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NSC 2012 Commentary: Round 14

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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, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, After the Tournament.

Round 14

Kate says:

In division 1, Aldo Cardia (New York, NY) and Greg Heidler (Waialua, HI) have two juicy hook possibilities on their board: ASPIRIN one short of the triple, asking for ASPIRING, and AMBONE*, with an H and blank unseen, which would allow a bingo that hooked to make HAMBONE. Alas, by the time I walk by again, both have been blocked (also of note, AMBONES is good, but needs the S. AMBONE* anagrams to the good BEMOAN. HAMBONE and HAMBONES are both good. So are JAMBONE# and JAMBONES# if you're playing CSW).

Valid sixes in division 1: MYELIN, YARDER, VIVACE, SHMEAR, TEAZEL, BETIDE, SPIVVY, MOUTON

MOUTON is on the Cecilia Le (Cambridge, MA) vs Nigel Peltier (Portland, OR) board, which also features two other animals: PORGY and LIZARD.

On another D1 board, I see ELECTION four short of a triple word score up top. POSTELECTION and PRESELECTION would both make stylish and decently scoring extensions.

Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR) and Rafi Stern (Seattle, WA) have the stylish BROOkIE and AWLWoRTS on their board, as well as natural NOTEPADS.

In division 2, ANOMIEs and ANOMIES are both on the board, with Cynthia Pughsley (Oakland, CA) vs Alan Stern (Shadow Hills, CA). They each played it once. Sherrie adds: He also played TRAnCES and RESOLVER, winning the game, 502-325. Alan has won all but one game today, which he lost to his clubmate, David Whitley (Monrovia, CA).

In Caesar Jaramillo (Seagraves, TX) vs Morris Greenberg (Brookline, MA), I see AMITIeS, PORGIES, SHIFTIER, and SPEARMAN. On Brian Galebach (Columbia, MD) vs Gunther Jacobi (Portland, OR), I see OUTQUOTED to the triple on the left, through the star, so it must've been an opening and an extension.

Lila Crotty (Metairie, LA) had a nice 6-1 day today! Everyone should come to her New Orleans tournament in January.

[error: no such id: gottlein] vs Dave Rauppius (Athens, GA) has AIRWOMEN, GILDERS, DOLLIEs, RUINATED, and ORIENTAL on the board. Judging from the 367 to 502 for David, many of them were probably his.

Wandering over to Collins, I see ARMOZEEN# on the Sam Kantimathi (Sacramento, CA) vs Marty Gabriel (Charleston, IL) board, as well as TALCY# (TALCKY is good in OWL).

David Koenig (Silver Spring, MD) vs Jeremy Hildebrand (Ottawa ON) shows FLIX#, TIAR#, MAWR#, DOILT#, DZHO#, and a pretty DISPARITY, with many more tiles to play.

Sandy Nang (Malibu, CA) and Bob Lipton (Vero Beach, FL) use CSW to maximize power tile use: JOBE#, WUXIA# to a triple word score, and KAZI# to another TWS.

Sherrie writes:

Tina Totten King says that both she and Jason Idalski have developed the same answer to folks who ask them if they are upset about not playing. "No, it is a wonderful tournament and we are both undefeated!"

[ERROR: no such id: Chrislipe} is a bit demoralized, he went 2-5 today.

I approach a finished game between [mikebaron] and Evans Clinchy (Boston, MA). Mike opened with TELEX for 40 and he later got down RIOTINg. In the endgame, holding a bunch of drek, saw an ED on the board and tried SEEKED*. Evans held him, but then let it go, because it let him slap down CANONISE for 61 through that S. Evans also got down SCATTER for 71 and DRYSTONE for 76. About taking the 6, Mike said that 6s are a no-man's land: so hard to know them all, anyway.

I walk toward board 1 in division 4. Joyce Stock (Rocky River, OH) is sitting at the board laughing and her opponent, Tony Incorvati (Uniontown, OH) is so punch drunk, he is laughing and nearly crying and is walking toward me with his result slip. I take it from him and he walks out of the room, continuing to laugh. Joyce explains that they had a fun game. Tony opened with WIFEY and Joyce told him that is Dan's nickname for her. He also got down ROSEATE and Joyce played two bingos: NEATNESS and PROLoNGs. Tony returned to the room and declared this to be the "funnest tournament game he ever played."

Gene Tyszka (Mississauga ON) has his towel out. He looks like a boxing trainer when he wears it draped over his shoulders, against his neck. Gene is now 7-7, after losing this round to Michael Bassett (Port Clinton, GA), 311-338.

David Gibson (Spartanburg, SC) has broken his losing streak, defeating Komol Panyasophonlert (Thailand) this round, 500-324. The Thai played VIRTUOSE and David got down LaICIZES and BITsIER. Komol said to David, "I lost to you many years ago." They tried to figure out where and agree that it was probably at the New Orleans NSC. Komol surprised us both by saying, "You opened with GRAPHED and I remember being behind the whole game. You won." This was a game that took place EIGHT years ago: talk about a memory!

Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) had a one-point win against Ian Weinstein (Coral Springs, FL) this round, 413-412. I see Ian's ILLaTIVE and SYNObIA. Robin played AIGRETTE to the final E, helping to open up a couple of triple lanes. In the end, Ian got one of them and she got two.

Lovely to finally meet Martin DeMello (San Francisco, CA). He tells me about a game he lost by 16 points to John Van Pelt (Centreville, VA). Martin was most impressed with two plays; YEGGMEN as a nonbingo double-double through the separated second G and second E; later on he played IONICITY from the first I to the Y! What a rack cleaner and for points, too!

Marty Gabriel (Charleston, IL) sends Sam Kantimathi (Sacramento, CA) to find me. He wants me to see their board. Kate mentioned it a bit up there, but I'll give you the twist I heard. Sam played first and he took more than 6 minutes to play TALCY# and Marty could not figure out why. Sam explains he had two Cs and it kept him thinking longer than it should have. Early on in the game Marty played INURBANE through the A for 65. Sam played ROADEO to the triple. Marty got down COVETING from the C for 95, taking a 111-point lead. His next play was DJINNS/SQUIRT for 41, taking a 130-point lead. He admits he was feeling good. And then Sam kicked in. He got down the fantastic ARMOZEEN# for 128 (+5 for the challenge, points out Sam). A few more plays and then they evened out on scores. Marty took over the lead with DoWSABEL for 85. Holding MISRUDE, Sam was hoping for an S or a G and suddenly there was an L, so he slapped won MISRULED through the L for a 158-point, triple-triple MISRULED (+5 for the challenge), bringing him ahead by 115 and earning him the win, 573-465. Sam ends today 11-3, which made him dance in the aisles, literally, and Marty is 10-4.

Lila Crotty (Metairie, LA) won 6 games today and she is delighted with her 9-5 record.

Sunday evening

The annual NSC director meeting was held in the Pacifica Ballroom at 8:00pm tonight. Dallas Johnson, still clad in his referee shirt, ran most of the meeting, giving John Chew a chance to demonstrate the NASPA website. Using a laptop plugged into a screen, John showed how to navigate the NASPA wiki, how to edit pages if we wanted and were given access to do so, and how to pay our NASPA fees, etc. When Dallas took over the microphone again he wanted feedback on areas of the country where tournament directors are vying for the same holiday weekends to run events. The issue was far from settled, but look for notes from the meeting soon!

After the meeting, the director met across the hall at a reception with desserts (an ice cream cooler and every topping under the sun, cake pops, brownies, etc.) and a canape table. Over a glass of wine, directors chatted and toasted one another. Connie Creed (Philadelphia, PA) taught us the wonders of champagne and peach cocktails: it was a good time!

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, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, After the Tournament.