2013 CNSC

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Commentary: Round 15

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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, Award Ceremony, Final Round 1, Final Round 2, Final Round 3, After the Tournament.

Round 15

Before this round began, John reminded the players to please turn in their slips as soon as they can so that the subsequent rounds can be paired. We'll be using round-by-round results to pair this afternoon.

Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) and Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) were out to dinner last night: they recalled something I said a few years ago and being punch drunk tired they laughed and laughed. (She jokingly asked for my forgiveness today). Referring to a play on a board, I said to someone: NOSEDOVE (as in NOSE and DOVE, the bird, right?). Well, it is actually the past tense of NOSEDIVE and not pronounced that way. So much for our SCRABBLE pronunciations!

Kristiina Overton (Maxville ON) got her crack at Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) at table 1 this round. After a trade of letters, he opened with IRONmEN. Check it out in the annotated game section. Later on, I saw the two of them tromping off to the challenge machine. FORBE* was ruled not acceptable.

The first bingo-bango-bongo that I've seen so far (there may have been many, but I just haven't seen them!) took place on a Chris Williams (Vancouver BC) vs. Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC) board. While I'm watching their in-progress game, Chris plays RODENTS for 87 along the bottom triple lane. But looking at the board more closely, I saw Dean's GOITRES, ESTRAGON, and INDWElT (blank L). A 544-308 win for Dean.

I mentioned to Shan Abbasi (Mississauga ON) yesterday that his scoresheet was not at all helpful to me and Chris. It has nothing on it but cumulative scores: no plays, no nothing. So, this round, I walked by and EUREKA! He had the bingos written down! So, in this game with Jim Nanavati (Burlington ON), Shan opened with BATSmAN and got down AILERON, SCOURED, and ISOLATES. I also see PEARmAIN, BOUVIERS, TAENIAS, and VIROID (not a bingo but anytime a V goes down with style, it is noteworthy). A four-M game!

Longtime CNSC worker bee, Gary Sagara has been pressed into annotation service this round. He's annotating Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON) while Maya annotates Ross Brown (Ottawa ON).

Eric Tran (Calgary AB) made a phony: HOWLERY* in his game with Christopher Sykes (Cambridge ON). I asked him about it after the game and he said, "Well, it could have been good....." He had a bingo-bango: GEOMETER for 89 and BELADIEd. I see Chris' INLANdER. I walk up and they are going to the challenge machine. YOURNS* comes off the board. As I'm about to leave, Eric closes down some prime bingo lines with the play of VAGINAL to the L for 30. Eric's win, 491-342.

John Stardom (Ottawa ON) vs. Jason Broersma (Caledon ON). Early on, I see three bingos; John's sOMEDAY for 74 and Jason's TORULAE for 68 and UNITIES for 71. Toward the end of the round, most games results turned in, I see them in a recount that stands. A 371-366 win for John.

Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) wins her game with round with James Leong (Vancouver BC), 481-410. She points to her board and says, "We have LAYIN and LAYOUT." And it is true, on either side of the board. She played OUTSAID, PONDINg, and TOWARDLy. She notes that James made a nice board opening, extending JUN to JUNIOR so he could bingo EASTERN/JUNIORS next turn. Once the game was over, out in the foyer, I heard James discussing his game. I heard someone ask, a bit incredulously, "PONDING is good?!"

Chris Lipe writes:

After lunch now. Four games to go!

Jason Broersma (Caledon ON) is laying down UNITIES at Board Two against John Stardom (Ottawa ON) and I'm standing there wondering why he didn't play the more defensive UNITISE#. I don't think I'll need to ask him about the play -- Zyzzyva just told me the answer.

Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC) hit his second triple triple on the day -- he bingoed with GOITRES slotting the G, and then immediately hits ESTRAGON natural for 140.

Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) is playing Priya Fernando (Mississauga ON) and Joel hit his second SANDABLE of the day. Previously the word had been played in his game against Roger Cullman (Toronto ON) if I remember correctly.

Gabriel Gauthier-Shalom (Montreal QC) threw down the gauntlet and also a nine-letter word on Jackson Smylie (Toronto ON) -- STATIONED through ON.

This tournament has gone on a long time and I'm perhaps getting a little loopy. I see Shan Abbasi (Mississauga ON) playing Jim Nanavati (Burlington ON) and the opening play was BATS?AN. BATSHAN? BATSWAN? Who would hit a swan with a bat? Ohhhh, right. It's a cricket word.

Roger Cullman (Toronto ON) and Andrew Golding (Verdun QC) have given up on Scrabble and are just playing Phoneez (the dirty-word variant). On their board are, and I am not making one word of this up: ORGAN, TITTY, FANNY, CASUAL, and BOOZER.

Juraj Pivovarov (Calgary AB) is sitting there, silently, no tiles, no thinking, no tells. It's that moment when you've just completely guessed at something, and your opponent (in this case, Jeremy Hildebrand (Ottawa ON)) calls HOLD, and you just have to sit there and watch the clock tick glacially, until finally, your opponent reaches out, neutralizes the clock, and you make the trek to the computer, which tells you UNSNARES* is not acceptable, and you walk back and return your tiles to your rack.

I've got nothing else for this round so I'll leave you with some color commentary from my Plants vs Zombies Adventures game on Facebook.

Before I left on this trip, I had unlocked the Jalapeno plant. I planted 12 of them yesterday and harvested them this morning. Now there are three Wall-nuts, three Beets, one Cherry Bomb, and five Snow Peas growing. As I check my garden now, I see the Wall-nuts have reached maturity; I will harvest them and replace it with three Aspearaguses. There is a zombie attack coming now; my main house is well-defended by Beets and Snow Peas. Once the attack is fended off, I will close out of the game and start explaining to Sherrie that I'm actually working on commentary and not goofing off with Facebook games.