CNSC 2011 Commentary: Round 7

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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.

The truth hurts. We are all coming back from the Hasbro supplied lunch in the lobby (sandwiches, green salads, pesto pasta salad, cookies, etc.) when Andy Saunders (Guelph ON) stops by my table with Chris Lipe. He says, "I suppose I won't have to beg for any coverage of my game this round because I'm playing Dielle Saldanha (Richmond BC)." I burst out laughing because I know he's right! Chris gets on the defensive and insists this isn't exactly true....

The hotel's catering has been splendid so far today. Everyone enjoyed lunch and having it on site kept us on time and going into the next round quickly. Thanks to Hasbro Canada!

It is worth pointing out that we've only got one undefeated player thus far: Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC). He's at board 1 this round with Eric Tran (Calgary AB). Eric had been doing pretty well at the top, but just lost this last round to Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC).

Speaking of Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC), Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON) nearly ran me over to turn in his game result: 415-388 in Evan's favor.

The only person with a fan in the foyer, Chris Bonin (Toronto ON) is having a hard tournament so far. I see him playing Vera Bigall (Toronto ON) and venture over. He's wearing his special MEDICATE/DECIMATE T-shirt that a friend of his made. I ask if he won and he smiled and said, "No, I'm holding out on winning until tomorrow." I see SURREAL, VOMITO, sULTANS, and REGREETs on their baord. Her win, 472-340.

Jeremy Hildebrand (Ottawa ON) vs. Jackson Smylie (Toronto ON). A quiet looking board with only one bingo: NASTiER. Jackson's win, 382-376. They talked over the board and the possiblities for awhile afterwards. Both of them are so pleasant and low-key.

As of this round, the woman with the best record in the room is Sue Tremblay (Carlsbad Springs ON) and she played Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) this round. She was 4-2 and in 18th place going in, but she lost, 275-382. Sue gets to play Adam often at the Ottawa club and she took the train here with him and Jeremy. She talked about playing Quackle all the way to Toronto and seeing if Adam saw the best play the way Quackle did. Most of the time he did, and when he differed, he explained to her why he thought his play was better than Quackle's! On their board, I spot CRESTING by Sue and Adam's sUBVEnE, SCALARE, and PREX for 81. Sue tried BITED* in a fit of craziness and it got called off. She'll get another chance: she is sure!

I watch John Stardom (Ottawa ON) and Glenn Dunlop (Brantford ON) go to the challenge machine and they look up UNFITTED. Played by Glenn, the word is good. I ask John in the foyer afterwards what was up. He said, "I was holding AAIIBWS, I needed that word to not be good because I could not go out in two." In the end he lost, but he is philosophical about it, shrugs, and then flashes that million dollar smile. He could sell toothpaste that guy: or join the Kennedy family. :)

Lou Cornelis (Stoney Creek ON) vs. Will Nediger (London ON): BANDOGs and DEVOICED.

John Dungey (Mitchell ON) vs. Glenn Mosher (Toronto ON): ERAsION and FUSSIER are Glenn's plays and sLEEPER went down for John. Glenn won that game.

Randall Thomas (Calgary AB) beckoned me over to his game. He said, "Remember that bingo/bango/bongo game you reported on? Well, I just did to him what was done to me!" I look down and see SAINTED, ENFOLDER (which drew a challenge), and ALIENATE. His opponent, Jeff Parsons (Logy Bay NL), played vIRILITY in the middle of that flurry!

Shaun Goatcher (Amherstburg ON) takes the time to grumble a bit about the colour of the squares on these boards. It caused him to misadd a play this game and he's had similar issues in every game so far. This rouind, he lost to Jesse Matthews (Kelowna BC), 403-427. I see INVeRTOR, INKIEsT, and TENTORIA by Jesse. Other fun plays LALLED and GALAX.

Bernard Gotlieb (Montréal QC) is just such a mensch. Every spare moment he has, someone in the room is talking to him, laughing, enjoying him or herself. This round it is George MacAulay (Saskatoon SK) whose light is shining bright. Bernard is eating some salad that he didn't have time to finish over lunch. George is regaling him with some fun tale and they are both laughing. I decide to eavesdrop. I'll be.... they are speaking French! So much for stolen conversations! George tells me he always speaks French with Bernard as it is George's first language. Years ago, as a child, George played LINGO (as French SCRABBLE was known back then) with his mother. So, he played the game for years, in French, before he tried to break into the English SCRABBLE scene. He called Bernard explaining that he thought he'd like to try the club. Bernard invited George to his home, suggesting they meet and play there first. Well the rest is history and George has just been brilliant in BOTH languages!

Mad Palazzo informs me that she is learning a lot by codirecting this year. By observing tile rack placement, she realizes that the successful players arrange them alphabetically.... So, she says she is going to try that now.

Chris writes:

Early in the round, looking at the assembled games, and it looks like many players have blanks on their rack.

Andrew Golding (Verdun QC) has put both of them down with the nice find MeSNALtY against Yvonne Lobo (Mississauga ON).

Gabriel Gauthier-Shalom (Montreal QC) had both blanks and hit a triple-triple EpILoGUE against Matthew Tunnicliffe (Ottawa ON).

David Boys (Dorval QC) bingoed with INDICTER, putting the I in the 3x3 lane, with Bernard Gotlieb (Montréal QC) holding ACILRS?. Bernie plays CARLINgS through the N in INDICTER, and a couple turns later Dave plays the other blank in GREeNTHS.

It's barely started, but already Andy Saunders (Guelph ON) and Dielle Saldanha (Richmond BC) have ventured to the challenge computer. I don't know exactly what happened, but Andy just picked up his tiles, and his rack is arranged to spell TUNEOUT* (I asked Andy after the game, and he'd tried UNTOUTED*, which is reasonable. "A prospect who comes up to the majors with no hype is an untouted prospect," he says. "Put that in the commentary!")

Insofar as there's a place for it, Gab will be bingoing next turn. Yep, down goes INSOFAR.

Juraj Pivovarov (Calgary AB) opens his game against Jason Ubeika (Mississauga ON) with WHORE, and Jason comes back with AMEOBOUs*. It doesn't stay on the board for too long.

Dielle is holding IIOPRT? and bingos with PeRIOTIC, drawing the challenge from Andy. Andy's gotten down two power tile bingos — LIONIZES and CAIQUES, so the game is pretty close.

Next to them, Shan Abbasi (Mississauga ON) has finished already! It's his win over David Jones (Ottawa ON), 560-297. Shan had big plays with the J, Q, X, and Z, and had three bingoes — iNTONING, RECOLORS, and RELINED for 87 and out. What's more, he finished with 20:14 on his clock — the whole game took him four minutes and 46 seconds. Sometimes the best play is that obvious.

Bernie is sitting on KMFDPGN. Now KMFDM is a great band, but not such a good SCRABBLE rack.

In the Ross Brown (Ottawa ON) vs Craig Rowland (Mississauga ON) game, I espy MEDICARES on the board. What do these Canadians know about Medicare?

Lou Cornelis (Stoney Creek ON) has beaten Will Nediger (London ON) 380-342. After the game Will mentioned that when Lou dumped three Ts playing TUTTI, Will needed one of those Ts in a different place to play SOVIETIC#. Lou said, "That's not good" — I check quickly and it's Collins-only. "Good thing you didn't give me the T," said Will.

Gab has finished his game with Matthew with a 486-396 win, powered by the triple-triple.

I lean over to ask Betty Bergeron (Calgary AB) if she's got that third win. "Look at this," she says, "Mark Edelson (Toronto ON) played PIGNOLIA and BASENJIS. I got HERTZed," referring to her second play for 44. Her first rack was AGOOOUU and she traded seven. It didn't get too much better the rest of the way.

Andy comes up to me after the game with Dielle, and it sounds like it got out of hand for him after that lost turn on PeRIOTIC. "From before that play to the end she outscored me 250-40," Andy says. Dielle's win 465-347.

Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON) has eked out another close win, this time against Ben Lam (Toronto ON) 360-346. Zev bingoed late with ABSTERGE.

Andrew Golding won his game with Yvonne 473-344. He hit hard with DEALATES late, and Yvonne's SENTENCE wasn't enough to come back.

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