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NSC 2014 Commentary: Round 17

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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 26, Round 27, Round 28, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, After the Tournament.

Round 17

John Robertson, division 1 director handed me a sheet of SCRABBLE-themed trivia question from the trivia show on Saturday night:

1. What is the only acceptable 15-letter word starting with QUARTER?*

2. What is the only acceptable SCRABBLE word starting with EXTRAG?**

3. The first record usage of this word in an American publication was in an 1843 obituary for Pierre Lorillard II, a wealthy tobacconist. It can also be heard in the opening theme to Gilligan’s Island. What word is it?***

On an Ida Scaglione (Tonawanda, NY) vs. Justin Bailey (New York, NY) board I see WIeLDERS.

Laura Wolfson (Scarsdale, NY) vs. Betsy Chai (Calgary AB): I see VIRtUE, which was later extended with sHOOTER/VIRtuEs.

Iliana Filby (Windsor, VT) vs Troy Thompson (Lebanon, IN). I am drawn to the board due to the tile bag they are using. It is made entirely of needlepoint with a crossword grid design. That is a lot of work! I see HINTERS and YEARnER on the board.

Rahn McKeown (Cary, NC) is playing Travis Carlson (Tucson, AZ) at table 1 in division 2 this round. I see two bingos each. Rahn’s BRAINILY (blank L) and HEAVENLy and Travis’ FRIGHTED and SAUTERNE.

Table 2 in division 1. Richard Spence (Tucson, AZ) is playing Leesa Berahovich (Berkeley, CA). I see his cENTROID for 60 and her cLEATING for the blank C for 66. He also played AROUSES for 65 and she got down FROsHES for 89. I walk by later and see EQUALED on the board and learn that Leesa lost on the clock. Neither of them noticed that she had not hit the timer hard enough for it to engage! Darn! So, she went over. Richard hadn’t noticed it running until she was already overtime. Bad luck for sure.

Jesse Day (Berkeley, CA) is taking up residence at table 1. He’s been there all morning long! See his annotated games at the link at the top of this page! I am drawn to the gam win progress there (with Nigel Peltier (Portland, OR)) because they are using a gray Youth SCRABBLE tile bag.

The story of the missing tiles. Herb Lewis (Cherry Hill, NJ) checked into the Hyatt hotel on Friday and noticed that they had three giant tiles up, sitting on the floor. HRB. Close enough to his name, so he posed for a photo. The next morning he saw only HR. Then today, they were down to only one letter! Some people are taking souvenirs methinks!

Eric Tran (Calgary AB) vs. Kolton Koehler (Portland, OR): AMBLING, CiGNETS, and later fORERANK by Eric.

Mack Meller (Bedford, NY) vs. Will Anderson (Croton, NY). Will opened with MOUSERS for 62 and got down ARBITERS for 72. Mack played UNDERATE and TRaMPIER for 94. I also see that VOGUE became VOGUER became VOGUERS! They both were in time trouble at the end (6 seconds left on each side!), so after the game was over it took them a bit to go back and figure out the game score. In the end, Mack won by 70 points.

Susan Lichtblau (Buffalo, NY) sees me hovering around her son’s board and after I step back, she tells me that she had a smoking game this round with Ida Ann Shapiro (New York, NY), scoring a 457. She attributes this to her four bingos: VIOLATED, EXISTING, WAILERS, and SNORTED.

Lilla Sinanan (Stoney Creek ON) had a monster game with Heather Drumm (Clinton, NY) this round. I see GRATINEE for 80, RESOWiNG to the G on the triple for 86, OUTFACE for 74, and then CATNIPS hooking to make OUTFACES for 100. Heather got down LISTENER for 77, but it was Lilla’s win, 591-353.

Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) played Ben Withers (Houston, TX) at table 1 in Collins. I see ANECDOTA which was later extended by playing HOLE down the triple, creating ANECDOTAL. I see VIRGULES (blank L). In the endgame, Ben bingoed with DEsTINE and drew PDQNL out of the bag (oh joy, right). Adam, cleverly tracked and made it miserable for poor Ben. Adam played the seemingly innocent NOT one short of the triple line knowing full well that Ben could do nothing. Then Adam slammed down KIFS/KNOT for 61 points. It didn’t change the game outcome, but it was clever and spread-creating all at the same time. And what is a good SCRABBLE endgame but for those two things?

Michal Josko (Rochester, NY) comes up to me to tell me about his game with Kay Faust (Baltimore, VT) this round. He played SIX bingos: SALTIER, NIFFIEST#, WOODENEST, UNITIES, NOTAIRE#, and ADMIREs. Kay transposed two tiles and played KNEELRES* which Michael had to call off. She still managed to earn a 372 to his 551.

A pretty game has just finished between John OLaughlin (San Francisco, CA) and Marty Gabriel (Charleston, IL). I see Marty’s WHISKERS for 116, WINsOMER for a double-double, and ETTERCAP#. John plyed CONGERS, OUTRAISE, and DIATRON, which ended up a 501-487 win for John. Marty did a recount, but the score held.

Brad Mills (Charleston, WV) has won six games in a row. He is walking on air!

Trivia answers: *QUARTERFINALIST **EXTRAGALACTIC ***MILLIONAIRE