CNSC 2011 Commentary: Round 4

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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.

We start today with Mad Palazzo asking if anyone mistakenly went home with a board last night, since we are one short. I haven't heard anyone fess up yet to "mistakenly" heading home with a board.

The room is set up differently today. We have fewer and wider tables. This way, the Hasbro boards won't knock off the tiles as they turn (last night this happened a lot). It means closer quarters, more two-game tables. But, having enough space face-to-face is better, way better.

John Chew made some pregame announcements and presented Early Bird prize monies to those who placed and are in this event. So Jeff Parsons (Logy Bay NL), Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC), and David Wood (Thunder Bay ON) received money and applause!

The mystery of the board unfound is still vexing us. I'll update you if someone finds it in a purse or backpack. This is partly comical since it is such a large item. Some might say larger than a breadbox!

Jesse Matthews (Kelowna BC) greets his opponent this round, Jackson Smylie (Toronto ON), and shares the news of the day. So far, no hugs. Of the game's early plays, two are bingos: DIALOGED and PALADINS. Later on, two more go down: TRAIPsE and INVASION. I asked Jesse how it went and he said, "I drew like a pig." He beat Jackson, by a large margin, 577-245. Jesse had 244, looked over at Jackson's perfect scoresheet and said, "Okay, I'm sure you are right, 245 it is." They then asked to pose for a photo!

Early on this round, I watched Will Nediger (London ON) play VEsTIGe in his game with Betty Bergeron (Calgary AB). I was reminded that she sells tile bags (including one like the cute Betty Boop one she is using in this game) in the playing room foyer.

Plays two and three were bingos in a Juraj Pivovarov (Calgary AB) vs. Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON) game. Zev played REPRINTS for 90 and not to be outdone, Juraj played BROMIZeS for 92.

The blanks came out early for Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) vs. Gabriel Gauthier-Shalom (Montreal QC). Our number theorists square off! Adam opened with BLITZ for 52, then Gabriel played OXIDATEd for 80 and Adam played SUBWAyED for 71. Adam later played DYNASTS for 78. The game was close and tense and intense. After it was over, Adam's win, 432-415, they did some endgame decompressing and Gabriel discovered, to his horror, that he missed seeing REARING with several overlaps. All agree it would have won him the game. A fun last play was LETdOWNS for 10 for Gabriel. Not many points, but it looked good!

With the addition of Su Edwards to the annotation team, we now have two games undergoing close scrutiny! Table 1, George MacAulay (Saskatoon SK) vs. Eric Tran (Calgary AB), has the John Robertson, Lisa Kessler, and Risa Horowitz touch. Table 1 features Sue Tremblay (Carlsbad Springs ON) vs. Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC) with Su Edwards and Trevor on paper annotation. We know what John Chew will be doing between rounds now: annotation input! On board 2, I see EARNEST played. A great word on a Ron board because he always looks to be trying so EARNESTLY to play well (while his clock runs down and gives the rest of us agita!).

Lou Cornelis (Stoney Creek ON) vs. Marilyn Wilkins (Richmond BC): PILFERER and QUARTERN are down. Speaking of Lou, lovely Lila visited us this morning and expressed dismay that her plan to bring peonies was foiled by the lousy weather. They were beaten down by rain and wind, but we believe her when she says they were beautiful!

Sam Hollington (St. Catharines ON) vs. David Wood (Thunder Bay ON). Game in progress: CANToNAL, LATINIZES, SOIGNE, and FURZY.

Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON) vs. Allen Pengelly (Waterloo ON): TREPANG, PANDECTS, and MAzIEST.

Max Panitch (Toronto ON) vs. David Jones (Ottawa ON): Game in progress, I see OUTRACE and PRURIENT. Then, while I watching, Max played YCLEpED/DELVED for 77.

Ross Brown (Ottawa ON) and Shan Abbasi (Mississauga ON) are just finished. While Shan turns in the game slip, Ross points out Shan's pretty 9: BIGOTRiEs from the BI for 74. Early on in the game, Shan played the bingo-bango: SHAWLED and FAGOTTED* to the D. Meanwhile, Will Nediger (London ON) had just wrapped up his game with Betty Bergeron (Calgary AB) and he volunteered quietly that FAGOTTED* (the bundling of small sticks, btw) is a phoney. It can be GG and T or G and T, but no two-T versions exist. Poor Ross, his experience of the 307-505 loss to Shan can be wrapped up in three plays: INTI, IVIES, and NIDI. And, he had the added experience of 4Us and 2Vs. Go Ross!

Chris writes:

Matthew Tunnicliffe (Ottawa ON) is clad in a shirt bearing the slogan "Muffin with Tentacle," showing a betentacled breakfast treat. This illustration of the anagram of Matthew's name was done by fellow Ottawan Jeremy Hildebrand (Ottawa ON). In this round, Matthew has gotten DIORITES down early against Shaun Goatcher (Amherstburg ON).

Yvonne Lobo (Mississauga ON) has a nice play — SOLIDER as a four-tile underlap under JAKE. Geoffrey Newman (Brampton ON) recounts the play to make sure all those hooks are added up right!

Glenn Mosher (Toronto ON) against Jeff Parsons (Logy Bay NL) — Glenn has played INJURES, with a blank I dangled one under the middle triple on the left. Jeff has TAX for 57 in another part of the board, leaving the juicy triple open for Glenn's use. Glenn's post bingo draw is an A off from BIRYANI... mmm....

Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC) vs Sue Tremblay (Carlsbad Springs ON) — Ron has got down TALArIA which is a great way to spend three As.

Dielle Saldanha (Richmond BC) bingoed with AERATOR, putting an R in the triple lane, which is just what Allan Simon (Calgary AB) needed to bingo with... um, AERATORS. Dielle holds the play to think about if her bingo was good or not.

There's all these words on the board that look like they might have been triple-triples, but it's hard to tell sometimes. Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON) played DRIFT against Juraj Pivovarov (Calgary AB), and Juraj later played -IER.

Lou Cornelis (Stoney Creek ON) against Marilyn Wilkins (Richmond BC): one of them played QUARTERN through the U on the center star. A dangerous play, perhaps, leaving the possibility of QUARTERNS to the triple word. Except what ended up on the board was QURATERN*. That's a good way to kill an S hook! This happened to me once — late in the game I'd bingoed with SORBTAE* instead of SORBATE and it wasn't noticed until too late, giving me the added advantage of not opening any hooks. After the game — Lou's win 484-361 — neither of them were 100% sure on QUARTERNS but the misplay solved the problem. Marilyn didn't notice until she was tracking Lou's play and Lou was done drawing tiles. "It was Lou's day" she said, having opened a bingo lane holding the blank late, only to see Lou bingo with MIAOWED to seal the deal.

Sam Hollington (St. Catharines ON) played LATINIZE against David Wood (Thunder Bay ON) in a spot where the front hook could score a lot of points, but PLATINIZE never hit the board.

Juraj and Zev have just finished their game. Juraj was holding two Us and a blank on his last rack, but missed the tough NAUTILUS to bingo out for the win. Zev's win 451-396. Midgame, Zev had a six consonant rack — INPRRST — and Juraj put out an E to give Zev the double-double REPRINTS. Juraj came right back with BROMIZeS for a good score, but to no avail.

Walking by Geoffrey Newman and Yvonne Lobo, I see Geoffrey lay down FUNsTER#, but Yvonne has ANISOLE on her rack and is about to bingo out.... yup, it goes down, and I'm walking away as they begin a recount.

Deen Hergott (Ottawa ON) comes up to me asking if there is a prize for high game per round. "I almost hit 600," he says, "not bad for only three hours sleep." He hit four bingos in his 578-317 win over Michael Lancashire (Toronto ON) — EMERALD, WANTONS, INFRARED, and FLAUTIST.

Geoffrey and Yvonne have finished the recount, and the score holds up — it's Yvonne's, 414-409. Very late in the game, Yvonne played ISALINE*, which Geoffrey took off the board. Yvonne then fished off an I to open a second bingo lane, and Geoffrey — knowing Yvonne is drawing one tile to SALINE — needs to decide what the chances are Yvonne has pulled a bingo that plays. He's holding EFNRTU? and blocks the easy-to-use lane with FUNsTER# — which none of us realize is Collins until we look it up — leaving Yvonne a lane that has to end in E. It looks like there's one tile Yvonne could have drawn to give her such a bingo — and the O that she drew is it, and ANISOLE comes down. The OWL bingo TURFmEN would have played for Geoffrey for four more points, but still resulted in a one-point loss. It's hard to say, Geoffrey is holding the blank: maybe he should have held off on the bingo and tried to bingo last himself?

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