NSW Championships - 1st to 3rd October 2005


Report from Mark Smith

The New South Wales Scrabble Championships were held at the Bankstown Sports Club this year over 3 days, with 95 keen Scrabblers attending.

The 3 day event saw 72 entries split into four evenly numbers divisions of 18 players each, with 8 games of 22 minutes a side played each day. There was an additional 23 players attending the one day event held on Monday with eight games to be contested.

As I scanned the room looking for notable plays I saw a most unusual sight. Bob Jackman was deducting 20 points from his score and Tony Hunt was adding 20 points. When Bob emptied the bag he had 5 consonants and not a single vowel. Tony managed to play off just a few tiles at a time and make a comeback from around 60 behind to win by just 8 points after the 40 point turnaround.

Put your self in this position. You just play LAPSERS for around 70 points to move you score along to 390 with your opponent sitting on 259. By playing your bonus you empty the bag of the last 6 tiles, and I imagine you would be feeling quite comfortable....I know I would be. Then your opponent goes out with ENDITING for 80 points and moves his score along to 339...not a bad play to narrow the margin at the end. The rub was that the last six tiles Olga Visser removed from the tile bag were.....Z, Q, V, B, P and O...a total of 31 points and a 62 point turn around on the adjustment of the scores. Well done to Peter Shaw for not giving up and turning a 131 deficit into an 11 point victory on the last move without the aid of a 9 timer.

Game 14 was quite eventful with the lights being cut to the playing room for around 10 seconds. This seems to be a little bit of a trend at the Banktown Sports club with the fire alarms sounding for a 10 minute period at another event held there a few months ago.

John Spaan and Joanne Craig traded blows with trying to find the front hook for ENDINGS with John trying a P and Joanne a V. Alas no joy for either.

Rene Chelton managed to get 97 points for SEAZE turning DIT into DITZ.

Rex Shakespeare managed to wrap a Z and an F around and existing IF to make ZIFF and a very handy 70 points in the late part of his game.

Kerry Constable managed to score her highest losing score in a tournament wither her 461 - 476 loss to Jan Serisier in game 21. I don't know if there was a higher losing score in the tournament.

Cheryl Michler had a great story to tell me on Sunday morning, not about Scrabble, but about the attention to detail that Scrabble players have. After arriving on Sunday morning Cheryl noticed that the diamond from here engagement ring was missing. As you can imagine Cheryl was a little upset. Kerry Constable had noticed the diamond on the floor the eevning before and handed it in to Wilma. Needless to say Cheryl was most pleased.

Kerry also managed to prove that Scrabblers have a great eye for detail late on Saturday.

My own tournament turned into a rather dour affair for myself. I was feeling quite good after day one with 6 wins from 8 games, but how things change. I proceeded to lose the last 6 games of day two and first six games a day three. A twelve game losing streak...certainly my worst ever. Can anyone report a better tournament losing streak? (I am happy to accept private replies!)

ASPA NSW held the Annual General Meeting after the Sunday day's play, which was well attended.

Colleen Walker won the "Joan Rosenthal" award for the player that gained the most ratings points for the full twelve month period prior to this years championships. Colleen gained over 400 ratings points during the past twelve months. Colleen managed to gain a further 23 points this weekend, starting the defense of her title for next year on the right foot.

Tresham Rendel had the high rating gain for the tournament. Tresham gained 153 points over the 3 days. A great result considering her expected wins was only 4 and she won 11 games.

Congratulations to all of the winners and thanks to the Scrabble NSW committee on a very well run event.

Results after game 24
2005 NSW CHAMPIONSHIPS -- MASTERS

Rank  Player            Wins Mar
---------------------------------
  1   Edward Okulicz      20     1357
  2   Chris May           16      988
  3   Alistair Kane       16      644
  4   Rod Talbot          15      261
  5   Bob Jackman         14      342
  6   Peter Shaw          14      194
  7   John Holgate        13      765
  8   Sue Kyatt           13      569
  9   John Barker         13     -197
 10   Tony Hunt           11      -10
 11   Joanne Craig        11     -259
 12   Karen Richards       9      140
 13   Alastair Richards    9     -294
 14   Jean McGiffen        9     -486
 15   Carmel Dodd          9     -588
 16   Paul Richards        9    -1191
 17   Olga Visser          8     -984
 18   John Spaan           7    -1251
HIGH GAME: John Barker       625
HIGH WORD: Edward Okulicz    167
            "TRANSMEW"

 Results after game 24
2005 NSW CHAMPIONSHIPS -- ADVANCED

Rank  Player            Wins Mar
---------------------------------
  1   Susan MacGillivray  15       49
  2   Alison Pollard      14.5     60
  3   Graeme Lock Lee     14     1012
  4   Hanne Marks         14      574
  5   Kerry Constable     14      554
  6   Justin Moyle        14      373
  7   Rene Chelton        14      296
  8   Trish Reynolds      13.5    156
  9   Jeff Chelton        13      334
 10   Jan Serisier        13      324
 11   Wayne Jones         13      291
 12   Betty Foreman       12      -41
 13   Mal Ramsdale        11.5   -187
 14   Rex Shakespeare     10     -327
 15   Gary Pollard         9.5   -537
 16   Mark Smith           8     -576
 17   Raya Wilkinson       7    -1104
 18   Audrey Newman        6    -1251
HIGH GAME: Graeme Lock Lee   578
HIGH WORD: Rex Shakespeare       185
            "SQUINTER"

 Results after game 24
2005 NSW CHAMPIONSHIPS -- INTERMEDIATE

Rank  Player            Wins Mar
---------------------------------
  1   Ian Close           16      580
  2   Bev Purkis          16      -76
  3   Sam Greenberg       14.5    963
  4   Pat Schuberg        14      585
  5   Sharon Sorensen     14      575
  6   Margaret Andrews    14      -98
  7   Colleen Walker      14     -257
  8   David More          12      221
  9   Ann Fiddler         12      111
 10   Cheryl Michler      12     -219
 11   Jenny Templeton     12     -574
 12   Janine Whittaker    11     -139
 13   Michael Adler       11     -672
 14   Judy Hay            10.5     57
 15   Stuart Pridham      10      104
 16   Margaret Berliner    9     -160
 17   Natalie Tadday       8     -362
 18   Denise Smith         6     -639
HIGH GAME: Stuart Pridham    522
HIGH WORD: Margaret Berliner     105
            "DIALYSE"

 Results after game 24
2005 NSW CHAMPIONSHIPS -- RECREATION

Rank  Player            Wins Mar
---------------------------------
  1   Jean Balmer         17      585
  2   Daphne Bezuidenhout 16.5    721
  3   Don Hadley          16      540
  4   George Khamis       15      607
  5   Rocky Sharma        15      466
  6   Sunny Wright        14      450
  7   Liz Jackman         14      125
  8   Frank Hunt          13      902
  9   Christine Foot      13      501
 10   Heather Sorensen    13      131
 11   Treshem Rendell     11     -180
 12   Philip Smith        10.5   -348
 13   Sue Tuckett         10      123
 14   Maree Heynen        10     -779
 15   Edith Lowbeer        9     -149
 16   Ivana Duria          9     -364
 17   Arie Holla           7    -1058
 18   Diana Field          3    -2273
HIGH GAME: George Khamis     484
HIGH WORD: Liz Jackman           108
            "BAWDILY"

 Results after game  8
2005 NSW CHAMPIONSHIPS -- OPEN

Rank  Player            Wins Byes  Mar
---------------------------------
  1   Sandra Elliott       7         339
  2   Jyoti Chandna        6         409
  3   Therese Newman       6         381
  4   Bill Condon          5         452
  5   Mary-Michal Oxby     5         130
  6   Val Ryan             5         100
  7   Jan Tomlin           5          74
  8   Ram Mohe             5          61
  9   Judy McGuinness      4         257
 10   Veena Mohe           4         110
 11   Shelley Cartwright   4          57
 12   Lisa Peterson        4          20
 13   Pearl Gillott        4        -110
 14   Colin Driver         4        -238
 15   Esther Rolfe         3     1  -176
 16   Maria Kaye           3     1  -359
 17   Tony Kalayzich       3         205
 18   Laura Morgan         2     1  -133
 19   Yvonne Edwards       2     1  -178
 20   Sandra Da Silva      2     1  -181
 21   Esther Clarke        2     1  -183
 22   Joy Morris           2     1  -457
 23   Hazel Knudsen        1     1  -580
HIGH GAME: Bill Condon       533
HIGH WORD: Veena Mohe            104
            "ENQUIRER"

Stats for Tournament : 2005 NSW CHAMPIONSHIPS

+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+----------
-----+
| state     Name           | National  | State   |   Wins    | Rating
Points |
|                          | Old  New  | Old New | Exp  Act  | Old
Change New|
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+----------
-----+
+Section: *MASTERS                     +         +           +
+
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------
-----+
| NSW Edward Okulicz       |    5    2 |   1   1 | 17.2 20.0 | 1817 +45
1862 |
| NSW Chris May            |    7    7 |   2   2 | 16.5 16.0 | 1797 -11
1786 |
| VIC Alistair Kane        |    3    6 |   3   5 | 17.4 16.0 | 1826 -22
1804 |
| NSW Rod Talbot           |   20   12 |   8   4 | 13.0 15.0 | 1691 +40
1731 |
| NSW Bob Jackman          |   18   15 |   6   5 | 13.6 14.0 | 1699  +8
1707 |
| NSW Peter Shaw           |   33   22 |  11   8 | 10.8 14.0 | 1607 +65
1672 |
| NSW John Holgate         |   19   20 |   7   7 | 13.8 13.0 | 1697 -16
1681 |
| VIC Sue Kyatt            |   60   29 |  27  11 |  8.2 13.0 | 1530 +96
1626 |
| NSW John Barker          |   48   27 |  15  11 |  8.6 13.0 | 1552 +88
1640 |
| NSW Tony Hunt            |   37   34 |  13  13 | 10.1 11.0 | 1597 +18
1615 |
| NSW Joanne Craig         |   10   25 |   4  10 | 16.3 11.0 | 1762 -107
1655 |
| QLD Karen Richards       |   36   44 |   3   3 | 10.7  9.0 | 1597 -35
1562 |
| QLD Alastair Richards    |   52   48 |   5   4 |  8.5  9.0 | 1543 +11
1554 |
| NSW Jean McGiffen        |   42   53 |  14  16 | 10.5  9.0 | 1575 -30
1545 |
| SA  Carmel Dodd          |   26   47 |   4   4 | 13.0  9.0 | 1637 -80
1557 |
| QLD Paul Richards        |   43   52 |   4   5 | 10.2  9.0 | 1569 -23
1546 |
| QLD Olga Visser          |   61   68 |   6   7 |  8.7  8.0 | 1526 -13
1513 |
| ACT John Spaan           |   69   93 |   2   3 |  8.9  7.0 | 1518 -38
1480 |
+-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+-----------
-----+
+Section: *ADVANCED                    +         +           +
+
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------
-----+
| ACT Susan MacGillivray   |  144   98 |   5   4 | 11.4 15.0 | 1403 +72
1475 |
| NSW Alison Pollard       |  153  114 |  34  27 | 11.5 14.5 | 1393 +60
1453 |
| NSW Graeme Lock Lee      |   84   95 |  21  21 | 14.8 14.0 | 1493 -15
1478 |
| ACT Justin Moyle         |  127  113 |   4   5 | 12.6 14.0 | 1429 +29
1458 |
| ACT Kerry Constable      |   85   88 |   3   2 | 14.5 14.0 | 1493 -10
1483 |
| NSW Hanne Marks          |  129  103 |  31  23 | 12.0 14.0 | 1426 +40
1466 |
| NSW Rene Chelton         |  124  110 |  29  25 | 12.6 14.0 | 1432 +27
1459 |
| QLD Trish Reynolds       |   96   96 |   8   8 | 13.7 13.5 | 1480  -3
1477 |
| NSW Jan Serisier         |   75  107 |  19  24 | 15.2 13.0 | 1506 -44
1462 |
| NSW Jeff Chelton         |  110  129 |  25  30 | 14.1 13.0 | 1453 -23
1430 |
| NSW Wayne Jones          |  226  151 |  46  33 |  8.4 13.0 | 1304 +92
1396 |
| NSW Betty Foreman        |  183  157 |  38  34 | 10.4 12.0 | 1357 +31
1388 |
| NSW Mal Ramsdale         |  203  180 |  41  37 | 10.3 11.5 | 1336 +23
1359 |
| NSW Rex Shakespeare      |  166  194 |  36  40 | 11.6 10.0 | 1377 -31
1346 |
| NSW Gary Pollard         |  221  211 |  44  43 |  8.7  9.5 | 1314 +16
1330 |
| NSW Mark Smith           |  117  203 |  27  41 | 13.3  8.0 | 1443 -107
1336 |
| NSW Raya Wilkinson       |  239  259 |  48  52 |  8.4  7.0 | 1291 -28
1263 |
| NSW Audrey Newman        |  140  248 |  33  49 | 12.5  6.0 | 1408 -130
1278 |
+-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+-----------
-----+
+Section: *INTERMEDIATE                +         +           +
+
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------
-----+
| NSW Ian Close            |  258  227 |  52  46 | 14.4 16.0 | 1266 +33
1299 |
| NSW Bev Purkis           |  342  255 |  81  51 |  9.9 16.0 | 1151 +121
1272 |
| NSW Sam Greenberg        |  294  265 |  65  55 | 12.4 14.5 | 1211 +42
1253 |
| NSW Pat Schuberg         |  281  266 |  61  56 | 13.2 14.0 | 1234 +17
1251 |
| NSW Sharon Sorensen      |  301  281 |  67  61 | 12.6 14.0 | 1207 +27
1234 |
| NSW Margaret Andrews     |  256  263 |  51  54 | 14.7 14.0 | 1269 -13
1256 |
| NSW Colleen Walker       |  285  271 |  63  57 | 12.9 14.0 | 1226 +23
1249 |
| NSW David More           |  277  302 |  59  67 | 13.8 12.0 | 1241 -35
1206 |
| NSW Ann Fiddler          |  362  326 |  84  75 |  9.7 12.0 | 1125 +47
1172 |
| NSW Cheryl Michler       |  264  292 |  54  65 | 14.1 12.0 | 1254 -41
1213 |
| NSW Jenny Templeton      |  359  319 |  83  72 |  9.5 12.0 | 1130 +50
1180 |
| NSW Janine Whittaker     |  372  339 |  89  79 |  8.7 11.0 | 1109 +46
1155 |
| ACT Michael Adler        |  303  316 |   9   9 | 12.1 11.0 | 1205 -21
1184 |
| NSW Judy Hay             |  309  330 |  68  77 | 11.6 10.5 | 1191 -21
1170 |
| NSW Stuart Pridham       |  339  357 |  80  82 | 10.8 10.0 | 1157 -24
1133 |
| NSW Margaret Berliner    |  322  355 |  75  81 | 11.2  9.0 | 1177 -44
1133 |
| NSW Natalie Tadday       |  280  361 |  60  83 | 13.6  8.0 | 1235 -111
1124 |
| NSW Denise Smith         |  333  408 |  78  97 | 11.1  6.0 | 1169 -102
1067 |
+-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+-----------
-----+
+Section: *RECREATION                  +         +           +
+
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------
-----+
| NSW Jean Balmer          |  385  366 |  93  87 | 15.9 17.0 | 1095 +23
1118 |
| NSW Daphne Bezuidenhout  |  529  412 | 127  98 | 11.4 16.5 |  960 +103
1063 |
| NSW Don Hadley           |  417  394 |  99  94 | 14.7 16.0 | 1061 +27
1088 |
| NSW Rocky Sharma         |  483  419 | 119 100 | 12.3 15.0 |  999 +54
1053 |
| NSW George Khamis        |  531  461 | 128 111 | 12.2 15.0 |  959 +56
1015 |
| NSW Sunny Wright         |  414  433 |  97 102 | 15.0 14.0 | 1061 -19
1042 |
| NSW Liz Jackman          |  401  438 |  95 103 | 16.4 14.0 | 1081 -46
1035 |
| NSW Frank Hunt           |  487  485 | 120 120 | 13.0 13.0 |  995  +1
996 |
| ACT Christine Foot       |  399  454 |  11  11 | 16.2 13.0 | 1083 -64
1019 |
| ACT Heather Sorensen     |  451  494 |  12  14 | 14.8 13.0 | 1022 -33
989 |
| NSW Tresham Rendel       |  953  735 | 242 186 |  4.0 11.0 |  637 +153
790 |
| NSW Philip Smith         |  711  652 | 178 161 |  8.3 10.5 |  803 +47
850 |
| NSW Sue Tuckett          |  398  544 |  94 129 | 16.8 10.0 | 1083 -134
949 |
| NSW Maree Heynen         |  681  631 | 167 153 |  8.0 10.0 |  826 +40
866 |
| NSW Ivana Duria          |  593  635 | 145 155 | 10.6  9.0 |  896 -31
865 |
| NSW Edith Lowbeer        |  438  573 | 103 141 | 15.1  9.0 | 1037 -120
917 |
| NSW Arie Holla           |  770  776 | 191 194 |  7.4  7.0 |  759  -5
754 |
| NSW Diana Field          | 1000 1050 | 262 279 |  3.9  3.0 |  611 -17
594 |
+-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+-----------
-----+
+Section: *OPEN                        +         +           +
+
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------
-----+
| NSW Sandra Elliott       |  441  376 | 105  91 |  4.0  7.0 | 1034 +71
1105 |
| NSW Jyoti Chandna        |  423  405 | 101  96 |  5.0  6.0 | 1050 +21
1071 |
| NSW Therese Newman       |  265  275 |  55  60 |  6.4  6.0 | 1252  -6
1246 |
| NSW Bill Condon          |  513  472 | 125 117 |  3.5  5.0 |  976 +29
1005 |
| NSW Jan Tomlin           |  317  320 |  72  73 |  5.3  5.0 | 1185  -5
1180 |
| NSW Ram Mohe             |  273  284 |  58  63 |  6.0  5.0 | 1245 -19
1226 |
| NSW Val Ryan             |  475  460 | 116 110 |  4.4  5.0 | 1002 +13
1015 |
| NSW Mary-Michal Oxby     |  760  707 | 189 176 |  2.9  5.0 |  764 +44
808 |
| NSW Judy McGuinness      |  419  448 | 100 107 |  5.8  4.0 | 1056 -33
1023 |
| NSW Lisa Petersen        |  605  594 | 148 145 |  3.8  4.0 |  888  +8
896 |
| NSW Shelley Cartwright   |  456  465 | 109 113 |  4.5  4.0 | 1020  -9
1011 |
| NSW Veena Mohe           |  510  515 | 124 125 |  4.3  4.0 |  977  -4
973 |
| NSW Pearl Gillott        |  741  714 | 184 181 |  2.9  4.0 |  780 +22
802 |
| NSW Colin Driver         |  732  619 | 183 149 |  1.7  4.0 |  789 +89
878 |
| NSW Esther Rolfe         |  450  486 | 108 121 |  5.0  3.5 | 1025 -30
995 |
| NSW Maria Kaye           |  972  951 | 248 242 |  2.6  3.5 |  625 +18
643 |
| NSW Tony Kalayzich       |  325  379 |  76  93 |  6.5  3.0 | 1174 -69
1105 |
| NSW Yvonne Edwards       |  597  629 | 146 151 |  3.8  2.5 |  894 -26
868 |
| NSW Sandra Da Silva      |  786  817 | 196 201 |  3.1  2.5 |  750 -13
737 |
| NSW Laura Morgan         |  945  925 | 238 235 |  2.2  2.5 |  647  +8
655 |
| NSW Esther Clarke        |  829  861 | 204 218 |  3.7  2.5 |  727 -25
702 |
| NSW Joy Morris           |  789  798 | 197 197 |  2.7  2.5 |  749  -3
746 |
| NSW Hazel Knudsen        | 1117 1121 | 303 305 |  1.8  1.5 |  538 -10
528 |