CNSC 2011 Commentary: Final Round 2

[ ]

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.

More players are arriving to watch: Shauna Petrie, Tony Leah (Ajax ON), and Deen Hergott (Ottawa ON). Not sure how may were mentioned already.

Round 2 is starting. Here is Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON).

After Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) begins with YONI, Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) hits back with fEIJOAS/YONIS for 84.

AACINTT for Adam Logan (Ottawa ON). Too bad ANTICAT* isn't good. Woof. It looks like he'll play CANT/fA/EN?IT for 25 — and he does.

Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) with CDEINOY. No G for DECOYING/GYNECOID. Jesse Matthews (Kelowna BC) suggests JOY/CANTO but it's (C)ONY on the top row for 27.

Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) gets down OPTIO(N)AL for 63 but Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) holds CDEIIST. OPTIONAL takes an S, so DEISTIC/DICIEST is available. Let's see if Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) knows that. Yup, it's DEISTIC. Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) puts the play on hold. And then accepts after 5 seconds.

DEEGLTW for Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) and it's DEW/WO for 26. Most of the gallery thought he'd play WEDGE/ED for 25.

Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) goes risky with LAVAGE/DE for 25. Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) immediately strikes back with DITHERE(D) for 101 and looks to take an insurmountable 157-point lead.

AHKLLNT for Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) and it's (C)HALK for 38. Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) and Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON) see a possible of HELL(K)ITE as Adam Logan (Ottawa ON)'s hail mary play if the tiles comply.

EEISUXZ for Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC). Most of the people think it'll be EXI(L)ES for 58. Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) surprises us all with SEX/DEISTICS/HE/AX for 58. Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) holds it and challenges. Off it comes.

The ugly LNRTUUU for Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) and LU(A)U for 8 it is. Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) counters with (L)UXE for 33.

Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) keeps the Z and 2 Ss for IF/XI/EF for 33.

Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) must be happy to see the Q again, especially after shedding 3 Us in the last 2 turns. With EMMNPQR, a discussion begins over whether or not he'll play something or trade. Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) tosses MMNPQ and hopes for the best.

TRUNK is on the board. Gabriel Gauthier-Shalom (Montreal QC) says TRUNKIER* isn't good but there's an acceptable Collins anagram. Dielle Saldanha (Richmond BC) successfully guesses RETURNIK# and the crowd is amazed.

Oh right, there's a game still going on. But it doesn't look promising for Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) being down by almost 200. SWARM/JOES from ABBMRSW scores 29, but isn't popular among the crowd. Although he should be in good shape.

Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) wonders if Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) would like to invoke the Can-Am rule of being able to resign at any point during a game. But spread may matter, so it's not allowed here.

Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) with BBGMNQ?. Hey, there's an open A so some version of MBAQANG(A) is available. Since he's so far ahead, the people here want him to fish for it. He plays B(I)B elsewhere and the masses are in revolt. (Turns out he drew an A. And according to John, he had briefly considered the possibility.)

The last of the plays are made and Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) wins by a final score of 501-312. It'll be a daunting task for Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) to come back from a 0-2 deficit, but it's definitely possible considering his status as 3-time Canadian champ.

Sherrie again: Robin is doing a fantastic job at the front. She knows these players very well, has played with them for years and feels what the next play may be. Folks in the audience on Quackle, which she's asked to be used only sparingly and after a group consensus has already been reached with our collective human minds, call out "better" plays, maybe, but she KNOWS what the players will do and more often than not, she calls it right.

Evan has been taking over the laptop during the game play and he's keeping up with the room banter. Speaking for myself and a few others here, we are hoping for a game where both players are in it!

More players arriving during this short coffee break. Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC), David Wood (Thunder Bay ON), Jeff Pancer, etc. Tony Leah has a bunch of his SCRABBLE cruise/tournament flyers out. He and Shauna Petrie, Dave Krook, and Tony will be running a cruise (that departs from New Jersey, so it is for EVERYONE, he assures me) to Bermuda. Pretty waters and more SCRABBLE than you can shake a stick at!

Two players appear to be here in their jammies: Jesse Matthews (Kelowna BC) and Eric Tran (Calgary AB). Check their photos out!

John Chew writes:

In Round 2, Wapnick gets off to another early lead, replying to Logan's rack balancing YONI (14, keeping AIN) with fEIJOAS (84) using the first blank. Two turns later, Logan briefly lags by only 111-102 after his OPTIONAL (63), but it only sets up Wapnick's DEISTIC hooking OPTIONALS (81). Logan holds the play, briefly considering whether or not OPTIONALS is good, but correctly declines to challenge. (It is acceptable, and has an anagram.) Logan loses further ground two turns later when WAPNICK plays DITHERED (101) across the top of the board, but scores a minor victory when Wapnick tries playing DEISTICS/SEX/HE/AX (54) but has it challenged off: DEISTICS is unacceptable; he was confusing it with DEICTICS. Wapnick still leads 310-191. Wapnick still manages to score a hard-to-block LUXE (33) with the X (Logan had had LNRTUUU), then follows it with HAZES (34) with the Z while Logan exchanges an unplayable Q. With 11 tiles left in the bag, Wapnick closes down a promising bingo lane with SWARM (29), drawing ?GMNQ to BB. Logan does not have great tiles either (FGNOPRT), makes yet another rack-balancing play for 11 points, is behind 439-255 and amazingly has only 6:20 on his clock to Wapnick's 10:13. Final score: 501-312, and Wapnick leads the series 2-0.

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