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USSO 2006 Commentary: Round 18

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Go to: 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.

round 18

From out of nowhere for some of us, but not to the Texans who know him, Geoff Thevenot (Austin, TX) is ON FIRE in division 1. He just took down Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON), 512-312. It isn't often that I see Robin beaten by 200 points so I lean in to investigate further. Geoff opened with FEASING for 98 and later played RAZoRED for 127. Robin played the fun DRAGONET for 60 and TRAINERS for 60, but all her other plays were little, as if none of her tiles went with one antoher.

Joey Mallick (Cape Elizabeth, ME) had a 394-407 loss to Jim Kramer (Roseville, MN) this round at table 2. Jim opened with PARTITE for 74 and later got down ORATING for 89. Joey had the fun pANDUrA on the triple lane for 80, but an onslaught of high-point consonants with few vowels left him pretty cramped in scoring options.

Jeff Clark (Linden, MI) just had a 452-340 win over David Engelhardt (Baltimore, MD). Jeff started the bingo slugfest with RONTGEN for 68, Dave responded with BROILERS through the E for 70. Jeff then played REALISES from the R for 60 and a bit later he got down OIDIOID through the first ID for 21. Not a lot of game points, but what a rack cleaner! Later in the game, he got down what he referred to as a "cheap, two-blank bingo" sALIEnT for 72.

Division 4's Bruce Shuman (Wilmington, NC) and Sam Hollington (St. Catharines ON) are working on submitting a flashy play entry. Sam won their game, 471-279, and both agree that the highlight was Sam's 92-point VINDALOO!

David Mallick (Andover, MA), another SCRABBLE^® player expecting a baby soon, has won all four games this morning. He normally smiles, but maybe he is smiling just a bit more now. His favorite play today was BETtERING from the BE for 86 points.

Oh My! A 548-545 game in division 2! Kevin Rickhoff (Saugus, CA) played ELLUVIA* for 70, VIRTUOSI for 74, ANISEED for 76, HANDBAG for 95, FEZ for 43, and JOEYS for 45, and he lost the game: GULP! Mark Milan got down DEPUTeD for 105 and the totally outstanding AQUILINE through the first I for 203. He also played YAW for 43. This game so amazed the computer staff that they did a web search. Apparently it is only 8 points shy of the highest scoring combined game ever.

The game was gone by the time I was told, but Rick Wong (San Jose, CA) just had a totally awesome 2-point victory, 459-457, against Rachel Knapp (Tustin, CA).

Doug Brockmeier (Yorba Linda, CA) proved this round that blue tongue or not, he is an awesome player. He defeated Conrad Bassett-Bouchard (Moraga, CA), 390-346. I see Conrad's PEEviSH and the bingo FEASTER. They are tired and want to head to lunch, so I keep my questions few. Just as I'm about to head off, I hear Nat Gardenswartz (Newton, MA) ask Doug, "hey, wouldn't they let you enter division 1?"

Kurt Davies (Phoenix, AZ) whispers in my ear on the way for lunch, "I've won 11 games in a row! I think that might put me in first place! What am I going to do!?"

Not sure that I really listened the first time, Paul Mcquade (Millbury, MA) comes up to me this round with a slip of paper that says, +14, -12, -9, -14, +9, tie, -1, +14, -9. I look up as if to ask, "what?" And he explains, "I told you my games were decided by narrow margins! Tell me those aren't narrow margins!?" I had to agree he was right!

Vince Castellano (Fairfax, VA) wants to IR beam me a photo of a board he just played at against Dave Leifer (Alpharetta, GA). I ask for the salient points and he says, "Well, how about DEVALUATING, an 11?" I agree that is certainly newsworthy! Let's see if he can get the photo to me!

Roger Cullman (Toronto ON) tells me about a 7-bingo game he just played with Chris Schneider (Seattle, WA). Chris played COUNTIES for 70, Roger responded with ERADIATE for 63 and later played WATTLEss through a T for 76. The Chris went into berzerker mode and played three bingos in a row: RENDERS for 74, ETIOLATE for 60, and MELTAGES for 80. Roger confesses that he got away with FERKINS* for 57. He assumes Chris let it go because it created an opening for ETIOLATE. It was Chris' win, 451-402. Roger smiles and bemoans that this is his second consecutive game where he played three bingos a game and still lost!

Sam Kantimathi (El Dorado Hills, CA) comes to my table and beckons me over to his winning board against Ron Hoekstra (Kentwood, MI). Sam played JONeSED for 72, DIVERGED for 82, NEBULOSE to the last E for 64 (which anagrams to BLUENOSE he points out), MENORaH for 91, and LEMPIRAS through the M for 185, the latter a triple-triple. Besides keeping score and smiling, Ron did manage one fabulous play, a non-bingo pretty: YOHIMBE through the I for 34.

Chris Cree (Dallas, TX) loses a heartbreaker this round to Mark Pistolese (Pahoa, HI) by 13 points. Upon examinination, it was actually a 3-point loss compounded by Chris going over on the clock. In typical Chris fashion, he overthought the endgame, seeing to places for a Y. As he explains it, 99% of the experts in the room would have played the Y to the end of BOX for BOXY for 16 points. He thought and thought and decided to take a 2-point loss and play DEY for 14 instead. If had done the move that everyone else would have done, he could have then played GLOPpY for 28, which would have won him the game. But no, he had to be "creative" about it and he was stuck up the river without a paddle....

As we head to lunch, Geoff Thevenot (Austin, TX) is at the top of division 1 with a 13-5 +1052 record. Two other 13-5s are right there: Scott Appel (Trenton, NJ) and Jim Kramer (Roseville, MN).

Division 2's Doug Brockmeier (Yorba Linda, CA) is two games ahead of the pack at 16-2, +1272.

Three people are at 14-4 in division 3: Greg Edwards (Minneapolis, MN), Kurt Davies (Phoenix, AZ), and Ember Nelson (Buffalo, NY).

A two game lead is enjoyed by Sam Hollington (St. Catharines ON) in division 4, 15-3 +997.

By virtue of a tie, Michael Rhodes (Tucson, AZ) is alone atop division 5, 12-2-1, +1222. Two others are chomping at his heels with 15-3 records, Jeff Cooley (Jacksonville, FL) and Thomas ORourke (Alpharetta, GA).

Division 6 has a 14-3-1 leader in Robert Collins (Phoenix, AZ), but Thomas Reinke (Middleton, WI) is just half a game behind.

It is getting so exciting!

However, the truly good news is that John Chew is here! Phew, someone else to do all the work!

(late arriving news from Vince)

Game 18, Div 2: Dave Leifer (Alpharetta, GA) vs. Vince Castellano (Fairfax, VA). Attempting to block an attractive bingo line through the T of Vince's h1 TAXA, Dave plays g1 ABO. Vince then bingos through AT with VALuATING. Three moves later Dave reaches a1 with the DE prefix forming DEVALuATING for 45.

Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) and Geoff Thevenot (Austin, TX) are playing each other at Board 1 in Division 1. Steve Pellinen and Scott Smith are posting the game live.