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Back to 2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Live Coverage

2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 7

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 7

Tonight, the Missassagua club, directed by Craig Rowland (Mississauga ON) will meet at The Great Hall and use the site's tables. So, this encouraged a few club attendees to arrive a bit early to check out the championship so far. Gene Tyszka was one of the first to arrive. He looked as happy as the rest of us were to be in such a well ventilated and air conditioned space. Today has been very hot in downtown Toronto.

I see a finished board across the room. Since this is the last day, no paperwork remains and I don't know who played here. I noticed the bingo STEEPER and the phoney AIRBAsE*.

Feeling like I've not been to the stage all day long, I work my way down the room to find Emanuel Chicoine (Montreal QC) holding his face in his hands. Body language tells me that his opponent, Adam Logan (United Kingdom), won this game. And, if so, it would make Adam 7-0 for the day, the only undefeated player left. As I approach the board, Adam points out Emanual's beautiful opening play of pOETIZE for a cool 100 points. Emanual also got down EPIGENE for 82 and FOLATES/QATS for 83. Adam found GOSPELER through the last E doe 76 and got down UNIDEAED for 72 points. Down on time but ahead on score, Emanual knew that Adam held an S and he wanted to block the board from an S bingo, so Emanual played PIU from the P. This play, which seemed so smart (since it doesn't take an S and since it did block the board), turned out to be a game losing mistake. PIU doesn't take an S, however, Adam who just picked up the X in his last draw, was able to play parallel to PIU, creating, a 52-point X play that prettily sewed up his victory, 477-433. Both annotators, Kristen Chew and John Stardom, were congratulating Emanual on such a strong game. As I walked away, I couldn't help feeling that Emanual was still a bit shell shocked. A common feeling for Adam's opponents today.

Glenn Dunlop (Brantford ON) had his head hanging over his completed board. And I'm not exaggerating. I couldn't see his face at all. He was doing his typical post-game analysis where he figures out at what point the game was won. He asked Evan at what point he thought he'd won (Evan's victory, 394-358) and Evan said, "when you say down across from me." All said in jest, of course! I see Evan's AXLETREE from the A for 84, one row above the bottom triple lane. The E was poised in the right triple lane, which caused Glen to exclaim. Perhaps he saw some triple-triple potential. But, alas, Glenn could only get down ELM/RE/EL/EM to the triple for 31. On Evan's next turn, he played the gorgeous PETUNTSeS through the second and third ET letters for a 70-point, 9-letter word! He was so happy to make this find, that he failed to notice that he could have hooked his S onto KATCINA and played SUNSPOT won the triple lane for 93. PETUNTSeS may have been less game points, but overall, the style points earned were enormous.

Formerly from the South Asian island of Sri Lanka, Siri Tillekeratne (Calgary AB) and Sinna Vijayakumar (Mississauga ON) faced off against one another this round. They jokingly refer to themselves as twins separated at birth, though they are from the opposite sides of birth country. In this meeting, Vijay was victorious, 398-336. On their board, I see InTWINED and QUANTILE. Since Siri has been in Canada since the 1970s, Vijay jokingly referred to his "twin" as "more Canadian."

David Stokoe (Windsor ON) lost a one-point game to Ray Francis (Pickering ON) this round, 388-389. The good and the bad of this is that both players has a win today. It is a "good thing" that Ray finally got his win in before the day ended. On their board, I see Ray's OUTRAISE and TRINDLE and David's AGITaTED.

A great game just ended at table 2 between Fern Lindzon (Toronto ON) and Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC). Dean, the 2003 CNSC runner up, ended up with the win, 385-359. Fren played the great LISTEES for 66 and GERMFrEE through the first E for 78. Dean played STORMING to the G for 86 and UNPARTEd through the A for 78. Toward the game's end, Fern tried PETUlINE* (those should read PETULINE if that L reads wrong), but Dean called it off.

More games tomorrow!

Reception

As the games wound up, players milled into the Conversations room for the CNSC reception. Plated hors d'oeuvres were handed around by the tuxedo shirt clad catering staff. A few players and their guests figured out that if they stationed themselves just outside the kitchen, they would get a first crack at the silver trays strewn with purple orchids and yummy canapes (roast beef tenderloin wrapped around scallions, Thai spring rolls, bocconcini rounds with tomato, and lots of others!).

Players and their guests stood talking in loosely formed groups about their bingos, strategic plays, and missed opportunities. Interestingly, the rooms tables went mostly unused, which I thought remarkable until I realized that most had been sitting all day already and standing was a refreshing change!

The highlight of the event, though, was the music provided by Toronto SCRABBLE^® club members Fern Lindzon (Toronto ON) on piano and George Koller on bass. George's day job is with the Toronto Symphany Orchestra and Fern is a professional jazz musician, so I don't need to gush about just how good they were. Sunlight poured through the tall windows and Jim Carlton (London ON) found the best seat in the house, along a built-in bench within a turret/cove in the corner of the room. The room's high ceilings and Victorian architecture created the perfect acoustical setting for tinkling light jazz.

Hasbro Canada set up a game table off to the side where they put out several boxes of Hasbro's newest game, Trivial Pursuit DVD Pop Culture 2. This created a few side conversations about how great this would be at a party! Michael Sadornick, Robert Chuchla, and Christie Powers from Hasbro Canada wore the black event SCRABBLE^® shirts and talked about their side games played in the Conversations room earlier today.

Spouses, players, and staff enjoyed a few minutes of relaxation and then more games were being warmed up for the evening. Craig Rowland, director of the Mississauga club, opted to gather his players in The Great Hall this evening, the club's normal night to play. With visitors and normal guests in attendance, it was a full house of 44 players!

Hera are final results from the Thursday Night Open, a Special Session of the Mississauga SCRABBLE^® Club held at the site of the CNSC, directed by Craig Rowland.

44 players attended.

There were SIX 3-game winners of $20: Heather McCall (Toronto ON), Jason Ubeika (Mississauga ON), Anna Miransky, Yvonne Lobo, Vera Bigall and Dave Krook.

Theme Prize Winners, winning a deluxe board for the best word(s) associated with the word "UP":

Brenda Solomon: mix (up), bring (up), sevens (as in 7UP)
Valeria Kovacs: sum (up), mop (up)
Kaveri Raviraj: (up-)tilt

Bonus-Bingo Winners, winning a collector's edition SCRABBLE^® tin:

EQUATES (98), John Robertson (Cambridge ON)
CHAYOTES (95), Steve Ozorio (Mississauga ON)
WALNUTS (89), Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC)

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