Game 1 saw me go to an early lead with JEStERS for 93 on move two, and then despite not being near a bonus for the rest of the game, I scored at least 30 points on every move until the end game after that. Chris's three bonuses, OUTSINGS, NOODLES and RETILED all scored less than 70, while I notched up big points for hooking and overlapping plays. 461-392
Game 2 was one of two blowouts in my favour on the day, playing ARAYSED for 91 points after having opened with AFARA keeping AS. ROTARIES followed, before the tiles split markedly. I had all consonants, Chris had all vowels. I however, grabbed two blanks and played PoTTINg, followed by JINGLE for 56. I blocked Chris's outplay of BARMIEST, hoping he wouldn't see AMBRIES/VESTA elsewhere. He saw it, but wasn't sure of it. I would have thought that given the scores you'd have a go anyway, as it really didn't matter. 461-301
Game 3 saw me pick JERKING straight out of the bag. Chris changed, and I played it for 104 points. I don't think I played particularly well after that, and Chris made some great moves to actually get caught up, like AXIOM for 49 and ZINC for 66. Fortunately, I picked the two blanks again, and faced with a choice of spots with my rack of EEEIR??, eschewed the higher scoring NEREIdEs off an N in favour of playing tEEnIER to block an alley for a seven. Chris had been sitting on OVERBID. 450-395
In game 4, faced with an opening rack of ENOSTUV, I opted to change UV. I got NONETTES and GROUTIER in succession to counter Chris's wALLOwED. There were still some bonus prone letters out but the board was very blocked, but there were some good spots for Ss. I tried to turn over, playing BETIME as a six at one point. Chris challenged, at which point I remarked that I had learned the word from him some years ago. I got a lead by playing CAJOLER, but it opened a bonus line. I blocked it next turn with DEAFEN, hoping to get one of the three unseen Ss, and I got two of them which enabled me to score with my low-point racks. This was perhaps the most interesting tussle, maybe an annotation at some point. 408-382
Some joy came for Chris in game 5 where he wiped me off the board with two blank bonuses and a succession of high scoring plays with the heavy letters. ACADEmES and mERKINS were the bonuses, the latter I challenged as I wondered if such a word would be in our selective dictionaries. I certainly had NO idea what a merkin was, and certainly didn't blurt out the definition to the delight/horror of all the spectators. Oh dear me, no. Early on I had been one tile away from JOYRIDE or JOYRIDE, but all I could do was JADERY, before I became a spectator. 282-411
My invincibility (or feelings of) had been dented, and Chris certainly played a blinder in game 6, getting JOCULAR for 64 as a non-bonus double double and then playing the wonderful BAGGIT. I got AGUISES and TINDALS in quick succession, and a neat OKRA for 39, and with a lead, had two choices; block, or score. I chose to block the best bonus line as there were two blanks unseen. I hadn't expected Chris to play YanQUI for 84 on a triple word score through an innocuous looking U. I considered two possibly winning plays in the endgame, and chose the wrong one, but Chris played a smart endgame to maximise the margin, though I could have thinned it if I'd been more sure of TARBOY. 382-395
An early TABLIER from Chris in game 8 had me nervous, but I had good, balanced racks and though it took me a while to bonus, NERVIEST for 88 was big enough to get me back into the game. I picked up two blanks and two turns later got the lead with EPIGonES. Chris then furiously tried to open up, and I was always one step behind with the blocking as I could never close all the spots, but I nonetheless managed to stop him geting the crucial bonus down and the game ended quietly in my favour after my blocking outscored his opening handily. 428-361
Game 8 is the one Tony mentioned, and was a fascinating tussle. I played a false but plausible looking anagram of RAPHIDES which went unchallenged. I should say that I know RAPHIDES and know it's the only word in that combination, but I didn't think of it as the other word jumped out and I didn't even doubt it. It's been too long since I studied medium-probability eights. Chris responded with ENOLAsE to get a lead, but I got a big 49 for ZONDA to go ahead. KIERS for 40 gave me the lead going into the endgame, which I think Chris thought would end in his favour, but I surprised him by wrapping M-A-E-D around LI to make MAELID, also forming VOGUED for 21. With a few seconds left on his clock, Chris missed IRONS which would have given him victory and fell 4 points short after playing RIOTS. How things would have been different if my phoney had come off.... 400-396
Game 9 was by comparison pretty mundane, I got a lead with LIONEsS, Chris pegged me back with UNSEALED and I got the better of the letters on a blocked board and was threatening a bonus. In the absence of a good spot, I pondered fishing for NEOTEINIA off an NE, but as it happened, Chris opened with NAUGHT, and a simple ELATION gave me the win. 419-330
We had discussed concessions and were both not in favour, but it was decided to do so in this game. A very slow start, it took both of us six goes to reach 100 - Chris had dumped duplicates, and I had changed twice, before my racks exploded with brilliance and I played LEAlTIES for 84, TRIVETS for 79, COXY for 66 and then KAB for 41 leaving me up 370-177 and Chris decided to offer his concession.
The blanks were split evenly, I didn't keep track of Ss or heavy letters, but one thing that I'm absolutely sure of is that I got the lion's share of the Es. It's really, really hard to win without Es. As such, Chris did much better than the scoreline shows. Had game 8 gone his way, it would have been 5-3 and a much tighter match. As it is, 6-2 is a tough scoreline to come back from, and the tiles were definitely against him in the last two games.