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Fiona was the only East Berks player due to play in the 16 game Final Fling, and she was also a reserve for the main, gruelling, 27 game main event ("The UK Open").

On the morning of the UK Open, a space became unexpected available, so Fiona played in both tournaments. Her report of the two events is here :

 

 

I attended the main event (Division B) and Final Fling (Open Division) of the UK Open Tournament.

 

The main event was held over 3 days, and had 27 games.   I started well, winning 5 of 9 on day 1, but had a terrible day on day 2, only winning 3 of 10 games.  Day 3, everything went my way and I won 7 of the 8 games (one was so close that we had a recount - the result being I won by 4 more points than originally thought!), finishing on a respectable 15 out of 27 games, which, as someone starting towards the bottom of the division, I was delighted with!  I also managed to achieve an average score of over 400 per game (helped by the 9 timer - see below!).  I got one of the ratings prizes (awarded to players who have played above their rating) which was a nice bonus! 

 

The two day Final Fling did not go well for me, only winning 5 of the 16 games, although two of those wins were against much higher rated players - I think perhaps they become a little complacent when they see a low rating, but always nice to take a scalp or two :) 

 

Bonuses aplenty, with the highlight being my first tournament 9 timer - cABBA(G)ES for 167 points!  Most of the other bonuses were fairly common words, but I was pleased with SOSATIE (a South African meat dish), HENTAIS (one of the new CSW24 words), STOREYED which I wasn't sure of, and INFANCY and RIBCAGE which used less common letters.  Other words which were challenged by my opponents were PINNATE (a botany leaf thing), MANATEE (a sea-cow) and RENEGUE (probably more commonly spelt RENEGE). I did have a few dud bonuses challenged off too!

 

Here is Fiona receiving her ratings prize from Tournament Organiser, James Burley,  and the Hotel Manager. (Picture credit : Nicky Huitson).

 

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After a 5 year break, the UK hosted a week-long Scrabble series of tournaments, held in Reading. There would be 67 games spread over 4 tournaments. The first two were an Early-Bird ten game tournament followed by a fourteen Warm-up game tournament. 5 East Berks players played across those two tournaments.

Lots of games, lots of words and here are the thoughts of the East Berks Scrabble players over those two tournaments.

 

 

Pat only played in the first 10-game tournament (Division C) and won 5 games. 

She writes :

 I played in the Early Bird tournament, playing 10 games and winning 5. I was pleased to have increased my Scrabble rating by one point. My highest scoring word was PRETZEL which scored 111. In the same game,  I played CAJOLING  for 84, and won that game easily.  My most satisfying bonus word was RELENTED, which was played at the end of the game to secure a win.

Wanda played in Division B for both tournaments, here she is playing Richard in the Early-Bird. 

 

Wanda won 7 games over the weekend. Her best and more unusual words over both tournaments included FALSETTO, TAIGLES, STRAWEN, AMIRATES, INSANIE and BRUX FOR 84 points!

 

Richard won Division B with a game to spare, and played in Division A for the second tournament.  During the second tournament, he had a very interesting conclusion to one game…Richard recounts :

On move 2 I bonused with INTHRAL -it only played leaving the I in the triple word lane. My opponent had good letters and laid the nine timer DISCERNS for 176. 
On move 7 I bonused again with LAYOUTS to bring the score close. The scores were still close with 1 tile in the bag with my opponent leading 385 to 366.
There was no reason to play off one tile as it was clear how good the opponents rack was so I played my third bonus of ENCHAINS.

I was then put on hold while my opponent considered whether to challenge or play a bonus himself. With a rack of DEIOOS?  there were no playable bonuses through the floating tiles aside from the N. I fully expected my opponent to lay a bonus through it and win the game but time passed and he went overtime. After going over by 6 minutes 40 sec and incurring 70 points in time penalties only a second nine timer would win as he already trailed 440-385 before penalties.

Just as I was thinking his chances had gone he laid his second 9 timer of the game of OZONISED with the Z as the blank for 131 plus 5 points for my challenge and he won by 452-439. Interestingly had he spent 20 seconds longer he'd have incurred an extra 10 point penalty and lost by 439-437 as I would not have needed to challenge and give him the extra 5 points. 

 My best bonuses of the tournament were PEDANTRY, TRIFOLIA, REDFOOTS, OILPANS, JINGLET, LIBRETTO, SOULDIER, DOWLNES 

Here is that double nine-timer board!

 

 

 

Helen played in A for both tournaments accruing 4 wins in the first, and 6 in the second. Her best words included MAGNETOS, ANTICKED (scoring 109), DIABLES and STORGES. One of the more unusual words played against Helen was OROPESA (a float used in mine-sweeping).

 

Graham also played in A for both tournaments and had the reverse fortune to Helen. He won 6 in the first tournament, winning a ratings prize in the process, and only 3 in the second, finishing bottom of his division – whoops!

His best words included three back-to-back bonuses UNSEATED, RETUNES and MINORING and in different games UNICORN, DOGFISH and TAGETES.

Here is Graham receiving his rating prize.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The club is now closed until Thursday January 2 2025.

 

East Berks Scrabble Club wishes everyone a peaceful Christmas and prosperous New Year!

 

Happy Scrabbling !

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On the last weekend in November, Richard and Pat from East Berks played in the Winter Matchplay tournament at the Holiday Inn in Milton Keynes. There were 18 games; 10 on Saturday, and 8 on Sunday. 56 players were divided into just 2 divisions. Richard played in A, and Pat in B.

All games were played in the one conference room, which made it a little cramped.

Pat had a good day on Saturday, winning 6 games, but only won one on Sunday. Her best move score was a nine timer of SCANTIER scoring 131 - but she still lost that game.  Her next best move was QUEENLIER scoring 109, and this did win the game.

 

  

                                                                   

Richard had the reverse of Pat's experience.  He started poorly on day 1, losing the first six games and had some miserable racks resulting in 4 sub 300 scores in one day!  However, he might have got a win if he'd challenged off SULLIER in game 4.  Also in game 1 he'd noted early on that QUAIL takes a front S but forgot about it later in the game when he played a lower scoring bonus elsewhere and the opponent then used the hook.  Oops!

 

                                                                    

 

After that he ended the losing run with a nervy 8-point win in game 7, a 40-point win in game 8 and a 12-point win in game 10. Each of these could have been lost so he was pleased to get over the line and limit the damage. Day 2 started well with bonuses of KAURIES and SOFTLING giving his first good win and got 3 bonuses to win the next. 

The remaining games had a lot of one-sided games. Lost by 221 and 135 in two of them but had a 582-309 win in game 15.  The best result was the final game where Richard challenged off two phonies early on and got 4 bonuses to win by 632 -285 which was the highest score and margin in the tournament.   This meant that Richard ended the tournament with 8 wins overall

Notable bonuses were:

Richard - THRIVEN -94 POWNIES-103, KAURIES -78, SOFTLING 91, HAGRIDE 72, DISNEST 74, BUDGERO 84, INEDITA 72, ANTIHERO 92, SWINGLE 89

Opponents-    UNRAZED -81, COMPEND 77, MARGENT 95, NOSEBAG 82, CROFTER 93, PESAUNTS 83 

Here are boards from two of Richard’s games:

                                     

 

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These statistics cover the year running from the beginning of October 2023 to the end of September 2024.

Committee:
Chairman - Deborah Porter
Secretary - Joy Wade
Treasurer - Wanda de Poitiers
Statistician - Helen Harding

Competition winners were as follows:
Best improver for 2023-2024:
1st Richard Spencer 2nd Deborah Porter
3rd Wanda de Poitiers 

Quarterly improver prizes:
Q1: Deborah Porter
Q2: Charles Parker
Q3: Wanda de Poitiers
Q4: Amanda Lowe 

Winter League:
Division 1: Richard Spencer
Division 2: Deborah Porter
Division 3: Charles Parker

The All-play-All:
Group A: Richard Spencer 
Group B: Deborah Porter
Group C: Pat Llanwarne
Group D: Jim Macey   

Handicap: Graham Harding 

 

The following players scored over 500 points in a game at least once during the season: 
• Richard Spencer (highest score 634)
• Helen Harding (609)
• Wanda de Poitiers (598)
• Graham Harding (595)
• Megel Barker (583)
• Fiona Titcombe (550)
• Hepzi Rodrigues (549)

The highest single moves were:
• 149 CALIBERS Richard
• 140 DELOUSER Graham
• 125 REQUITED Richard
• 115 QUESTED Wanda
• 114 REQUINS Richard
• 113 WORKABLE Joy
• 112 EXOTICS Wanda
• 112 UNFAZED Pat
• 107 SEQUINNED Wanda
• 107 TEXTERS Charles
• 106 EXTENDS Wanda
• 106 SEXPOTS Deborah
• 105 SOUPING Sharon
• 104 EJECTOR Wanda
• 104 PREBAKES Graham
• 104 SQUIRTER Joy
• 102 DORKIEST Richard
• 102 HANKERS Hepzi
• 102 MOUNTED Wanda
• 102 TRACHEAS Megel
• 101 CONVENES Wanda
• 101 QUINTARS Helen
• 101 SPANKED Wanda
• 101 ZETA Wanda
• 100 ZINCITE Helen

 

Name Old Rating New Rating Rating Change P W D L Average Highest score Highest ever
Richard Spencer 171 208 37 125 109 0 16 439.1 634 634
Deborah Porter 107 136 29 112 59 1 52 360.2 485 542
Wanda de Poitiers 156 178 22 126 93 0 33 426.2 598 598
Amanda Lowe 79 93 14 91 22 1 68 302.7 392 392
Martin Stephens 97 109 12 100 39 1 60 331.6 443 477
Fiona Titcombe 138 149 11 83 50 0 33 391.5 550 551
Helen Harding 178 187 9 149 120 0 29 434.3 609 609
Graham Harding 178 181 3 167 126 0 41 433.6 595 661
Joy Wade 109 106 -3 75 26 1 48 330.4 451 484
Hepzi Rodrigues 137 132 -5 88 46 0 42 361.7 549 554
Charles Parker 107 99 -8 110 43 3 64 327.0 470 509
Sharon Hewitt 141 131 -10 55 30 0 25 350.4 453 548
Michael Spencer 95 82 -13 116 25 1 90 301.6 424 502
Keith Radbourn 85 71 -14 121 20 1 100 282.9 380 418
Pat Llanwarne 148 130 -18 62 31 0 31 347.4 442 516
Jim Macey 141 122 -19 58 27 1 30 353.3 478 478
Maire Bennett 84 58 -26 105 9 0 96 278.1 498 498
                     
People with insufficient games (52) to qualify for best improver                    
Mary Twomey 99 105 6 35 13 0 22 316.7 430 430
Maureen Barlow 137 122 -15 11 5 0 6 351.4 411 411
Jen Brennan 72 49 -23 9 1 0 8 292.7 344 436
Ann Shaw 56 56 0 0 0 0 0   317 317
Gillian Cranston 101 101 0 0 0 0 0   0 448
                     
New members without a previous year's playing record                    
Megel Barker 173 184 11 12 9 0 3 433.3 583 583
                     
Guests                    
Polly Vallance   91 2 9 3 0 6 299.7 363 363
Joanne Hepburn   64 0 3 0 0 3 269.3 292 292
Kate Lester   101 0 0 0 0 0   0 363
Nick   106 0 2 1 0 1 321.0 336 336

 

 

 

  1. Radio Berkshire Mystery Guest
  2. Best Improver – July to September 2024
  3. September 8 : Luton
  4. Oxford 10/11 August
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