44 players assembled at the Macarthur Room behind Henry Lawson House for the first big event on the NSW - and indeed, Australian - tournament calendar. Unlike last year, which had a few controversial moments, this year's event ran smoothly and quickly thanks to the experienced direction of Wilma Vialle and the assistance on computer by first-time Sydney Masters player Cynthia Curr's partner Greg, accompanying her up from Victoria. The one minor drama occurred when the heavy rain on Saturday resulted in a need for urgent mopping. The top-plays-middle draw occasionally produces some memorable upsets. Olga Visser beat Paul Cleary, and that's not the first time she's done that in the first round. Pat Schuberg, even more spectacularly, registered a nearly 200 point win over John Holgate. Esther Perrins and Naween Fernando also nearly fell in the first game - Naween managing to recover from Audrey Newman's 149-point triple-triple to just make it over the line.
Trevor Halsall was fastest out of the blocks with a 607 game in Round 1, but the lead passed to Bob Jackman after Trevor lost in a close game to me at the top table. Adding insult to injury was the fact that his 607 was soon topped by Naween's 635. Naween beat Bob, and I assumed the lead, cementing it by beating Naween, and holding it until game 7 when I lost to Chris May. Paul, Naween and I were fairly close for the middle of the event, with just one game separating us.
The tension increased on day 2. Naween arrived late to the tournament room and had to forfeit game 11 to Harry Malcolm. My run of wins was brought to an end by John Holgate, who was recovering well from an inauspicious beginning. Paul then looked set to take the lead, but Graeme Lock Lee defeated him in the same round. John then assisted me considerably by taking out Paul and Naween in consecutive rounds, meaning that going into the King of the Hill (or Monarch of the Monolith depending on your preference) rounds, I was two games clear. Paul was in second place due to his spread advantage over Naween, and Chris was coming fourth.
I was lucky enough to draw charmed tiles in the final four games and win them all to win the tournament by a flattering margin of four clear games. Naween finished second, and Chris slipped into third by beating John Holgate in the last game, aided by his tie with Karen Richards - who finished strongly to come 6th - a game he would have won if he had not challenged GLED - the 5-point penalty rule was in effect.
Paul, who finished 4th, was a little unlucky to only win one of his last four games, though perhaps not as unlucky as Trevor Halsall, with the tournament's second-best margin but only managing 10 wins - obviously on the receiving end of some close, agonising losses. Rod Talbot continued his good form following his Janboree win earlier this month with 5th.
While a relatively new innovation, Graeme Lock Lee's prize for the best bingo containing no Es, Ss or blanks seems like it'll become something of an instution. Paul remarked to me that perhaps -ING words should not be counted, but nobody could deny that the eventual winner, UNTOILING (off UN) from Carmel Dodd was a classy play - and it drew a challenge from Paul to boot. Other fine plays noted by Graeme included LIBATORY, ANTILOGY and GALVANIC.
A crowd gathered around the printer as the ratings were printed out to decide the prize for the highest rating gain. Going on day 1's results, Martin Waterworth from Queensland, playing at this event for the first time - as this is the first time he's been eligible - looked the early favourite, and when his gain was shown as 110 points he was pleased as punch. When a few more lines were printed it was revealed that Judy Hay with 120 points had just pipped him. Judy's gain puts her over 1300 and she wasted no time in indicating her desire to play the top section at this year's National Championship in Canberra.
Nines I heard about included Paul's LIQUESC(ED), Chris's (SI)GNORINA, and Alastair Richards' REPLAC(IN)G.
Possibly the most dramatic turn-around of the tournament occurred between Paul and John (H). Paul was leading and with two blanks on his rack, played tOOMEsT. John calmly responded with KINREDS for 128 parallel to it, forming TI, ON, OR, ME, SHED and ASS, going out and winning 429-412.
Away from bonuses, Gary Pollard scored 93 for HARPS by pluralising Olga's play of QUESTION in a triple file, but surely the best was Martin's response to Esther Perrin's IMPOWER bingo, AXONE underneath it for 101 - the X was doubled and the word was tripled.
The biggest combined total was achieved in the game between Joanne Craig and Carmel Dodd, Joanne winning 592-426 thanks to COZENING, LAYERINg, CODETTAS and AVENGES. Carmel had LOACHES, SPINDLER and GIRLIES.
Bob Jackman played the classy LANDDROS around an O, and performed the unusual feat of having consecutive wins of 1 point - over Rod and John in games 16 and 17. Rod also had some other interesting finishes to his games. His play of ZORRO enabled me to play JUDOgI for 39 to win a close endgame when we played, and his game against Chris was one to remember. Chris played a blank bonus forming an incorrect hook. When he played it in the correct position next turn, Rod played a triple-triple DARIOLES around it and then caught Chris with the Q. Chris later said instead of playing his NEUTRAL bonus he should have passed, though he was pleased to be one of only two players to beat me, and to have played ZYMURGY (fifth-to-last word in OSWI, fact fans). Rod played CARFAX on Saturday, and followed it with CARFOX on Sunday.
Paul extended SALE to TELESALE against me for 16 on Saturday, but I did much better with the word when I played it onto an E against Bob on Sunday for 77. Having words fresh in the mind helps - on Friday night I'd mentioned that ENCIERRO is my favourite high-probability bonus, and Chris beat me my playing it for 59 in our game.
Trevor Halsall's high spread (mentioned above) might be attributable to fine plays like HERBARIA, FREEBASE and POSTDOCS. Ivor Zetler managed to get down EQUINOX.
I spotted the nonwords WAIVERED* (John Holgate vs Rod Talbot) and GENIOUS* (Harry Malcolm vs John Barker) on boards in the final round, showing that even top players leave false words on the board.
The $1000 for first place proved useful for the obligatory shout at the bar. Judging by the receipt from the Revesby Workers' Club, there must have been 25 people in attendance - boosted no doubt by birthday celebrations for Alison Pollard, who unfortunately wasn't able to play. Nonetheless, there was cake and post-dinner drinks aplenty and the post-tournament interactions between players remains one of the best reasons to visit NSW for a weekend of Scrabble.
This was, even by the usual high standards of NSW events, an extremely well run tournament. The venue, never used before, was excellent and the event ran so well that it finished ahead of schedule on Sunday.
Results after game 20
SYD INT MASTERS 2004 -- OPEN
Rank Player Wins Mar
---------------------------------
1 Edward Okulicz 18 1646
2 Naween Fernando 14 740
3 Chris May 13.5 815
4 Paul Cleary 13 1068
5 Rod Talbot 13 472
6 Karen Richards 12.5 384
7 Jean McGiffen 12 480
8 John Holgate 12 395
9 Esther Perrins 12 389
10 Graeme Lock Lee 12 -16
11 Jan Serisier 11.5 -351
12 Bob Jackman 11 492
13 John Barker 11 346
14 Matte Dunn 11 325
15 Harry Malcolm 11 67
16 Betty Foreman 11 -32
17 Moana Nepia 11 -492
18 Peter Shaw 10.5 -69
19 Trevor Halsall 10 1339
20 Joanne Craig 10 384
21 Tony Hunt 10 87
22 Audrey Newman 10 -18
23 Judy Hay 10 -404
24 Sam Greenberg 10 -594
25 Karrin Henderson 9.5 -296
26 Martin Waterworth 9.5 -711
27 Carmel Dodd 9 159
28 Sue Gergelifi 9 136
29 Ivor Zetler 9 -77
30 Gary Pollard 9 -221
31 Jean Noonan 9 -323
32 Louise Kobler 9 -606
33 Pat Schuberg 8.5 71
34 Alastair Richards 8.5 -620
35 Hanne Marks 8 -165
36 Jenny Templeton 8 -203
37 Olga Visser 8 -351
38 Cynthia Curr 8 -401
39 Victor Tung 7.5 -357
40 Rex Shakespeare 7.5 -779
41 Chile Malcolm 7 -609
42 Therese Newman 7 -925
43 Ian Close 6 -201
44 Liz Jackman 3 -974
HIGH GAME: Naween Fernando 635
HIGH WORD: Naween Fernando 167
"PARAVANE"
Stats for Tournament : SYD INT MASTERS 2004
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| state Name | National | State | Wins | Rating Points |
| | Old New | Old New | Exp Act | Old Change New|
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
+Section: *OPEN + + + +
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| QLD Edward Okulicz | 7 1 | 1 1 | 11.6 18.0 | 1804 +104
1908 |
| VIC Naween Fernando | 1 2 | 1 1 | 15.0 14.0 | 1917 -12 1905 |
| NSW Chris May | 6 5 | 4 2 | 12.1 13.5 | 1811 +24 1835 |
| NSW Paul Cleary | 3 4 | 1 1 | 14.0 13.0 | 1862 -12 1850 |
| NSW Rod Talbot | 4 6 | 2 3 | 12.8 13.0 | 1825 +4 1829 |
| WA Karen Richards | 46 29 | 1 1 | 8.9 12.5 | 1586 +73 1659 |
| NSW John Holgate | 5 7 | 3 4 | 14.0 12.0 | 1822 -31 1791 |
| NSW Esther Perrins | 8 12 | 5 6 | 14.7 12.0 | 1795 -53 1742 |
| NSW Jean McGiffen | 37 38 | 11 12 | 12.1 12.0 | 1620 -1 1619 |
| NSW Graeme Lock Lee | 41 34 | 12 10 | 10.4 12.0 | 1598 +33 1631 |
| NSW Jan Serisier | 109 54 | 27 16 | 6.6 11.5 | 1468 +98 1566 |
| NSW John Barker | 42 41 | 13 13 | 10.6 11.0 | 1597 +9 1606 |
| NSW Bob Jackman | 11 11 | 6 5 | 12.0 11.0 | 1764 -21 1743 |
| VIC Matte Dunn | 23 23 | 13 13 | 10.8 11.0 | 1672 +4 1676 |
| NSW Moana Nepia | 99 95 | 24 25 | 10.6 11.0 | 1477 +11 1488 |
| VIC Harry Malcolm | 19 19 | 10 10 | 11.0 11.0 | 1707 +1 1708 |
| NSW Betty Foreman | 117 81 | 29 20 | 9.0 11.0 | 1460 +42 1502 |
| NSW Peter Shaw | 58 65 | 18 19 | 11.5 10.5 | 1554 -17 1537 |
| VIC Trevor Halsall | 9 15 | 3 7 | 13.2 10.0 | 1781 -63 1718 |
| NSW Joanne Craig | 43 32 | 14 9 | 7.3 10.0 | 1591 +54 1645 |
| NSW Tony Hunt | 44 45 | 15 14 | 10.2 10.0 | 1590 -4 1586 |
| NSW Audrey Newman | 103 133 | 26 34 | 12.1 10.0 | 1473 -40 1433 |
| NSW Sam Greenberg | 148 137 | 41 38 | 9.4 10.0 | 1413 +13 1426 |
| NSW Judy Hay | 307 227 | 76 57 | 4.4 10.0 | 1194 +120
1314 |
| QLD Karrin Henderson | 128 127 | 12 12 | 9.8 9.5 | 1448 -4 1444 |
| QLD Martin Waterworth | 228 141 | 22 13 | 4.2 9.5 | 1310 +110
1420 |
| SA Carmel Dodd | 24 39 | 2 3 | 12.1 9.0 | 1669 -60 1609 |
| NSW Ivor Zetler | 35 57 | 10 17 | 12.6 9.0 | 1629 -70 1559 |
| NSW Sue Gergelifi | 102 135 | 25 36 | 11.4 9.0 | 1474 -47 1427 |
| NSW Gary Pollard | 157 192 | 44 51 | 10.9 9.0 | 1401 -36 1365 |
| NSW Jean Noonan | 130 125 | 34 31 | 9.3 9.0 | 1446 -2 1444 |
| NSW Louise Kobler | 132 158 | 35 43 | 11.1 9.0 | 1442 -42 1400 |
| NSW Pat Schuberg | 112 136 | 28 37 | 10.5 8.5 | 1467 -40 1427 |
| WA Alastair Richards | 152 187 | 12 16 | 10.2 8.5 | 1406 -34 1372 |
| QLD Olga Visser | 107 122 | 11 11 | 9.0 8.0 | 1469 -19 1450 |
| NSW Hanne Marks | 150 163 | 42 44 | 8.7 8.0 | 1407 -12 1395 |
| VIC Cynthia Curr | 120 148 | 53 61 | 10.3 8.0 | 1458 -45 1413 |
| NSW Jenny Templeton | 287 261 | 69 62 | 5.6 8.0 | 1213 +49 1262 |
| NSW Victor Tung | 192 173 | 51 49 | 6.4 7.5 | 1362 +24 1386 |
| NSW Rex Shakespeare | 253 253 | 61 61 | 7.6 7.5 | 1271 -1 1270 |
| VIC Chile Malcolm | 270 271 | 103 103 | 6.8 7.0 | 1237 +5 1242 |
| NSW Therese Newman | 286 269 | 68 65 | 5.6 7.0 | 1217 +28 1245 |
| NSW Ian Close | 262 262 | 62 63 | 5.9 6.0 | 1259 +3 1262 |
| NSW Liz Jackman | 252 317 | 60 79 | 7.9 3.0 | 1271 -98 1173 |
+-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------+