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WPC 2010 Commentary: Round 28

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Go to: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, 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 28

Our last game before lunch and the room is bubbling with excitement.

Nathan Benedict (USA) is playing Nigel Richards (MYS) and their game is the first game to finish. Nathan says, like Delilah to Sampson, "Hey Sherrie, want to see my 10?" To the ION, Nathan played MACERaTION for 92 points. Other plays on the board are PIONEERS, DEARTHS, SLANTED, and vAURIEN. It is not possible to get a straight answer out of Nigel on anything, so I don't even try. Poor Nathan walked 2 feet to get me as they are at table 2, the one closest to me. Before Nathan turned around, Nigel had started to take the board down. :)

There was a fun barn burner this round at table 1, with Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (THA) defeating his good friend Chris May (AUS), 483-430. Each had three bingos. Chris' were "the cool ones:" FIREMAN, OUTRAVE, and tHEBAINE. Pakorn's bonuses were TRENISE, FONDLES, and RAGGING. Another fun word: TOUZY.

Tapani Lindgren (USA) is now winning every game he plays. This is his second win in a row against Judy Newhouse (USA). As we look at the board, he keeps coming back from the challenge machine, sheepishly saying that another word was phony! Even his opening play of FINKY* is not good. She called off a phony try of ARTISTRIE*. Judy plyed ENLISTs and GLEaNED in their game and he binged out with ARRIVES for 74. A 409-389 win for Tapani. In their last game, she admits that she missed playing TXI in the endgame to win it. She tried NOUNIeR, which drew a challenge and also played REBUTTAL And ANSATED. It was a 466-407 win for him.

A complicated recount is going on between Bradley Robbins (USA) and Thavachai Thivavarnvongs (THA). When I walked by the first time, Bradley was the winner, but TAV found two plays that gave him more points to take the win. Bradley then said, but we need to do a full recount, so they did, and Bradley won, 423-421. I see ECLAIRS, TOADIES, TRAIPSE for Bradley. Thavachai played QUOTA for a bunch and VENDERS, which drew a challenge from Bradley. Bradley challenged WICE and learned a new word!

Coming back from lunch early, Chris May (AUS) says, "the only real mistake I made vs Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (THA) was I missed UNHIPPER." He was all smiles and told me that Pakorn had been studying in the pool last night. He had a word list with him and Chris went to take a photo and Pakorn told him no. As Chris explained it, Pakorn tried to splash Chris but when Chris moved to splash him back, Pakorn freaked out. "NOT MY WORD LIST! YOU CAN'T GET MY WORD LIST WET!" Thus, Chris felt a victory of sorts, since he cared less about his phone than Pakorn cared about his list. I'm told he sat in the water studying for an hour straight.

Pakorn's extreme need to study got John Chew into a no-date lunch. A week ago, Pakorn and John had scheduled this Tuesday for lunch, but since he was so in the hunt to win, Pakorn wanted to go off and study, so he did.

Nigel Richards (MYS) asked Nathan Benedict (USA) what BENEDICT meant and Nathan said, "A longtime bachelor who finally marries, surprisingly so." Smartypants, Chris May (AUS) chimed in, "like Benedick & Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing, by Shakespeare. My favorite play." I forgot, he went to Oxford, didn't he? He probably has performed in the play during graduate school!