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PC 2007 Commentary: Round 15

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Go to: Before the Tournament, Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, 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 30, Round 31, After the Tournament, Award Ceremony.

Round 15

Good Morning!

Last night and this morning, John Chew and I were brainstorming about the attendees we have at this Players Championship. We have 4 of the 8 WSC Champs: Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC), Joel Sherman (Bronx, NY), Panupol Sujjayakorn (Thailand), and Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL). Nine of the 17 years of NSC champs are represented, too: Joe Edley (Coram, NY) (THREE TIMES), Jim Kramer (Roseville, MN), Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR), Joel Sherman (Bronx, NY), Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC), Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL), and Ron Tiekert (Melbourne, FL). And half of the former Canadian SCRABBLE^® Champs are in attendance: Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC), and Ron Hoekstra (Kentwood, MI).

Without looking back at the list, can you recall which one has the trifecta?*

I've heard great things about one of our host hotels, the Doubletree (warm cookies, new rooms, good breakfasts, etc.) being the one mentioned most. However, this morning, I heard they had a fire alarm issue. It went off three times, starting at 4am. Su Edwards said I should have been there to snap a shot of everyone in their pajamas. I suspect my camera would have been smashed had I tried that!

The first game to wrap up this round was between Joey Mallick (Cape Elizabeth, ME) and Sammy Okosagah (Baltimore, MD). Neither player was saying much, so I poached off Sammy's scoresheet. Joey's fun plays: FEIJOA and OBTRUDe. Sammy's fun plays: SINOPIE, FrEEBOOT, SMELTERY, DEPRIVES, and UVULARS. Sammy's win, 493-349.

James Leong (Vancouver BC) defeated Nawapadol Sayavesa (Thailand), 396-315. Naw played ACTUaTE for 83 and James played RETIARII for 70 and MEWLINg for 86.

Ben Withers (Houston, TX) just had a very nice kick off to his morning: a five-bingo game. Four of them were consecutive: OTALGIC for 67, HARROWS for 98, CONDYLEs through the L for 78 (which drew a challenge!), and lAUDERS for 71. Later in the game, he played ELOINER for 81. Darrell's two nice plays were COWPIE and then MIX, both for 42 each.

Cesar Del Solar (Pasadena, CA) and Steve Saul (Arlington, MA) just finished up as I was walking by. It was Cesar's first 500 game this tournament, 501-329, to be exact. Cesar played NOSEDOvE for 70, FILTErS for 69, ARMIGER for 86, and the non-bingo, 78-point UPSIZED. Steve played PASTURAL for 76 and the very nice OI, which hooked to make ARMIGERO. He said, "Well, I had six vowels, it wasn't like I had a lot of choice!" He congratulated Cesar on a game well played.

Joel Sherman (Bronx, NY) approached me by the challenge machines. He'd just played his clubmate, Frank Tangredi (West Babylon, NY). At one point in the game, Frank played MIRY down to the bottom middle triple word square. Joel help QG in his hand at that time. He fished for two turns and drew to QUAGMIRY. The thing that most got Joel is that this is the second time today he's played QUAGMIRY! He woke early this am and played two games against bot opponents on ISC. Like 31 game isn't enough! :)

Division 5]s Ron Barker (Boise, ID) and Eileen Johnson (Freeport, NY) were deep into their game, but I glanced over to see ALLOnGE and CALDRONS.

KC Frodyma (Silver Spring, MD) played Michael Donegan (Austin, TX) this round and lost, 347-376. Mike played AIGrETS and aNEROID. KC's best play, from the quick glance I took, was ZINEB.

Lois Greene (Dayton, OH) lets me know that 99.9, the local "Lite" Radio station, had a segment this morning on the event. Dayton local Lillian Zoller (Dayton, OH), at her first tournament, called in to give them an update on the event. It wasn't very long but it was there! Good on you, Lillian!

So, the ugly stepchild of the half-brother twice removed told me about a board that someone else had seen... which is my way of saying who knows how much of this is spot on, but I will proceed. Pete Zeigler (Medina, OH) was reported to be playing Lynda Wise (Toronto ON) this round. Peter opened with VEX and she replied beneath his play with HUP/EH/XU, which made for a tight board. There were then five passes as both players either fought for playable tiles or held onto bingo tiles, hoping the other would open. It came to the crucial 6th play on Lynda's clock. If she passed, she would lose and she knew it. Vowelless, she was forced to burn her blank to put something down. At this point, Peter slammed down a bingo, proceeded to close the board, and won the game. Poor Lynda.

*Our super champion, three times around: Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC).

This round's annotated game featured: Dave Wiegand vs. Panupol Sujjayakorn.