I entered the one day event at Luton on 8th September and was the only East Berks player attending. 

 

48 Players were split into divisions of 8 and played everyone else in their group followed by one final game to decide final placings. I found myself in the 3rd of these against similarly rated players. 

 

In Game 1 I started with the bonus of WATERISH and added two more of SERICON and ROBINIA. My opponent hit back with two bonuses of his own plus a 60 for FRIZ but I held on for a 441-401 win.

 

Game 2 was more comfortable. Pleased to spot REMIGIAL for 63 and a nice spot opened up to play TRASHES as a double double for 98 WIN by 421-308

 

Game 3 was a bad game though closer than it looked! I trailed by 10 after 13 turns and reluctantly felt I should go for good points on offer to take a 302-278 lead. The downside was it meant emptying the bag! The opponent has SNOOZER in two different places for 102 and I was caught for 20 on my final rack which led to a 400-282 win for my opponent.

 

In Game 4 the opponent had 2 bonus to my zero but had a lot of low scoring plays including 2 changes. However I scored very well with non bonus plays throughout and won by 445-326.

 

Game 5 was much tighter but had the edge after bonuses of AERADIO and RETINTED and held on for a 444-422 win including a 10 point time penalty for the opponent.

 

 Game 6 started brightly with bonuses of STAINED and ANTIROLL in 2 of my 3 opening turns but opponent was scoring well while my scoring dried up. He then took the lead with ANGARIES and won relatively comfortably 414-385.

 

Game 7 was a good game for me. Challenged off OOWARI early on then bonused with CELIBATE and GERONTIC to give a healthy lead. Opponent then played a fun bonus of MOSTEST which I challenged but turned out to be good!  Final score a win for me of 439-387.

 

Game 8 was a play off to determine 1st and 2nd places with both my opponent and I leading on 5 wins each from 7. It was a good game with 3 bonuses each. I bonused with  CERRADOS for 63 on turn 2 but opponent hit back immediately with GLAZIERS for 87. 

 

I then than had further bonuses of TOASTING and EXIGEANT on turns 4&5 which almost killed the game off. The opponent bonused with DRONIEST and ROUTINE on his final two moves but I scored enough to hold off the late flurry with a 446-428 win giving me an overall result of 6 wins from 8 and a first tournament win for quite a while.

 

Bonus highlights;

 

Me - WATERISH, ROBINIA, REMIGIAL, AERADIO, ANTIROLL, GERONTIC, CERRADOS, EXIGEANT

 

Opponents- SNOOZER, ANGARIES, MOSTEST, GLAZIERS

 

Well done Richard !

 

Here are a couple of his boards.