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NSC 2002 Commentary: Round 21

Congratulations to our new National Champion, Joel Sherman!

See also: video clip 1 (2 MB), video clip 2 (2 MB). (video courtesy Roger Cullman)

Go to: Before the Tournament, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, After the Tournament.

At table 10 in division 1, J Goard (Foresthill, CA) is on fire! He started the game with FIVE bingos! They were: LIGHTERS to the S for 98, FILLETED through the second L for 64, OUTWAGER* for 78, DIOXANE for 75, then he exchanged tiles and on his next play put down EARNERS for 70. Not a bingo, but not nothing either, on his next play he made AZURE for 32. Thus, after seven turns, their scores were 417-138 in J's favor. The game ended at 554-226.

Just as I was finishing up the notes on that game, the loud sound of a siren (from a passing emergency vehicle) could be heard. And at nearly the same time, two players called "Director" at the top of their lungs. Sounded like a real director emergency.

Undeterred by the ambulance, Adam Logan (Berkeley, CA) defeated Panupol Sujjayakorn (Thailand), 462-356, in division 1. Adam got down LIGATIVE through the G for 66, SESTINA for 66, and BEDcHAIR to the triple from the B for 101. Panupol played NAViCERT for 86.

Peter Armstrong (Milwaukee, WI) and Matt Graham (New York, NY) have a great game at table 3, behind the expert bunting. From the sidelines, I spot RUTHENIC through the T, RECITALS through the C, MEUNIERE, WEARILY, and ERYNGOS. While I watch, Peter nestles an O between a separated C and S, and puts down OVErSEA for 76. Matt win's, 470-418.

At the next table in division 1, the Dave Ws faced off: Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR) vs David Weisberg (Hollywood, FL). If I can read my notes right, Weigand opened with FLOUTED. He also played TROUPERS and LOUNGES. Weisberg trailing for much of the game fought back and played ARTICLES through the C for a 90-point double-double and the next turn put down APIARIES to the S for 72. At the game's end, he played EXAMINEE from the first E for 110, but picked up HIOQTY. And, Weigand stuck Weisberg with the Q and won, 521-457.

I'm next whisked away to see a board in division 2 between Wil Dabbs (Neosho, MO) and Rick Wong (San José, CA). It was a monster win for Rick, 679-283. Rick played GAMmONED through the E for 64, OVERCAPS to the S for 92, PUTSCHES to the S for 77, YOLKiER for 76, DISRATES from the D for 61, and RESIDENT through the E for 63. He also got away with the phoney HIC/COVERLAPS* to the triple for 72. At one point in the game, their scores were 499-115 in Rick's favor.

Also in division 2, Diane Firstman (Brooklyn, NY) and Brenda Megannety (Toronto ON) have an "almost" comeback story. Diane opened with aDVERSE and Brenda sitting with six vowels and an S, exchanges. Then Diane plays OKRA on the triple line for 36 and is up by 96 points. Brenda plays "little" trying to open and finally puts down OESTRIN for 72. Diane is still up by 94. Then Brenda comes up with the fabulous ReJOINDEr from the N for 98 points, pulling her into the lead for the first time. Good end game play on Diane's part, combined with Brenda pulling the Q and being forced to play to get it off her rack, helped Diane get the win, 390-376, but they both thought Brenda had a chance to win it due to that great find.

Debbie Stegman (Ossining, NY) stops by to see all the excitement and tells me that after starting 8-2, she is now 9-12, having lost her last 9 games. That means that she hasn't won a game since a bit after lunch yesterday! How demoralizing!

In a recounted division 5 game between Lois Greene (Dayton, OH) and Doug Bobkovich (Tempe, AZ), Doug came out victorious, 398-393. Lois opened with ZESTER for 50 and Doug hooked an S on it and played SLITHER for 80. He also got down DEGraDE for 64. Lois made a great play of WILE, hooking the E onto ZOEA making ZOEAE for 50 points.

Diane Firstman (Brooklyn, NY) tells John Chew that she is "still kicking herself" after round 19 for getting greedy and trying to score a few extra points with FORCEP*. She says she confused it with BICEP*. "Yes, I'm an expert player," she says.

The Mallick brothers: Joey Mallick (Cape Elizabeth, ME) and David Mallick (Andover, MA) are both 6-1 for the day and looking forward to a 7-0 day tomorrow. They hope they don't play one another.

Mark Milan (San Juan Capistrano, CA) is smiling but is up for host duty again tonight. After cohosting a swell Mission Bay barbeque affair on Sunday night, he organized an outing to see the San Diego Padres play the Atlanta Braves. Not one to do anything small (Sunday's bbq, which he hosted with Lori Gaut (Valencia, CA), was catered and served nearly 100 people!), Mark had sold 50 tickets to tonight's game. How exciting for that group!

We head into tomorrow's games with Joel Sherman (Bronx, NY) leading the pack in division 1, by two games with an 18-3 +1691 record. Iffy Onyeonwu (Elgin, TX) still leads division 2 with 16 wins, but now two others are also at 16 wins: Chuck Armstrong (Saline, MI) and Sal Dijamco (Margate, FL). Doug Brockmeier (Yorba Linda, CA) and Carlynn Mayer (Sparks, NV) are both 15-4 in division 3. Though, no longer undefeated, Norbert Saldanha (Richmond BC) still leads by two games in division 4 with an 18-3 +1740 record. In division 5, Scott McDougall (Williamsburg, VA) is two ahead of the pack with an 18-3 +953 record. And, proving that the Saldanha family is still going strong, Dielle Saldanha (Richmond BC) leads division 6 by one game with her 18-3 +1598 record. The Vancouver SCRABBLE^® club must be so proud of their Saldanha club members!