The games-intensive Sydney Winter Masters took place once more in the reliable Waratah Room of the Revesby Workers' Club, as 32 players gathered to contest 20 games over the two days of the weekend. Numbers were slightly down on previous years, a fact largely attributable to the complete absence of interstate players, with the exception of Michael Cameron, who travelled from South Australia. Nevertheless, almost all of the top players from NSW were present, so the field was still a very strong one. Of note - this must be the first tournament in NSW (Australia, even?) where all games have been played on revolving boards.
The early results produced a few surprises, with many of the favourites going down in upsets, including the eventual winner Bob Jackman, who lost to his wife Liz in round 2 for the first time in a rated tournament. Paul Cleary was a strong early starter, holding the high word for a few games after playing BOSTRYX against Donna MacDonald in round 3, but the lunchtime leader on day 1 was Ivor Zetler, who knocked off Paul in game 4. The best word I saw that morning would have to have been Cheryl Michler's SUDSLESS (using all four esses) against Graeme Lock Lee.
John Barker, John Holgate, Jan Serisier and Esther Perrins climbed the leader board later on day 1, with John B the last player in the field to lose a game. Norma Tracey's game with Kerry Constable in round 6 provoked some interest, as it had a sequence of moves producing two nine-letter words containing a Q - EqUALIZER and DISQUIETS. Both words were hooked after being played as eights. I heard about two nine-letter bingos in the afternoon - Paul played (UN)DERsIZE and Victor Tung played the impressive (MA)INSTAYS. The only other nine I know about is John Holgate's REOBTAINS on day 2. Paul and Joan Rosenthal played a great game in which Paul recorded a 512-428 win. Paul made GYRATING and INVALIDS and got bingo scores for JEWS and ZEBUS, and Joan found OVERATE, CARNIEST and the excellent EXIMIOUS. In game 10 Graeme Lock Lee scored a whopping 609 points in a game containing only two bingos. Thinking he was a shoo-in for high game, he took his scoresheet to TD Richard Birch, only to discover that Rod Talbot had scored a 610 game in the same round. Rod made ANAPHORS and EPITONIC, among others, in that game. Meanwhile, Hanne Marks laid claim to the high word by playing JITTERED for 194, a massive triple triple that stood for the rest of the tournament.
At the end of the first day 5 players were grouped on 8/11 wins, with Paul leading the field on spread from Ivor. I was lucky to score a win against John Holgate in the final game of the last day to prevent him moving a game clear - he played LoBELINE late on to go ahead, but I was able to play out with JOUSTED a couple of moves later. The morning of day 2 saw Bob Jackman hit the lead, scoring 131 for REACTANT in one game against Ivor. One interesting scenario occurred in a game between Tony Hunt and John Barker. There had been 4 zero scores in a row on a very tight board, with about 30 tiles in the bag. Tony was ahead and it was his play. Knowing that John would probably be unable to make a play if the board didn't change, Tony played a deliberate phony for 13 points, which John was unable to challenge, since the game would have ended one turn later under the 6 zero scores rule. A number of people asked him afterwards why he didn't play a 150 point phony :). I made what may have been the high non-bingo score of the tournament late on day 2, playing JANIZaR for 88 as a double-double.
Bob had a two game lead after round 17, going into the three king-of-the-hill rounds with 14 wins. Esther was in second place on 12, and nobody else had more than 11 wins. Esther therefore needed to win three consecutive games against Bob in order to overtake him and win the tournament. She won the first game despite Bob's excellent find of TILELIKE from a rack of EEIILLT, and also managed to take the second when Bob didn't bingo from an opening rack of FILOSU? and was then forced to hold the blank until well into the game. Game 20 was therefore a playoff between Bob and Esther, and at table 2 Paul and John Holgate were playing off for 3rd place. I didn't catch much of the games, but I know that in the decider Esther played TRAINEE, while Bob made LEASURE and BRIGANDS to finish in first place. Paul and John played what appeared to be an extremely close game, with Paul running out the victor. Congratulations to Bob for defending his title with another great result, and also to Esther, who didn't drop out of the top 6 at any point during the tournament. Interestingly enough, there were no ties in the 320 games played.
Prizes were awarded to the top five finishers (Bob, Esther, Paul, Joanne and myself), for high game (Rod's 610), high word (Hanne's 194 for JITTERED), and the highest rating gain (Pat Schuberg's 75-point jump). Ivor Zetler, the tournament's founder, also donated two prizes - one for the best medical word and one for the best Arabic, Yiddish, Hebrew or Indian word (I think those were the four options!). Sue Gergelifi won the latter with her play of HAFIZ - a Muslim who knows the Koran by heart, according to my OSPD - this being chosen over Ivor's own play of SCHLEP. I won the other prize with PATULIN, whose meaning (a type of drug) I was unaware of when I played it.
Thanks are due to Richard Birch, who did an excellent job as tournament director, for making sure that everything ran smoothly, and Ann Fiddler, who was there for the entire tournament helping out and doing lookups for us. There didn't seem to be any dramas and controversies, and the tournament was thoroughly enjoyable. With any luck, we'll be able to attract greater numbers for next year's event.
Results after game 20
2003 WINTER MASTERS -- OPEN
Rank Player Wins Mar
---------------------------------
1 Bob Jackman 15 793
2 Esther Perrins 14 757
3 Paul Cleary 13 602
4 Joanne Craig 12 814
5 Chris May 12 795
6 John Holgate 12 472
7 Joan Rosenthal 12 -26
8 Michael Cameron 11 1036
9 Rod Talbot 11 936
10 Graeme Lock Lee 11 461
11 Ivor Zetler 11 274
12 Jean McGiffen 11 273
13 Norma Tracey 11 -68
14 John Barker 11 -291
15 Sue Gergelifi 11 -368
16 Tony Hunt 10 143
17 Jan Serisier 10 -98
18 Moana Nepia 10 -115
19 Pat Schuberg 10 -868
20 Peter Shaw 9 245
21 John Spaan 9 -75
22 Victor Tung 9 -323
23 Kerry Constable 9 -330
24 Judy Hay 9 -501
25 Cheryl Michler 8 -289
26 Audrey Newman 8 -423
27 Jean Noonan 8 -435
28 Susan Macgillivray 8 -585
29 Betty Foreman 7 -344
30 Liz Jackman 7 -630
31 Hanne Marks 6 -463
32 Donna Macdonald 5 -1369
HIGH GAME: Rod Talbot 610
HIGH WORD: Hanne Marks 194
"JITTERED"
Stats for Tournament : 2003 WINTER MASTERS
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| state Name | National | State | Wins | Rating Points |
| | Old New | Old New | Exp Act | Old Change New|
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
+Section: *OPEN + + + +
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| NSW Bob Jackman | 6 4 | 3 1 | 14.2 15.0 | 1833 +13 1846 |
| NSW Esther Perrins | 8 7 | 4 4 | 13.0 14.0 | 1796 +21 1817 |
| NSW Paul Cleary | 2 5 | 1 2 | 14.8 13.0 | 1869 -30 1839 |
| NSW Chris May | 13 16 | 6 6 | 14.0 12.0 | 1772 -41 1731 |
| NSW John Holgate | 3 6 | 2 3 | 14.8 12.0 | 1866 -44 1822 |
| NSW Joanne Craig | 27 26 | 8 8 | 11.0 12.0 | 1681 +19 1700 |
| NSW Joan Rosenthal | 20 18 | 7 7 | 11.8 12.0 | 1716 +5 1721 |
| NSW Rod Talbot | 12 13 | 5 5 | 12.5 11.0 | 1778 -30 1748 |
| SA Michael Cameron | 11 17 | 2 2 | 13.8 11.0 | 1782 -55 1727 |
| NSW Graeme Lock Lee | 47 53 | 13 15 | 12.1 11.0 | 1600 -23 1577 |
| NSW Ivor Zetler | 57 38 | 17 10 | 7.8 11.0 | 1567 +64 1631 |
| NSW Jean McGiffen | 48 42 | 14 12 | 9.6 11.0 | 1596 +27 1623 |
| NSW John Barker | 44 41 | 12 11 | 10.3 11.0 | 1609 +14 1623 |
| NSW Norma Tracey | 84 59 | 23 18 | 9.1 11.0 | 1522 +37 1559 |
| NSW Sue Gergelifi | 69 69 | 21 21 | 11.0 11.0 | 1538 1538 |
| NSW Tony Hunt | 49 56 | 15 16 | 11.4 10.0 | 1594 -28 1566 |
| NSW Moana Nepia | 109 101 | 29 27 | 9.4 10.0 | 1476 +11 1487 |
| NSW Jan Serisier | 138 89 | 37 22 | 6.4 10.0 | 1435 +73 1508 |
| NSW Pat Schuberg | 235 173 | 58 45 | 6.3 10.0 | 1304 +75 1379 |
| NSW Peter Shaw | 64 94 | 19 24 | 11.6 9.0 | 1549 -53 1496 |
| NSW Kerry Constable :act | 54 58 | 16 17 | 9.7 9.0 | 1576 -15 1561 |
| NSW John Spaan :act | 72 97 | 22 25 | 11.1 9.0 | 1535 -42 1493 |
| NSW Victor Tung | 236 189 | 59 50 | 6.1 9.0 | 1303 +59 1362 |
| NSW Judy Hay | 253 215 | 63 55 | 6.0 9.0 | 1275 +61 1336 |
| NSW Cheryl Michler | 216 187 | 52 49 | 6.4 8.0 | 1330 +32 1362 |
| NSW Jean Noonan | 139 160 | 38 44 | 9.7 8.0 | 1434 -34 1400 |
| NSW Audrey Newman | 173 154 | 45 40 | 6.8 8.0 | 1381 +24 1405 |
| NSW Susan MacGillivr:act | 100 147 | 26 38 | 11.3 8.0 | 1487 -66 1421 |
| NSW Betty Foreman | 229 235 | 55 58 | 7.5 7.0 | 1316 -10 1306 |
| NSW Liz Jackman | 262 246 | 65 62 | 5.3 7.0 | 1257 +33 1290 |
| NSW Hanne Marks | 150 180 | 40 48 | 8.4 6.0 | 1418 -47 1371 |
| NSW Donna MacDonald | 230 253 | 56 64 | 6.8 5.0 | 1316 -36 1280 |
+-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------+