Charlotte Scrabble Club NASPA Club #668

Charlotte :: Myrtle Beach :: Gatlinburg :: The Park Carolina Cup :: State :: Alpharetta

Tournament Coverage TSH Reports Annotated Games Photos

2011 Eastern Championship

Tournament Coverage

Before the Tournament

And we're off to the races here at the 14th Annual Eastern Scrabble Championship in picturesque Charlotte, NC. It's a sunny 56 degrees right now, potentially to get up to 75. Spring is here. 18 strong have turned out for the Super Early Bird, with Ian Weinstein rounding out the field just at the stroke of 10 AM.

Round one of the SEB went by uneventfully enough, though Ian hit AQUATONE for 102 for high play in that round. He leads the pack.

In round two, two games right in front of me have very flashy plays. Dan Milton played (P)YROgENS to the TWS for 91, and Matt Hopkins played SNOWFaL(L) to the TWS for 101! Aaaaannnd Steve Polatnick turns in his results slip, and I look at it, and his high play is SARSARS for 80 (a blank was used as one of those eses). It's a cold, whistling wind. Very impressive, that.

Bruce Ambrosio upset Weinstein by 4 in Round 3, so Polatnick is the only undefeated person left after 4 rounds. Avrin is playing Weinstein, Polatnick is playing Hopkins, and some variation of those will no doubt duke it out in the KotH! On the Polatnick/Hopkins I see qUINIEL(A) to the triple. Very nice! No word on whose it is yet. And yet another flashy play on a board Milton is involved in (this time with Cynthia Seales), with JOInTERS and nARROWING intersecting. Don't know which came first. And Dianne Wittman, who had a rough morning, looks to be making a little comeback. She just plopped down ZO(OM)ED versus Alan Riechman for 76!

El Presidente popped in right as round five was finishing, shook my hand, then went over to Avrin who was postmortem-ing a heartbreaking one-point loss to Weinstein. "Move on, shake it off," he joked.

Anyway, things have shaped up to an exciting conclusion with up-and-comer Matt Hopkins in second by 60 spread points, having to face Ian Weinstein again for all the marbles in the last round. Cynthia Seales has come from behind to creep into 4th place. So now she is playing Steve Polatnick for 2nd place!

Skins break down so far as follows:

1) Weinstein AQUATONE 102
2) Hopkins SNOWFaL(L) 101
3) Riechman SECTION 92
4) Gottlin BLANKER 105
5) Blake BAPTISE 91

*** Newcomers / NAST Satellite ***

Aaaannd breathe. Okay, so after the dust cleared we had 12 players each in the NAST and the Newcomers events, including two brand new newcomers, Darlene Elliott and Nicholas Henderson. Welcome to them! Chris Cree came in and offer to even things up if needed, and Denise Mahnken walked in, so that rounded out the NAST field.

In round 1, Avis Turner got down DEFLATE for 96. The next round, Young Pierre Lipton surprised Marc Handler with SQUISHED for 113; and in round 3, his dad, Jordan Lipton, played GOALIES for 81.

In round 1, Denise Mahnken's 3x3 of REALTIES for 113 still wasn't quite enough to take down Cree. Round 2 had Weinstein finding HERITAGE for 98. NAST's 3rd round had a nice collection of flashy plays, including Weinstein's SELCOUTH (83), Mahnken's TAHINIS (91), and Polatnick's 3x3 of ROSULATE (122).