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2005 National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 7

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Go to: Anagrams Championship, Before the Tournament, 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, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Final Round 1, Final Round 2, Final Round 3, Final Round 4, Final Round 5.

Round 7

The first game done this round is another one involving Gail Wolford (Portland, OR). She lost to Lisa Odom (St. Louis Park, MN), 409-492. Lisa's favorite play was Gail's 4-tile wrapround play: CONFORMER played through FORME, for 48 to the triple. EXARCHIC* was played to the C on the triple for 119 by Lisa and she was pretty embarrassed to discover it was a phoney after the game was over. I think this is because she also managed to get away with BETANGLE* for 76, too! Gail got down PIRATING for 65 and Lisa played the acceptable ENTRESOL for 71. Gail said it was an exciting game, after 6 turns, the score was 305-286.

It was just one of those games for Joseph Oele (Roseville, CA) this round at table 13 in division 3; he defeated Robin Torrance (Idylwild, CA), 559-229. Joseph's four bingos were sAUTOIRE played through the R for 58, PICkLING from the P for 91, MOTTLES for 74, and EXTERNAL through the X for 84. Poor Robin ended the game with a QR on his rack.

Joev Dubach (Somerville, MA) who earlier reported his 600 game in round 4 versus T C Houlgate West (San Luis Obispo, CA), who had 354 points, did it again this round by scoring 635 against Paul Myers (Perris, CA), who earned a 389. Division 4 is hopping!

At table 19 in division 5, Mark Peltier (Seattle, WA) defeated Susan Siedschlag (Gresham, WI) this round, 333-274.

In a Gioia Fonda (Sacramento, CA) vs. Wendy Thomson (Lubbock, TX) game in progress, I see Gioia put down STRIDER for 72. Wendy is holding a promising rack, EOGRSW?, but the board is not very open.

I catch Jim Barker (San José, CA) and Jacob Williams (Austin, TX) at the WordJudge machine. One of them was less than happy to discover that KAD* was not acceptable.

In division 6, Robert Peters (Huntington Beach, CA) defeats Marion Dimond (Calgary AB), 331-251. Both players are anxious to head off for the day, so the board didn't last long.

At table 41 in division 4, Varney Senii (Brooklyn, NY) lost a game the hard way to T C Houlgate West (San Luis Obispo, CA), 401-426. Varney got down TAENIAS and TC played RITZIer, but it all came down to Varney eating the Q that ensured TC of the win.

Wilma Pitzer (Englewood, OH) ends today's play with a 406-289 win against Brett Myers (Cumming, GA). Willie played UPFIRES* for 71 and DICTIOn for 75 while Brett played the 66-point ROSINED.

Mady Garner (Sevierville, TN) would like to lodge a complaint. She had XEROTIC and couldn't get it down! She did manage to win the game against Sonia Lyda (Wixom, MI), 400-351, so she isn't totally in the dumps. I see Sonia's QOPHs for 76 and AIRIEST for 76 and Mady's UNISIzE* for 69.

From the "lucky, lucky" files, I'm told that Danny Kidd (New Boston, MI) overslept during his lunchtime nap, arriving in the playing room with only 3 minutes left on his clock during round 5. To keep the event running on time, player clocks are started if the players are not present a few minutes after the round begins. The real kicker, Danny managed to win this game with only that much time left on his clock!

A game that was once closely contested ended more lopsided than it would seem, with Jeffrey Jacobson (Philadelphia, PA) defeating Bernard Gotlieb (Montréal QC) this round, 451-334. My notes record these bingos: TInKERED played through the R for 71, OUTEATS/NU/IT for 71, RENDeRS for 63, and RETINUAL* for 70. Turns out that RETINULA is good.