Unfortunately in Victoria there is also a prevailing attitude of "I don't want to come unless I can play in the Challenge" meaning that playing the stalwarts that arrive every year from the ACT and Sydney is of no interest to them. This attitude resulted in a loss for Victoria even before the first word was laid down, with NSW expected to win by 30 games calculated purely by ratings.
To make the event more attractive for everybody, the format will be changed for the year's event - thankyou Harry (per Barry Harridge) for the following suggested format. The next Border Challenge will be an Open event thus eliminating the past concept of a set team. For each round, only the results from the top 10 placers in each State will count towards the Challenge. This means that a lower rating player doing well could have many games counting towards the overall result, and conversely a stronger player doing poorly could have few games counting. Everyone attending will then have a chance to contribute to their State's final result.
As the Rankins Springs Outback Open is now scheduled for the usual Border Challenge weekend in 2007, the Border Challenge will be moved to a different weekend, further away from Easter and the Nationals - probably in August. This means that that there will be no more excuses for Victorian players not to attend, other than likely loss of ratings points due the current interstate disparity. Junee and Tumut have been touted as possible alternative venues, but the Wagga RSL has proven to be perfectly suited to our needs so why change?
The Wagga Scrabble Club also supports the event, and deserves to be nurtured. They were instrumental in having Prime TV turn up yesterday to shoot a piece for their news, and I believe footage is going to air during the 6.00pm news on a non-specified day this week.
This year, I had three passengers to and from Wagga. It transpired that two of them, Jan Serisier and Liz had played ten letter words during the course of the event. Jan played INTERLOPER, and Liz extend CUR to make CURTAILING in a bonus play.
At 3pm yesterday we four (with Nonie English as the fourth) played out the inaugural unrated alfresco Snake Gully Cup, under the watchful eye of the dog on the tucker box, five miles from Gundagai. We only had time for two games, and that too was fun,
From Edward Okulicz
The ratings before the Border Challenge predicted a comfortable NSW win (by 30 games) and that's about what happened, with the final margin being 39 games, 80 to 41. NSW were particularly strong in the early rounds, having the challenge sewn up after game 8.
Joanne Craig scored three bonuses in a row: MOULTING, PASTIER and AGENCIES (triple-triple for 149) against Harry Malcolm, but that wasn't the source of her high game of 600 - that was against Norma Fisher. Norma held PATTERN on her rack and tried an eight through an E. Joanne was delighted when it came off as she had been eying that very floater to play UINTAITE, which she did.
My closest calls in my clean-sweep were against Carol Johnsen (who opened with AIRFOiL), Marie D'Rosario (who picked OESTRAL out of the bag directly after DeTRAIN, fortunately it wasn't playable and she tried a false word) and Doug Ristic, who had he not dismissed the (preposterous but valid) OUTLOVED would have beaten me.
There was a flow of about 100 points from Victoria to the NSW/ACT players, particularly to Justin Moyle, who only lost to Carol and Harry. Carol also gave Joanne her only defeat.
Someone will write more later, hopefully. Thanks to the Vics for again turning up to have their rating points sapped from them - I personally think the fact that NSW managed to gain points when the probability curve flatters low-rated players demonstrates that there is an interstate disparity, and some of us will be down in June to grab a few more!
Results after game 11
30.04.2006 NSW vs Victoria Border Challenge Wagga Wagga -- BORDER CHALL
Rank Player Wins Mar
---------------------------------
1 Edward Okulicz 11 1421
2 Joanne Craig 10 1113
3 Justin Moyle 9 909
4 Bob Jackman 8 744
5 Richard Jeremy 8 469
6 Jan Serisier 7 618
7 Rex Shakespeare 7 410
8 Norma Fisher 7 -290
9 Susan MacGillivray 6 210
10 Carol Johnsen 6 15
11 Geoff Wright 5 -64
12 John Spaan 5 -129
13 Margaret Berliner 5 -316
14 Harry Malcolm 4 -24
15 John Barker 4 -161
16 Gwen Lampre 4 -242
17 Pat Kennedy 4 -728
18 Doug Ristic 3 -729
19 Marj Miller 3 -737
20 Marie D'Rosario 2 -422
21 Chile Malcolm 2 -692
22 Cath Catmull 1 -1375
HIGH GAME: Joanne Craig 600
HIGH WORD: Joanne Craig 149
"AGENCIES"
Results after game 11
30.04.2006 NSW vs Victoria Border Challenge Wagga Wagga -- OPEN
Rank Player Wins Mar
---------------------------------
1 Anne Schick 9 690
2 Michael Adler 7.5 365
3 Tony Kalayzich 7 564
4 Christine Foot 7 449
5 Liz Jackman 7 344
6 Nonie English 7 335
7 Maree Heynen 6 -33
8 Heather Sorensen 6 -40
9 Helen Povey 3.5 -282
10 Norm Byng 3 -463
11 George Torr 2 -1016
12 Peter McKenzie 1 -913
HIGH GAME: Tony Kalayzich 495
HIGH GAME: Liz Jackman 495
HIGH WORD: George Torr 140
"CONTRITE"
Stats for Tournament : 30.04.2006 NSW vs Victoria Border Challenge Wagga Wagga
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| state Name | National | State | Wins | Rating Points |
| | Old New | Old New | Exp Act | Old
| Change New|
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
+Section: *BORDER CHALL + + + +
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| NSW Edward Okulicz | 4 2 | 1 1 | 9.5 11.0 | 1803 +23 1826 |
| NSW Joanne Craig | 17 15 | 7 5 | 8.4 10.0 | 1675 +31 1706 |
| ACT Justin Moyle | 97 63 | 3 2 | 6.0 9.0 | 1466 +64 1530 |
| NSW Bob Jackman | 13 14 | 4 4 | 9.0 8.0 | 1731 -19 1712 |
| ACT Richard Jeremy | 18 19 | 1 1 | 8.4 8.0 | 1672 -8 1664 |
| NSW Jan Serisier | 132 108 | 32 26 | 5.4 7.0 | 1419 +32 1451 |
| NSW Rex Shakespeare | 104 89 | 25 21 | 5.9 7.0 | 1457 +23 1480 |
| VIC Norma Fisher | 43 35 | 19 14 | 5.8 7.0 | 1567 +25 1592 |
| VIC Carol Johnsen | 77 64 | 40 33 | 5.0 6.0 | 1508 +21 1529 |
| ACT Susan MacGillivray | 114 113 | 5 5 | 5.7 6.0 | 1441 +7 1448 |
| VIC Geoff Wright | 27 36 | 12 15 | 6.5 5.0 | 1620 -29 1591 |
| ACT John Spaan | 78 96 | 2 3 | 6.4 5.0 | 1498 -28 1470 |
| NSW Margaret Berliner | 268 245 | 60 53 | 3.5 5.0 | 1262 +29 1291 |
| NSW John Barker | 40 78 | 13 19 | 7.3 4.0 | 1575 -67 1508 |
| VIC Harry Malcolm | 37 47 | 16 23 | 6.1 4.0 | 1591 -41 1550 |
| VIC Gwen Lampre | 30 41 | 14 18 | 6.4 4.0 | 1613 -47 1566 |
| VIC Pat Kennedy | 272 237 | 109 99 | 2.1 4.0 | 1257 +38 1295 |
| VIC Marj Miller | 82 102 | 42 50 | 4.8 3.0 | 1494 -35 1459 |
| VIC Doug Ristic | 254 243 | 104 100 | 2.3 3.0 | 1278 +14 1292 |
| VIC Marie D'Rosario | 121 149 | 56 68 | 4.0 2.0 | 1435 -41 1394 |
| VIC Chile Malcolm | 273 275 | 110 111 | 2.1 2.0 | 1256 -2 1254 |
| VIC Cath Catmull | 598 584 | 182 180 | 0.4 1.0 | 904 +13 917 |
+-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------+
+Section: *OPEN + + + +
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| ACT Anne Schick | 307 300 | 9 9 | 8.3 9.0 | 1192 +15 1207 |
| ACT Michael Adler | 308 320 | 10 10 | 8.2 7.5 | 1187 -14 1173 |
| NSW Tony Kalayzich | 378 384 | 87 88 | 7.4 7.0 | 1116 -8 1108 |
| ACT Christine Foot | 449 432 | 12 11 | 6.4 7.0 | 1035 +12 1047 |
| NSW Liz Jackman | 347 361 | 80 82 | 7.7 7.0 | 1142 -14 1128 |
| NSW Nonie English | 286 299 | 63 66 | 8.8 7.0 | 1244 -37 1207 |
| ACT Heather Sorensen | 560 536 | 15 15 | 5.2 6.0 | 939 +16 955 |
| NSW Maree Heynen | 587 562 | 141 133 | 4.9 6.0 | 913 +22 935 |
| NSW Helen Povey | 931 885 | 232 221 | 2.2 3.5 | 665 +38 703 |
| NSW Norm Byng | 729 754 | 178 181 | 3.6 3.0 | 805 -19 786 |
| NSW George Torr | 1077 1052 | 281 275 | 1.4 2.0 | 561 +19 580 |
| NSW Peter McKenzie | 990 1027 | 255 266 | 1.9 1.0 | 625 -26 599 |
+-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------+