Queensland players were first out of the blocks with high-scoring wins: Anne Drew held high game scores in the early rounds with 515 and 570; Michael Vnuk gained an early high word score of 98 for CHASTITY; Olga Visser was also collecting a good collection of scalps. With the Australian Draw system, you can guarantee that after six rounds only one player will be on six wins. On this occasion it was John Foley who went into round 7 undefeated. John lost to Esther Perrins who then occupied top spot until the final (20th) round.
Some of my first-day awards would have to go to Saheed for the most challenges -- I still don't know whether he likes challenging or wanted the exercise -- and to Graeme Lock Lee for margin points squandered -- he lost 80 points and 70 points for time penalty in two of his early games! An interesting coincidence occurred on the challenge computer I operated when two consecutive challenges from different players were REHUNG and REHANGS. There were the usual dramas in end game situations. Dylan Sharma snatched a 2-point victory from Chris May in their game -- Chris played TULIP in an attempt to block an obvious hook play from Dylan, however Dylan was able to play out with a bingo through the I with his rack of AEMRV?? -- his solution appears at the end of this report. John Foley also grabbed a win against Rod Talbot in a similarly dramatic fashion -- Rod was ahead by 91 points but John played out with BANTERED and caught Rod with the J and others, thereby winning the game by 7 points.
At the end of Day 1 and 11 games, Esther Perrins was poised on 10 wins, followed by John Foley on 9 and Paul Cleary and Rod Talbot on 8 games apiece. Sal Costanzo held High Game with 580 and Esther held High Word with 120 for WAXIEST.
Day 2 saw the withdrawal of Ruby Kotwall which meant the elimination of the bye which was good for the players but did require extra work for me as I had to manually manipulate each draw. In round 13, Esther played Michael Vnuk and unknowingly had mis-scored her total by 20 points. Therefore when she played out, she thought she had lost by 17 points but she had won by 3. It illustrates how important it is to check scores throughout the game. The epilogue was another important lesson -- Esther's outplay included a false word which Michael didn't challenge!
Rene Chelton made the most of her first move in one of her games. She opened with MOVE, later played ACUTE, hooking the E to form EMOVE. This was followed by ARENA, creating AT and REMOVE. Having exhausted the front hooks, she then moved to the other end and formed GOR, creating REMOVER and finally played SLEIGHS off that, leaving REMOVERS as the central word on the board!
Dylan Sharma held his breath as he waited for Rod Talbot to make his fifth move in their game. Dylan was praying that Rod would not exchange 5 tiles! The reason? Because Rod had started by exchanging 5 on his first move; his second play was a bonus word; on his third move he exchanged 5; and, yes, played a bonus for his fourth move. Although the pattern stopped there, Rod went on to win that game, helped along by his play of HAZELS for 84 points.
Three "Monarch of the Monolith" games were held (King of the Hill for the unenlightened). Going into the first of these, the top five were Esther on 15, John Foley on 14, Paul on 13, Saheed on 12 and Rod on 12. Wins to Esther, Paul and Rod saw a shuffle of the order to Esther, Paul, John, Rod and Saheed. In this round Paul, John and Saheed scored wins which meant that going into the final round, 3rd, 4th and 5th were already decided: John, Saheed and Rod respectively. First and second would be decided by the final game. Although Esther was one game clear of Paul, his 200 spread win against her in the penultimate game meant that Esther had to draw or win the game to take out the tournament. In a very tight game, Paul emerged victorious to take the trophy and $250 prize money. Generous cash prizes were also awarded to Esther in 2nd, John in 3rd, Saheed in 4th and Rod in 5th. High game was won by Esther with a 636 game -- her victim on that one was John Foley. Saheed won the prize for High Word with SHUNTED for 149 points. Olga Visser received the prize for High Rating Gain for her 136 point boost.
A warm thanks to all participants for the spirit in which the games were played and congratulations for surviving the gruelling 2-day event! Thanks also to all the NSW players who helped in the organisation of the event.
Results after game 20
WINT/MAS -- MASTERS
Rank Player Wins Mar
---------------------------------
1 Paul Cleary 16 1633
2 Esther Perrins 16 1382
3 John Foley 15 594
4 Saheed Jimoh 14 1089
5 Rod Talbot 14 591
6 Dylan Sharma 12 334
7 Chris May 12 233
8 Joanne Craig 11 902
9 Bob Jackman 11 643
10 John Holgate 11 422
11 Joan Rosenthal 11 193
12 Michael Vnuk 11 116
13 John Barker 11 97
14 Olga Visser 11 -218
15 Sue Gergelifi 11 -441
16 Jean McGiffen 11 -449
17 Matte Dunn 10 238
18 Karen Richards 10 158
19 Peter Shaw 10 -39
20 Sam Greenberg 10 -202
21 Marie Knight 10 -258
22 Audrey Newman 10 -319
23 Graeme Lock Lee 10 -410
24 Anne Drew 9 398
25 Hanne Marks 9 182
26 Sal Costanzo 9 114
27 Gloria Gallagher 9 -62
28 Zina Costanzo 9 -168
29 Betty Foreman 9 -326
30 Betty Coleman 9 -511
31 Kris Logan 9 -623
32 Rene Chelton 8.5 -377
33 Gary Pollard 8.5 -393
34 Ros Gibbons 8 -439
35 Jan Serisier 8 -623
36 Jeff Chelton 8 -675
37 Norma Tracey 7 -287
38 Judy Hay 7 -587
39 Alison Pollard 7 -686
40 A Bye 6 -179
41 Ruby Kotwall 6 -295
42 Nanette Reynolds 6 -752
HIGH GAME: Esther Perrins 636
HIGH WORD: Saheed Jimoh 149
"SHUNTING"
Stats for Tournament : WINT/MAS
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| state Name | National | State | Wins | Rating Points |
| | Old New | Old New | Exp Act | Old Change New|
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
+Section: *MASTERS + + + +
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| NSW Paul Cleary | 5 2 | 1 1 | 14.3 16.0 | 1867 +29 1896 |
| NSW Esther Perrins | 13 5 | 6 2 | 12.0 16.0 | 1784 +81 1865 |
| NSW John Foley | 12 7 | 5 3 | 12.4 15.0 | 1787 +52 1839 |
| VIC Saheed Jimoh | 4 6 | 4 4 | 14.9 14.0 | 1877 -14 1863 |
| NSW Rod Talbot | 15 12 | 7 5 | 12.4 14.0 | 1772 +32 1804 |
| QLD Dylan Sharma | 87 44 | 4 3 | 7.7 12.0 | 1543 +86 1629 |
| NSW Chris May | 50 38 | 17 10 | 10.6 12.0 | 1618 +28 1646 |
| NSW Joanne Craig | 63 49 | 19 15 | 9.4 11.0 | 1581 +34 1615 |
| NSW Bob Jackman | 6 10 | 2 4 | 14.2 11.0 | 1864 -50 1814 |
| NSW Joan Rosenthal | 11 23 | 4 8 | 14.3 11.0 | 1798 -66 1732 |
| QLD Michael Vnuk | 106 70 | 7 5 | 8.2 11.0 | 1513 +56 1569 |
| NSW John Holgate | 7 13 | 3 6 | 15.4 11.0 | 1854 -69 1785 |
| NSW John Barker | 34 52 | 10 16 | 14.0 11.0 | 1669 -60 1609 |
| NSW Jean McGiffen | 27 32 | 9 9 | 12.3 11.0 | 1691 -25 1666 |
| QLD Olga Visser | 170 89 | 13 6 | 4.9 11.0 | 1400 +136
1536 |
| NSW Sue Gergelifi | 70 63 | 21 18 | 10.5 11.0 | 1568 +13 1581 |
| NSW Peter Shaw | 47 42 | 14 12 | 9.4 10.0 | 1620 +12 1632 |
| SA Karen Richards | 122 96 | 7 6 | 8.1 10.0 | 1486 +38 1524 |
| TAS Matte Dunn | 73 78 | 2 3 | 10.5 10.0 | 1564 -10 1554 |
| NSW Audrey Newman | 204 150 | 53 41 | 6.3 10.0 | 1368 +73 1441 |
| NSW Graeme Lock Lee | 48 73 | 15 21 | 12.6 10.0 | 1618 -51 1567 |
| NSW Marie Knight | 45 56 | 12 17 | 11.1 10.0 | 1625 -20 1605 |
| NSW Sam Greenberg | 229 165 | 57 48 | 5.5 10.0 | 1318 +90 1408 |
| QLD Anne Drew | 26 51 | 2 4 | 13.0 9.0 | 1692 -80 1612 |
| VIC Sal Costanzo | 60 60 | 31 31 | 9.1 9.0 | 1592 1592 |
| VIC Zina Costanzo | 150 137 | 67 62 | 7.9 9.0 | 1439 +22 1461 |
| NSW Gloria Gallagher | 101 128 | 30 33 | 11.4 9.0 | 1519 -47 1472 |
| NSW Betty Foreman | 112 109 | 32 27 | 8.9 9.0 | 1504 +1 1505 |
| NSW Hanne Marks | 183 160 | 49 45 | 7.7 9.0 | 1389 +25 1414 |
| NSW Betty Coleman | 259 212 | 68 56 | 4.2 9.0 | 1257 +97 1354 |
| NSW Kris Logan | 144 127 | 41 32 | 7.8 9.0 | 1452 +23 1475 |
| NSW Gary Pollard | 195 156 | 51 44 | 6.3 8.5 | 1378 +44 1422 |
| NSW Rene Chelton | 133 132 | 37 35 | 8.5 8.5 | 1467 +1 1468 |
| NSW Jan Serisier | 78 119 | 24 30 | 11.4 8.0 | 1554 -68 1486 |
| NSW Jeff Chelton | 96 144 | 28 39 | 11.5 8.0 | 1524 -71 1453 |
| NSW Ros Gibbons | 168 200 | 46 53 | 9.5 8.0 | 1402 -30 1372 |
| NSW Norma Tracey | 81 145 | 25 40 | 11.9 7.0 | 1550 -98 1452 |
| NSW Judy Hay | 242 230 | 61 60 | 4.8 7.0 | 1277 +44 1321 |
| NSW Alison Pollard | 197 203 | 52 54 | 7.3 7.0 | 1376 -6 1370 |
| NSW Nanette Reynolds | 231 239 | 58 62 | 6.5 6.0 | 1298 -10 1288 |
| NSW Ruby Kotwall | 58 164 | 18 47 | 15.2 6.0 | 1594 -185
1409 |
|*NSW A Bye | 0 216 | 0 57 | 6.0 6.0 | 1350 1350 |
+-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------+
Ruby Kotwall did not play Day 2, and will receive a ratings credit.
Dylan's bonus was MAVERIck.