The Winter League reached its conclusion in early February. Here are the divisional tables  - well done to Richard, Deborah and Charles for winning their respective divisions. (Minimum of 17 games).

 

2023-2024 WINTER LEAGUE

 

                            Played       Won       Lost      Draw      Win-Bon     AvgBon         Total        AVERAGE

Division A

 

Richard

 

27

24

3

0

0

17

325

12.04

Graham

 

27

23

4

0

0

17

315

11.67

Helen

 

27

23

4

0

0

15

305

11.30

Wanda

 

25

16

9

0

0

14

230

9.20

Fiona

 

20

11

9

0

0

9

155

7.75

Pat

 

20

10

10

0

0

7

135

6.75

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Division B

 

Mary

 

3

3

0

0

0

3

45

15.00

Deborah

 

28

16

12

0

1

17

255

9.11

Sharon

 

10

6

4

0

1

4

90

9.00

Hepzi

 

22

12

10

0

1

12

190

8.64

Joy

 

23

11

12

0

1

12

180

7.83

Martin

 

23

9

14

0

1

15

175

7.61

Maureen

 

6

2

4

0

1

2

40

6.67

 

Division C

 

Charles

 

23

8

15

0

2

13

165

7.17

Keith

 

23

8

15

0

1

14

160

6.96

Amanda

 

20

5

15

0

2

12

130

6.50

Maire

 

31

4

27

0

3

18

160

5.16

Michael

 

32

6

26

0

2

13

145

4.53

Jen

 

4

0

4

0

0

2

10

2.50

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the season (up to the end of January, subject to bad weather etc), every player will have fixtures rearranged, broadly a range of different players each week. You may play some people more than once.                    A WIN is worth 10 points, a DRAW 5 points. Sadly nothing for a LOSS.

 

If you beat a player one Division above you, you get a 10 point bonus (WIN-BON). If you have beat a player 2 divisions above you get a 20 point bonus.

 

If anyone, winner or loser, in any division,  exceeds their average score they will accrue a 5 point bonus. (AVG-BON).

It doesn’t matter if you can’t play every week, as the total scores are averaged by the number of games played to see who won the league.

 

 Promotion /  relegation for those that play more 17+ games.

 

 

0

 

The 2024 Isle of Wight tournament took place between Friday 26th January and Sunday 28th.

There were 2 separate tournaments of 10 games each, with promotion and relegation. 

Pat played in Division C and won 4 games out of 10 in the first tournament, didn't quite promoted and stayed in C for the second tournament where she won 6, narrowly missing out on spread for third place.

 

Richard, Helen and Graham played in Division A, and all won 5 games out of the first set of 10. Thus ensured they safely stayed in A for the second tournament, where Helen won 5 again, but Richard and Graham only won 5 between them.

Here is Helen playing Richard, and their completed board.

 

 

Over the weekend there were lots of high scoring and unusual words played by EBSC members here are a few :

 

Pat : BLOWIEST (77), OVERDONE(64)

Richard : BANSHEES (158), GLUTAEI (67), ILLATION (66)

Helen : 2 bonuses containing 2 Us - ARDUOUS (77), VULTURES (58) as well as ZOEA (90)

Graham : QUIETEST (106), STOCKILY (107)

 

 

Postscript : After the tournaments there was a 3 game unrated tournament between 18 players staying overnight Sunday into Monday. This was won by Helen who won £15. A great end to a great weekend.

Deborah Porter retains her Best Improver title, ahead of Richard Spencer and Amanda Lowe.   This is the first time ever that a past winner has retained their title!

 

High-scoring words:

·       114       REQUINS                     Richard

·       113       WORKABLE                 Joy

·       99        JALOUSE                     Richard

·       97        WINLESS                     Graham

·       93        SERIATE                      Wanda

·       90        CANISTER                    Graham

·       90        TIGGERS                     Maire

·       86        DESTAIN                      Maire

·       86        FALLERS                      Michael

·       86        RADIOMAN                  Graham

·       86        SPLENDOR                  Helen

·       83        BOWSPRIT                  Charles

·       82        JUSTICES                    Joy

·       80        DETRAIN                      Charles

·       77        TRAINED                      Maire

·       76        GANNETS                    Maire

·       76        GNATWREN                 Richard

·       76        STAINED                      Maire

·       74        OUTLIES                      Maire

·       73        MASSIVE                     Joy

·       72        PISSERS                      Maire

·       70        BOATLOAD                  Charles

Other words: DIGESTS 69 Maire, ENTRAIL 69 Maire, GRANITE 69 Maire, PRAIRIES 68 Joy, RINGERS 68 Maire, APPARELS 65 Charles, LEASING 65 Joy, MINARET 65 Maire, ENABLES 63 Maire, EJECTA 62 Helen

 

Many bonuses or high-scoring moves by one player in a game:

·       ABSENTEE 88 NESTLES 73 NEONATAL 65 REQUINS 114                               Richard

·       CREASIER 83 SOLATES 66 EGOTISE 77 GENITOR 78                                    Graham

·       ESTRONE 73 ERASION 75 LOADING 61 REPTILES 74                                     Graham

·       REPLIERS 80 RETUNDS 66 RATIONAL 58 EX 52                                             Helen

·       RUSTIER 76 ADORNERS 61 GARNETS 81 DETANGLE 80                               Wanda

·       ZA 66 SATIETY 74 BESTOWED 59 TETANIC 86                                               Helen

·       CUTESIE 80 MILORDS 72 LECANORA 74                                                        Richard

·       DAUNTERS 79 AQUATINT 86 SLAVING 85                                                       Graham

·       ICONISE 69 FORELEG 82 ENTOILED 65                                                          Richard

·       FAUTING 82 SHORTER 83 ROSINER 74                                                          Richard

·       FIERIER 78 REFLATES 70 PASTERNS 68                                                        Helen

·       GIMPIER 78 LEASING 76 CLOUDING 78                                                          Deborah

·       MILNEBS 78 STASHIE 73 RELEGATED 86                                                       Richard

·       PANOPLY 89 UNDERACT 76 CARBINE 81                                                       Graham

·       PLANTER 74 DINGIER 74 MUSTIER 77                                                            Helen

·       REMINTS 82 ANTIQUES 67 DEPLANE 73                                                         Helen

·       SINCERE 67 SERIATE 93 LIMITERS 63                                                            Wanda

·       SMITTEN 66 SALUTING 66 KINDEST 80                                                           Keith

·       SOAPIER 73 COATING 66 RAPINES 77                                                            Graham

·       TRENDING 68 POUNDERS 89 DELATORS 63                                                  Fiona

·       WARPING 75 EXPORTS 90 ATEBRINS 74                                                        Wanda

 

Other things:

·       New personal bests:      Amanda 392, Jim 445

·       9-letter words:               GRAVESIDE 28 Fiona RELEGATED 86 Richard

 

Name

Old rating

New rating

Rating change

P

W

D

L

Average

Highest score

Highest ever

Deborah Porter

107

133

26

24

14

0

10

368.8

456

542

Richard Spencer

171

186

15

28

24

0

4

431.3

599

625

Amanda Lowe

79

92

13

14

5

0

9

315.1

392

392

Joy Wade

109

120

11

13

6

0

7

310.0

444

484

Helen Harding

178

188

10

27

23

0

4

435.2

539

597

Keith Radbourn

85

91

6

24

7

0

17

282.1

348

418

Martin Stephens

97

101

4

22

7

0

15

322.8

371

477

Wanda de Poitiers

156

156

0

24

17

0

7

418.3

557

592

Graham Harding

178

175

-3

36

27

0

9

440.1

578

661

Hepzi Rodrigues

137

133

-4

18

12

0

6

373.9

549

554

Fiona Titcombe

138

134

-4

16

8

0

8

376.1

482

551

Charles Parker

107

98

-9

19

4

0

15

313.5

408

509

Maire Bennett

84

74

-10

25

3

0

22

270.0

371

448

Pat Llanwarne

148

134

-14

17

8

0

9

345.3

435

516

Michael Spencer

95

77

-18

29

4

0

25

295.1

386

502

Insufficient games – a previous quarter’s results, or 13 games in a quarter, needed to qualify

Sharon Hewitt

141

137

-4

6

4

0

2

347.2

416

548

Maureen Barlow

137

122

-15

11

5

0

6

351.4

411

528

Jim Macey

141

124

-17

6

2

0

4

346.2

445

445

Jen Brennan

72

45

-27

1

0

0

1

333.0

333

436

Ann Shaw

56

 

0

0

0

0

0

 

0

317

Mary Twomey

99

 

0

0

0

0

0

 

0

430

Kate Lester

101

 

0

0

0

0

0

 

0

363

Gillian Cranston

101

 

0

0

0

0

0

 

0

448

Three East Berks players travelled to Staverton Park, near Daventry for a 15 game tournament between Christmas and New Year.

There were 4 round-robin groups of 16, and one small group of 14 (a round robin followed by 2 'king-of-the-hill' rounds).

Fiona played in the smaller E division and won 9.5 games out of 15.  Some of her wins were by quite large margins including +198, +157 and +134. The draw was also a high scoring encounter 403 points each. Well played Fiona!

 

Graham played in Division C, and after a slow start managed to win 8 out of 15 games. His biggest win was by 140 points, but his worst loss was by a staggering 263 points! Ouch !

 

Helen was the lowest rated player in Division B and a late flurry of wins, gave her a total of 7 out of 15. An excellent performance given she started bottom of the division. Her biggest win was by 100 points.

 

The venue was very good, with an excellent break-out area nearby where tea and coffee was on tap (sadly no biscuits!). There was even a communal 500 piece jigsaw puzzle and pool table for those wanting a different activity between Scrabble games. 

There were lots of good words played over the weekend - the three that Fiona, Graham and Helen were most proud of were DOURINE (a disease of horses), NETSUKE (Japanese clothes fastener) and JOOK (Scottish word to dodge).

 

Above are a couple of Helen's boards!

East Berks Scrabble club recently held its Christmas Party with the ever-chaotic continuous Scrabble, a brain-stretching quiz and scrabble bingo. Lots of chances to win a variety of prizes.

 

Trophies were also given to 2023 competition winners :

 

Handicap - Graham

Best Improver - Maureen

All-play-all winner Division D - Charles

All-play-all winner Division C - Sharon

All-play-all winner Division B - Fiona

All-play-all winner Division A - Graham

 

Well done to all winners!

 

The club is open next on Thursday 4th January 2024 730pm.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.