CNSC 2011 Commentary: Round 5

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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.

So, Mr. Loud Pants, or Ben Lam (Toronto ON), as he is better known, played Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) this round. If Adam sat just right throughout their game, the tablecloth managed to obscure said pants so that Adam wasn't left permanently blind.

Early on in a Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON) vs. George MacAulay (Saskatoon SK) game: MEDALINg and BURSEED.

Chris Bonin (Toronto ON) vs. Jeff Parsons (Logy Bay NL): SPORTIER, LAWyERS, and the Meryl Streep fun DINGOEs.

John Dungey (Mitchell ON) and Ross Brown (Ottawa ON). I see aDDITION, REGAINED, DELETES, and OUTRAISE on their board. Fun nonbingos: PYXIS, KATION, and ERICA. Ross' win, 410-358.

Glenn Mosher (Toronto ON) vs. Shan Abbasi (Mississauga ON). Early on, I see IDEATION.

A finished board devoid of players in the corner of the room. Like a sleuth, I dig around for paperwork and find that Will Nediger (London ON) defeated Yvonne Lobo (Mississauga ON), 532-351. Each of them had a bingo-bongo: her AILERONS for 70 and COGITATE for 64 and his HEADING for 76 and OVERNEAR for 76. In addition, Will got down MASTERING for 78 and THUMBED for 91. Other fun plays: FOZY for 43 and JOTS for 44. Will just finished his degree at the University of Western Ontario and in the fall will head to the University of Michigan to work on a Ph.D. in linguistics. We are working on creating company for Jere Mead at the top! Another non-math expert!

(John: modern linguistics can involve a good deal of mathematics, albeit of the applied variety.)

Always smilng and even now she smiles as she signs endgame paperwork. Andy Saunders (Guelph ON) defeats Vera Bigall (Toronto ON), 459-340. Each had two bingos: her EARSTONE and AnEROID and his SNOGGED and IrONIES. I also see WURZEL. Andy said, "I had amazing tiles." Vera smiled and mentioned that he forgot he was good, too!

Allan Simon (Calgary AB) played Jackson Smylie (Toronto ON) this round and lost, 353-389. I see Allan's WEARiED and Jackson's ANNELIDs.

So, the smoke is rising off their heads. Ben Lam (Toronto ON) of the loud pants and Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) are concentrating fiercely. Suddenly, Adam pauses the clock and off they tromp on the challenge field trip. SLUMMED comes back acceptable. Later Adam explains he was 99.9% it was good, but he needed it to not be good to eke out a win. He failed at this goal and lost, 390-436. I see Adam's SYNOPTiC for 95 and OROIDEs. Ben played TOENAILS and HEADIEST. There was a bit of Adam having nice plays but always being blocked and thwarted by Ben. This is Adam's second loss so far, so he's 3-2. It is early on and anything can happen from here on out, to anyone in the room, essentially!

At the same table, Max Panitch (Toronto ON) and John Stardom (Ottawa ON) wrap up their odyssey. As Max tromps off to turn in their slip, John says, "He's got my number. I got both blanks and he still won the game." I look over the board and then John's super clear and neat scoresheet. He says, "Note the series of bludgeoning plays in the middle," and his finger glanced over a series of plays in the opponent column: LINGIES for 72, BITEWING for 66, BOSQUE for 54, FEAZE for 81, and CALIX for 44. John played three bingos himself: BoOMERS for 92, VArIATES for 78, and THERETO for 68. Not enough, and Max won, 457-403.

I get called over to bingo-bango-bongo land. Tony Leah (Ajax ON) messed with Randall Thomas (Calgary AB) badly this game! A game of cat and mouse started things off. Randall played YUP and then Tony played IMPAIRER through the P. Then Randall played small elsewhere and Tony played FARoUCHE. Then Randall played VIVA and Tony put down LATERIZE through the second A. Randall had EXINE for 60 and ADENINES for 60, but lost, 365-510.

Jason Ubeika (Mississauga ON) beat Jesse Matthews (Kelowna BC) in a hotly contested game this round, 452-416. Jason played a pretty LISTENED through the T down the triple and on his next turn put down ENURINg/gLISTENED! He later played AGItATE, too. Jesse got down VARIOLES through the I (and later played BOP/OVARIOLES!) and ROTARIES.

We are breaking now for coffee and snacks and they look a lot like breakfast to me! After the next round, we have lunch and then go to a weight management meeting!

Chris writes:

Walking past Gabriel Gauthier-Shalom (Montreal QC) playing David Wood (Thunder Bay ON), Gab is laying down EIDOS. Gotta love those sticky-S fives.

Shan Abbasi (Mississauga ON) is playing Glenn Mosher (Toronto ON) and his rack is AEIHRW? — HAyWIRE doesn't play anywhere. He plays off HAW keeping the blank. There's an UN open on the left side of the board — can Shan pull off another nine? A few turns later I see Shan has bingoed with fRUITED. Too bad UNFRUITED* isn't a word.

Walking by David Boys (Dorval QC) vs David Jones (Ottawa ON), I see TOLLGATE on the board. Stylish!

Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON) waved me over midgame — George MacAulay (Saskatoon SK) has played a 3x3 MEDALING. As I take notes on the great play, George is playing WoODSIA.

Lou Cornelis (Stoney Creek ON) is sitting in front of his board looking a little glum. Late in the game Matthew Tunnicliffe (Ottawa ON) played SYNES#, which Lou took off the board. (In the OWL, none of AULD LANG SYNE take an S.) This gave Lou a chance to play QAID for 42 but he picked up a bunch of clunkers at the end and couldn't make up the deficit with Matthew's out in two. Midgame Matthew had bingoed with ENNOBLES, and then to the E played TWEEZE for 76. Lou came back with a five-tile overlap next to ENNOBLES playing UNEASE, making TWEEZES, for 50-something.

Geoffrey Newman (Brampton ON) is sitting at the board going over endgame possibilities. Betty Bergeron (Calgary AB) has scored the upset 366-357. Geoffrey's endgame involved a tough bingo lane to see — the blank had to be an F to hook to the end of FIE. Even without the bingo, Geoffrey just couldn't put together the "out in two" to pull out the win. Will Nediger (London ON) comes over, and the three of us talk for a couple minutes, not seeing a winning out in two sequence either.

Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON) came from behind at the end of his game with Dielle Saldanha (Richmond BC). Dielle was up late thanks to LATEENED*, REANOINT, and a gorgeous 2x2 through a B holding HIIINS?? — InHIBItS. Evan bingo-bangoed out with ANGRIER and MODULATE, and there were too many openings for Dielle to block them all.

Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) is having a tough day at the office — take, for example, her opening rack against Deen Hergott (Ottawa ON). She was holding CGNTTTU, and Deen's A on the star gave her CATGUT for 10 to keep NT. The rest of the game didn't get much better for Robin, though, and it's Deen's win 474-336. Robin hit RESIZE for 76, and a late game bingo TRIDENTs, but Deen's OVERAGE, LUMBARS, and DOgLIKE were too much.

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