August 15-18, 2003

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Back to SCRABBLE ALL*STARS 2003 Live Coverage

SCRABBLE ALL*STARS 2003 Commentary: Round 2

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, Final Round 1, Final Round 2, Final Round 3, Final Round 4, After the Tournament.

Round 2

Before games started this morning, Marlon Hill (Baltimore, MD) greeted Chris Cree (Dallas, TX). With as much Texas twang as he could muster, Chris replied to Marlon, "Whassup?! Now *you* say HOWdee!"

Susi Tiekert, happy to have a way to help out, has been assisting me as I try to get photos of all the games. Since it is only 12 games per round, it isn't that difficult, but remembering which of the myriad of pretty-colored boards I've already photographed with games that end at different times was getting confusing. So, ever resourceful Susi is creating a layout of each round, with tables labeled with both players, the color of their Protiles, and their first word. And she is checking off each one I photograph. We're a team I tell you!

The first game to finish at table 12 was between David Boys (Dorval QC) and Randy Hersom (Morganton, NC). It appears that though David played a 9, DIAPERING through the D and the P for 67 and the triple-triple, INDORSEE through the D for 122, he still lost the game, 471-410. David said, "After I played the triple-triple, I was down by only 63, but after that Randy played JEES for 69 points and it was bye-bye Dave!" Randy got down EULOGIA for 66, INSTEAD for 79, and DEVOTION through the T for 64.

Joe Edley (Coram, NY) had another tough round. His opponent, Joel Sherman (Bronx, NY) played three bingos to Joe's none. I see three 8-tile plays: RETICULA through the I, DOWELING to the G, and bInGEING to the G. Joel sniffed that he'd let us all know when he had some good plays!

There have been but six challenges so far this tournament. Gregg Foster, game annotator, was discussing this with Charlie Southwell, the director. Two challenges in round 1 and four in round 2: OOCYST and ODYLE (both ruled acceptable) and CRENATURE* (a phony that Charlie called a good try) and GOONIER*.

I walked by David Gibson (Spartanburg, SC) pouring over a hard-cover red book. It had the look of a journal with handwritten notes all over the pages. But upon closer look, I found it to be an old hardcover Official SCRABBLE^® Players Dictionary! It was SO dogeared! There was writing on every single page and lots of it in tiny lettering all over the pages at different angles and in the margins. I guess he does know every page in the dictionary as the rumors have it!

The prettiest opening play of the round was a real eyecatcher: EYElIDS played by Ron Tiekert (Alpharetta, GA) in his game against Joel Wapnick (Montréal QC). Susi Tiekert points out that it anagrams to SEEDILY. I'm not going to ask how she knows that! :) It was in this game that Charlie took the "good attempt" phoney of CRENATURE*. Ron called it off and won the game, 468-301. I see VEINULE, SINGERS (which Joel admits was when he knew the game was a lost cause). Ron admits to a strategic non-bingo blank play of QuOD for 28 points to give him a "commanding position" in the game.

Susi Tiekert points out that of the 24 players here, one quarter of them are left-handed and four of them are pianists (Paul Epstein (Ann Arbor, MI), Joel Sherman (Bronx, NY), Trey Wright (Beverly Hills, CA), and Joel Wapnick (Montréal QC)). Guess which hand Susi writes with?

This round's recorded game matched Chris Cree (Dallas, TX) vs. Jeremiah Mead (Chelmsford, MA).