After calling in all the favours that I could and twisting a few arms, 27players from NSW joined 20 ACT players in Canberra this weekend for a carefree cavort at the Canberra Christmas Capers (incorporating the Canberra Challenge Trophy). The pace was set before the first game with Susan Gordon (formerly Flack) introducing her beautiful, 3 month old, daughter to rated Scrabble for the first time; Susan and Karinya also joined us for dinner on Saturday evening.
8 games were played on Saturday in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere, with play finishing by 5.30 to allow time to debrief ( and drink!) before going upstairs for dinner. Over a welcoming glass of Champagne, players and their visitors (57 men, women and children all together) were asked to be upstanding for our new Scrabble anthem, composed by Rob's Bingos, followed by a toast to Alfred Butts. On Sunday the final four games were played and some fun had with the raffle and lucky door prizes.
There were some outstanding performances (no, I don't mean John Barker's and Gary Pollard's after dinner renditions of the anthem) John Barker, Joan Buchanan, Therese Bruce and Alister MacGregor all managed to win 11 out of 12 games and in doing so tipped the scales in NSW's favour for the Canberra Challenge Trophy. Well done NSW!! Next year we will try to bring it back home.
Place getters all received a trophy with prize mony of $150 for 1st, $100 for 2nd, and $50 for third.
Thanks to the support of a number of Canberra businesses* we were able to give away over $200 of noveltly and lucky door prizes, as well as have a raffle worth about $200 with 16 prizes. In the lucky door prize draw, Bev Sell won a game which claimed to be the thinking person's word game and Judy Hay brought a tear to my eye by winning the Scrabble tie and immediately presenting to Gary Pollard who deserately wanted it. Thanks again Judy! The 2 main raffle prizes (a Christmas hamper and toiletries) were won by Jean Noonan who pulled out her own ticket for the second prize.
Except for a Canberra player who unfortunately had to withdraw after game 7 due to ill health, a great time seemed to be had by all and I already have registrations for next year's tournament, which will probably be the last weekend in November, so watch the ATB for more information as we are aiming to make our annual tournament one of the highlights of the Australian Scrabble Players' year.
Stats for Tournament : DECEMBER 5th, 1999 +--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+ | state Name | National | State | Wins | Rating Points | | | Old New | Old New | Exp Act | Old Change New| +--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+ +Section: *MASTERS + + + + +--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------------+ | NSW John Barker | 28 20 | 11 8 | 9.7 11.0 | 1728 +26 1754 | | NSW Jean McGiffen | 20 26 | 8 11 | 10.0 9.0 | 1757 -19 1738 | | NSW Betty Foreman | 86 74 | 22 21 | 7.3 8.0 | 1543 +13 1556 | | NSW Marie Knight | 52 58 | 13 13 | 8.3 7.0 | 1623 -26 1597 | | NSW Kerry Constable :act | 99 99 | 25 25 | 6.9 7.0 | 1520 +1 1521 | | NSW Alison Rae :act | 77 89 | 21 22 | 7.5 7.0 | 1552 -9 1543 | | NSW Cheryl Michler | 142 133 | 36 33 | 5.4 6.0 | 1446 +11 1457 | | NSW Hanne Marks | 206 194 | 49 46 | 4.5 6.0 | 1347 +31 1378 | | NSW Val Ryan | 219 209 | 53 50 | 3.9 5.0 | 1314 +22 1336 | | NSW Judy Hay | 235 217 | 55 52 | 3.4 5.0 | 1286 +33 1319 | | NSW Susan MacGillivr:act | 227 212 | 54 51 | 3.4 5.0 | 1300 +32 1332 | | NSW Christine Foot :act | 240 222 | 56 55 | 3.3 5.0 | 1275 +34 1309 | | NSW Gordon Meggs | 212 218 | 51 53 | 4.5 4.0 | 1329 -10 1319 | | NSW Jean Noonan | 161 198 | 41 47 | 6.1 4.0 | 1411 -42 1369 | | NSW Ros Gibbons | 141 180 | 35 45 | 6.9 4.0 | 1451 -58 1393 | | NSW Betty Coleman | 208 226 | 50 56 | 5.0 3.0 | 1343 -39 1304 | +-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------+ +Section: *INTERMEDIATE + + + + +--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------------+ | NSW Joan Buchanan | 265 234 | 67 57 | 8.5 11.0 | 1240 +50 1290 | | NSW Gary Pollard | 249 238 | 60 58 | 9.0 10.0 | 1264 +22 1286 | | NSW Michael Adler :act | 312 313 | 79 79 | 7.3 7.0 | 1160 -6 1154 | | NSW Jean Balmer | 280 292 | 72 76 | 8.5 7.0 | 1213 -28 1185 | | NSW Elizabeth Ho | 243 274 | 58 69 | 9.6 7.0 | 1273 -51 1222 | | NSW June Stephenson | 242 277 | 57 71 | 9.3 6.5 | 1273 -55 1218 | | NSW Bev Sell :act | 377 369 | 92 90 | 5.7 6.0 | 1054 +6 1060 | | NSW Mary Craven :act | 515 464 | 125 109 | 3.8 6.0 | 903 +44 947 | | NSW Ann Fiddler | 480 442 | 112 105 | 4.5 6.0 | 936 +31 967 | | NSW Betty Irwin | 528 504 | 132 121 | 3.9 5.0 | 891 +24 915 | | NSW Lexia Smallwood :act | 0 495 | 0 117 | 3.8 5.0 | 886 +37 923 | | NSW Sunny Wright | 468 477 | 109 111 | 5.4 5.0 | 946 -7 939 | | NSW Madeleine Emerson :a | 0 595 | 0 145 | 2.3 4.5 | 750 +71 821 | | NSW Heather Sorensen :ac | 668 639 | 162 157 | 2.5 4.0 | 741 +31 772 | | NSW Daphne Bezuidenhout | 395 424 | 96 102 | 6.4 4.0 | 1032 -46 986 | | NSW Carol Nomarhas :act | 430 514 | 104 125 | 5.7 2.0 | 980 -73 907 | +-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------+ +Section: *RECREATIONAL + + + + +--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------------+ | NSW Therese Bruce | 796 622 | 189 152 | 6.9 11.0 | 629 +163 792 | | NSW Alister MacGregor | 726 655 | 172 160 | 8.0 11.0 | 695 +63 758 | | NSW Sarah Ferguson :act | 0 752 | 0 180 | 7.2 8.0 | 645 +28 673 | | NSW Lenore Fay | 784 769 | 186 187 | 7.4 8.0 | 640 +15 655 | | NSW John Smith :act | 898 869 | 219 212 | 5.2 7.0 | 529 +36 565 | | NSW Dea Matthews :act | 765 770 | 183 188 | 7.2 7.0 | 655 -1 654 | |*NSW June Mckenzie | 0 825 | 0 201 | 7.0 7.0 | 607 607 | | NSW Brian Irwin | 883 883 | 214 218 | 5.8 6.0 | 546 +6 552 | |*NSW Verna Bowen | 0 853 | 0 208 | 6.0 6.0 | 577 577 | | NSW Elwyn Smith :act | 951 956 | 233 238 | 5.0 5.0 | 498 498 | | NSW Merriss Adler :act | 824 880 | 199 216 | 6.9 4.5 | 602 -47 555 | | NSW Lachlan Brown :act | 0 1010 | 0 253 | 3.0 4.5 | 366 +45 411 | | NSW John Fay | 895 953 | 218 236 | 5.6 4.0 | 532 -33 499 | | NSW Diana Field | 981 998 | 239 248 | 4.5 3.5 | 453 -20 433 | |*NSW Jeff Danaher | 0 988 | 0 245 | 5.2 3.5 | 500 -50 450 | |*NSW A Bye | 0 1022 | 0 257 | 5.1 0.6 | 500 -136 364 | +-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------+