CNSC 2011 Commentary: Round 3

[ ]

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.

A lot of what we write about is what is closest to us, easiest to get to, less blocked off by luggage, bags, and chairs set askew. That said, the past two rounds, Jackson Smylie (Toronto ON) has been within reach of this table, so I've been watching him. This round, against Geoffrey Newman (Brampton ON), I saw him trade off part of his first rack. Geoff tossed down JOY and Jackson replied with LINIEST/JOYS for 73. A bit later on, Geoff's ELUTIONS went down for 59 and then Jackson's hURRIES for 81 was played. The first game to end this round, I asked Geoff who won. He said, "Oh he did, I was barely in it." A 428-353 win for Jackson, who ends tonight 2-1 -27. A very nice beginning to what we all hope is a great tournament for this 13-year-old who earned his berth by going undefeated in the Eastern Canada Qualifier.

Chris Bonin (Toronto ON), looking über professional in his collared shirt, opened with AIOLI in his game with Ben Lam (Toronto ON). I heard Chris joke about how Ben was positioning himself at their board, in a kittycorner manner. I wasn't sure if sitting askew was seen as a form of gamesmanship or not. Perhaps just part of winning mojo!

Randall Thomas (Calgary AB), always interesting and unique, is wearing a short sleeve, black turtleneck shirt that looks a bit like a diving top. To add intrigue, he uses a tile rack on wheels. Not just any wheels, but small-sized mountain bike looking wheels: perfect for wheeling away from a turning, crashing SCRABBLE board. Early on in his game with Allan Simon (Calgary AB) I see UNcArING. KENAF was played through the first N. Not sure who played what up until this point. But then, Allan played the simple looking MUTER/ME/TA/EF for 43! Later on, I note AIRINGS and BRAINED are on the board. And then they take the "adjudication machine" field trip. Allan challenged Randall's PIEHOLES, played through the second E. The play was good! A 399-364 win for Randall.

Jeremy Hildebrand (Ottawa ON) vs. Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC): Joel played QuEASIER through Jeremy's opening play of BUM. Then Jeremy got three in a row: OUTCLASS, BEGUILED, and BLOVIATE. Inbetween, Joel tried VENATOR# for a 40-point double-double, which Jeremy called off. A 457-318 win for Jeremy.

David Wood (Thunder Bay ON) gets a 403-357 win against Jeff Parsons (Logy Bay NL). GNURLED* was a play that Jeff got away with and FEnTHION and REINVAdE for 92 were David's.

Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) vs. Craig Rowland (Mississauga ON). I see an early EUSTELE go down. Later on, DISAGREE and TOOTSeS. A fun GENIP is on that board, too.

A heck of a game has just started between John Stardom (Ottawa ON) and Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON). The first four plays contain three bingos: Zev's DOODLERS and John's UNWASTED through the E for 74 and DEUTZIAS for 74. Later on, ASTRAGAL went down, no idea by whom. Chris adds: With six in the bag, Zev played BINT hooking the I to make ASTRAGALI. John bingoed with pROEMIAL, pulling HM out of the bag. Zev, holding the other blank, bingoes out with CONGEALS to win 501-477. If John had played off an O, eschewing the bingo, CONGEALS would have lost to John's outbingo. Zev would have had to find ANALOGIC through the I to block John's outbingo and win the game, and given Zev's time trouble, that find may have been a difficult task. A 501-477 win for Zev, he is recalling.

Eric Tran (Calgary AB) vs Mark Edelson (Toronto ON). I see SABERiNG for Eric and CORDIALS for Mark early on. Later, Mark played iNANEST and Eric got down DENTIST. The win was Eric's, 430-373. Mark ended the game with 2 seconds on his clock and Eric had 5 seconds. Mark says this is normal behavior for him and I suggest he not play Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC), since we'd be here until 3 A.M.!

George MacAulay (Saskatoon SK) defeated Matthew Tunnicliffe (Ottawa ON) this round, 460-369. Early on I see three bingos in a row by George: LATIGOS for 70, tOXEMIAS for 86, and HIDALGOs for 74. Somehow, Matthew got down ANTIARS for 70. Two turns after this bingo-bango-bongo, George got down CLARINET for 70. After Matthew hit his head into the floor a few more times, George then played RESEATING through the separated Es for 72. A 460-369 game for George.

Chris writes:

Ross Brown (Ottawa ON) and Dielle Saldanha (Richmond BC) start out a barn-burner — Ross opens with STOUTEN and Dielle comes back with SHEITANS and promptly draws a blank. A couple turns later, Dielle has bingoed with ROLAmITE, which I triple-tripled against her with in Calgary several years ago.

Steve Ozorio (Mississauga ON) against Andrew Golding (Verdun QC) — Steve has played AMITROLE, the anagram of Dielle's bingo across the room.

Jason Ubeika (Mississauga ON) added insult to injury by bingoing against Vera Bigall (Toronto ON) with BITCHES for 106. His win, 440-418.

Poor Andy Saunders (Guelph ON). His rack is arranged to show that he has IFINITI Is. Four eyes. He plays off one with IFF for 27, and his next rack is a TRINITI of Is. He plays INTI to dump and draws RETINAS. That's the way to pull 'em, dude! Andy over John Dungey (Mitchell ON) 438-355.

Lou Cornelis (Stoney Creek ON) against David Jones (Ottawa ON) — David has put down NONISSUE through the U and Lou is holding NONUSER. The anagram, NEURONS hooks but it's David's win 441-374. At one point David had VER?ONT on his rack — sorry man, I don't think US states are acceptable in the Canadian Nationals. A neat play here — Lou played HIRE in the bottom left corner of the board, and David extended it to the middle triple as HIRELING.

Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) picked one tile out of the bag with two left, and a blank unseen. She pulls the Not Blank out of the bag, and sees Craig Rowland (Mississauga ON) start to bingo. Here comes the blank, she thought, but no, Craig had CITIFIED natural. The blank was the last one in the bag! Oh no, you'd taken the wrong one, Robin! Craig's win 484-348.

Back to Dielle and Ross — Dielle is now holding MAESTRO but there's no place to play the seven. I see an R open for REARMOST... aah she's played ONSTREAM through an N. Ross has the second blank, and dumps the Q only to draw the J... and then plays ENJOYER for a 106-point double-double.

Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC) took an extra four minutes on his clock to find his outbingo against David Boys (Dorval QC)... and boy was it a doozy! Before the last-minute bingo search, Ron was down by six. Under IGNATIA, Ron played a seven tile overlap TOURI?T (blank as an S). Even with the time penalty, it's Ron's win 437-399.

Oh, Dielle and Ross are recounting. Dielle had opened a sizable lead, only to have Ross bingo with FLECKING for 119 with one in the bag. Dielle held the play while figuring the endgame, and found a place to play SWIVE, getting rid of her V and W while scoring enough to outrun the B that Ross had pulled from the bag... the recount holds up and it's Dielle's win 453-451. Poor Ross had two plays in the game of over 100 points and still came up just short.

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