ACT Championships - March 1997


Special Report by Peter Tobler

The ACT Championships were held this weekend, and I'm still recovering! 47 Scrabblers from the ACT and NSW came over the weekend, and one all the way from Victoria. Ratings movements were many and large!

Placings were decided on wins and percentages, a departure from the more usual formats of wins and margins, and wins and aggregates, as I decided that this method best reflects the skills of maximising one's own score and minimising that of your opponent. 9 novices played, which must be a record or close to it after the initial stages of Scrabble in NSW/ACT. One novice, however, played 2 games, scored 205 and 174, and then decided she had had enough and left!

There were prizes allocated to 4 divisions, although the top two divisions were put together to play in one section, and the bottom two divisions were grouped into another. Prizes were for first, second and third in each division, high game score, high word score and most unusual word. In addition there were prizes for best novice, and for best political word,won by "VOTERS", highest scoring Christian name, won by Penny Lavender with "TARZAN", best geographical term and highest-scoring animal name won by Helen Young with "GIRAFFE" for 95.

Betty Foreman put on a MASTERful display to take Masters division with 12 wins from the 14 games, 2 games clear of Kerry Constable (2nd) and Sue Flack (3rd). In the second section Penny Lavender, mistakenly put down in this section instead of Dawn Spring, took out the section with 11 wins (but still suffered a ratings loss). Jean Balmer came second.

Full results:

MASTERS

Name          Wins   Old Rating Gain  New Rating

Betty Foreman	12	1488	+55	1543
Kerry Constable	10	1284	+111	1395
Sue Flack	10	1267	+97	1364
Audrey Newman	9	1511	-11	1499
Siva Siva	9	1451	+15	1466
Nicole Findlay	8	1697	-76	1620
Rene Chelton	8	1623	-60	1562
Jenny Templeton	8	1192	+86	1278
Gordon Meggs	8	1211	+48	1259
Jeff Chelton	7	1551	-92	1458
Graeme Lock Lee	7	1584	-64	1519
Judy Hay	7	1218	+34	1252
Tim Reddan	7	1047	+100	1147
Alison Rae	7	1281	+19	1300
Dawn Spring	7	1012	+107	1119
June Stephenson	7	1025	+70	1095
Cheryl Michler	6	1258	-4	1253
Edith Lowbeer	6	1144	+19	1163
Helen Currie	6	1196	-22	1173
Val Ryan	6	1287	-41	1245
Norma Tracey	5	1181	+16	1197
Ros Gibbons	5	1222	-26	1195
Bbye		5	1103	+0	1103
Jeff Spring	4	1536	-148	1387
Gary Pollard	4	1117	-12	1104
Hanne Marks	4	1348	-108	1239


RECREATION - Day 1

Name         Wins    Old Rating	Gain  New Rating

Jean Balmer	6	903	+11	914
Penny Lavender	5	1032	-32	999
Carol Nomharas	5	740	+57	797
Bev Sell	5	802	+10	812
Margaret Gauci	5	702	+31	733
*Don Sewell	5	840	+0	840
Mary Craven	4	814	+4	818
Helen Young	4	945	-49	895
Alan Gauci	4	851	-21	829
Chris Phillips	4	649	+26	675
Heather Sorenson4	787	-30	756
Sarah Ferguson	4	612	+9	621
*Susan McGillivray3	561	+0	561
*Gillian Adler	3	513	+0	513
Pam O'Connor	3	695	-26	668
Lexia Smallwood	3	500	-1	498
*Tricia Crowther3	500	-24	500
Dea Matthews	3	489	-3	485
*Caroline Bracken3	545	+0	545
*Jan McNutt	2	500	-73	426
*Dorothy Evans	2	500	-101	398

RECREATION - Day 2

Name        Wins    Old Rating Gain  New Rating

Penny Lavender	6	999	+10	1009
Helen Young	5	895	+9	904
Lexia Smallwood	5	498	+162	660
Alan Gauci	5	829	+25	854
Susan McGillivray5	561	+132	792
Heather Sorenson4	756	+36	792
Margaret Gauci	4	733	+31	764
Jean Balmer	4	914	-17	896
Caroline Bracken4	545	+63	608
Bev Sell	3	812	+3	815
Carol Nomharas	3	797	-32	764
Pam O'Connor	3	668	-2	665
Dea Matthews	3	485	+46	531
Don Sewell	3	840	-59	780
Chris Phillips	2	675	-9	665
Mary Craven	1	818	-78	739