Round 30

During this round, Holly Riehl, Director of Global Marketing for Hasbro, came by to see the web site. Her work in the past has been with MONOPOLY and she's just been transferred to SCRABBLE^®. She said she couldn't be more delighted. We discussed the future of the game in terms of the School SCRABBLE^® Program and we agreed that it was going to create a plethora of new champions.

This round had Brian Cappelletto and Jim Geary at table 1 and Brian steamrolled another opponent, 409-318. Brian played CONEPATL and Jim takes credit for hooking the S on it for another play. The champ also played DECIDUAE and giving credit where credit is due, Jim said, "I wouldn't have found it. He is just on fire."

Also in division 1, Ron Tiekert fell to the mighty Jere Mead, 511-350.

Jesse Wornum (OR), told me that next NSC he is planning on getting better sleep. He thinks lack of rest caused him to fall apart on day 3. At one point he was at the top boards of division 3.

I just ran into someone from CLTU news, a radio station. She wanted to talk to a word judge. I hooked her up with Jim Bodenstedt, division 1 leader, and last I saw, they were still talking.

Jim Kramer said of his last game, "So my rack was EIUUQSS and it was a tight endgame. That really SUQed."

Joan Mocine, division 2, just finished a game where her opponent used up 18 minutes after only her first two moves. The opponent was fixating on bingoing, but kept missing the front hooks to MENDERS, A and E. In the end, her opponent lost 30 points of score due to the overtime clock. This makes Joan's second win out of two games today!

Toward the end of this round, Iffy Onyeonwe tried the word QUIPUNCTURED for 81 points against Ira Cohen. Ira held for about the time it took him to turn the board and then challenged. Joel Sherman, who was sitting nearby made these observations, "Iffy only tried that because he was 80 points or so behind and despite holding a U had no other way to play the Q. There was some minor banter at the time of the play: Ira said to the word judge 'you'll need the Websters 10th,' and I remarked, 'you might also consider breaking out the works of Lewis Carroll."

Greg Heidler just told me that he and Martin Smith played twice in this tournament. During their first game, Greg noticed how similar their styles were--open board, risk takers, both gambling on the tiles--but he managed to eke out the win. At the beginning of their second game he mentioned to Martin their likeness in play and Martin agreed. I guess they were so similar that they had to end up tying! 471-471!

Bob Crowe tells me much after the fact that his flashiest bingo occurred during the tournament's round 18: the natural ACTIVATOR through two Ts on the board. What a find!

Marlene Milkent says, "this was one on my best tournaments ever! It was great because it was super well-organized; I played well almost all of the time; and with each tourney I have more friends to pal around with."

We've had many Hasbro executive visitors today. In no particular order, they've been, Diane Morris, Marketing Services Manager; Holly Riehl, Director of Marketing; Jackie Williams, Marketing Manager, Gary Stough, Director of U.S. Marketing, Hasbro Games; and Glenn Bilbride, V.P. of U.S. Marketing, Hasbro Games. In addition, we've had the pleasure of having Mark Morris, Public Relations Director, Hasbro Games, here throughout the event.

Danielle Mazzolla of and Russell Grant of Fleishman-Hillard are here today, too, and Eileen Morrice, Corporate Meeting Planner, Hasbro, has been here since yesterday.

-- Sherrie Saint John, Internet Reporter, NSC98

HASBRO is the owner of the registered SCRABBLE^® trademark in the United States and Canada. © 2008 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.

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