Charlotte Scrabble Club
NASPA Club #668 |
Charlotte ::
Myrtle Beach ::
Gatlinburg ::
The Park Carolina Cup :: State :: Alpharetta |
Here at the Charlotte Open, 1/3 -- that's 8 out of 24 competitors -- are under 21: Conrad Bassett-Bouchard, Phil Werthmeier, Nathan James, Joey Krafchick, Christopher Woodard, Mark Abadi, and Noah and Hannah Lieberman. I was able to snap a photo of this phenomenon (here's hoping it turns out even though my flash didn't want to cooperate). Surely it spells good things for the future of tournament Scrabble.
Round one, first challenge, Ann Vyce tried ABJAD* but James Clark wasn't having any of it. She swears to me its a word, but wasn't clear which language it's from. :)
Chad and Conrad BB go at it early. Conrad leads off with the double-blanker MIoCENe and never looks back. Chad later has ADEEEOU and doesn't exchange, finding ODEA for a decent score. He luckily draws MORR, so he's in okay shape after that gambit, though doesn't get much help. Conrad's win.
On Winter and Pratt's board, it's PORN, then ALIE(N)ATE. The narrative almost writes itself!
Hersom and Keith are finished. I see dAYMARE from Hersom early on, and he never looked back. PEERIES is on the board as well as DOCTRINE and RESOUNDS.
STATICE, REQUIRED, and THEREoN pepper James' and Wertheimer's board, a very nice game, and a 13 point win for James in a barnburner.
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Round 2 has Hersom facing off with Pratt. Pratt's at 14-3, Hersom at 11-4. With 4 rounds to go, Hersom needs 3 wins and some spread to catch Pratt, so it's now or never. I see (I)SOGONAL from the star, and PR(O)MISED through that on their board early on. Later, it's c(A)RDINAL through the A in ISOGONAL, and then PIRANAs hooking CARDINAL. Fun to watch two experts at work.
At table 12, Hannah's just challenged off Mark Abadi's PRETIED* after he challenged off a phony of her own, her holding both blanks but a tough combo of letters for her on their board. Another heartbreaking challenge loss for Hannah later: she tries MiSSLES. MISSELS is the word there, or MUSSLES (SUMLESS) would've worked, too. So close!
Most other games seemed to go by uneventfully. I see Marilyn's challenged off Katya's attempt of COIFF*. Woodard challenges off Keith's phony anagram of LESIONED, which I forget.
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Early on in Round 19, Winter challenges off Chris Woodard's attempt of GAUTER*. Still, he got down RESHOWN for 82, and felled Winter, 413-357. Last round he beat Barry Keith. He tells me he's having a great time and his rating is flying!
For Pratt and CBB, I see ABORTIVE, FONDNESS, TRESSES.
SHEETING and SCRAPIES on Nathan James and Joey K's board.
Susan Blanchard and Mark Abadi have NARCOSE and DEVIANTS.
Katya Lezin and Bruce Shuman have SURNAmE.
SPINIEST PIGLETS SAUNTER over to Liz and Phil's board, where she gets the upper hand. He has EEMNOST on his final rack and resignedly slaps down the singular, as the plural is a no-go. He's been having quite the rough past few games, despite his good performance at night.
EASTERN UNITIVE GLOZES on Barry's and Matt's board.
REWINDS, FLAVORS, BEGOTTEN, ENAMORS on Randy and Chad's board.
A little more abbreviated than I'd like, but things are getting more hectic as we draw towards the end.
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Back from lunch. I stopped to catch my breath, hand out some more skins, and make sure the pairings were absolutely right. Check, check, check.
First off, I see a barnburner unfolding (barnburner* -- who knew?) between Pratt and CBB. OUTTRACK*, LIMONITE, and mEGADOSE are already on the board. Conrad tells me he held for a while on OUTTRACK but it seemed plausible and only put Pratt up by 80, but he reasoned if he challenged and lost he'd be out of it anyway. Tough decision, that. Moments later I see them heading over to the challenge computer where Dan types in PESTISH*/OUTTRACKS*. Doesn't look too good for Conrad, who informs me he's already down 130 so he was desperate.
Over at table 2, Harris and Hersom are at it again. Harris strikes first with A(G)NATION, drawing the challenge. Later, (O)ZONES is played, then p(REX)/pRIVATE, and I'm told Chad is up by a bunch.
On Abadi and Shuman's board, I see EYELINES as a 3x3 either through Y or L, forget which. It definitely seals the deal for high play for Bruce this round.
Conrad finally gets down ETESIAN later on versus Pratt, but it's too little too late, and Pratt is Gibsonized!
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First strike in the 2nd place match goes to CBB, who plays RAR(E)FIES, which draws a challenge from Chad.
On Ann Vyce and Hannah Lieberman's board, I see VOILATE*. Ann tells me there's least another story there, which I wait to hear later. Apparently Ann's overdrawn 4 or 5 times this game, to the point where it's become comical to both of them!
MISDEALS and TRENDIER are on Phil Wertheimer and Don Vovakes' board.
A great game is underway between Nathan James and Barry Keith. I see VIBRATOS, LURDANES, AROUSED, and INVADER.
RAMENTA SECONDI QUINS for Winter & Gerry.
I do believe Joey K. and Chris W. have the craziest game of all. Joey actually got to play OUGUIYAS, but later tried PEX in a true brain fart moment. Also on the board are STONIEST, DENIERS, ABATING, RAVELING, and KUDZUS. The sequence looks as if it went:
(O)uGUIYAS TONIE(S)T DENIERS/S(TONIEST) RAVELING through DENIERS ABATING/G(RAVELING)
Crazy!
The Pratt/Lambert game is an uneventful 17th win for him, and the most interesting game (besides the Joey K/Chris W one) is the fight for 2nd and 3rd, which is covered in pictures I will try to make available once I've caught up on sleep. :) Most noteworthy that I found was CBB playing AMITOTIC, which definitely EARNS his 2nd place finish!
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The nitty gritty!
Round 21 Ratings Rnk Won-Lost Spread OldR NewR +-R Player 1 17.0-4.0 +1208 1843 1857 +14 PRATT, DANIEL (#2) $450 2 15.0-6.0 +750 1868 1850 -18 BASSETT-BOUCHARD, CONRAD (#1) $275 3 14.0-7.0 +725 1490 1631 +141 HARRIS, CHAD (#9) $175 4 13.0-8.0 +533 1703 1683 -20 HERSOM, RANDY (#5) $150 5 12.0-9.0 +1120 1737 1677 -60 ZXQKJ, WINTER (#3) 6 12.0-9.0 +740 1750 1655 -95 KEITH, BARRY (#4) 7 12.0-9.0 +440 1557 1522 -35 KRAFCHICK, JOEY (#8) 8 12.0-9.0 +83 1209 1286 +77 GOTTLIN, LIZ (#13) $125 9 12.0-9.0 -72 1616 1574 -42 GREENSIDE, GERRY (#6) 10 11.0-10.0 +1151 1578 1510 -68 LAMBERT, REBECCA (#7) 11 11.0-10.0 +710 1412 1483 +71 JAMES, NATHAN (#11) 12 11.0-10.0 +410 1124 1217 +93 WOODARD, CHRISTOPHER (#17) 13 11.0-10.0 -115 1463 1521 +58 WERTHEIMER, PHIL (#10) 14 11.0-10.0 -313 1178 1227 +49 SHUMAN, BRUCE (#14) 15 10.0-11.0 -421 1157 1176 +19 VOVAKES, DON (#15) 16 10.0-11.0 -472 1123 1144 +21 HOPKINS, MATTHEW (#18) 17 10.0-11.0 -771 1154 1183 +29 LEZIN, KATYA (#16) 18 9.0-12.0 -327 1032 1068 +36 ABADI, MARK (#20) 19 8.0-13.0 -347 1228 1138 -90 CLARK, JAMES (#12) 20 8.0-13.0 -970 1084 1033 -51 POMEROY, MARILYN (#19) 21 8.0-13.0 -1004 903 980 +77 BLANCHARD, SUSAN (#23) 22 7.0-14.0 -1019 917 906 -11 LIEBERMAN, NOAH (#21) 23 6.0-15.0 -404 908 902 -6 VYCE, ANN (#22) 24 2.0-19.0 -1635 641 647 +6 LIEBERMAN, HANNAH (#24) Skins Rundown ($5 each) [High Games] 1 532 Nathan James 2 600 Rebecca Lambert 3 483 Christopher Woodard 4 519 Daniel Pratt 5 560 Winter 6 476 Marilyn Pomeroy 7 500 Conrad Bassett-Bouchard 8 530 Barry Keith 9 490 Rebecca Lambert 10 500 Christopher Woodard 11 528 Daniel Pratt 12 529 Randy Hersom 13 478 Matthew Hopkins 14 522 Randy Hersom 15 547 Winter 16 504 Ann Vyce 17 472 Nathan James 18 523 Rebecca Lambert 19 519 Rebecca Lambert 20 541 Daniel Pratt 21 544 Conrad Bassett-Bouchard [High Plays] 1 122 TRAINERS James Clark 2 92 VAGINATED Phil Wertheimer 3 91 TAXWISE Conrad Bassett-Bouchard 4 128 REQUEST Marilyn Pomeroy 5 105 DEEPISH* Gerry Greenside 6 176 DIF(F)UsEd Bruce Shuman 7 106 QUEAZIE(R) Randy Hersom 8 112 IODIZES Christopher Woodard 9 99 QATS Gerry Greenside 10 86 BURDENS Conrad Bassett-Bouchard 11 106 (H)OMAGERS Matthew Hopkins 12 98 D(I)CKHEAD!Barry Keith 13 94 SEALIFT/(R)OMANIZE Keith/CBB (CBB later saw he missed FEMINAZ(I)! 14 98 (R)IGHTIST Gerry Greenside 15 122 tIN(G)LERS Noah Lieberman 16 101 RAWHIDE Matthew Hopkins 17 95 (R)EQUIRED Nathan James 18 85 PIRANAs Randy Hersom 19 108 RESHOED Don Vovakes 20 149 EYELINES* Bruce Shuman (2 3x3s in one tourney!) 21 92 (V)IBRATOS Nathan James [Totals] James $20 Lambert $20 Woodard $15 Pratt $15 Winter $10 Pomeroy $10 CBB $22.50 Keith $12.50 Hersom $20 Hopkins $15 Vyce $5 Clark $5 Werth $5 Greenside $15 Noah Lieberman $5 Vovakes $5 Shuman $10
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Phew. Thanks for reading! Hope to see you in Myrtle Beach, Asheville, or at the 2009 Eastern Championship back here in Charlotte, NC!