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NSC 2002 Commentary: Round 12

Congratulations to our new National Champion, Joel Sherman!

See also: video clip 1 (2 MB), video clip 2 (2 MB). (video courtesy Roger Cullman)

Go to: Before the Tournament, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, After the Tournament.

Round 12

Laura Klein started off this afternoon with announcements and some reminders: scorecard math and requests for players to leave tiles on the table so that others can use them to facilitate the games starting on time. When people remove tiles, it delays game starts because players have to relocate equipment. At one point she jokingly asked the players to stand up and hold up their right hands to swear that they would leave their tiles at nearby boards. And a few players actually took her seriously and stood! The only one I could identify was John C Green Jr (East Palo Alto, CA) from division 6, because he stood up right in front of me! I think Laura will be happy to know that she is being taken seriously!

Some fun stats for you numbers geeks! In division 6, high wins today have been: Jean Lehman (Calgary AB) 456 in round 8, Vera Kuznecov (Vancouver BC) 527 in round 9, Dielle Saldanha (Richmond BC) 429 in round 10, and Geoff Tongue (Tacoma, WA) 572 in round 11. Similarly, high losses have been: Marjorie Bash (Nashua, NH) 384 in round 8, Dion Saldanha (Richmond BC) 390 in round 9, Neva Slater (Manchester, CT) 388 in round 10, and Charlotte Bremond (Oakland, CA) 395 in round 11.

Well, it must be getting cold down there because Mark DiBattista (Astoria, NY) has now won not only one game, but two! After a dismal 0-9 start in division 1, he has begun righting his ship. He just defeated Dee Jackson (Massapequa, NY), 396-345, who alerts me to her three wins and suggests I not celebrate his victory too much since she isn't faring much better! Mark mentions that his favorite play so far is when he had AAEOMT?. He hints that there are three bingos and two are food. When the glazed look in my eyes indicated that it might be Tuesday before I came up with any of them, he let me know they are: OATMEAl, ATEMOyA (the one he played, it is a tropical fruit), and METAzOA (the non-food one).

In division 3 news, Rebecca Soble (Naples, NY) defeated Don Bush (San Diego, CA), 473-239. She played OVERLATE from the O for 82 (plus a challenge), ROSEATE for 66, and she opened with QUIRK for 56. Late in the game, she held a bunch of consonants and thought, wouldn't it be great if he played an A. He did, and across the triple, she cleaned up her rack with the lovely PSHAW for 39. When I asked him what was up during the game for him, he points out that he had the blank for the entire game and even had it when he gave her points from his rack at the game's end! She volunteers that the only tiles of consequence to cross his rack were the J and Z.

At a nearby table, James Abbott (Vernon Hills, IL) lost his game against Doug Brockmeier (Yorba Linda, CA), 340-373. Doug opened wtih GIAOUR for not a lot of points, but what a rack cleaning play! He later played FINGERED though the I for 76 while Doug got down UNeROTIC to the C for 70. The game's best play was Doug's clever play of OF one short of the triple lane. Holding the only tile that could hook, his next play was VEnT (creating OFT) for 28 points. Not a lot, but enough to win him the game.

Stephen Dennis (Atlanta, GA) and Robin Torrance (Idyllwild, CA) don't think their game worth mention, but I liked Steve's outplay of REEDIESt from the R for 66. He also got down CoLUMNAR from the C for 78. Robin played CHIDERS atop and perpendicular to ARE, creating HARE, for 91. Steve won, 436-316.

Division 6's Don Austin (Los Angeles, CA) defeated Edgar Thomas (Cambridge, MA), 388-382. Don played VASTIER and Edgar got down OUTRuLe and WARNINGS through the first N.

Nigel Richards (Malaysia) is now atop division 1 with 11 wins. Iffy Onyeonwu (Elgin, TX) is pulling away from division 2 with a two-win difference. He is still undefeated at 12-0. Stephen Dennis (Atlanta, GA) and Allan Simon (Calgary AB) are 10-2 in division 3. Norbert Saldanha (Richmond BC), following Iffy's lead, is two ahead of his division 4 mates with an undefeated 12-0 record. Division 5 is narrowing down. Only 4 are at the top now with 10-2 records: Gina DuMez (Elgin, IL), Waheed Thompson (New Orleans, LA), Tim Olsen (Los Angeles, CA), and Scott McDougall (Williamsburg, VA). I guess Scott should go swimming at night every evening! Division 6 has three leaders with 11-1 records: Terry Kang (Philadelphia, PA), Paul Haverly (Los Angeles, CA), and Dielle Saldanha (Richmond BC).

Annotators Eve Wengler and Beth Lerman nominated this round's game between Jeremiah Mead (Chelmsford, MA) and Joel Sherman (Bronx, NY) for this session's on-line game.