Winter Masters - July 23rd & 24th 2005


Report from Tony Hunt

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 |