62 players contested this year's NSW Championships, held at our new home, the Padstow RSL Club. The interest in the B Division was so poor that the 12 registrants were lumped in with the A Section to form a single open section. The 12 did in fact play a tournament within a tournament, that being won by Liz Jackman. My guess is that from now on the NSW Championships will be an open three-day event.
It was pleasing to see at start of play that every table had a rotating board on it. It seems that this will be the norm in NSW from now on, partly due to Scrabble NSW obtaining a sizeable consignment of boards from Kantimathi Enterprises.
During the event, Jean McGiffen clocked up her 3000th tournament game, while Esther Perrins played her 1000th. Jean made the event even more memorable for her by achieving the tournament high game score of 597, albeit in the second last game.
Paul and Karen Richards played the first game of days 2 and three against each other. The first was a draw, and in the second Paul won by a solitary point. In the drawn game, Paul did the unhusbandly thing and chose to recount when Karen was two points up at end of game. Paul found the extra two points in a mistotalled play, and in doing so found NI* within the play. Ouch!
Some nice 9-letter plays were reported. Edward Okulicz played out (TE)DIOuSLY to win his game against Graeme Lock Lee. Peter Shaw had S(UN)STROKE, while Jan Serisier made her DATELI(NE)S. Joanne Craig gave us SHEERLEG to stake a claim for the most unusual word.
But the scoring highlight of the Championships went to George Khamis, who set a new Championships record with his EQUALING high word for a score of 221. His game record score of 589 was pipped on the post by Jean's 597.
On the Sunday the scheduled AGM had to be cancelled due to lack of interest leading to a lack of quorum. This was a blessing, as it allowed the AGM to be sprung on all those who were expecting to start playing on Monday morning, thus ensuring a healthy turnout. Another lesson learnt!
Joan Rosenthal dropped in on Monday to see the final games (in which I relinquished the lead to Paul Cleary, courtesy of defeat at the hands of Joanne Craig) and present her award for the highest rating gain for the year. This was won by Jyoti Chandna. The tournament medal was won by Bev Purkis, the eligible player who gained the most ratings point over the three days. Congratulations to Jyoti and Bev, and of course to Paul Cleary, the 2006 NSW Scrabble champion,
Results after game 24 NSW CHAMPIONSHIPS 2006 -- OPEN Rank Player Wins Mar --------------------------------- 1 Paul Cleary 20 1335 2 Bob Jackman 19 2141 3 Esther Perrins 17 1360 4 Edward Okulicz 17 971 5 Joanne Craig 15 630 6 Karen Richards 15 262 7 Edie Mueller 15 128 8 Alastair Richards 14.5 861 9 Jean McGiffen 14 780 10 Peter Shaw 14 458 11 John Spaan 14 359 12 Rod Talbot 14 211 13 Moana Nepia 14 178 14 Wayne Jones 14 156 15 Frank Tao 13.5 -318 16 Rene Chelton 13.5 -544 17 Greg Pinchbeck 13 518 18 Olga Visser 13 517 19 Jan Serisier 13 359 20 Graeme Lock Lee 13 283 21 Liz Jackman 13 145 22 Sue Gergelifi 13 82 23 Don Hadley 13 -159 24 Colleen Walker 13 -596 25 Anne Schick 12.5 595 26 Pat Schuberg 12.5 91 27 Donna Macdonald 12 267 28 John Barker 12 242 29 Mal Ramsdale 12 208 30 Vicki Underhill 12 56 31 Kerry Constable 12 -8 32 Nonie English 12 -209 33 Mark Smith 12 -230 34 Raya Wilkinson 12 -338 35 Jyoti Chandna 12 -376 36 Hanne Marks 11.5 161 37 Paul Richards 11.5 -27 38 Trish Reynolds 11 241 39 Jean Balmer 11 123 40 George Khamis 11 82 41 Betty Foreman 11 -53 42 Janine Whittaker 11 -92 43 Ian Close 11 -260 44 Margaret Berliner 11 -314 45 Natalie Tadday 11 -370 46 Denise Smith 11 -633 47 Cheryl Michler 10.5 -51 48 Rowena Vnuk 10 1 49 Rocky Sharma 10 -128 50 Hari Nanayakkara 10 -194 51 Ann Fiddler 10 -201 52 Tony Kalayzich 10 -245 53 Margaret Andrews 10 -370 54 Sunny Wright 10 -425 55 Sherie Brown 10 -474 56 Bev Purkis 10 -607 57 David More 9 -231 58 Stuart Pridham 9 -245 59 Maree Heynen 9 -803 60 Daphne Bezuidenhout 8 -701 61 Esther Rolfe 6 -1388 62 Diana Field 0 -3211 HIGH GAME: Jean McGiffen 595 HIGH WORD: George Khamis 221 "EQUALING" Stats for Tournament : NSW CHAMPIONSHIPS 2006 +--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+ | state Name | National | State | Wins | Rating Points | | | Old New | Old New | Exp Act | Old Change New| +--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+ +Section: *OPEN + + + + +--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------------+ | NSW Paul Cleary | 9 4 | 4 2 | 16.4 20.0 | 1768 +72 1840 | | NSW Bob Jackman | 1 1 | 1 1 | 19.5 19.0 | 1886 -5 1881 | | NSW Esther Perrins | 8 9 | 3 4 | 16.9 17.0 | 1778 +2 1780 | | NSW Edward Okulicz | 5 8 | 2 3 | 17.8 17.0 | 1798 -13 1785 | | NSW Joanne Craig | 13 14 | 6 7 | 17.0 15.0 | 1748 -38 1710 | | WA Edie Mueller | 19 18 | 1 1 | 14.3 15.0 | 1662 +17 1679 | | NSW Karen Richards | 48 37 | 13 12 | 13.3 15.0 | 1542 +37 1579 | | NSW Alastair Richards | 44 34 | 12 11 | 13.1 14.5 | 1555 +30 1585 | | NSW Jean McGiffen | 104 76 | 22 20 | 12.2 14.0 | 1457 +35 1492 | | NSW Peter Shaw | 58 65 | 16 18 | 15.1 14.0 | 1524 -15 1509 | | ACT John Spaan | 22 43 | 2 2 | 17.8 14.0 | 1639 -74 1565 | | NSW Moana Nepia | 158 110 | 41 26 | 11.3 14.0 | 1391 +57 1448 | | NSW Wayne Jones | 114 58 | 27 16 | 10.5 14.0 | 1447 +74 1521 | | NSW Rod Talbot | 35 30 | 10 9 | 13.1 14.0 | 1583 +20 1603 | | NSW Frank Tao | 379 213 | 92 49 | 4.7 13.5 | 1111 +215 1326 | | NSW Rene Chelton | 107 78 | 24 21 | 12.4 13.5 | 1456 +29 1485 | | QLD Olga Visser | 71 155 | 7 15 | 18.6 13.0 | 1498 -107 1391 | | NSW Jan Serisier | 116 120 | 29 30 | 13.5 13.0 | 1445 -10 1435 | | NSW Greg Pinchbeck | 126 135 | 31 34 | 13.9 13.0 | 1431 -15 1416 | | NSW Graeme Lock Lee | 42 40 | 11 13 | 12.6 13.0 | 1560 +11 1571 | | NSW Don Hadley | 442 316 | 108 77 | 6.4 13.0 | 1045 +140 1185 | | NSW Sue Gergelifi | 132 115 | 34 28 | 12.3 13.0 | 1424 +19 1443 | | NSW Liz Jackman | 409 308 | 100 72 | 7.3 13.0 | 1074 +116 1190 | | NSW Colleen Walker | 346 211 | 86 48 | 5.0 13.0 | 1144 +187 1331 | | ACT Anne Schick | 297 254 | 8 7 | 9.1 12.5 | 1208 +73 1281 | | NSW Pat Schuberg | 112 159 | 26 40 | 15.7 12.5 | 1450 -63 1387 | | NSW John Barker | 75 71 | 18 19 | 11.9 12.0 | 1495 +6 1501 | | NSW Mal Ramsdale | 192 189 | 48 45 | 12.3 12.0 | 1346 -3 1343 | | NSW Donna MacDonald | 269 274 | 63 63 | 12.6 12.0 | 1252 -9 1243 | | ACT Kerry Constable | 108 150 | 3 4 | 15.3 12.0 | 1456 -60 1396 | | NSW Vicki Underhill | 381 322 | 94 80 | 8.5 12.0 | 1109 +70 1179 | | NSW Mark Smith | 190 157 | 47 39 | 10.3 12.0 | 1350 +39 1389 | | NSW Raya Wilkinson | 256 285 | 61 65 | 14.6 12.0 | 1277 -50 1227 | | NSW Jyoti Chandna | 211 253 | 50 59 | 14.7 12.0 | 1333 -51 1282 | | NSW Nonie English | 395 345 | 97 87 | 9.0 12.0 | 1091 +60 1151 | | NSW Paul Richards | 141 116 | 38 29 | 10.1 11.5 | 1414 +28 1442 | | NSW Hanne Marks | 105 145 | 23 38 | 14.3 11.5 | 1457 -52 1405 | | QLD Trish Reynolds | 72 111 | 8 8 | 13.5 11.0 | 1498 -50 1448 | | NSW Jean Balmer | 273 271 | 64 62 | 10.9 11.0 | 1246 +2 1248 | | NSW Janine Whittaker | 345 311 | 85 75 | 9.0 11.0 | 1146 +41 1187 | | NSW George Khamis | 414 349 | 101 89 | 7.2 11.0 | 1068 +76 1144 | | NSW Margaret Berliner | 133 233 | 35 53 | 17.1 11.0 | 1420 -115 1305 | | NSW Denise Smith | 336 354 | 81 90 | 11.9 11.0 | 1156 -16 1140 | | NSW Betty Foreman | 115 190 | 28 46 | 16.2 11.0 | 1445 -103 1342 | | NSW Ian Close | 201 264 | 49 61 | 14.8 11.0 | 1340 -77 1263 | | NSW Natalie Tadday | 303 309 | 68 73 | 11.5 11.0 | 1199 -10 1189 | | NSW Cheryl Michler | 165 246 | 43 56 | 15.0 10.5 | 1372 -86 1286 | | NSW Hari Nanayakkara | 277 307 | 65 71 | 12.2 10.0 | 1235 -43 1192 | | NSW Rocky Sharma | 305 348 | 70 88 | 12.5 10.0 | 1195 -49 1146 | | NSW Tony Kalayzich | 304 357 | 69 92 | 13.0 10.0 | 1197 -59 1138 | | QLD Rowena Vnuk | 508 444 | 79 65 | 6.8 10.0 | 981 +63 1044 | | NSW Bev Purkis | 308 304 | 72 69 | 9.9 10.0 | 1192 +5 1197 | | NSW Margaret Andrews | 358 369 | 88 95 | 10.4 10.0 | 1132 -8 1124 | | NSW Ann Fiddler | 365 368 | 89 94 | 9.8 10.0 | 1122 +4 1126 | | NSW Sherie Brown | 338 356 | 83 91 | 10.9 10.0 | 1155 -16 1139 | | NSW Sunny Wright | 398 378 | 98 98 | 8.6 10.0 | 1085 +29 1114 | | NSW Stuart Pridham | 213 284 | 51 64 | 14.2 9.0 | 1332 -104 1228 | | NSW David More | 253 297 | 60 68 | 12.9 9.0 | 1282 -73 1209 | | NSW Maree Heynen | 753 612 | 182 150 | 4.2 9.0 | 785 +96 881 | | NSW Daphne Bezuidenhout | 482 485 | 122 121 | 8.3 8.0 | 1004 -5 999 | | NSW Esther Rolfe | 473 543 | 120 128 | 9.7 6.0 | 1017 -74 943 | | NSW Diana Field | 1122 1214 | 284 313 | 0.9 0.0 | 500 -18 482 | +-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------+