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Charlotte Scrabble Club
NASPA Club #668 |
Charlotte :: Myrtle Beach :: Gatlinburg :: The Park Carolina Cup :: State :: Alpharetta |
| Tournament Coverage TSH Reports Annotated Games Photos |
Woke up at 6:11 AM, about 8 minutes and 23 seconds before my alarm was set to go off to pick up Dacron Bassett-Hound Sponge from his crazy super-convenient red-eye flight from PHX to CLT. Woke, to find a text message saying his flight had arrived 40 minutes EARLY (!). Whoops, looks like I better get a move on.
PHX security made Conrad chuck his deodorant, so I took him to get a new one before heading to my place to crash. We watched a DVRed "Poker After Dark", then both caught a few zees. I had some lunch, packed up my gear while he got the icky plane smell off him and no doubt used some of that new deodorant he procured. Soon we'll make our way to the Blake to set up for the Newcomers Tournament. No live coverage for that one (we'll only have Internet there Saturday through Monday. But I'll try to get the standings from that mini-tourney (with splashes of color) posted before I go to sleep tonight. Until then~!
Round 1 - Matthew Hopkins played NEGAToR, hooking 4 separate words. Eric Harshbarger played (EX)ORCISES. My camera is not working and I am "le sigh." Trying to figure out how I'm gonna finish printing all the materials I need and still get to sleep at a decent hour tonight.
Round 2 - Jim Hawkins tells me Early played CORYBANT on him. Gotta say, that one was very nice. Never heard of it. Hawkins braved the waters of this tough, wildish division. He's having fun, but at the end he told me he drew something like one blank outta ten. Definitely not the tourney for that to happen for him. Better luck tomorrow night though!
Round 3 - Nicole Ray, newcomer, played two bingos, scoring 435 points. Her plays: PULPITS and BINGERS.
Round 4 - I see the joy of learning together (or, son teaching father a thing or two) as Jordan Lipton (father) challenges Pierre Lipton (son). His plays of GRAININ(G) and then later CARNIE/MED were both acceptable. Waytago, kid! It wasn't quite enough for him to eke out a victory over his old man, but it sure got them both smiling.
Round 5 flies by, the 1000+ division finishing an hour before the newcomers. Harshbarger sticks a D out in the 3x3 holding the blank. Early blocks UN(D)ERLiT so he plays RUNLETs instead. It's not enough to catch Early, though, and so Eric falls to 3-2, with just enough spread points to hang on for 2nd. Story of the night though is Matthew Hopkins. Coming in with a 1132 rating, he's barely expected to win a game. Instead he wins 'em all, catapulting to an estimated rating of 1240 and pocketing $80. Nice job, that.
Drew Aronica, a newcomer to our Charlotte club wins the Newcomers Tournament with flying colors. He tells me every game he won he coulda lost. But hey, he didn't, and that counts for a lot here.
Everyone in our Newcomers Tournament pocketed a bag of ProTiles, donated generously by Bob Schoenman, along with our snazzy EC pens. Calgon, take me away!