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My desk sits opposite division 6's table 1, so I can see most of the goings on. During this round's game between Andrea Ross-Greene and Miles Dequetteville, there were numerous challenges. Each had a word removed, then Andrea challenged Miles' play of CRAG. It was ruled acceptable. She then challenged his next play, BEASTY, which was ruled unacceptable. The game had a lightness to it and both players were laughing. Connie Creed, sitting next to Miles at her board 2 game was laughing with them. Turns out that Miles beat Andrea,. 407-340, which pushed Connie into first all by herself: 16-2 +1116. Andrea and Elvira Toews are both 15-3.

Division 4's Robin Schlaugh just had a big win against Shelly Koch, 428-303. Shelly added an ING to make JELLYINg to the triple for 63. Robin challenged and the play was good! Robin got down SURFeRS and DEEDING. She's gone from 3-11 -169 this morning to 7-11 +284 this afternoon.

Woody Chen and Michael Kelly had a tense endgame with both in desperate time trouble. In the end, after losing 10 points to a minute overtime, Woody pulled out the win, 303-302. The pair even did a recount.

In the earlier round, the play that went with NERTZ to make that 100-point play was ZIT. Another loose end tied up.

In a division 1 game, Rose Kreiswirth challenged Dominic Grillo's DEPLACES. It was an endgame attempt to play off DE, but it failed.

Jerry Lerman (div 1) beat Ira Cohen this round, 405-304. I see the lovely KOrYOTIN from the K, which I think Ira made. Jerry played INSERTs in the triple lane, hooking onto WINK, making SWINK .

Adam Logan (div 1) tells me he is 13-5 and just had a win against Zev Kaufman, 420-210. As I made my way over to look at the board, Zev said it wasn't newsworthy, so I moved on.

"Charnwit is coming back," says Purnith Vutthichairerk of his countryman, Sukhumratanaporn. Charnwit, now 10-8, had a large win over Marlene Milkent, 579-307., His first play was TeAROOM, followed by ACIERATE through the T, followed by ARCHAISE through the C. He also got down UNmINED and TELLIES/TeAROOMS. For those not counting, that's 5 bingos!

In a well-watched endgame, Sammy Okosagah lost to Randy Greenspan, 379-446. There was such a crowd around this game that I could barely make it in to inspect the body. I might have snapped a photo, but endgame analysis sometimes puts tiles in places they weren't, so it might not be accurate.

Joyce Zmorzynski (div 4) found me in one end of the room and led me all the way to the other end to show me a board where she beat Barry Spinner, 479-361. Barry said it exploded at the end. The last five plays were: Joyce's UNIONISE through the N for 68, Barry's ZETA to the triple for 69, Joyce's THEMED for 53 (which hung a T out into the triple lane), Barry's JUPE to the triple for 63 (at this point he is 20 ahead and thinks he might pull this puppy out), and Joyce comes back with a down the triple lane, 113-point bingo outplay of SLUTtier through the T. She got Barry's WIIO tiles and racked up an impressive win!

Helena Gauthier (div 5) tells me of her last game where she beat Anna Picozzi, 447-272. She drew all consonants, so exchanged keeping XSTR. On her next play she got down EXHORTS for 84. Anna then played EXOTIC to which Helena added an A on one turn and an L on another. She also got down STARTERS and EUPlOID. She points out that you can add a Y to that word. Helena's cume this morning was -249 and now it is +26. She's been busy!

The last round 18 game to finish was between division 1's Ron Tiekert and Trey Wright. Trey pulled out the win, 418-397. Trey opened that game with GNARRED. Ron got down PHILTrEs on the triple lane for 95 and I see DOMAINS was played for 82 points.

So, we end the morning session with Joe Edley into the div 1 lead, 15-3. The players 14-4 are now (listed by cume) John Luebkemann, Sammy Okosagah, and Randy Hersom.

Division 2 has two players 15-3, David Johnson +1251 and Bob Lundegaard +909.

After a brief time in second place, Dean Cullen retakes first in div 3, 16-2 +1159. Rusty Peltz, now second, is 15-3 +1306.

In div 4, Michael Ecsedy 15-3 +1267.

Div 5 is Rob Matthews by two games at 15-3 +1129.

Last but not least, Connie Creed takes the div 6 lead as mentioned above.

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