CNSC 2011 Commentary: Round 11

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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.

At table 2, Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) is chewing the front edge of his T-shirt and concentrating on the board in front of him. I see his VERBIAGE, played early. But the rest of it is looking to be plays by Juraj Pivovarov (Calgary AB): ORCEINS, SERENATE, and ALUNITES to the S.

Good friends, Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON) and Jesse Matthews (Kelowna BC) squared off at table 3. Evan had the fun 104-point PECTENS and Jesse played ReUnITES for 67, eNAMOURS for 61, and CALYX for 50. GFIFFE was on the board, and I think went down GRIFF, then GRIFFE. It was a nailbiter that came down to a mere 5-point win for Jesse.

I made note of all the POET words this round and discovered that so had Chris, so I will yield all the philosophical meanderings to him on this one. Guest colour commentatorship has its privileges!

David Boys (Dorval QC) vs. Sam Hollington (St. Catharines ON). RUSHiNG, STRANDER, POETRIES, and the fun WRAnGLER. Dave is like a cat when he plays SCRABBLE. He stretches, he yawns, all very slowly and deliberately. He still uses a scoresheet on the table and some sort of complicated small notebook thing on his lap (tracking?). The cat beat the muscled Sam :).

Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC) vs. Max Panitch (Toronto ON): UPROOTS by Ron, PARLAYS for 82 by Max, and OPIOIDS. Speaking of Ron, he wanted a new headshot. His was about 15 years old? What started as a simple headshot snapshot turned into a full-fledged Vogue photo shoot, against this column, against that wall, in the foyer, on the staircase, let Risa take a few. A full 30 shots in, we finally found one! The big news about the game this round is that Ron ended with 13:05 left on his clock! I've nvever seen him have so much time left over! Later in the game, Max got down STRIDeNT through the T. The endgame was the deciding point in the game. By virture of the 10 points in tiles off Max's rack, Ron won the game by a mere 7 points.

Glenn Dunlop (Brantford ON) vs. David Wood (Thunder Bay ON). I see David's INEDITA and ELLIpSES. The nonbingo TITRATES and and RADOMES are on the board. ADO was down, then R ME went on it then the S came later. David won this game.

Jason Ubeika (Mississauga ON) bs. Allan Simon (Calgary AB): ABALOnE, MAGNETIC, TALIPEDS, and UPRIsER.

Matthew Tunnicliffe (Ottawa ON) vs. David Jones (Ottawa ON): OOMIAk is on the triple, not many points, but fun. Matthew's win 410-292.

The big news today is this: Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC) had 13:05 left on his clock when he finished this round. It is astonishing, really.

Chris writes:

Okay, not gonna lie, sometimes, watching a room full of SCRABBLE games unfold, it's hard not to put some credence in Jung's Collective Unconscious. First, I see Shan Abbasi (Mississauga ON) vs Tony Leah (Ajax ON) — Tony played POETIC and Shan immediately extended it to POETICIZE, drawing a challenge. Then, I see David Boys (Dorval QC) and Sam Hollington (St. Catharines ON) — one of them has bingoes with POETRIES. And over on the other side of the room, Ross Brown (Ottawa ON) and Allen Pengelly (Waterloo ON) have POETRY on the board. Crikey!

Andy Saunders (Guelph ON) vs Geoffrey Newman (Brampton ON) — one of them has played WHATNOT into the T for 42. It's one short of the triple... a while later I hear Andy call out HOLD! Geoffrey has dropped the mouse on the end of the word for another 42 and Andy's trying to decide if WHATNOTS is good. After a few seconds he says, "Okay, I accept." It's good as gold — the Zyzzyva definition of WHATNOT is "a pretty set of shelves."

Lou Cornelis (Stoney Creek ON) has been the victim of another triple-triple — this time GRIFtERS from John Stardom (Ottawa ON) for 149. Looks like the game is getting closer — as a walked by Lou was cashing in a 50+ point X-play.

Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) is laying down his tiles.... it's a nine-letter bingo RETWIStED into the ED for 98. Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON) holds momentarily before accepting — nice play Joel! Unfortunately it's not enough and Zev wins 415-321.

Shan is looking for an outbingo with FHINST?... the S must be in the 5th or 6th position. After several minutes of looking, he lays down TINF?SH... "The blank is an I," he says, circles the I, and Tony immediately says, "Challenge!" Unfortunately, Shan hasn't yet hit his clock. He points this out and starts to pick up his tiles. "That might be part of my consideration," he says, and then lays down ?NTFISH, designates the blank an A, and announces the score. This time Tony waits until Shan hits his clock before challenging, and after it comes off the board, goes out sticking Shan with the whole rack. There was no playable bingo there — UNSHIFT and FISHNET are the only sevens there. Tony's win 481-351.

Mark Edelson (Toronto ON) bingoed with RESINATE from the R, which left an E out for Shaun Goatcher (Amherstburg ON) to bingo with, um, RESINATE. Why does this keep happening?

Dielle Saldanha (Richmond BC) and Will Nediger (London ON) are finishing their game, and it looks to have been a frustrating one for Dielle. Her first play was AIRTIME, but after that there were some tough racks, and Will had SCALPER, EsTRANGE, and JOwING for 58 late to take the win 465-338.

Over in the far corner, Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) and Jeremy Hildebrand (Ottawa ON) are sitting around their board. Jeremy had the great ZEPHYRS as a nonbingo through the Y late, but it was Robin's game 479-330.

Lou's game with John Stardom has ended and it looks like Lou came up just short 442-413. Not a bad comeback after John's big triple triple though!

That's all for today, whillakers* it's been a day!

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