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Written by HG

Category: News

Published: 27 September 2022

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The following review of Summer Scrabble Tournaments has been provided by Richard - thanks.

3 East Berks players competed in a number of tournaments over the summer. Fiona and Richard played in the Mind Sports Olympiad which is held annually in London at the Jewish Centre. The Olympiad features many interesting competitions (including some world championships) across a variety of board games, card games and mentally challenging events including favourites such as Monopoly, Rummikub, Poker and some unusual events such as underwater chess!

Fiona did best winning 3 out of 7 in the one division competition to finish 23 above rating with two very good wins against highly rated players. Richard was involved in some high scoring games including a 484-480 score in game one but finished on the wrong end of the results finishing with two wins.

Richard, Wanda and Fiona played in the 7 game Southampton tournament in September. Richard and Wanda played in a tough A division with 2 Grand Masters. Richard finished with 3 wins while Wanda won two. Fiona won 3 games in Division B. 

Richard also played at further tournaments in Milton Keynes (BMSC Warm Up) and Ilford. His best performance came at Ilford in September where he won second prize in B Division with 5 wins from 8 games.

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Written by HG

Category: News

Published: 05 August 2022

Hits: 752

The 2022 all-play-all competition sees a change to previous years.

Every club member had to play at least half of the other members in the all-play-all by July 31st to qualify for the second phase. 

Below are the 17 players who will be going forward to the second phase.

The top 4 will play one game each other before September 30th to determine the all-play-all winner.

Those in places 5-8 will play each other similarly for a minor trophy.

The same applies to those placed 9-12 and 13-17.

Good luck in the next phase everybody!

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Written by HG

Category: News

Published: 08 July 2022

Hits: 736

Best improver for this part of the year is Joy Wade, ahead of Hepzi Rodrigues and last quarter’s winner Charles Parker.  Welcome to new member Peter Tart. 

High-scoring words:

·       149       CHERRIES                   Charles             (a 9-timer)

·       149       RETWISTS                   Charles             (also a 9-timer)

·       131       STIRRING                    Joy

·       107       REMAKING                  Charles

·       103       SHEARED                    Wanda

·       102       QUID/DIRK                   Joy

·       101       QUERIES                     Michael

·       99        STEALINGS                  Maire

·       98        RAUNCHES                  Helen

·       96        FARTING                      Peter

·       93        STAINED                      Graham

·       92        MEANIES                     Helen

·       92        SPECIAL                      Charles

·       91        DEFINES                      Charles

·       91        MAULING                     Michael

·       91        PENISES                      Graham

·       90        EMAILED                      Peter

·       90        POISONER                   Peter                (a 4-timer)

·       90        TORSIVE                      Graham

Also: GAOLERS 88 Michael, PLAITED 88 Maureen, SECONDI 87 Helen, REALIZES 86 Peter, CORRIDOR 83 Helen, FESTOON 83 Joy, BATTIER 82 Hepzi, NEUTRON 82 Peter, FISHERS 81 Maire, TEARING 81 Keith, ESCAPED 80 Keith, 80SHOUTED 80 Charles, SAINTED 79 Peter, SNEAKER 78 Maire, OUTNAME 77 Peter, SEATING 77 Maire, TENPINS 77 Hepzi, ADONISE 76 Keith, BEGETTER 76 Charles, FALTERS 76 Maire, FEZ 76 Maire, TEASERS 76 Maire, ORDAINS 76 Maire, PRIESTLY 76 Peter, REPAIRS 76 Keith, LANDERS 75 Hepzi, MINDERS 74 Maire, PLAINER 74 Keith, STOOLING 74 Peter, LAVVIES 73 Hepzi, LISTERS 72 Maire, POTTLES 72 Maire, SLASHER 72 Maire, URINATE 72 Charles, AIRMAIL 71 Maire, STRANGE 71 Charles, BARRIERS 70 Maire, DUBBERS 70 Maire, SOFTIES 70 Maire, STEAMER 70 Maureen, WAISTER 70 Maire, VARIETY 68 Keith, BLASTER 67 Maire, GILLETS 65 Keith, STUNNERS 63 Maire, FEMINISM 61 Charles

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

·       FESTOONS 74 INTENDS 63 AUDITOR 60                                            Charles

·       DARNING 71 UNEVENLY 80 TOENAILS 61                                           Fiona

·       INDOLING 64 BEELINE 78 WARTIEST 86                                             Graham

·       EXTERNS 82 TUNIEST 71 TORSIVE 74                                                Graham

·       RETRAIN 72 ALTERING 72 ERODENTS 80                                           Graham

·       OFFSIDE 81 ELATION 68 GAOLERS 72                                                Graham

·       SOLATED 67 DISRATE 81 RANSELS 74                                               Graham

·       ORDINATE 72 FLOUNCES 74 DIVERTS 67                                           Graham

·       RENEGADE 58 TUNICATE 74 FORESTS 80                                         Helen

·       THIEVER 80 TENDERED 70 CURTAIL 76                                             Helen

·       DETAINEE 62 ORGANIC 69 ZAGS 72                                                   Helen

·       AERATION 66 DITHERS 65 TRUDGES 63                                            Helen

·       ATEBRIN 67 RESTYLED 98 UNPAIRED 83                                           Helen

·       PERVADE 56 4-timer OBTAINED 70 NOSIEST 81                                  Helen

·       BRASSED 90 CANTERS 70 ANISOLE 64                                              Hepzi

·       ETERNAL 86 GITANOS 73 BRAEHEID SALTERN 74                             Richard

·       DEEPENS 71 BONSELA 71 ALTHORN 76 AMIRATE 73 +WINK 54            Richard

·       ESCORTED 80 IRIDEAL 69 WINGBEAT 97                                           Richard

Also:

·       New personal bests:      Joy Wade 452, Pat Llanwarne 458, Mary Twomey 413

·       9-letter words: TETCHIEST 73, HELMETING 45 Helen, REINCITES Richard

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Written by HG

Category: News

Published: 16 June 2022

Hits: 859

Richard Spencer, one of our members, played at the National Scrabble Championship over the weekend of June 11^th-12^th.   Here is his report about how he got on.

I play competitive scrabble as a hobby and played at the UK scrabble championship on the weekend of 11-12th June.  I have been a member of the East Berks Scrabble Club for 6 years and have played in regular tournaments across the UK but this was my first experience of playing in the biggest tournament in the UK calendar.

The tournament was held in a Bristol hotel with 16 games played over 2 days with a field of 80 players. Each player has 25 minutes on the clock to make all their moves.  The standard was high with a World Champion, US champion and several UK champions playing and the Sunday Times were covering the event.

I played the defending champion in game 2 and lost but it was a good learning experience and I managed to win 7 games in all to finish mid table.  The former world champion had a bad start losing 3 of his first 5 but won the tournament by winning his last 11 games to finish on 13 wins.

One highlight was playing against a blind girl who used an abacus to record all her scores and used braille tiles which were arranged in a tray. As well as laying her own tiles by touch she had to move her hands across the board to work out where I had played. She was also spot on with calculating all the scores for each of her moves and used less than half her time to complete her game–truly inspirational. 

Included above is a photo of one of the boards of one of the more interesting games against a stronger opponent.

When you play all your tiles you get a bonus of 50 points to add to your score for that word.  In this game I played three bonus words of SORDINI, DIVAGATE and REDOLENT while the opponent played BEETLED and AUTOGIRO.

I lost the game by 7 points as the opponent scored a few more points with some of his other words and played out first with SORTAL so had an extra turn than me. He pointed out that if I had blocked that move, he could have still gone out with TOLARS bottom right also making EWT.

All in all it was a challenging but very enjoyable experience meeting a lot of interesting and friendly people.

Richard Spencer