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2005 National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 22

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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 22

Last day of NSC 2005 is soon to be under way for all but two of the competitors in this room.

The top three in division 1 are Panupol Sujjayakorn (Thailand) with a 17-4 record, and Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL) and Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR) with 16-5 records. The latter two are two games ahead of the field, but with seven games to go, it is anyone's division to win if the tiles fall just right.

The best record in the tournament continues to be 19-2 and it belongs to Michael Early (Fort Worth, TX). He is three games ahead of Doug Brockmeier (Yorba Linda, CA) and four games ahead of Steve Pellinen (St. Louis Park, MN).

Division 3 is being led by Diana Spiller (Ashby, MA), who at 17-4 is one game ahead of Eric Kinderman (Freehold, NJ) and Jessie Jones (Yuma, AZ), who are both at 16-5.

Division 4 is being led by Ben Harrison (Cambridge, MA), who is Diana's clubmate, and also has a 17-4 record! He, too, is a game ahead of two with 16-5 records: Chris Schneider (Seattle, WA) and Victor Tantua (Los Angeles, CA).

Nat Gardenswartz (Newton, MA) a 16-year-old, is leading division 5 with a 17-4 record. Second and third are held by Jesse Day (Arlington, MA) and Michael David (Portage, WI), both with 16-5 records.

Two games ahead of the field in division 6 is Ida Scaglione (Tonawanda, NY) with an 18-3 record. Two games back is Jacob Williams (Austin, TX) and three games back is Chad Harris (Clemson, SC).

At table 15 and 16 four players from club 42 in Minneapolis are squaring off against one another in division 4. Club director, Carol Dustin (Minneapolis, MN) would be proud! Dennis Fenichel (Minneapolis, MN) vs. Angelina Scroggins (Minneapolis, MN) and Steve Bachman (Little Canada, MN) vs. Fran Galt (Saint Paul, MN). Thanks to Sue Hoehn for the keen eye!

Right as the round begins, Lawren Freebody (Hawthorne, CA) runs over to tell me about a game she is playing against Anne Hay (Raleigh, NC). Lawren opened with NORITES for 70 and Anne responded with HEYDEYS for 80, drawing a challenge. Way to go Anne!

Division 4's Stephanie Steele (Saint Paul, MN) and Jim Hughes (Austin, TX) make their way to the WordJudge machine. I'm not sure what the challenge was as it was stuffed into the box before I could catch it, but whatever it was, the word was ruled unacceptable.

Jim Nanavati (Burlington ON) defeated Panupol Sujjayakorn (Thailand), 476-294, in their division 1, board 1 faceoff. We can hear the cheers from Canada all the way down here to the Reno ballroom! Fittingly, the game was played with Canadian National SCRABBLE^® Championship Protiles with maple leaf emblemed blanks. Thinking I'd stump Panupol, I pulled the tile off the board and asked him what the symbol was. He said, "Canada." I told him he gets an A and that neither Jim nor I could have done the same were he to ask us about a Thai symbol! These tiles are a match to the blue colour of the NHL Toronto Maple Leafs team. John Chew insisted on the spelling of colour...

Back to the game: Jim played SUbHEAD, ANAEROBE, NEGATIVE, and MEETINGS. Panupol got down SQUARING. Check this game out in the annotated game area!

I see Lester Schonbrun (Oakland, CA) sitting at the board where he lost to John Luebkemann (Pineville, NC), 324-485. I look over the scoresheet and see John's bingos: DEHORTS, SOMERSET, NATURES, and INsTALL. Lester got down SAnATIVE along the triple. Just as I was about to leave he kept pointing at plays and saying "John Luebkemann," like he was in some sort of weird trance. I think the point was: John played them all!

Division 5's Ken Kasney (Cypress, TX) defeated Nat Gardenswartz (Newton, MA) this round, 384-298. The board was picked up but Ken tells me of his RESLaTE/HEFTS play for 77.

I caught Cynthia Ho (San Francisco, CA) turning in her result slip and rushed back to her board, but it was already picked up. She defeated Kathi Cann (Leitchfield, KY) this game, 410-298. Cynthia played SETTINg for 73 and SINUAtE for 64.

Table 2 in division 6. Jacob Williams (Austin, TX) defeats Chad Harris (Clemson, SC), 373-331. Jacob made some lovely plays this game GUTsIER for 70, FONDLES through the D for a 44-point double-double, RISINGS, and his late game EyELID played through the LI. Only 34 points, but massive style points!

Ida Scaglione (Tonawanda, NY) sitting at an already picked up board tells me her two favorite words from yesterday's play: BIGAMIES through the G and TOMbLIKE.

Division 6's table 11 hosted a big win for David Alyea (San Francisco, CA) against Barbara Besadny (Madison, WI), 503-256. I see that all the good plays are his: LUSTIER for 61, FRIGHTS for 86, dETANTE* for 68, and REpOWERS for 74.

Division 1's Jean Carol (Cincinnati, OH) made a 149-point triple-triple this round: ATROPINE through the P. Saly for her, she still lost to Steven Alexander (Portland, OR), 402-509.

Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR) defeated Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL), 394-381 at table 2 in division 1. Brian always manages to sneak away so I can't ever talk to him, but Dave's scoresheet show me that the two game bingos were his: TEXTLESS for 67 and PEReGRIn from the P for 83.

The game already history, Ben Greenwood (Lexington, MA) tells me of a division 3 game he just finished against Elaine Glowniak (Ortonville, MI), who he kept saying was very, very nice. Once he started to tell me all his plays, I understood why he thought she was nice: she didn't offer to deck him even once! He played BOOZIER for 93, GAITERS for 75, ETOILEs for 72, and the nonbingo NECTAR for 41. Elaine's best play was a phoney she snuck past Ben for 30: RECLOSE*. Ben's win, 448-303.

As the results come in, Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR) has taken over first place in division 1. Both he and Panupol Sujjayakorn (Thailand) have 17-5 records, but Dave has more point spread.

Michael Early (Fort Worth, TX) is looking to be Gibsonized sooner rather than later as he is at 20-2, and four games ahead of the rest in division 2.

Eric Kinderman (Freehold, NJ) has nudged Diana Spiller (Ashby, MA) out of first place by virtue of his monster +1581 spread! Both of them are 17-5, but five have 16-6 records!

The pride of Seattle, Chris Schneider (Seattle, WA) is in first place in division 4 with a 17-5 +1653 record. Hot on his heels is Ben Harrison (Cambridge, MA), 17-5 +1469.

Though both are at 17-5, Nat Gardenswartz (Newton, MA) has first place honors in division 5 based on his +1449 spread. Michael David (Portage, WI) has only a +950 spread. Where are they getting these MASSIVE spreads?

Despite losing a game this round, Ida Scaglione (Tonawanda, NY) remains at the top of division 6, 18-4 +1011. Jacob Williams (Austin, TX), at 17-5 would sorely like to nudge her down!

Stefan Fatsis (Washington, DC) fans will be happy to hear that he has another blog entry up at the Wall Street Journal site entitled "Mind your Qis and Muumuus." Yours truly even got a photo credit-- Check it out!