Fiona recently attended the Mind Sports Olympiad held in London.

Here is her report 

I attended the Scrabble tournament that is part of the Mind Sports Olympiad - an annual event that runs over a fortnight and features all sorts of board games and mental puzzles. It has quite a different feel to many events in that you often get novices turning up, and people wander in and out of the room to see what's going on! My first game was against a much higher rated player - I opened with a bonus and hung on to the lead until the very last move when he bonused out on the triple word score!

My second game I also played a bonus on my first move, but it went downhill after that, playing two phonies to lose a game I really felt I should have won!

My third game was undoubtedly my best, again opening with a bonus - NAIVETE - which I was relieved stayed on after a challenge! I went on to get a nine-timer EN(D)ORSES for 131 points, and a further bonus of MUTI(N)EER to win with a very respectable 514 points.

After that, I played two new players - new but definitely not novices! I did win both those games, but both were hard-fought! After that I played David Shenkin who I have never yet managed to beat, and that was true again, then the last game of the day which I made lots of silly mistakes, having overlid, unlodge and wakey challenged off the board. I was particularly cross with myself with unlodge, as, as soon as I played it I realised it was an anagram of LOUNGED which is of course a real word! Despite the frustrations, I very much enjoyed the day and playing people I hadn't played before. 

Sounds like a great day - well played Fiona!