Between Friday January 31st and Sunday February 2nd, the Shanklin Beach Hotel hosted the Annual Isle of Wight Scrabble Tournament.
There were 38 players split in to 3 divisions of 10 and one of 8. Players played 10 games, and then there was promotion and relegation before a second tournament of 10 games.
5 East Berks players took part. Pat (who started in D), Wanda, Helen and Graham (who all started in B), and Richard who started in A. The hotel is right on the seafront, and a get place to go between games. Here are the East Berks players taking in the winter sunshine!
How did each player at the tournament ? Here are their mini-reports ....
Pat :
In the first of the 2 tournaments, I won D division with 7 games and was promoted. Play in division C was tougher, and I won 4 of the 10 games.
In one of my games I was 104 points behind, went out playing ROTATING for 80 points, winning the game as my opponent was left with a high scoring rack including the Z.
At the end of another game, my opponent played MOULE for only 13 points. I suspected this was not valid (it isn't) but I didn't challenge it as I had no vowels, and was able to use the O to get rid of my remaining high scoring tiles, and win the game.
I myself (unintentionally) played 2 invalid words that weren't challenged - DES and UNDETER. I had some valid words challenged, including MAXIM, QUEAN and DONUT.
I always like the weekend on the Isle of Wight. We had good weather, and as well as games of Scrabble, I enjoyed some sunrises, cliff walks and ice cream.
Here is Pat receiving her prize from organiser James Burley.
Wanda :
At the start of the first tournament, I was listed as the weakest person in division B so was pleased to have won 4 out of 10 games and stay in Division B. In the second tournament I fared slightly better winning 5 out of 10 games.
In my third game of the second half I was pleased to play SWEATER only to draw VAQUERO out of the bag followed by ISOLATE thus playing three bonuses in a row!
In my fifth game I drew the letters ESQUV??. The only playable bonuses were QUIVERS and QUAVERS neither of which would play but I did manage to play VAQUEROS around a floating A!
In the final round of the tournament I was drawn against the only player in Division B who had won 9 out of 9 games and I beat him! Definitely the highlight of my tournament.
Some of the more unusual words I played:-
SPINOUT-75 ECHOISES-84 DELOUSED-63 VAQUERO-93 VAQUEROS-68 ATABRINE-75 TAMALES-82
Here is Wanda playing Helen in game 1 of the first tournament.
Helen :
Like Wanda, I played in Division B throughout both tournaments. I won 5 out of 10 games in the first half of the tournament, and 4 out of 10 games in the second half; it would have been good to win at least one more game in each half but ... that's Scrabble for you!
Some of the more unusual words I played:
SQUALOR 82 points, SQUIRTED 104, ENTAILING 82 - a 9-letter word, QUAICHES 96
Some of the more unusual words my opponents played:- VENETIAN 65 points, MOREENS 93, COTEAUS 67, MANDRILS 83
And a few of the words I played that my opponent challenged :OBIIT, UDAL. FORESTRY (I was a bit surprised this was challenged!)
Graham :
I played in Division B, and after 5 games was 2-3 down. with relegation threatening, I managed to win the last 5 games, finish on 7-3 wins and get promoted to Division A.
I struggled to score in the Division A games, only managing to exceed 400 twice (the last two games) and won 3 games in total in A.
My most interesting words over the weekend included : the 9-timer BAGGIEST (140) as the last move of the game, AEDILE, ULYIE, DETOX (twice), and CREWE.
One of the higher scoring words played against me was WALTZERS for 97!
Here is Graham's BAGGIEST board, and him receiving his prize for coming 2nd in Division B.
Richard :
I played in Division A for both events winning 5 in the first event, and 6 in the second.. Four games stood out for me :
The first was a close game that I won by 16. Opponent opened with VOTEABLE. I got level with ENLISTEE and AGNOSTIC. After opponents TORMINA I bonused back with SWEIRED for 95. He then scored 38 for FACED. OGEED for 42 was the winning play.
In another game my opponent seemingly took the game away with back to back bonuses of SPAINED and SOILAGE, followed by 41 for CHIV and 60 for JUDO to lead by 117.
I snatched the game with 3 bonuses out of the last 4 plays -LADRONS, CODETTA and finally bonusing out with MISENTRY to win by 11.
My third interesting was a key game in round 2 as I was 1 win from 4 overnight so badly needed a win. Pleased with bonuses of OUTYELL, MECONATE and ATISHOO though opponent made a fight of it with EDITINGS, ANVILED and RERAISE.
One other key moment was the game I lost by 2 to the eventual winner in round 2 . I think I did as well as I could in the endgame but mid game I wanted to play CUTUP for 30 which was good and dumped both U's but I wasn't certain so played CULT for 12. An opportunity missed but overall was very happy with the tournament.
My best bonuses of the tournament were UNTURNS, EPITONIC, MISENTRY, ENLISTEE, OUTRANCE, KARYOTIN, OUTYELL, MECONATE, ATISHOO, RESILIN, LEERINGS, OUTREMER, SWEIRED Opponents - MOATLIKE, DURGIEST (9x), OVERMINE
Here is the board form one of Richard's games.
