2008 Australian Scrabble Championship
Victoria hosts the National Scrabble Championship
Throughout Australia there is a sizeable network of local Scrabble clubs, state and national organising bodies. Most states have Scrabble tournaments on a regular basis, usually at least one per month. But the major event for the whole of the Australian Scrabble scene is the Australian Championship. And this year it is Victoria's turn to host the event. Over 160 players from Australia and overseas will be exercising their word prowess and strategic skills in a gruelling 24 game event held over Easter on Saturday, Sunday and Monday at the Prahran Town Hall.
Players arriving
A great hubbub as players from all around Australia met up with their friends. Lots of hugs. Punctuality was good, so after initial welcome from ASPA Vic president, Marj Miller, and reminders from tournament directors, Wilma Vialle and Barry Harridge, the tiles started rattling at 9.15 am.
Trophies
The trophies are special squares of glasswork by Melbourne
glassware artist, William Micallef. Andrew Fisher negotiated the brilliant design with the artist. Andrew
describes the trophies thus. The winner's trophy for the Nationals is a free-form depiction in a glass sheet of
part of a scrabble board (with wavy lines and squares of different sizes, plus the occasional pool, monticle
and bubble in the glass), showing tiles randomly positioned which spell out MELBOURNE, on a board background of
acidic yellow, approx 12 inches square. It is signed "William Micallef 2008". There are also smaller trophies
for the nine other prizes, in a similar style, but with smaller portions of a Scrabble board, with one scrabble
tile.
Novelty prizes
Spot prizes of Easter eggs are being awarded by Wilma. Martin Waterworth won a prize because his winning margin was closest to the sum of the ages of the two tournament directors, Wilma Vialle and Barry Harridge. Wilma is off to New York on Easter Sunday, and she asked for New York words. MUGGINGS didn't fit on one player's board, but Martin Rose was awarded the prize for NY. Then players were invited to submit words which described Barry Harridge. Sunny Wright, who had travelled with Barry through Malaysia last year submitted SEXIER, Gillian Renwick submitted PITHY NUMBERS. There were many more entries, both complimentary and otherwise, but Wilma decided that Susan MacGillivray's characterisation of Barry as a HOARY VAMP deserved the prize.
The tables were turned when Barry judged the word which best described Wilma. Peter Kougi won with JEWEL, describing Wilma's brilliance, clarity and being a treasure. Wilma heads off to a conference in New York, and is wary of news of an infestation of bedbugs.
Accomplishments
Bob Jackman's opening play of COZIEST for 106 equalled the current record for 2008. In round 8, David Eldar just squeaked in ahead of Chris May (431 to 424). Chris couuld have won by extending REZ to REZEROED. Glenys Lawrie was delighted to have played five bonus words, INERTIAL (74), FEATURED (94), OVERHAND (70), AUDITING (62) and GAMENESS (74) in one game. The first three of these were in consecutive turns. and the shellshocked opponent was Geoff Wright.
A new Australian record
In round 13, Michael Cameron was the "lucky" person to establish a new Australian record for the highest losing score, 502, against Stephen Blick who scored 504.
The avidest spot prize
The spot prize rewards come from the bounty of huge Easter eggs donated by Katie Rowe. And in round 13, there were many entries when we asked players to submit a word which they played which described their opponent. Words like BULKY, NERDIEST, UNLOVING, JOKER, DUCKY were submitted, but Barry decided that when Keri Heart defeated Mal Eden 502 to 281, she truly was able to say that he was BRUISED.
Sweet Revenge
Round 13 is where the sole reset for tournament pairings was used. Up until round 12, a player would not
play an opponent twice. But from round 13, players may meet a player again that they have played in the first
12 rounds. It so happened that in round 12 just before lunch, Cheah Siu Hean fairly walloped Naween Fernando
641 to 308. He got six bonus words in that one game.
I don't know what happened over lunch, but after lunch Naween again faced off against Cheah, but this time
Naween defeated Cheah 512 to 347.
Clever fits
Marjorie Page was pleased to fit OUTFIRE so that the E squeezed in between AVID and an R, making AVIDER. Sujeet Mehta made ADVER(TIS)ES by wrapping his seven letters about TIS. Khen Meerding fitted WHEN above the last four letters of GAIETY, reaching to the triple word score in the top right corner for a score of 73. Faye Williams extended ENACTING to REENACTING.
The venue
Last year's Australian Championship in Sydney was a great location with views of Sydney Harbour. This year, Melbourne cannot boast anything similar with view, but it makes up for it with vibes. We are playing right in the heart of Chapel Street, a real buzz of shops, restaurants and clubs. It is lively 24 hours per day. The playing space is Prahran Town Hall, and it is airy and spacious. Players love it. The presentation dinner is a little further down Greville Street at the College Lawn Hotel. We have been assured that our crowd of over 110 will fit in.
The cast of hundreds
We have 49 players from Victoria, 46 from NSW, 22 from Queensland, 19 from Tasmania, 15 from South Australia, 7 from West Australia, 4 from the ACT, and one from overseas (Cheah Siu Hean from Singapore who has competed in many Australian Championships and has won the title twice). There are players with a wide range of ages, and in particular this year we have a very strong representation from the youth of Australia, who throughout this past year have been very much encouraged by the enthusiastic prodding by Karen Richards who has held coaching clinics and special tournaments. The youngest player is Anand Bharadwaj who is a tiny fellow who needs to sit on a high stool to reach the table, but at the stage I am writing this has achieved the highest rating gain.
Players were pleased to see the return of Derek McKenzie, who despite not having played tournament Scrabble for many years is back in very good form.
Hard luck stories
We are hearing the usual litany of hard luck stories across the board, but Sandra Masel has her tales of woe as this being the most expensive tournament for her. Despite the fact that she had put $13 into the parking meters throughout the day, she got the timing wrong, and so copped a $55 fine. On the Monday morning, she was pursued by a police car into the car park, and was given a $220 speeding fine. She was also breathalysed, but at least she was clean on that respect (at 8.30 am).
Workers
Players are saying how well the tournament is running. To some extent this is due to the players themselves who on the whole are doing all the right things. But it is also due to a veritable army of volunteers who are helping with running, operating computers, and other help. Not only has Marj Miller been doing a great deal of work before and during the tournament, but her ever obliging husband Jack has been an enormous help, too. One of our volunteers, Paula Messer, volunteered to be a standby player to even up the numbers if needs be. It so happens she has been required to play for the three days. And as I write this at the end of round 17, she is placed first in her section!
Web coverage
Results are going to this site fairly promptly after each round. We have heard that there are family, friends and the Scrabble community at large following this. The graphical displays are a bit of an experiment, and may not work for some browsers. The standings are shown in a compressed form for a quick overview, but a link below the table will take you to Edward Okulicz's usual version which amongst other things allows you to click on a player's name to see his or her complete scorecard.
A winning score of 55
A startling game between Harry Malcolm and Teresa Dean. With only three words on the board, it was so blocked that it was difficult to play. With five successive zero scores, Teresa played a sixth move of BARNIES* which came off for a score of zero, and so rule 11.2 applied and the game was over. Final scores Harry 55, Teresa 24. If Teresa had been aware of the rule, she should have just made EXON or FOEN to keep the game going.
Jostling for the lead
Wow! In the Masters section, at the end of round 21, far from having a clear winner, instead there has been a bunching at the top. The top five placings are each on 15 wins!
1 Andrew Fisher 15:6 +1794 2 David Eldar 15:6 +1086 3 Naween Fernando 15:6 +1028 4 Bob Jackman 15:6 +1015 5 Alastair Richards 15:6 +847And at the end of round 22:
1 David Eldar 16:6 +1190 2 Naween Fernando 16:6 +1114 3 Bob Jackman 16:6 +1111 4 Alastair Richards 16:6 +923 5 Andrew Fisher 15:7 +1698
And in the Plate section, standby player Paula Messer has still kept ahead of the field, and had an interesting game against Trevor Bouker in round 23. She leapt to an early lead of 217 to Trevor's 28, but Trevor believes in the maxim "never say die" so he fought on and at the end defeated her 399 to 366.
An exciting last round in Masters
In the Masters section, going into the last round, David Eldar was leading.
For David to win the tournament, effectively he needed only to win that last game.
For Naween to win the tournament, he needed to win his last game and needed David to lose his last game.
For Alastair or Bob to win the tournament, they needed to win their last game, and for both David and Naween to
lose their games.
David was matched against Derek McKenzie, a somewhat unknown factor. A clever player with excellent word knowledge, Derek had not played tournament Scrabble for many years. Derek was extremely pleased to win this last game against David, thus knocking David back to second place. Naween won his game against Helen Maurus to claim the title.
Prizewinners: Masters
Achievement Name Prize ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Naween Fernando $1000 and trophy 2nd David Eldar $500 and trophy 3rd Bob Jackman $300 and trophy 4th Alastair Richards $200 and trophy 5th Andrew Fisher $150 and trophy 6th Julian McKail $100 and trophy High Game: 660 Andrew Fisher $100 and clock High Word: REPLYING 158 Glenys Lawrie $100 and clock Greatest Rating Change: 185 Stuart Pridham $100
An exciting last round in the Plate
The Plate section was also nailbightingly close. Paula Messer who seemed to have it sown up by the end of round 22 lost round 23. Her main rival, Sherie Brown also lost round 23. So Matthew Selvanera who had had a bad patch in rounds 21 and 22 suddenly appeared as a serious contender, especially since his spread was markedly superior to Sherie's.
Paula lost her final game, although it was hard to tell from her demeanour. Throughout the whole tournament she had a cheerful smile on her face whether she lost or won. The game between two young players, Matthew Selvanera and Phillip Hamilton seemed to be taking forever. It was an extremely close game, and they were trying to play this tense game where there was much hubbub as other players had finished and were helping pack up equipment and/or hovering about Matthew and Phillip's board. Matthew only just won 357 to 353 to claim the title. He was more stunned than elated at the end. Matthew is a talented 15 year old South Australian player who has been encouraged and challenged by the other young Scrabblers, of which there were record numbers this tournament.
Prizewinners: Plate
Achievement Name Prize ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Matthew Selvanera $500 and trophy 2nd Paula Messer $300 and trophy 3rd Sherie Brown $200 and trophy 4th Lindy Lawson $100 and trophy High Game: 557 Matthew Selvanera $100 and clock High Word: QUEENIER 122 Wayne Willis $100 and clock Greatest Rating Change: 208 Anand Bharadwaj $100
Prizewinners: Youth
The prize for the greatest rating gain for a player aged below 18 years was won by the youngest player in the room, Anand Bharadwaj (7 years old) who gained 208 rating points.