To coincide with a few Queenslanders heading down to northern NSW for a another week in the country playing Scrabble, Lismore Scrabble Club put on its second tournament, less than five months after its inaugural tournament.
This time, the numbers were slightly lower, but there were three new faces from Lismore (Josephine Bennett, Elva Estreich and Kath Crosby), a visitor from Newcastle, Therese Newman, and two players we haven't seen for a while, Anna Butterfield and John Cummins. Anna's last tournament was almost 4 years ago in Queensland. She has spent some of the time since then living out of the State. John last played about 3 years ago. He used to play in SA, but moved to Murwillumbah in far northern NSW a few years ago, where he has been a member of ASPAQ as Queensland is the location of the nearest club to him.
Again, Lismore's tournament was designed as round robins with groups of eight, but with only two players in the potential lowest section, it was decided to move them up a section. So section A and B played round robins while the ten in the enlarged section C played to the usual format. All played 7 45-minute games.
Section A was all Queenslanders. Round 1 produced an upset as Anna Butterfield beat Edward Okulicz, 452-377. Both players agreed that the letters had gone Anna's way. This was an excellent return to tournament play for Anna (who found out later that Edward was the current Australian champion), but she was somewhat out of practice and was not able to take another game, although she only lost by 13 to Alastair Richards and by 7 to his father, Paul.
Next round, Edward bounced back and more than doubled Olga Visser's score to gain the high game of 532, but later lost closely in a tight game, 321-326, to Karen Richards.
Karen lost only to her husband Paul and to me. Our game was close. Despite her big bonus of EXPENDED for 110, which gave her an 82-point lead (besides snaring the section's high word), I was able to answer immediately with a 104-point play of my own to regain the lead. She missed a bonus near the end (as Edward pointed out later) which probably cost her the game. Soon after, we were level on 416 each, but I found a nice play which Karen's out-play couldn't top, and she ended up losing 434-448 to achieve the tournament's highest loss.
Going into 7th round, I was leading on 5 wins, with Edward, Olga and Karen next on 4 wins. I was matched to play Edward, and Olga was matched against Olga. Edward had to beat me by at least 56, and hope that Olga didn't have a big win, to take first. Karen beat Olga by 8 points and Edward beat me by exactly 100, so Edward came first, and I was relegated to second, while Karen slotted into third. I missed a late bonus against Edward which would have still had him winning the game, but by an insufficient margin to take the tournament.
Given that nearly 40% of the players in A were from the Richards family, it might be interesting to check the result of the "Richards round robin" since Karen, Paul and Alastair played each other.
Wins Aggr Margin
----------------------------
Paul 2 843 +219
Karen 1 681 -147
Alastair 0 717 -72
Paul was top this time, courtesy of a big win (455-280) over Karen, but
Alastair didn't lose by much in his games.
In section B, Newcastle visitor Therese Newman lost only to Rowena Vnuk (the lowest-rated in the section) on her way to winning the section and picking up 49 points. Second-placed Martin Waterworth, the only one on 5 wins, built up an aggregate, 2932, which was over 300 points more than anyone else in the section. So it's not surprising that he also took the section's high game of 486. Karen Telford found a stylish high word of STYLINGS for 158. Rowena had the highest loss, 394 against Martin on 426. The other NSW player in the section, Alan Foley of Lismore, had achieved a high rating after his first showing at a tournament (Lismore's inaugural) netted him a clean sweep. But early ratings can be unreliable, and Alan wasn't able to maintain the promise his rating suggested.
Section C was contested by 9 players from NSW (including ASPAQ member John Cummins) and Elliott Richards of Queensland. John Vanderbyl of the host club led most of the way and was ahead of David Kleinig (also Lismore) and John Cummins going into the last round. All three were on 5 wins, but John Vanderbyl lost his last game, while David and the other John won theirs, so John Vanderbyl slipped back to third, while the others took the top spots.
There was some excitement when Leah Jackson, organiser of the host club, played aRRIVING through N for 185. In fact, like others who play their first triple-triple, she originally scored it much less, but fortunately she was corrected. The play helped make Leah's game score, 476, the section's highest. Leah, David and John Cummins also picked up nice rating gains of 60-70 points each.
Prizes also went to the novices. Elva Estreich, who came 5th, was the best novice, and had the highest word for a novice, FISH for 56. Josephine Bennett, who came 7th, was the second novice. Her 305 win over John Vanderbyl in the last round gave her the highest novice game.
Results
26 players, 7 games
Sections A & B played a round-robin
Section C played standard format
Ranked by wins and aggregate
Rank Player Wins Aggr
-----------------------------------
A
1 Edward Okulicz Q 5 2895
2 Michael Vnuk Q 5 2850
3 Karen Richards Q 5 2645
4 Olga Visser Q 4 2782
5 Paul Richards Q 4 2583
6 Alastair Richards Q 2 2500
7 Patti Ashwin Q 2 2361
8 Anna Butterfield Q 1 2501
HG Edward Okulicz Q 532
HW Karen Richards Q EXPENDED 110
B
1 Therese Newman 6 2599
2 Martin Waterworth Q 5 2932
3 Doug Hodgetts Q 4 2455
4 Svend Grunnet Q 3 2599
5 Rowena Vnuk Q 3 2507
6 Jack Ashwin Q 3 2483
7 Karen Telford Q 2 2465
8 Alan Foley 2 2290
HG Martin Waterworth Q 486
HW Karen Telford Q STYLINGS 158
C
1 David Kleinig 6 2335
2 John Cummins 6 2282
3 John Vanderbyl 5 2448
4 Leah Jackson 5 2234
5 *Elva Estreich 3 1720
6 Taran Tula 3 1664
7 *Josephine Bennett 3 1628
8 Sue Ross 2 1849
9 Elliott Richards Q 1 1423
10 *Kath Crosby 1 1408
HG Leah Jackson 476
HW Leah Jackson ARRIVING 185
* = novice
Q = Queenslanders; NSW players unmarked
Ratings
Nat rank State rank Wins Rating points
Name Old New Old New Exp Act Old Chg New
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
A
| Edward Okulicz Q | 10 10 | 3 3 | 6.1 5.0 | 1817 -18 1799 |
| Michael Vnuk Q | 40 39 | 5 5 | 4.8 5.0 | 1638 +4 1642 |
| Karen Richards Q | 69 57 | 8 6 | 4.1 5.0 | 1564 +17 1581 |
| Olga Visser Q | 57 61 | 6 7 | 4.3 4.0 | 1581 -6 1575 |
| Paul Richards Q | 167 147 | 14 14 | 2.6 4.0 | 1400 +27 1427 |
| Alastair Richards Q | 289 279 | 30 31 | 1.1 2.0 | 1210 +17 1227 |
| Patti Ashwin Q | 225 226 | 21 22 | 1.8 2.0 | 1311 +3 1314 |
| Anna Butterfield Q | 0 151 | 0 15 | 3.2 1.0 | 1466 -45 1421 |
B
| Therese Newman | 449 416 | 107 100 | 3.8 6.0 | 991 +49 1040 |
| Martin Waterworth Q | 452 436 | 56 51 | 3.8 5.0 | 985 +24 1009 |
| Doug Hodgetts Q | 577 542 | 79 77 | 2.6 4.0 | 879 +27 906 |
| Svend Grunnet Q | 496 503 | 65 67 | 3.3 3.0 | 943 -6 937 |
| Rowena Vnuk Q | 692 662 | 98 95 | 1.6 3.0 | 768 +28 796 |
| Jack Ashwin Q | 442 456 | 52 57 | 3.9 3.0 | 999 -18 981 |
| Karen Telford Q | 426 458 | 46 59 | 4.2 2.0 | 1022 -43 979 |
| Alan Foley | 366 438 | 92 106 | 4.9 2.0 | 1095 -86 1009 |
C
| David Kleinig | 876 808 | 226 206 | 4.3 6.0 | 610 +62 672 |
| John Cummins | 0 920 | 0 156 | 3.2 6.0 | 509 +70 579 |
| John Vanderbyl | 798 797 | 201 201 | 5.0 5.0 | 678 +2 680 |
| Leah Jackson | 1087 936 | 297 244 | 3.1 5.0 | 500 +71 571 |
| *Elva Estreich | 0 1137 | 0 225 | 3.2 3.0 | 500 |
| Taran Tula | 1094 1135 | 304 306 | 3.1 3.0 | 500 500 |
| *Josephine Bennett | 0 1136 | 0 224 | 3.1 3.0 | 500 |
| Sue Ross | 1091 1138 | 301 307 | 3.1 2.0 | 500 500 |
| Elliott Richards Q | 1106 1139 | 215 226 | 3.3 1.0 | 500 500 |
| *Kath Crosby | 0 1094 | 0 214 | 3.5 1.0 | 500 |
* = novice
Q = Queenslanders; NSW players unmarked
Note: CASPA decided at its 2001 AGM to manually adjust to 500 all ratings
which fall below 500.