On the 18-19th November, Richard played in the A division of the ABSP Winter Matchplay held in Milton Keynes. Here is his report :
The Winter Matchplay is an annual two day event played in the centre of Milton Keynes over a weekend in November.
The event is split into 3 divisions and there were 64 players in all. I was the one East Berks player involved and played in Division A.
I won the first game well but in game 2 I faced one of the top players and lost by a whopping 350 points with the opponent scoring 624, playing 5 bonuses and getting 70 odd for a Z play!
Although I was one of the lowest rated players in a strong division I had hoped to better the tally of 6 wins from 17. I did lose one game by a single point and had my first experience of going for a full recount which you can opt to do in a close game. I hadn't realised though that it involved checking all of the word scores on the board -not just the addition. This took a long time and it meant everyone was delayed playing their final round! . Also, unfortunately for me the scores were found to be correct!
However, I still enjoyed playing in the tournament and will no doubt play there again next year.
A selection of my favourite bonuses played by me and against me are as follows;
Me - EPIGEAN, LABIATE, UNNAILED, ORGASMED, TRAVELOG, DENOTIVE, REVOICES, SANTOUR, ORDNANCE, ASTATIDE (9X 122)
Opponents- RANULAR, DETRITAL, MIKVOTH(!), UNISONS, MISVALUE, NORITIC, GENTOOS, REMIGIAL
Well done Richard - some very tough competition in deed.
Here is one of his boards.
