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WPC 2010 Commentary: Round 9

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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 9

Last night's WPC dinner was fantastic. We broke into a few tables of 8 or so players and ended up bringing in another table when we reached standing room only status. Chris and Mary has arranged a fajita (not faJJJJJita, Nigel Richards (MYS), but fahhhhita!), meal with tortillas, fried strips of veggies, chicken, beef, guacamole, sour cream, jicima salad, bean salad, Mexican rice, beans, etc. And desserts were yummy cookies and churros!

Wilma Vialle slipped into something black and lacy, but most folks wore event T-shirts and the like. Mary Rhoades brought her husband Hugh and we all ate until we could eat no more. Toward the end of the meal, fun-loving Wilma took a buffet table decoration and put it atop her head.

When we discussed where I was from (Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA) and where Chris May (AUS) visited with relatives (Manchester, NH), he let slip that he was less fond of the UK Manchester. Afraid to maybe offend Philip Nelkon (Eng), he couched it and Philip just laughed. Trying to join in, I mentioned Manchester Federation and they kindly patted me and said, "Manchester United?" I blushed. Nigel Richards (MYS), not fond of hot food, appears to have found enough to eat at the meal, so we didn't send him out into the world on a bike in a hungry state.

Toward the end of the meal, Chris May (AUS) whipped out a laptop and people started to look over an annotated game from today for dessert.

Thanks to Mary and Chris for sampling hotel menus and finding such a great meal for us! Howdy partners!

This morning as I entered the room, Jill Robbins was busy putting together the big board for John Chew. You have to be careful. He's been known to put ANYONE to work, given the chance! Dan Stock (director of this year's NSC division 5 and the creative force behind that event's big board tableaus) sent us a tableau for yesterday and today (thank you so much, Dan!). John had printed it out and Jill was doing her best to get it up. After she was done she asked her son, Bradley Robbins (USA) how she'd done. He nodded his approval. And then, like all mothers of teenaged sons, she made herself scarce! Thank you, Jill! (for the board work, NOT for leaving).

Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (THA) taught Robert Linn (USA) a new word: PERIODED!

I see Thavachai Thivavarnvongs (THA) and Geoff Thevenot (USA) at the challenge machine. Worth mentioning that ELSHINS is good! Geoff drew a challenge with it. He wins their game, 564-426.

On board 1, the word FAIBLE was played and Wilma asked me if I knew it. It is from French, means weak.

Judy Newhouse (USA) vs. Jim Kramer (USA). Prior to this game, I encouraged Judy to show Jim a good game and maybe just take it easy on him. When the dust settled, it was a GREAT game! Judy played PURISTS and AERATIOn and Jim got down OPENEST and RETAKING. Jim won, 431-407. I think they both agreed to track their own racks and give the game to John Chew for the annotated section. Check it out!

Chris May (AUS) tells me that he "narrowly" beat Travis Chaney (USA) this round, 484-470. Earlier on, I'd walked by and see Travis put down TEES, creating MET/DE/DURATIvES for 35. The way it went down, hooking onto that bingo was just a thing of beauty. Chris didn't like it one bit and challenge DURATIVES and learned that word. So, chalk up 10 more points for Travis. Nice game for both of them.

Words in my notebook: COLLETED, SYNERgIA, UNDERSET, YOWLING.

Bradley Robbins (USA) vs. Brian Bowman (USA). DETINUE was the first play made by Bradley. He admitted he wasn't sure it was good and asked Brian. Brian nodded it was. I see Brian's tOSTADO, ERRORIST, and ADREADS.

Nick Ball (CAN) vs. Ebikeme Adowei (NGA). OTARINE, ABETTED, rEADIES, and OOLONGS. Nick's win, 461-331. Nick's favorite rack was EOUGQS. He showed me the board when he had that rack, a few plays before the end. It had about 17 wonderful openings. He chose SQUEGs, slotting the Q most appropriately for 73. The wonder of a nice tiles and choices all that the very same time.

Typical Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (THA). I look over and see him playing Robert Linn (USA). He smiles at me and I notice his clock: 5 seconds. He just likes every one of the seconds in his 25 minutes and he uses them ALL always! The game finishes up and it a Pakorn win, 426-356. There are Bob's OVERSTAY and UPWINDEd* and Pakorn's SEAwARD and PERIOD, which he extended to PERIODEd, which is cool enough to mention. As I'm standing there, noticing Pakorn's wasted 2 seconds left on his clock, an embarrassed Wilma Vialle comes over. She has made a misadjudication on their game and she has come to settle it. I now understand the furtive chatting she's been doing with John Chew for the past several moments. What happened is when UPWINDED* went down, Pakorn MEANT to challenge the play. Instead he hit his clock, turning on Bob's clock. They called over the director, Wilma, and she said that the game play should continue as a pass, which they did. Turns out that that ruling would work in Australia, but not here and she and John fashioned a solution. They gave Pakorn the value of that play (82 points) and will add it to his overall event cumulative spread. All were relieved that Pakorn won this game despite the fact that he was unable to challenge that play. The situation was handled calmly and in a gentlemanly fashion by both players and was water well under the bridge in a few minutes. As I see it, once any of hits perfect, life isn't all that fun any more! :)