After a disappointing day 1 at Manuden, Helen, Richard and Graham were joined by Fiona for another 7 day tournament. 32 players – one large division. Here are their reports :
Fiona :
I attended the Sunday event at Manuden, the second of two one-day tournaments featuring seven games in an open division.
I got off to a flying start, beating the tournament's top-rated player, which left me optimistic about the rest of the day. Sometimes I feel a little intimidated when facing very strong opponents, but he was very friendly and we had a nice chat before the game.
Drawing both blanks certainly helped, as did finding three bonuses: MINTIER, EtIOLA(T)E and UNGRADe(D). My invalid play of BOONIE also escaped a challenge, so I definitely had more than my fair share of luck. I was pleased with my end game - realising my opponent was stuck with an unplayable Q, I opted to maximise points rather than simply playing out. We initially thought I'd won by two points, but a recount revealed the margin was actually four.
Despite playing only one bonus, my opponent still scored well over 400 points, which shows that high scores don't necessarily depend on finding lots of bonuses.
(BOONIE seems a strange omission from the dictionary. BOONIES is apparently short for "BOONDOCKS", and with BOONDOCK valid in the singular, its absence feels rather odd!)
My highest-scoring play of the day was BAUXITES for 101 points. I’d just played a bonus and picked up AEISTUX, so I couldn't believe my luck when my opponent placed a B on the centre triple-word square. That was definitely one of my highlights of the tournament. Despite the 101, I went on to lose that game. Right at the end, I wasn't 100% certain that LIS was valid, so scored a lot less for my bonus DEBASED to make the safe LID instead. At that stage the score was 405–281, so I felt reasonably confident of victory. My opponent's bonus landed for 94 points and she was out, but my final pickup was worth a painful 18 points, creating a 36-point swing and handing her the win!
That game has convinced me that I need to put some serious effort into learning three-letter words over the coming months. It's definitely one of my weaker areas and has cost me several games in the past.
Unfortunately, after my opening triumph, I spectacularly failed to win another game and finished second from bottom of the standings with just the one win from 7 games, and an eye-watering negative spread!
Despite my disappointing overall performance, it was a fun day and I had some lovely opponents, meeting plenty of people I hadn't played before. As always with James's tournaments, it was impeccably run, and a highlight was definitely Stella's homemade cakes in the afternoon
Graham :
After winning only 2 games in the previous day’s Manuden tournament, this was a better day. I was definitely playing better, seeing bonuses.
The day started well with EQUINE for 50 on my first move. I didn’t win the game, but as I had struggled to find high-scoring non-bonus words the previous day, I was quite happy. I scored over 400 in the next 4 games, winning 3 (including a large win against Fiona – sorry!).
The game I lost in that sequence was primarily due to my opponent starting the game with 3 bonuses (TABARDS, THORNIER, OOGAMIES) – I did well to only lose the game by 76, in what ended up as a 6 bonus game.
My large winning spread in the games I won meant I was the highest player on 3 wins (out of 5), and if I won the last 2 games I may have sneaked a prize. Sadly, for me I was well beaten in both games and finished in 22 place. The most unusual word played against me was GROSZE. I knew the word without the final ‘E’, and my opponent played GROSZE/EXEAT for 72 points! Ouch!
Richard :
I won 4 put of 7 games played in the Sunday tournament. Five of these game involved margins of well over 100 with 3 against me and two in my favour so the tiles influenced the results. I was pleased to win both of the remaining close games though as the opponents could have won both
In game 2 the opponent had a two early bonuses BARONET for 74 and BRINGERS for 64 with my SHOUTER in response . However their scoring slowed and I managed to take a lead after TIX for 38. They then phonied when STYLIER was the only bonus with that rack. I then bonused with EVOLUTES to take a winning lead. Opponent did bonus again with TILTERS but I won 415-386.
In game 6 the scores were close throughout but the opponent had a small lead of 351-341 and both of us were close to bonuses with a blank each on our racks and one decent lane available. However they took too much time trying to work out the endgame and played LA for just 4 to try to block the lane. I then blocked the spot conclusively with XI for 27 and the time pressure told with their next play enabling me to play out for a 390-364 including a 10 point time penalty
Word highlights were, Me - VIRGATE 88 , INTIMAL 78, CHEAPIES 76, COALIZE 105
Opponents - INDEBTED 63 , AZLON 74
Helen :
I arrived at the Manuden Sunday tournament hoping for a better day, as I hadn’t done very well on Saturday. As on the day before, I was about mid-table in standard; looking round the playing room, I could see several familiar faces from the day before, plus some new ones too, so it was going to be another competitive (or is that challenging?) day.
My first game was against the same opponent that I had played in the opening game on Saturday, who turned out to be the only person that I would play twice over the weekend. I won that game, and the second, both by smallish margins, then lost the game before lunch by a similar amount, to arrive at the break on 2 wins out of 3 and a small positive spread that put me in 11th position. I’d played a few words that I was proud of: EPSILON for 74, my opening move of the day, and ALNAGERS for 80, and had drawn a challenge for another word, ANTLIONS for 71 (it’s an insect not unlike a dragonfly).
My not especially good tuna sandwich at lunch must have had a beneficial effect, for I won the first two games in the afternoon by large margins, scoring well over 500 points in each game. The letters flowed for me in both games, and I played 4 bonuses in one game, including UXORIAL for 88 points (from an unpromising rack or AILORX?, the word kind of floated to mind), and 6 scores of over 50 points in the other. Suddenly I was on 4 wins out of 5 and was in 3rd place.
I was drawn against the third-highest rated player in the penultimate game. It turned out to be a scrappy game with a close, hard-fought endgame, and I won by just 9 points with my lowest score of the day, 393. That put me into second place, just ahead of two other players also on 5 wins out of 6, and behind the only unbeaten player, who was my opponent in the final game. I tried hard but lost 404-445 in spite of playing ABIGAILS for 76 points and CHOREAS for 92 points. That put me in fourth place at the end, which was far, far better than I had expected at the start of the day.
