Go to: Early Bird Commentary Games Players Photos Standings Prizes
... tsh Reports ( A B C D CSW )
... Scoreboard ( A B C D CSW )

Back to NASC 2016 Live Coverage

NASC 2016 Commentary: Round 3

[ ]

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 3

Dan Stock, division 3 leader, runs over to tell us about a five-tile overlap play of ZEROING down to the triple. Patty jumps up to photograph and I follow in hot pursuit!

Zachary Ansell (Los Angeles, CA) is now 3-0. His victim this round was Joe Neff (Warrington, PA). Joe points out that Zach got down OUTLINER and ETESIAN during their game. MANQUE was the best play Joe could find. Pairing this morning put players into round robins of players from each of the quartiles in each division. Thus, Zach is playing a morning round robin with Roy Kamen (Covina, CA), Elizabeth Ralston (Los Angeles, CA), and Joe. Roy and Elizabeth attend the same club 195 in Los Angeles with Zach, so they know each other well! Zach also during the summer plays at club 44, run by Alan Stern (Shadow Hills, CA). Zach explains that in the summer, a Wednesday night club is possible for him to attend, but not during the school year.

Zach's School SCRABBLE champion partner, Noah Kalus (New Paltz, NY), in division 4, is 2-1 +200ish right now. I asked him how his games have gone and what his favorite play is so far and he laughs and admits that he tried the phoney triple-triple ENFOILER* through the F, but his opponent called it off. Only later did he see that he had ELOINER all the time. He tells me that his division is full of School SCRABBLE alums. I will look them up as the event unwinds.

Will Anderson (Croton, NY) vs. Chuck Armstrong (Saline, MI): I see AZOTIc, OVeRGILDS, RAWLY, JIRD, and PILAU on their board.

Last year's NASC champ, Matthew Tunnicliffe (Ottawa ON), is playing Randy Hersom (Morganton, NC) this round and they both are in some time trouble, but Randy is worse off with less than 30 seconds on his clock. Not seeing this, I spy some fun words on their board: RIOTING, VULNeD, VIANDS, CEIBA, AJIS, and dHOORAS. A challenge is made, Matt wins, and then the game winds down, with Randy only losing 10 points on his clock. A 409-331 win for Matt.

At the next board, a white tank top clad, muscly Craig Rowland (Mississauga ON) was battling with James Porter (Cleveland Heights, OH). I see Craig's SaNDIEST and James' QWERTyS. A 412-341 win for James.

Ted Blevins (Cecilia, KY) is looking sharp in a short sleeved dress shirt and a burgundy SCRABBLE tile tie. He is sitting across from a beaming Orry Swift (Houston, TX) who admits that he "finally" has a win. Ted is maybe a bit happy to help Orry into the win column.

John Karris (San Jose, CA) of the round 1 "slept in a bit too late" fame tells me that he arrived with 10:11 left on his clock. Despite Max Panitch (Toronto ON) getting down the late and high scoring SQUAT and EJECT, John managed to hold onto the lead and win their game, 463-390, and he had more time left on his clock than the thoughtful Max did at the end!

We play four games before lunch and the tables are now quieting down as round 4 commences. Let me run out and see what is up.

On the very good news front, a text just popped up about 20 minutes ago. Robin Pollock Daniel, whose live video color coverage with Jesse Matthews will be taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday, is free and she wants to help! Eureka! So, we'll have some RPD color, too, in as many rounds as we can get her for. Check back for her pearls. :)

She sends an email:

In Division 1, only partway through their game, Ian Weinstein (Coral Springs, FL) and Jason Keller (Highland Park, NJ) had UPTOWN(s)/(s)IZIER, AIRTHED, CELLARET, ASTERIA, and BEADSMAN on their board. An impressive 467-431 win for Jason. Sal Piro (New York, NY) vs. the brave, playing-up Julia Bogle (Indianapolis, IN) had TAWDRIES extended by its back hook T, as well as POTZERS. At the end of the game, Sal could be heard kindly giving Julia endgame advice. She told me afterwards that she decided to play in Division 1 in order to learn from better players and also how to handle game pressure. She will certainly get plenty of both over these 31 games! Very early in to the tournament, Mack Meller (Bedford, NY) is struggling a bit, 1-2 after a 365-462 lost to Panupol Sujjayakorn (Thailand). Early in the game, the lovely (p)RECIEUX got down, along with ELASTASE. Scott Appel (Elkins Park, PA) played Alec Sjoholm (Lynnwood, WA) and for me, anyways, from what I’ve seen so far, the play of the tournament got down: DI(s)HONEST(y) through the (s)HO that was on the board. Also played were VAMPIEST and PROVERS to the triple, which allowed for the 57-point GIZMOS. A 455-409 win for Alec. I would be dishonest if I said I wasn’t impressed! Any 10-letter-word is impressive, but to change the H sound in your head in the word SHO to get down DI(s)HONEST(y) is fabulous.

In the Collins division, of course it’s hard not to see all the bingos; the sheer number of extra words allows them to be played more often. Whenever I play CSW, I’m frankly always surprised when a bingo won’t go down! In the Steve Polatnick (Miami, FL) vs. Winter Zxqkj (Houston, TX) game, I saw ADJUDGE, BROILING, ENNEA(d)IC, and (s)ERVILE. Also, the Collins-only DIOTA# (OWL only has B as the front hook for IOTA) and the interesting HUTIA#. A 494-401 win for the season-ed one. Part-way through their game, Terry Kang Rau (Rhinebeck, NY) and Shauna Petrie (Mississauga ON) had ENABLED, TECTIT(t)E, INERTIAS, and AERADIOS, with Terry emerging victorious with a hefty 528-323 win. Another five bingo game (at least partway through their game) for Peter Armstrong (Portland, CA) vs. Tim Weiss (Jersey City, NJ), with ERRHINE, TANTALIC, NANCIES, LIBRAIRE, and GAVELED gracing the board.