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NSC 2011 Commentary: Round 25

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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, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, After the Tournament.


Round 25

Stephen Sneed (Fort Worth, TX) had a one/two punch this morning, playing with his buddy Richard Spence (Tucson, AZ) in round 24 and losing and then squaring off against his other buddy Matt Canik (Austin, TX) this round and losing again. Feeling bad and unwilling to talk about it much, Matt admitted that he'd opened their game this round with a phoney bingo. There was more looking down and mumbling, but I couldn't really hear it all.

Ross Brown (Ottawa ON) had a high-scoring game against Kate Fukawa-Connelly (Kittery, ME) this round, winning, 552-313. He played STABBERS through the T for 70, UNSAFETY from the U for 80 (I said to him, "Oh, I would have challenged that!" He said, "It was challenged, it's good."), the fun R-dump of FARRIER from the FA for 20, and TELESONIC through the S for 66. In a fit of "I need to do something to open up this board," Kate played LAZIES, leaving an L in the triple lane. Ross responded with his 4th bingo: rOUNDELS through that L for a 131-point triple-triple. Kate responded with rENATURE down the triple using his blank r for 71.

Richard Spence (Tucson, AZ) vs. Travis Carlson (Tucson, AZ): LOFTIeR and ALEVINS for Travis and KAOLINES through the I, INHERED, mERLOTS, and INCITED for Richard. His win, 523-347.

Table 1 in division 3, two School SCRABBLE students squared off. Suhas Rao (Apex, NC) played ALOMER, PROLINES, and SLANDERS and Morris Greenberg (Brookline, MA) played ACERATE. Late in the game, Suhas played sILTIEr, hooking to make BIFFs for 80. This drew a challenge. A 490-351 win for Suhas.

I caught Joe Edley (Port Jefferson, NY) winning a game! He defeated Bradley Whitmarsh (Attleboro, MA) this round, 403-355. To Bradley's vIRAGOS for 75, Joe played SOLDIERY for 74 and DYSTONIC for 65.

Former National and World SCRABBLE champions, Joel Sherman (Bronx, NY) and Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL) squared off this round. I spotted EPHOrAL, TAEnIAE, UNITAGES, GOBONY, DIURON, and DONZEL on the board. The air was so tense, I stood about 10 feet away. Only when it was long over did I get near. They had done a recount and Brian won by 2 points, 370-368. wow.

Jesse Day (Berkeley, CA) vs. Orry Swift (Houston, TX): A bingo bango bongo for Jesse went down in turns 2, 3, and 4 — HeDGERS, SAMOVARS, ATRETIC — then he later played UNSETTLE. Orry played DENIzEN, READOUT, and OLIGOMER. I see HEUGH on the board. Jesse's win, 485-410.

Kenji Matsumoto (Aiea, HI) and Chris Cree (Dallas, TX) are leaning in, heads close, talking about their game. I hear Chris say, "If you pass two and then take 30 minutes on your next rack.... I know something is up." I see PETTInGS, THROATED, OUTLEARNS, and BEADLES. At one point, Chris was down 254-70, so he was happy to crawl back to only a 398-434 loss.

Zbigniew Wieckowski (Woodbury, MN) played TEXAS against Bob Blyler (Clearwater, FL) and it drew a challenge!

I took a candid of Risa Horowitz (Richmond Hill ON) while she was playing. A few minutes later, after the game was over, she said, "I was losing by 250 points, thanks for commemorating it forever!"

"You rushed me well," said Nigel Peltier (Seattle, WA) to Peter Armstrong (Milwaukee, WI). I notice 8 seconds on Nigel's clock and 8 minutes on Peter's. I see a 122-point triple-triple INACtIOn through the C. Nigel played CASER*, hanging the C in the triple lane keeping both blanks. Peter held, he didn't like CASER*, but he ended up not challenging. And that is when the triple-triple was played. I see Peter's pretty FULCRA. A 421-374 win for Nigel.

Kate Fukawa-Connelly (Kittery, ME) stops by my desk. She is doing well, she says, 15 wins but bad spread. "I lose by 200!" She's defeated Trey Wright (Sierra Madre, CA) and Carl Johnson (Beaverton, OR), etc. She almost got to play LOOKALIKE, but she was one tile off. Instead, a turn or two later, she got down dIALOGIC to the C, then later she played EJECTION from the E to the triple. These two in games against Carl. She then was whisked off for Thai by some friends.

Judy Newhouse (Houston, TX) who complains about little, said, I had to show you my rack! She handed me a card that said: EEEEFUW, Judy; BEIORT?, Jeff Fiszbein (South Lyon, MI). "He lapped me in that game," she said.

From the "we are all getting punchy department," Judy Cole (Concord, MA) tells me about a game at her table (the game beside her game). Opponent A played a word, B held A. Then all of a sudden, in a very random comment, A said, "Hey! Why is your clock running backwards?!" B said, "Well, because all clocks run backwards in SCRABBLE tournaments.... we count down from 25.... ?.... " It all came rushing in to an embarrassed A. The whole table had a good laugh.

Christina Simon walked in during lunch, all done up in high heels, with pearls. She'd just stopped by from work. She was unable to attend the NSC this year and she wanted to peek her head in. Sadly, everyone was at lunch!

Ross Brown (Ottawa ON) comes back from lunch and tells me that he "gave" Chris Cree (Dallas, TX) a win earlier today. He convinced himself that Chris had no outplay and Chris found CAMPO. Game over, man.

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, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, After the Tournament.



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