next turn! I see FEVERING and LEVIRATE on the board and I'm told that Jeff bingoed out with rELIANT. At one point, Jeff blocked a play that Ron sorely wanted to make: ERGOTICS* form the E. However, long after the game was done, I guess it kept gnawing at Ron, so he ran over to tell me that he had it confused with another word, which is good. Ron still won that game, 461-344, after losing 50 points for going overtime on his clock! Wow!

Eric Peters is having a good game with Chris Lipe. I walk up and see that Eric played mAJESTIC for 74 and SCARTING for 71. This last play was currently being held by Chris, who took him off hold about when I walked up. I see Chris' PRECLEAN for 63 and DETAINER for 72. Chris, sitting on vowels, dumped 6 and got all consonants. Balance wasn't his thing that game and I learned later on that Eric pulled out the win, which is terrific for him!

The hotel wasn't quite ready to provide the coffee break that the players were waiting for, so we had them go into their next game and we'll let them devour the goodies a bit later on.

Round 6

Ani Migirdicyan vs. Colin Viebrock: BaTTIEST and DENOUNcE.

Sid Lashley vs. Tony Leah (Ajax ON): TRENAILS, BOOTING, RAPINES, and LiMNERS. In progress game.

Trevor Sealy vs. Sharmaine Farini: DENTURE, ANIMATES, and BASSiEST#. Of this last play, after the game, Sharmaine shook her head woefully. She said, "I wanted to challenge, but I didn't, and I should have... " I told her not to beat herself up. So many plausible plays, so many chances to not challenge or challenge incorrectly!

Geoffrey Newman (Brampton ON) defeated Chris Lipe, 379-333. I spoke to Chris after the game and congratulated him on his kindness in sharing his rating points with the Canadian players. He smiled, shook his head, and shrugged, "there was nothing I could do!" In the game with Geoff, he played CHARDS and from the dark recesses of his mind, Geoff remembered ECHARDS and down he slapped MARLIER/ECHARDS for 83. I saw Chris' nonbingo NOUNAL and FRAPS. In the endgame, Chris played EPIMeRIc from the first E for 89 on the triple lane. This drew a challenge from Geoff. Chris drew the last two tiles and went out, catching Geoff with 22 points on his rack. But all of this is moot, since Geoff won :).

Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC) vs. Eric Peters. I see the fun TOREADOR on their board.

Eli's win this time was over Jillian Bathgate, 399-386. During the endgame, they were teasing each other relentlessly. She played cOOTIEs for 65 and ENTAILS for 77. Eli played DERBIES for 82 and TRIAGED for 68.

The last game to finish was between Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC) and Eric Peters. Both of them used up all of their regulation time and the game may have started a little late. A high-scoring win for Ron, 477-402. Ron needed this win to have a chance of winning the Early Bird. Now all Ron has to do is defeat the undefeated David Wood (Thunder Bay ON). We shall see!

Round 7

Well, we made it to the final game of this Early Bird: a long one! Undefeated David Wood (Thunder Bay ON) is squaring off against Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC). Lisa Kessler, codirector of the Toronto SCRABBLE club, has arrived and she is giving John Robertson a break on annotation. She and Mad Palazzo are annotating game 1 with Risa Horowitz on laptop entry. This setup is working amazingly well.

Main event players, Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON), Shaun Goatcher (Amherstburg ON), Allen Pengelly (Waterloo ON), and first alternate, Kevin Turner, are all here, in the foyer, playing games, drinking coffee, and carousing loudly. Kidding about the loudly part.

We will be giving five cash prizes out: 1st: $80; 2nd: $70; 3rd: $60; 1st Class B (1200-1599): $50; and 1st Class C (<1200): $40.

Eli Shupak is delighted! He won his last game vs. Sid Lashley and leaves today with a 3-4 record.

At table 1, David Wood (Thunder Bay ON) tried PARGUETS* to the S, but Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC) called it off. I see oBSIDIaN and DEFERENT on their board. When the game ended, it was Ron's win, but David wins the tournament, based on spread.

Tony Leah (Ajax ON) and Roger Cullman had a barn burner of a good game this round. I see Roger's PRAYINg, FINANCED, and TREELIKE. Tony played HADRONS, ENCHANTS, BEDMATe, and the fun nonbingos TROOZ for 48 and ZOIC for 49. It was Tony's win, 502-392.

Jeff Parsons (Logy Bay NL) vs. Eric Peters: SOLANINES, ROOKIES, TRIGONAL, and SALTERN.

It has been, perhaps, called the most bone-headed play of the day. In a really fun game between Trevor Sealy and Geoffrey Newman (Brampton ON), I see Trevor's RIVERBEdS (which drew a challenge), INKIEST, and FARMLANd. Geoff played SAUTOIRS, LINIMENT, COOED/DINKIEST for 72, and the fun CALQUED for 38. In the endgame, Geoff played PERP and all Trevor had to do was play off the Y on his rack to win the game by 3 points (the score was then 481-470, he was behind), but instead he challenged PERP because he thought it was bad and it wasn't. And Geoff played ART to play out and he won the game, 495-470, a game that in all rights, Trevor should have won. John Chew was astonished by this and jokingly called it the bonehead move of the tournament. Sadly, all Trevor could do was nod his head in agreement. Ah, the pain of it all...

And in the last-game-can-make-you-smile news, Sharmaine Farini defeated Chris Lipe, 457-435. Of the game's better plays, Sharmaine EdITION and then later, she front hooked by playing WORDERS/SEDITION. She is smiling now, long after her win.

Colin Viebrock leaves this event with a brand new 942 rating. Hearty congrats to him for jumping in feet first and doing such a great job!

Players are arriving left and right for the main event, registering with Mad Palazzo to my left, running of in clumps to try to eat, and settling in at tables with their equipment.

John Chew has just obtained some fine Pan Asian cuisine for me! Time to eat before it all starts!

HASBRO is the owner of the registered SCRABBLE^® trademark in the United States and Canada. © 2011 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.

The SCRABBLE^® trademark is owned by J.W. Spear and Sons, PLC, a subsidiary of Mattel, Inc. outside of the United States and Canada.

For more information about SCRABBLE or the NSA, or to comment on or correct the contents of this page, please e-mail: info@scrabble-assoc.com
To report technical difficulties in reading this page, please contact webmaster John Chew at: poslfit@gmail.com