41 players met this weekend at Bankstown to battle for the honour of being declared the Scrabble NSW Winter Masters champion.
Paul Cleary emerged as winner with 15 wins from 20 games. Second was Edward Okulicz, 3rd John Holgate, 4th Chris May and 5th Alastair Richards, who also achieved a credible 86 points ratings gain.
The 5 point penalty for unsuccessful challenges added an interesting dimension to the play, with quite a few nonwords allowed to remain. Against Peter Shaw I got away with DAEWINg* when I meant to play DEAWINGg* (also a nonword!). Peter said he let it go cos he didn't think I would play it when I could have played the more obvious (!!) DEWANIs instead. Other nonword bingos that were allowed by my opponents were LITANIC* and ROWOODS* (which I thought was OK because of the name of a street in Blacktown of the same name). Other nonword bingos by other players allows through were BROLLIE*, UNDATES* (SAUNTED, UNSATED), SUNNIES*, LARRIATS*, and RATIONER* (ANTERIOR). In a rather desparate bid to catch up to Jean McGiffen I tried extending OVER with CUDDLE for 57 points. Unfortunately it got challenged off, despite me offering what I thought was a very valid definition.
From game 1 the standard of play became evident with Chris May playing CAMPFIRE for 110 and Karen Richards losing her game to Wayne Jones on a score of 447 to Wayne's 496. Karen was a strong contender for the novelty prize of Highest Losing Score, but was edged out by Gwen Lampre, visiting from Victoria, who lost a game with an impressive 451 points.
The fire alarm went off midway through game 2 with players barely batting an eyelid. As there was no smell of smoke and no screams from the foyer, it was assumed to be a false alarm.
In game 3 Edward Okulicz scored 650 against Jean McGiffen, assisted with 4 bingos: APOGEIc, MISATOnE, MONEYER, and TENEBRAE. Between bingos, Edward also managed 81 points for QUASI hooking the S onto MONEYER. Jean was able to get one bingo down: FORESEE.
In a game against Alastair I managed to get down SEPTICS. In the post game analysis, I discovered it had a relevant anagram (below).
Some interesting plays that I observed were three consecutive bingos by Paul Cleary (HISTRION, DINKIEST, DELETION), Gary Pollard managed 95 points for JAuNT by hooking the J onto IFFY, and John Spaan's bingo of MARMITE. In my game against Chris May I was holding my own until Chris replied to my bingo (PADDLES) by playing SYRINX (a bird's voice-box) onto the TWS for 56 points. In his game against John Holgate, Edward Okulicz got down WASTErIE to draw the last tile - an unplayable Q. This allowed John to make 3 (possibly 4) moves with Edward's only response being 'pass' in a classic Q-stick to edge out a victory.
In my game against John Barker I missed the bingo in ADIKLOR, playing the very suboptimal DORK instead (see below).
The high ratings gain was earned by Sharon Sorenson - I'm not sure how many points she got, but 2nd highest gain was Wayne Jones (91 pts) and 3rd Alastair Richards (86 pts). Wayne rattled a few cages on Day 1 winning 3 of the 4 pre-lunch games, but was not able to maintain the momentum. After last week's victory at the Challenge, Wayne is showing himself to be a player to watch.
I expect that Bob will soon email the stats to the list for those more interested in the numbers. My apologies, I didn't note the high words.
For Sydney people, remember there's a weekly 5 minute Scrabble report on SWRFM 99.9 every Monday at 8.35a.m. after the top 8 at 8.
. CESSPIT KILORAD
Results after game 20
WINTER MASTERS 2005 -- OPEN
Rank Player Wins Byes Mar
---------------------------------
1 Paul Cleary 15 1654
2 Edward Okulicz 14 1199
3 John Holgate 14 173
4 Chris May 13 574
5 Alastair Richards 13 151
6 Jan Serisier 12 451
7 Ivor Zetler 12 316
8 Jean McGiffen 12 184
9 John Spaan 12 169
10 Victor Tung 12 99
11 Bob Jackman 11 570
12 Esther Perrins 11 388
13 Rod Talbot 11 371
14 Tony Hunt 11 212
15 Paul Richards 11 69
16 John Barker 11 45
17 Sue Gergelifi 11 -218
18 Peter Shaw 10.5 337
19 Karen Richards 10.5 -22
20 Rex Shakespeare 10 85
21 Susan Macgillivray 10 19
22 Alison Pollard 10 -12
23 Moana Nepia 10 -211
24 Mark Smith 10 -402
25 Sharon Sorensen 10 -501
26 Gwen Lampre 9 157
27 Kerry Constable 9 8
28 Audrey Newman 9 3
29 Betty Foreman 9 -133
30 Donna Macdonald 9 -139
31 Wayne Jones 9 -247
32 Therese Newman 9 -425
33 Hanne Marks 9 -466
34 Cheryl Michler 4 9 -381
35 Greg Pinchbeck 8 -167
36 Malcolm Ramsdale 8 -808
37 Gary Pollard 7 -530
38 Raya Wilkinson 7 -664
39 Colleen Walker 7 -825
40 Ian Close 6 -582
41 David More 5 -490
42 A Bye 0 9 -11
HIGH GAME: Edward Okulicz 650
HIGH WORD: Paul Cleary 149
"GATEFOLD"
Stats for Tournament : WINTER MASTERS 2005
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+----------
-----+
| state Name | National | State | Wins | Rating
Points |
| | Old New | Old New | Exp Act | Old
Change New|
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+----------
-----+
+Section: *OPEN + + +
+
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------
-----+
| NSW Paul Cleary | 3 3 | 1 1 | 14.7 15.0 | 1811 +4
1815 |
| NSW Edward Okulicz | 4 4 | 2 2 | 14.1 14.0 | 1799 -2
1797 |
| NSW John Holgate | 28 15 | 10 6 | 11.4 14.0 | 1634 +51
1685 |
| NSW Chris May | 5 6 | 3 3 | 13.8 13.0 | 1798 -15
1783 |
| QLD Alastair Richards | 79 40 | 7 2 | 8.7 13.0 | 1502 +86
1588 |
| NSW Jean McGiffen | 51 34 | 15 12 | 9.0 12.0 | 1554 +59
1613 |
| NSW Jan Serisier | 83 43 | 20 16 | 8.4 12.0 | 1497 +72
1569 |
| NSW John Spaan :act | 107 84 | 28 21 | 10.4 12.0 | 1465 +31
1496 |
| NSW Victor Tung | 103 56 | 27 17 | 8.1 12.0 | 1471 +78
1549 |
| NSW Ivor Zetler | 120 78 | 33 20 | 9.0 12.0 | 1444 +60
1504 |
| NSW Esther Perrins | 12 19 | 6 8 | 15.2 11.0 | 1756 -83
1673 |
| NSW Rod Talbot | 14 21 | 7 9 | 14.5 11.0 | 1735 -70
1665 |
| NSW Tony Hunt | 30 39 | 11 14 | 12.5 11.0 | 1627 -29
1598 |
| NSW John Barker | 46 41 | 14 15 | 10.1 11.0 | 1559 +18
1577 |
| NSW Bob Jackman | 8 14 | 5 5 | 13.8 11.0 | 1773 -57
1716 |
| QLD Paul Richards | 84 86 | 8 9 | 11.1 11.0 | 1496 -1
1495 |
| NSW Sue Gergelifi | 64 66 | 16 18 | 11.1 11.0 | 1528 -3
1525 |
| QLD Karen Richards | 88 75 | 10 7 | 9.7 10.5 | 1493 +15
1508 |
| NSW Peter Shaw | 89 95 | 21 23 | 10.9 10.5 | 1492 -7
1485 |
| NSW Moana Nepia | 147 139 | 38 36 | 9.6 10.0 | 1405 +9
1414 |
| NSW Rex Shakespeare | 65 117 | 17 33 | 13.8 10.0 | 1527 -77
1450 |
| NSW Susan MacGillivr :ac | 96 105 | 23 28 | 10.7 10.0 | 1482 -14
1468 |
| NSW Mark Smith | 197 167 | 52 44 | 8.4 10.0 | 1348 +32
1380 |
| NSW Alison Pollard | 168 163 | 46 43 | 9.6 10.0 | 1381 +8
1389 |
| NSW Sharon Sorensen | 324 265 | 81 64 | 5.3 10.0 | 1171 +94
1265 |
| VIC Gwen Lampre | 52 91 | 24 47 | 12.1 9.0 | 1553 -61
1492 |
| NSW Betty Foreman | 170 157 | 47 39 | 8.3 9.0 | 1380 +13
1393 |
| NSW Audrey Newman | 108 108 | 29 29 | 9.0 9.0 | 1463 +1
1464 |
| NSW Wayne Jones | 281 210 | 66 52 | 4.5 9.0 | 1245 +91
1336 |
| NSW Kerry Constable :act | 70 89 | 18 22 | 10.3 9.0 | 1518 -25
1493 |
| NSW Donna MacDonald | 290 248 | 70 60 | 5.8 9.0 | 1221 +65
1286 |
| NSW Hanne Marks | 171 175 | 48 45 | 9.5 9.0 | 1380 -10
1370 |
| NSW Therese Newman | 163 211 | 43 53 | 11.8 9.0 | 1391 -57
1334 |
| NSW Cheryl Michler | 255 261 | 61 63 | 8.8 8.5 | 1278 -7
1271 |
| NSW Greg Pinchbeck | 158 199 | 40 50 | 10.4 8.0 | 1394 -49
1345 |
| NSW Mal Ramsdale | 144 188 | 37 48 | 10.6 8.0 | 1410 -52
1358 |
| NSW Gary Pollard | 234 244 | 56 58 | 7.7 7.0 | 1306 -14
1292 |
| NSW Raya Wilkinson | 162 234 | 42 56 | 11.4 7.0 | 1392 -88
1304 |
| NSW Colleen Walker | 373 332 | 94 83 | 4.9 7.0 | 1119 +42
1161 |
| NSW Ian Close | 236 284 | 57 67 | 9.3 6.0 | 1302 -66
1236 |
| NSW David More | 277 299 | 65 74 | 7.2 5.0 | 1254 -44
1210 |