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Back to 2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Live Coverage

2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 13

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 13

So, I finally catch the ellusive Jason Krueger (Calgary AB) and he tells me that yes, yes, he did win a game, 353-261 vs. Danny Panganiban (Calgary AB) this round. I ask him for a good play or two and he says, "Oh this was a dreadful game, there really is nothing to say." I continue to stand there, not willing to take no for an answer and he comes up with this highllight. "Toward the end of the game, I played MIXUP to the P and left myself WUD on my rack." Okay....

Shannon Burns (Airdrie AB), moving on up the tables, just won a game by a monster amount at table 4. He sat down opposite Carl Madden (Brantford ON) and had a whopping 516-275 game. Shannon opened the game with THACK for 38 and later played INHALEs/THACKs for 84. He also got down TREATIES through the I for 70 and PINCERS/YE/OR/US for 96. As if that wasn't enough, toward the game's end, he played FUZED for 53. On the other side of the good luck continuum, Carl played GOLF for 33, exchanged his tiles twice, and tried the plausible LEVANTE* that got challenged off by Shannon. However, Carl did have the pleasure of sticking Shannon with ?D.

Craig Rowland (Mississauga ON) had a good game against Christopher Sykes (Cambridge ON) this round. The fact that Chris had all the As should have tipped me off, but I asked nonetheless and Craig tells me he won their face-off, 385-329. Craig got down LITOTES for 69, EScAPES for 72, and HOmERING for 62. He also hooked onto and created the word VOMITO while Chris played OUREBI to the triple. As Craig laid down his final bingo, he did so knowing there were 4 As left in the bag. And he lucked out and got none of them!

Fran Silver (Cote Saint-Luc QC) pulls me aside to tell me tale about the extremes of woe. Earlier today she lost a game by 346, right after she lost another by 197. Then, in the past two rounds, she lost one by -2 and this round's game by a mere single point, 363-363, to Maxim Panitch (Toronto ON). A resident of the Metropolitan Montreal community, Fran played CIRQUE in that game. In case this is too veiled a reference, Cirque de Soleil is based in Montreal.

All that is left around the shell of the game at table 1 is a spate of annotators. They scratch their heads in disbelief. Adam Logan (United Kingdom) just lost to Ron Hoekstra (Kentwood, MI), but it wasn't just the loss, it was the score, 286-381. We all fail to roll over the 300 mark every so often, but Adam Logan? He traded twice during the game, which I'm told was a first for him in the event. Ron, not exactly having a great game himself, played DAVY one turn and Adam replied instantly with his own drek play of WAVY. Both players sought rack balance throughout and it was only at the game's end that either of them was able to bingo, Ron with CONTRItE from the C for 80 and Adam with BAROnAGE from the B for 72.

Table 2's Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC) fell to Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON), 375-462. It was a hard-fought game that started off with a huge bang: 4 bingos in a row! Evan's TOXEMIA for 98, Dean's CREAKIER through the I for 73, Dave's BINAURAL for 64 (he points out that he could have played RUINABLE for 6 more points but wanted to make a more defensive play), and Dean's REvEALER for 61. At this point, it was 162-134 in Evan's favor. Things settled down for a turn or two when even innocently played the word POLED for 22. Greedily lunging, Dean put down GREEDILY through that D for 69. The clock was ticking and it was coming down to a game where both players wanted the Q, as it meant a game win for the one that was lucky enough to make a Q play. Evan got it and played QUIETed, through the separated U and ET tiles for a cool, 64-point, non-bingo double-double. Wow!

Emanuel Chicoine (Montreal QC) defeated Andrew Golding (Verdun QC), 467-394 this round. Emanuel played EXPLODE for 54 through the D. Andrew later played GRAND one short of the triple lane and lucked into picking an S, which permitted him to get down JEST/GRANDS for 65 points on his next turn. Style points galore for Emanuel's find of GAUNT, hooking beneath and creating QUOTHA for 34.

Fern Lindzon (Toronto ON) had a good game this round versus Jason Ubeika (Mississauga ON), winning 483-351. Jason opened with GLAIVE for 28. After exchanging a few tiles, Fern got down ROENTGEN for 60. On her next turn, she tried STEMWORD* which was challenged off, but the very next turn she tried and got away with WORDSTEM* for 84. She also got down cRANIAL for 75, ZEES for 50, and ZIGS for 42. Jason tried his own phoney, AUREATES*, which Fern challenged off, but he did finally get to play NIMEOUs* for 78. NOTE: a few people contacted me about this paragraph, thinking I'd made errors in reporting. I've checked with Jason and all these phonies were played (some removed, some stayed) in their game. In addition, he admits that he also tried to play HABE* which Fern challenged off and she got awy with VIOLE*, which he failed to challenge. After 5 turns, their scores were 219-87 in Fern's favor and Jason was throwing down just about anything in an effort to catch up!

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