This year’s Sydney International Masters tournament attracted a total of 51 players who battled it out over 28-29th January in the Macarthur Room of the Revesby Workers Club. Although no international contestants were present, plenty of glamour was provided by the presence of the three Victorian representatives from our powerful World Scrabble Championships team. They were part of a strong contingent of nine players from Victoria who would be contending with a six-member team from Queensland, one representative from each of South Australia and the ACT, and of course thirty-four locals. The presence of the cheery yet firm and efficient Wilma Vialle, three-time World Scrabble Championships Director, gave players assurance that this would be a well-directed and well-organized weekend of competitive Scrabble.
With such a strong field, the questions on many contestants’ lips were: “Will the World reps be able to keep their form in the face of challenges from the likes of Edward Okulicz, Chris May, Bob Jackman and Alistair Kane ?” and “Will the other States be able to grab some of the Victorians’ rating points. The answer to both of these questions proved to be a resounding “Yes”.
Andrew Fisher, co-author of the book “How to Win at Scrabble”, won a startling 16 of 18 games to lead the field from start to finish. Many more copies will be sold after this performance, no doubt ! He just managed to scrape through with a margin of five points in his first game against a fast-starting Mal Ramsdale, but then proceeded to build a marvellous run of fourteen consecutive games, including the High Word score of 158 for the nine-timer pEDICABS played through a dangling C placed on a TWS lane by John Holgate. Andrew finally tasted defeat at the hands of Alistair Kane in Game 15, followed immediately by a loss in the first king-of-the-hill round to none other than David Eldar, who now trailed the leader by only one win. It transpired that David needed to win only one more of their KOTH clashes to become 2006 SIM champion on margin. The records show that Andrew withstood the fierce challenge of the rising young Aussie (that goes for his height as well) with narrow winning margins of 8 and 11 points. Chris May earned a chance to snatch third place if he could perform the daunting task of beating Naween Fernando three times in a row. Odds were firming after Chris’s initial win but Naween triumphed in the next two to hang on to third place. Naween was the only player to achieve four 500-plus scores in the 18 games played. Alistair Kane managed to fend off Edward Oculicz from fifth placing by winning the second of their two KOTH games. Harry Malcolm began to show his form of old by winning six of his last seven games to jump into sixth place ahead of Edward. It was bad luck for Harry though because the prize-money extended only as far as fifth place. Julian McKail, who achieved High Game of 589, Tony Hunt and Alistair Richards rounded out the top 10 with 11 wins each. Except for evergreens Alistair Kane and Harry Malcolm, it seems that the youth are beginning to dominate Australian Scrabble.
A quick tally of points won or lost by each State reveals that, despite a worthy gain of 113 points by the three World reps, Victoria lost an average of 10.2 points per player to the other States, whilst QLD and NSW benefited to the tune of 19.7 and 8.2 average points gained per participating player. Speaking of rating point gains, Sharon Sorensen of NSW won 10 of her games for a massive 146 point rating bonanza while Martin Waterworth also won 10 games for a 143 point reward. Congratulations go to both of these troupers.
Some notable plays for the weekend were David’s nine-letter play - ESTUARIAN to AN – and Chris’s BROMATING through AT. Edward played a contender for “most unusual word” with BOTHRIA (grooves on a tapeworm) with no blanks, S’s or E’s and Harry played a similarly deficient LUXATING. Chile played GOODTIME against Mal. Jean McGiffen would like to remind Joanne Craig of UNGULATE (62), LEVERAGE (88), OUTRATES (64), FAIRNESS (74) and BEZ (72) during her 532-338 victory. There may have been subliminal messages when Jan Serisier opened with VICTOR and Paul Richards immediately replied with VICTOR to eventually emerge victorious. Two consecutive early moves against John Holgate were SOILIEST and COWPATS after which I quipped “I play a dirty game”. John had the last laugh, however, by winning by 1 point even after giving away 5 points for challenging my HONER. Poor Helen Maurus could have also have beaten me by 1 point had she not challenged my penultimate play of GYRI with seconds left on both of our clocks. There certainly seemed to be fewer challenges due to the 5-point penalty that was in place for challenging allowable words. I heard that Harry got away with *MAUM but Alistair Kane didn’t when he tried it against Ivor Zetler.
Karen Richards reports that Joan Rosenthal devoted several hours on the day before the tournament to give a coaching clinic for some enthusiastic students. It was particularly appreciated by Donna McDonald. In the first game on Saturday, she was playing Paul Richards. She had a rack of consonants. Recalling the discussion re throwing back more rather than less, she kept 2 (instead of the 4 her old self would have done) and immediately picked up a bonus for her next turn. This caused her to beat Karen’s poor husband, who was not pleased that Joan had taught her so well !
There are always many hard-luck stories to report but I’ll restrict the number to just three. We all have bad pick-ups occasionally but Barry Harridge’s pick-up of AAAUUI after dumping BANANA had to be the worst of the tournament. Julian opened up brightly with consecutive bingos of ELUvIATE, SINCERER and DEVIANTS only to suffer eventual defeat by Naween Fernando 435 to 446. Ironically, I opened up with two bingos against Julian, TRIBADE and MAINTAIN followed by SOUnDED and an outplay of CITTERNS. What’s bad luck about that you may ask ? Well, Julian had just closed in on my lead with plays of PRoFILE, the lovely AVOWRIES using his RIES to extend to a triple word square, and ACTINGS whose S was placed one square to the left of a triple-word-square. Holding CITTERN on my final rack, I gratefully plonked it down in front of the S with 39 seconds left. It took Edward only 2 seconds from his observation spot diagonally opposite me to spot my best play – the nine-timer CENTRIST for 149 points, which I knew, and which would have propelled my game score to 605 ! There’s a lesson in there somewhere.
While SIM champion Andrew shouted drinks back at the Revesby Workers Club in traditional fashion, the Ratings Advisory Committee ( Barry Harridge, Edward Oculicz, Karen Richards, Graeme Lock Lee, Trevor Halsall (absent) ) together with invitees, Alistair Kane and Martin Warterworth, took the opportunity to hold a rare face-to-face meeting. Issues of rewriting the ubiquitous ratings program, making rating point adjustment, developing fair selection criteria for Australian representative teams were vigorously discussed. The outcomes will emerge forthwith.
That’s it for SIM 2006. We’re all looking forward to SIM 2006 – especially those Scrabblers hoping for the type of rating point bonanzas possible in one of the few prestigious, lengthy “open” format tournaments on the Scrabble calendar.
Click here for Andew Fisher's game by game report
Results after game 18
29.01.2006 City of Sydney International Masters -- OPEN
Rank Player Wins Byes Mar
---------------------------------
1 Andrew Fisher 16 1193
2 David Eldar 14 1336
3 Naween Fernando 13 881
4 Chris May 12 444
5 Alistair Kane 12 425
6 Harry Malcolm 12 200
7 Edward Okulicz 11 868
8 Julian McKail 11 571
9 Tony Hunt 11 150
10 Alastair Richards 11 -185
11 Bob Jackman 10 806
12 Graeme Lock Lee 10 516
13 Jean McGiffen 10 363
14 Sharon Sorensen 10 138
15 Olga Visser 10 -6
16 Karen Richards 10 -57
17 Martin Waterworth 10 -60
18 Audrey Newman 10 -158
19 Esther Perrins 9.5 625
20 Carmel Dodd 9.5 503
21 John Holgate 9 397
22 Helen Maurus 9 314
23 Joanne Craig 9 94
24 Rod Talbot 9 86
25 Pat Schuberg 9 -15
26 Cheryl Michler 9 -65
27 Peter Shaw 9 -154
28 Ivor Zetler 9 -371
29 Hanne Marks 8 1 230
30 Justin Moyle 8 1 160
31 Ram Mohe 8 1 -339
32 Ian Close 8 1 -401
33 Jan Serisier 8 -23
34 Paul Richards 8 -95
35 Rex Shakespeare 8 -395
36 John Barker 8 -484
37 Mark Smith 8 -793
38 Moana Nepia 7 1 -296
39 David More 7 1 -362
40 Barry Harridge 7 1 -455
41 Margaret Andrews 7 1 -644
42 Nonie English 7 1 -668
43 Betty Foreman 6.5 1 -335
44 Fay Van Oyen 6 1 273
45 Mal Ramsdale 6 1 -286
46 Bev Purkis 6 1 -703
47 Jenny Templeton 6 1 -851
48 Trish Reynolds 5.5 1 -272
49 Chile Malcolm 5 1 -279
50 Donna MacDonald 5 1 -634
51 Raya Wilkinson 3 1 -1187
HIGH GAME: Julian McKail 589
HIGH WORD: Andrew Fisher 158
"PEDICABS"
Stats for Tournament : 2006 SYD INT MASTERS
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| state Name | National | State | Wins | Rating
Points |
| | Old New | Old New | Exp Act | Old
Change New|
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
+Section: *OPEN + + +
+
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| VIC Andrew Fisher | 3 1 | 2 1 | 11.8 16.0 | 1836
+67 1903 |
| VIC David Eldar | 4 2 | 3 2 | 11.9 14.0 | 1825
+33 1858 |
| VIC Naween Fernando | 1 3 | 1 3 | 12.3 13.0 | 1841
+13 1854 |
| NSW Chris May | 6 4 | 2 1 | 12.2 12.0 | 1814
-3 1811 |
| VIC Alistair Kane | 5 6 | 4 4 | 13.6 12.0 | 1816
-22 1794 |
| VIC Harry Malcolm | 51 24 | 24 11 | 8.3 12.0 | 1556
+76 1632 |
| NSW Edward Okulicz | 2 5 | 1 2 | 13.8 11.0 | 1840
-42 1798 |
| VIC Julian McKail | 7 11 | 5 7 | 13.8 11.0 | 1803
-44 1759 |
| QLD Alastair Richards | 33 27 | 2 2 | 10.6 11.0 | 1609
+10 1619 |
| NSW Tony Hunt | 43 36 | 14 12 | 10.0 11.0 | 1573
+25 1598 |
| NSW Jean McGiffen | 53 51 | 15 14 | 9.9 10.0 | 1550
+6 1556 |
| NSW Bob Jackman | 14 15 | 5 4 | 11.7 10.0 | 1705
-33 1672 |
| NSW Graeme Lock Lee | 77 44 | 20 13 | 6.7 10.0 | 1505
+65 1570 |
| QLD Karen Richards | 70 43 | 5 4 | 7.4 10.0 | 1517
+54 1571 |
| QLD Martin Waterworth | 261 143 | 30 17 | 3.9 10.0 | 1259
+143 1402 |
| QLD Olga Visser | 101 83 | 9 6 | 9.0 10.0 | 1470
+22 1492 |
| NSW Audrey Newman | 119 89 | 27 21 | 7.5 10.0 | 1432
+53 1485 |
| NSW Sharon Sorensen | 299 189 | 67 43 | 3.8 10.0 | 1206
+146 1352 |
| SA Carmel Dodd | 59 41 | 4 4 | 7.3 9.5 | 1533
+46 1579 |
| NSW Esther Perrins | 12 17 | 4 5 | 12.8 9.5 | 1735
-65 1670 |
| NSW John Holgate | 20 20 | 8 7 | 9.1 9.0 | 1653
-2 1651 |
| VIC Helen Maurus | 37 52 | 16 23 | 11.0 9.0 | 1592
-39 1553 |
| NSW Joanne Craig | 27 26 | 10 8 | 9.1 9.0 | 1621
-2 1619 |
| NSW Rod Talbot | 16 31 | 6 9 | 13.3 9.0 | 1696
-80 1616 |
| NSW Pat Schuberg | 270 182 | 57 41 | 3.9 9.0 | 1249
+111 1360 |
| NSW Ivor Zetler | 67 68 | 17 18 | 9.3 9.0 | 1519
-1 1518 |
| NSW Peter Shaw | 42 58 | 13 16 | 10.7 9.0 | 1573
-32 1541 |
| NSW Cheryl Michler | 227 168 | 49 38 | 6.0 9.0 | 1311
+64 1375 |
| ACT Justin Moyle | 69 94 | 3 4 | 10.5 8.5 | 1518
-38 1480 |
| NSW Hanne Marks | 144 164 | 34 37 | 9.7 8.5 | 1404
-25 1379 |
| NSW Ram Mohe | 274 243 | 58 53 | 6.3 8.5 | 1244
+45 1289 |
| NSW Ian Close | 281 257 | 61 58 | 6.3 8.5 | 1232
+45 1277 |
| NSW Jan Serisier | 190 157 | 41 35 | 6.0 8.0 | 1345
+41 1386 |
| QLD Paul Richards | 66 110 | 4 10 | 11.8 8.0 | 1520
-71 1449 |
| NSW John Barker | 25 62 | 9 17 | 12.9 8.0 | 1624
-96 1528 |
| NSW Rex Shakespeare | 166 147 | 36 33 | 7.3 8.0 | 1376
+20 1396 |
| NSW Mark Smith | 179 191 | 38 44 | 8.9 8.0 | 1363
-13 1350 |
| NSW Moana Nepia | 134 160 | 32 36 | 9.4 7.5 | 1421
-38 1383 |
| NSW David More | 217 231 | 46 50 | 8.2 7.5 | 1321
-15 1306 |
| NSW Nonie English | 268 247 | 56 54 | 5.7 7.5 | 1251
+35 1286 |
| NSW Margaret Andrews | 319 288 | 74 64 | 5.0 7.5 | 1177
+51 1228 |
| VIC Barry Harridge | 40 80 | 18 40 | 12.0 7.5 | 1583
-89 1494 |
| NSW Betty Foreman | 225 224 | 48 48 | 7.1 7.0 | 1313
+1 1314 |
| NSW Fay Van Oyen | 282 282 | 62 62 | 6.4 6.5 | 1232
+1 1233 |
| NSW Mal Ramsdale | 209 251 | 42 57 | 8.8 6.5 | 1329
-47 1282 |
| NSW Bev Purkis | 351 327 | 84 77 | 5.0 6.5 | 1140
+30 1170 |
| NSW Jenny Templeton | 221 261 | 47 59 | 9.3 6.5 | 1317
-53 1264 |
| QLD Trish Reynolds | 182 220 | 22 26 | 8.2 6.0 | 1358
-40 1318 |
| NSW Donna MacDonald | 277 279 | 59 60 | 5.7 5.5 | 1239
-4 1235 |
| VIC Chile Malcolm | 163 241 | 72 104 | 9.8 5.5 | 1379
-86 1293 |
| NSW Raya Wilkinson | 256 318 | 55 73 | 7.9 3.5 | 1267
-87 1180 |
+-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------+