Sydney Olympic Marathon - 2nd September 2000


Fourteen players rated over 1500 at the time of entry took part in the Sydney Olympic Scrabble Marathon, at Ivor Zetler's relatively new residence in the leafy northern suburb of Beecroft.

Jan Serisier was fastest out of the blocks, managing to win her first six games. A swab failed to reveal any foreign substances had been imbibed before this Olympic event. After only a few later hiccups, Jan continued her good run to finish a very creditable 6th.

Back into Scrabble with a vengeance, John Spaan, now resident in the ACT, wasn't having such a good time. He remained winless up to game 10, yet on the way had picked up high word scores first for STEENING (145) and later against Paul Cleary for JOTTINGS (185).

Paul himself got off to a poor start, dropping three of his first four games, but recovered well to find himself in a position to challenge John Holgate for the honours in the 14th and final game which was King of the Hill. John was one game clear, but Paul had a larger spread thanks mainly to a 350 point drubbing of Norma Tracey in the previous game. The winner of the final game between John and Paul would win the event.

And for once it was not Paul who won the playoff. Bad memories of the International Masters would have been with John as this time he successfully defended Paul's challenge to win the final game and overall first placing two games clear of Paul, me and Esther Perrins.

Many thanks go to the Zetler family for giving up their residence for one day in the name of Scrabble. The move from the old Carlingford garage was welcomed, and those there yesterday were hopeful that the experience will be repeated next year.

Results after game 14
ROUND ROBIN -- A

Rank Player            Wins     Mar
---------------------------------
  1  John Holgate        12     918
  2  Paul Cleary         10    1095
  3  Bob Jackman         10     843
  4  Esther Perrins      10     724
  5  John Foley           9     588
  6  Jan Serisier         9      54
  7  Joanne Craig         7    -288
  8  Peter Shaw           6     297
  9  Ivor Zetler          6    -944
 10  John Barker          5    -323
 11  Rod Talbot           5    -404
 12  Norma Tracey         4    -947
 13  John Spaan           3    -710
 14  Gloria Gallagher     2    -903
HIGH GAME: Peter Shaw        577
HIGH WORD: John Spaan        185
            "JOTTINGS"

Stats for Tournament : ROUND ROBIN

+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| state     Name           | National  | State   |   Wins    | Rating Points |
|                          | Old  New  | Old New | Exp  Act  | Old Change New|
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
+Section: *A                           +         +           +               +
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| NSW John Holgate         |    8    6 |   3   2 |  9.6 12.0 | 1824 +40 1864 |
| NSW Paul Cleary          |    5    5 |   1   1 | 10.5 10.0 | 1877  -6 1871 |
| NSW Bob Jackman          |   12   10 |   5   4 |  8.8 10.0 | 1774 +26 1800 |
| NSW Esther Perrins       |    6    7 |   2   3 | 10.4 10.0 | 1865  -5 1860 |
| NSW John Foley           |   10   11 |   4   5 |  9.8  9.0 | 1807  -9 1798 |
| NSW Jan Serisier         |  127   54 |  34  16 |  3.6  9.0 | 1474 +131
1605 |
| NSW Joanne Craig         |   47   42 |  14  11 |  6.3  7.0 | 1621 +16 1637 |
| NSW Peter Shaw           |   38   45 |  10  12 |  6.8  6.0 | 1644 -14 1630 |
| NSW Ivor Zetler          |  101   78 |  25  22 |  4.3  6.0 | 1513 +36 1549 |
| NSW John Barker          |   43   60 |  12  18 |  6.8  5.0 | 1631 -33 1598 |
| NSW Rod Talbot           |   17   29 |   6   8 |  9.1  5.0 | 1763 -79 1684 |
| NSW Norma Tracey         |  137  131 |  38  36 |  3.5  4.0 | 1458  +9 1467 |
| NSW John Spaan :act      |  106  126 |  26  33 |  4.4  3.0 | 1501 -27 1474 |
| NSW Gloria Gallagher     |  118  149 |  32  42 |  4.0  2.0 | 1478 -39 1439 |
+-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------+