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Back to 2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Live Coverage

2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 8

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 8

Another beautiful day in Toronto and all players were in their places with bright shiny faces. After a few brief announcements about how great the Mississauga club meeting went, the games began.

Former CNSC champs, David Boys (Dorval QC) and Adam Logan (United Kingdom) faced off against one another on the stage at table 1. I think Adam has been sitting in the same chair for the event's first 8 games!

Lisa Kessler (Toronto ON) had a nice game against Barbara Bultz (Dollard-des-Ormeaux QC) this round, winning, 427-367. Lisa made three bingos: UNWARNED for 63, TROPiNE for 70, and the triple ErASION/ATROPINE for 80. Barbara hung in there with plays like GOX for 58, HAZY for 39, and the endplay of STUD, which hooked to make BICES for 48 points. Lisa, who was low at time (as in, she had 9 seconds left on her clock), wanted to get the B and C out of her rack, which set up Barbara's nice last play. Lisa still won, but with a little less spread than she'd had earlier on.

Robin Pollock Daniel fans will be happy to know that she will be involved in this year's event, not as a player, as she had family committments this week, but she will do a guest spot as the emcee of the finals coverage on Saturday afternoon. We'd have liked to have her more, but we'll take her for this visit if we must! Come on down to see the finals live if you can!

Andrew Golding (Verdun QC) said he got both blanks in this round's game for the first time in the event! He defeated Ray Francis (Pickering ON), 352-318. We've all had the kind of game that Ray had, where the highest play is FUDGE to the triple for 38! Andrew, on the other hand, got down a fun bingo to rival his buddy Craig's play of DOUPIONI yesterday (a silk yarn). Andrew played BROCaTEL for 72 (a heavy fabric). A nice find, indeed!

Jason Ubeika (Mississauga ON) and Jeremy Hildebrand (Ottawa ON) are laughing as their game ends. Jeremy points out his two bingos: FOODIES for 80 and EARNERS for 75. He calls them easy words and admits he let a phoney get by when Jason played ATTeNTS*. In the after-game conversation, both admit they've never seen that word before, but if only we were as clear headed during game play! It was Jeremy's win, 407-384.

Both players are away from the board and I realize I rarely catch Joel Wapnick (Montréal QC) around after his games win. This one was his win vs. George MacAulay (Saskatoon SK), 438-299. I see Joel's lovely GRAnITIC for 61, LOUDENED for 70, and fLINTIER for 64. Looks like George did a fair amount of scorekeeping and other game-related tasks not related to big scores that game! Been there myself a time or fifteen!

Two of the room's younger players faced off at table 2, with Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC) defeating Emanuel Chicoine (Montreal QC), 397-385. It was a great game that came down to the very last play. Both game annotaters, Su Edwards and Pat Larash were on their feet, their eyes shining. In his second to last play, Dean played one tile, a G to make GO, leaving a top E hook (EGO). This play was brilliant according to Emanuel, who couldn't block both that spot and the open S on the bottom triple lane. Thus, Dean bingoed out with SENTRIES from the S for 77 (he could have played ENTRIES/EGO elsewhere and thus was guaranteed the win), catching Emanuel with a bunch of cononants on his rack. Talk about a miracle win!

Ah, the mighty have falled. The only undefeated player so far, Adam Logan (United Kingdom) has lost to his good friend David Boys (Dorval QC), 355-401. Adam got down RENNASE for 70 and QUEASIER through the U for 69. By the time the latter bingo was played, Dave had dumped the Q into the bag twice! Dave played TOASTIER through the E for 68, TUNDRaS/AVISOS for 69, and AlIENAGE from the first A for 77 (that should read ALIENAGE) down the triple lane. It turned out to be an endgame situation, as these games often do! With 15 tiles left in the bag (plus the 7 on Dave's rack), there were 22 unseen tiles to Adam. And, dishearteningly, only four of them were vowels! As it turned out, Dave got them all, which gave him a bit more flexibility in the endgame. How many times can you play CWM? Congrats to Dave for taking down the dragon!

Fern Lindzon (Toronto ON) had a miserable game against Christopher Sykes (Cambridge ON) this round, osing, 238-405. Ouch. I see Chris's HUManIZE through the U for 90. Fern, on the other hand, did an excellent job of corralling all the game's vowels. She'll get no game points for it, but I'm sure Chris was glad that it wasn't his job this round!

I catch a quick glimpse of a game about to be torn down between Timothy Anglin (Scarborough ON) and Shaun Goatcher (Mississauga ON). Shaun ended up winning, 410-364. Tim made the 74-point play of ExPOUNDED played to the ED, but the game's greatest play was made by Shaun, when he got down the double-double, overlapping INTONED for 98 points.

What does it take to win a game if three bingos won't do it, laments Trevor Sealy (Oshawa ON). He opened his game vs. Shannon Burns (Airdrie AB) with sPICIER for 72 and later got down FINGERS for 72 and LEASInGS for 65. Shannon played ENTRESOL for 78, but kept up with Trevor with plays like HOLE, VINY, RITZ, so Trevor couldn't, as he phrased it, "shake him." It was Shannon's win, 428-405.

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