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Back to 2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Live Coverage

2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 5

Congratulations to the first-ever two-time Canadian Champion, Adam Logan!

Go to: Registration, Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Final Round 1, Final Round 2, Final Round 3, Final Round 4, After the Finals.

Round 5

The first game done this round is between Carl Madden (Brantford ON) and Ray Francis (Pickering ON). Ray's string of bad luck didn't end with this game and Carl won, 460-319. Of his three bingos, Carl can recall only two (my kinda guy, who can remember all this stuff?): DAILIES and PITTERS. Carl, now 2-3, is feeling okay about his record so far in such a tough field.

Event alternate, John Stardom, is kindly staying around helping us annotate in place of actually playing himself. I caught him smiling (and what a smile he has) after annotating a game between Adam Logan (United Kingdom) and Glenn Mosher (Toronto ON). I asked him if he was enjoying himself and he nodded vigorously. I asked if he had learned any new words and he nodded even more vigorously. The most recent word to get implanted into his head: VORLAGES, played by Adam Logan (United Kingdom) a game or two before. In this past game, now finished, Adam defeated Glenn, 423-287 and both annotators, Kate Boys and John, agree that Glenn had dreadful tiles.

Another spectacular game in which Craig Rowland (Mississauga ON) was a player. He was playing opposite Lou Cornelis (Ottawa ON) and both players agree that it was a humdinger of a game that Lou was expected to win. The first bingo down was Craig's EJECTINg from the first E for 104. Lou then got down NANKEENS for 76, and Craig responded immediately with DIGITATe for 61. Later in the game, Lou got down AREOLAS for 71. At this point, Craig was down, 271-366, and he started trying to open the board. First he tried to open in the top right and Lou closed it down. Then he tried to open in bottom right with KEG, and Lou blocked as best he could playing OD beneath the G in KEG, creating OD. Then Craig tried to open the middle top and Lou shut him down. Then, something sorta magical happened. Suddenly, the closed bottom right side no longer looked so closed. Holding AEILMST, Craig was able to play through the D in OD, hooking his S onto KEGS, playing MISDEALT for a 176-point triple-triple play! Eureka! Despite getting stuck with the Q, Craig was able to win this game, 491-462. As I was walking away, Craig was muttering that oft-heard refrain, "a game is never really over until it is over!"

Fran Silver (Cote Saint-Luc QC), who always thinks her games are uninteresting, defeated Shannon Burns (Airdrie AB), 499-322. One of them opened with OBOLI, but the play of the game came when Shannon opened the top triple lane and Fran said, "Oh, I'm just adoring that play." Sure enough, she slammed down ADORING across the triple and ensured her win.

As the players go off to have cookies and coffee-type beverages, I spot a couple of completed games. Tony Leah (Ajax ON) had a big win vs. Jim Nanavati (Burlington ON), 552-270. At a nearby table, I see that George MacAulay (Saskatoon SK) defeated Christopher Sykes (Cambridge ON), 413-394.

In the "aw shucks" department, Lisa Kessler (Toronto ON) tells me the sweetest story. She is a Montessori school teacher in Toronto. She has been running a School SCRABBLE^® program at her school and everyone knows of her great affection for this game. So, when she asked to take two days off to play in the Canadian Nationals, it became a bit of an event for the whole school, who wished her well with spirit posters and announcements. So, today, after this round ended, one of Lisa's young students, Lauren F., ran up the stairs of The Great Hall to hand Lisa a homemade card. It featured a picture of a SCRABBLE^® board that spelled out in tiles: GOOD LUCK LISA, and it was signed by both Lauren and her mother. Needless to say, the gesture was both overwhelming to and super appreciated by Lisa.

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