A healthy contingent of Queenslanders and a not so healthy group of Sydneysiders turned up in Kempsey for the inaugural Kempsey Challenge. The NSW woes were compounded by the withdrawal of half of our nominated players, and despite Richard Birch's offer of free transport, and billeting arrangements being made, getting people from Sydney to Kempsey was nigh on impossible.
Still, those that made it enjoyed the hospitality and of the Kempsey Scrabble Club, and the modern Kempsey-Macleay RSL club, the venue for the days proceedings. The forty players present were split into two equal sections. The eighteen local novices played in B section, while A section was comprised of 12 Queenslanders (mostly from the Redcliffe club) and 8 NSW players. NSW was fortunate to have local tournament players Marie Knight and Pat Warren (Port Macquarie) and Arthur Isaac (Coffs Harbour) to bolster its numbers.
B Division was won by an out-of-towner in Paul Waldstein, from the Bellingen backblocks. Paul has been a member of ASPA (NSW) for quite a few years, so it was good to put a face to a members name, as it was with Gloria Everson, who has been with ASPA (NSW) since its inception. Gloria took out the coveted best local player award, by virtue of her coming third in B Division.
In the Challenge Division, weight of numbers was not enough enough to get Queensland home, and Marie Knight emerged the winner after routing Anne Drew in the last game, in a "dream game" as she put it. Dylan Sharma had delayed his return to Queensland after the Sydney International to have another dip at some ratings points. His last game against me was most interesting, in that I fell over the line after an up and down game. Olga Visser had earlier exacted revenge upon me in the first game, as did Anne Drew later in the day, turning around the results from the Masters.
The eight games were finished with time to spare, and a presentation dinner concluded the day. Joy Smith and Dorothy Dixon presented the beautiful local prizes (many made from local cedar) to the place-getters, and promised to stage a bigger and better Kempsey Challenge next year, having now been bitten by the tournament bug.
Results after game 8
KEMPSEY CHALLENGE 2000 -- OPEN
Rank Player Wins Mar
---------------------------------
1 Marie Knight 6 727
2 Bob Jackman 6 567
3 Anne Drew 6 448
4 Fay Grose 6 -20
5 Dylan Sharma 5 273
6 Brenda Nord 5 96
7 Jean Noonan 5 94
8 Liz Jackman 4 99
9 Olga Visser 4 91
10 Linda Williams 4 -18
11 Gerry Reynolds 4 -34
12 Arthur Isaac 4 -39
13 Trisha Brighton 4 -65
14 Joan Watson 3.5 -393
15 Richard Birch 3 11
16 Pat Warren 3 -51
17 Joy McGowan 3 -88
18 Daphne Bezuidenhout 3 -257
19 Pauline Gordon 1.5 -477
20 Wayne Willis 0 -964
HIGH GAME: Jean Noonan 545
HIGH WORD: Jean Noonan 115
"EXPECTS"
Results after game 8
KEMPSEY CHALLENGE 2000 -- LOCAL
Rank Player Wins Mar
---------------------------------
1 Paul Waldstein 7 417
2 Sunny Wright 7 409
3 Gloria Everson 5 340
4 Mollie Pearson 5 237
5 Steve Sieradzan 5 161
6 Joy Smith 5 79
7 Carole Goonesena 5 -9
8 Jan Oddy 4 48
9 Audrey Jackman 4 33
10 Doris Marsden 4 26
11 Marcia Jackson 4 4
12 Denise O'Brien 4 -4
13 Olive Saul 4 -72
14 Peter Watson 4 -126
15 Dorothy Dixon 3 9
16 Mary Conroy 3 -63
17 Jacky Booth 3 -138
18 Margaret Patterson 2 -490
19 Carole Dwyer 1 -377
20 Maureen Channells 1 -484
HIGH GAME: Gloria Everson 438
HIGH WORD: Steve Sieradzan 93
"GRADERS"
Stats for Tournament : KEMPSEY CHALLENGE 2000
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| state Name | National | State | Wins | Rating Points |
| | Old New | Old New | Exp Act | Old Change New|
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
+Section: *OPEN + + + +
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| QLD Anne Drew | 53 50 | 3 3 | 5.4 6.0 | 1620 +14 1634 |
| NSW Marie Knight | 46 44 | 12 12 | 5.7 6.0 | 1644 +6 1650 |
| NSW Bob Jackman | 5 5 | 2 2 | 7.3 6.0 | 1882 -21 1861 |
| QLD Fay Grose | 273 237 | 20 19 | 3.4 6.0 | 1229 +61 1290 |
| QLD Brenda Nord | 162 154 | 9 7 | 4.6 5.0 | 1423 +10 1433 |
| NSW Jean Noonan | 187 165 | 48 43 | 3.8 5.0 | 1384 +25 1409 |
| QLD Dylan Sharma | 96 96 | 4 4 | 5.2 5.0 | 1529 -2 1527 |
| QLD Olga Visser | 207 208 | 14 15 | 3.9 4.0 | 1347 +4 1351 |
| QLD Trish Brighton | 211 202 | 15 13 | 3.0 4.0 | 1341 +20 1361 |
| QLD Gerry Reynolds | 166 177 | 10 8 | 4.8 4.0 | 1414 -14 1400 |
| NSW Arthur Isaac | 295 272 | 78 74 | 1.9 4.0 | 1194 +43 1237 |
| QLD Linda Williams | 360 343 | 34 32 | 2.8 4.0 | 1081 +25 1106 |
| NSW Liz Jackman | 277 264 | 74 70 | 3.1 4.0 | 1224 +19 1243 |
| QLD Joan Watson | 161 180 | 8 9 | 5.0 3.5 | 1425 -29 1396 |
| NSW Richard Birch | 321 336 | 81 84 | 3.6 3.0 | 1134 -12 1122 |
| QLD Joy McGowan | 159 193 | 7 11 | 5.7 3.0 | 1429 -52 1377 |
| NSW Pat Warren | 147 187 | 39 48 | 6.1 3.0 | 1442 -59 1383 |
| NSW Daphne Bezuidenhout | 361 345 | 88 86 | 1.9 3.0 | 1080 +23 1103 |
| QLD Pauline Gordon | 433 442 | 44 47 | 2.0 1.5 | 980 -11 969 |
| QLD Wayne Willis | 540 571 | 68 73 | 1.1 0.0 | 884 -21 863 |
+-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------+
+Section: *LOCAL + + + +
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------------+
|*NSW Paul Waldstein | 0 309 | 0 79 | 7.0 7.0 | 1158 1158 |
| NSW Sunny Wright | 557 487 | 138 118 | 4.4 7.0 | 871 +61 932 |
|*NSW Gloria Everson | 0 493 | 0 119 | 5.0 5.0 | 927 927 |
|*NSW Steve Sieradzan | 0 597 | 0 150 | 5.0 5.0 | 830 830 |
|*NSW Joy Smith | 0 539 | 0 138 | 5.0 5.0 | 889 889 |
|*NSW Mollie Pearson | 0 509 | 0 126 | 5.0 5.0 | 915 915 |
|*NSW Carole Goonesena | 0 608 | 0 152 | 5.0 5.0 | 818 +1 819 |
| QLD Doris Marsden | 917 883 | 159 148 | 1.7 4.0 | 520 +49 569 |
|*NSW Olive Saul | 0 658 | 0 166 | 4.0 4.0 | 769 +1 770 |
|*NSW Marcia Jackson | 0 687 | 0 174 | 3.6 4.0 | 720 +22 742 |
|*NSW Jan Oddy | 0 713 | 0 182 | 4.0 4.0 | 720 720 |
|*NSW Denise O'Brien | 0 742 | 0 187 | 4.0 4.0 | 698 -1 697 |
|*NSW Peter Watson | 0 769 | 0 194 | 4.0 4.0 | 672 672 |
|*NSW Audrey Jackman | 0 882 | 0 226 | 4.0 4.0 | 570 570 |
|*NSW Dorothy Dixon | 0 983 | 0 256 | 3.1 3.0 | 500 -8 492 |
|*NSW Mary Conroy | 0 918 | 0 238 | 3.0 3.0 | 535 535 |
|*NSW Jacky Booth | 0 923 | 0 240 | 3.0 3.0 | 530 530 |
|*NSW Margaret Patterson | 0 1019 | 0 266 | 3.0 2.0 | 500 -60 440 |
|*NSW Maureen Channells | 0 1045 | 0 276 | 3.1 1.0 | 500 -129
371 |
|*NSW Carole Dwyer | 0 1047 | 0 278 | 3.1 1.0 | 500 -131
369 |
+-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------+