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NSC 2008 Commentary: Round 9

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Go to: 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, Award Ceremony.

Round 9

David Koenig (Tenafly, NJ) is happy that he has won the last three games. In this last one against Chuck Armstrong (Saline, MI), he played UXORIAL and got down ZEBECK.

So, Jeremy Cahnmann (Chicago, IL) asked John Chew to give him wins for the rest of his games. John considered the request and asked Jeremy what character he planned to dress as to receive the winning check on Tuesday night. Jeremy replied, "Well, Minnie Mouse, of course." John said, "ah, there's the rub. This is a Universal-related property and that won't fly, so I guess I can't give you all those wins afterall."

Bradley Robbins (Windham, NH), at table 1 in division 6, tried LInNONS*. His opponent, Avis Turner (Decatur, GA), challenged it off. He went on to win anyway, 452-293.

Dave Rauppius (Athens, GA) tells me that in round 8 he handed Bradley his first loss, 430-401.

Michael Baker (Portland, OR) vs. Nawapadol Sayavesa (Thailand). OUtLEAD for 68, IODINATE for 68, and IODATEs for 78, by Nawapadol. Mike got down GINGELIS for 83 and tried BERYL, which was good, but hooked to make FEVERY* and Nawapadol called it off! Nawapadol's win, 452-340.

Joetta Wilkinson (Lexington, KY) sees me and says, "There are three Wilkinsons with NSA ratings and all three of them are here. One is my daughter, Wendy Wilkinson (Lexington, KY), and we just met our 'cousin,' Tim Wilkinson (Marlborough, MA)." We agree that Tim is very nice and good 'cousin' material. Then her tale goes on. Her daughter, Wendy, isn't really a Wilkinson anymore, as of Thursday. Engaged to fellow SCRABBLE player Matthew Ridout (Lexington, KY) and last year's Arden Cup SCRABBLE tournament, the two stoped in Gatlinburg on their way here and got married! Thus, this tournament is their honeymoon! Check out their wedding shot in this round's photos! Congratulations to them both!

Mike Frentz (Seattle, WA) beckons me over to see his completed game against David Weisberg (Hollywood, FL). David played three bingos in a row: pARANOEA 61, DILATATE 74, and FORTUNES 74. At this oint, Mike was losing, 105-247. Then Mike's SCRABBLE pants caught on fire and he played the following series of plays: BOSQUE 42, JAPE 41, ELICITOR 77, INTENDs 82, and ATAXY 52. In the endgame, he'd tracked David to hold POSTERN and Mike needed to block both bingo lanes. So, he decided to try MEsIC, a word he was only 50% sure about. David challenged, and then they both were 100% sure it was good, David lost the challenge, and Mike played out to win, 461-396.

Sam Kantimathi (El Dorado Hills, CA) points to his board and smiles. He played EPIBOLIES for 66 through the connected LI. He went on to defeat Lester Schonbrun (Oakland, CA), 523-381.

Division 1 director, Mary Rhoades, saunters over. She says that Kenji Matsumoto (Amherst, MA) came in late for this round with only 13 minutes left on his clock, which had been started. Instead of being unhappy, he asked, "could you make it five minutes to make so I could focus more?" She ruled that had to play with 13 minutes, no matter what. He went on to clobber poor Jeremy Frank (New York, NY), 561-208, well within time, too.

John D. Williams, Jr., tells me that David Weiss (Billings, MT) had a challenging day yesterday. He lost two games in a heartbreaking way. One was lost by one point, the other was lost because he went one second over on his clock! Ouch! David has an interesting career in that before he was a college professor, he worked for a couple of years as an ad rep for SCRABBLE! He met John then, years ago, so his connection to the game is a long one!

Diane Firstman (Forest Hills, NY) slipped her scoresheet onto my table while I was out gathering information. It was from her round 8 game vs. Benjamin Bloom (Miami, FL). He replied to her mild opening of ERGOT for 14 with NEEDIEST for 62, which he followed iwth FAVOURS for 52, QUASH for 51, and GIMMIES for 69. She was behind at this point, 101-232. Then tides changed a bit and she played TIMELINE for 64, JAGG for 42, and two turns later, the most gorgeous IDEALiZe for 101 points! Toss in WITH for 45 and the win was hers, 429-401. Wow Diane, spectacular!