See well below for final placings at this auspicious tournament. Seems like every time I have to do a tournament report, I win, so it must appear as a big boast! Anyway, here goes-
35 people attended this year's 20 round Winter Masters in Revesby. Peter Tobler made an appearance after an absence of nearly two years and put in a good performance. Several Inter-staters were in attendance and it was pleasing to note that Daniel Piechnick has discovered a colour for suits other than white.
Rene Chelton started the tourney at table one (the leader's table) but quickly found herself at the other end of the room for her second game after a 233 point drubbing by Bob Jackman.
For the first time, the computer program was geared up to determine who was to start each game. This appeared to work fairly well, with all complaints seemingly groundless. For my part, I started 10 out of the 20 games, as did Bob Jackman. A minor glitch caused some players to draw for the start in the last round, but I'm sure this will be fixed in due course.
Derek McKenzie was unfortunate enough to discover the only failing of the challenge system when his FLUIDISE was keyed in as FLVIDISE. Thinking that the word was rejected because it must only take the -IZE ending, Derek didn't rechallenge his perfectly good word. All I can say about that is that it is in the best interests of both players to check each challenge slip and adjudication slip carefully. It really was bad luck.
But Derek was fortunate in the game he had against me, getting out the tournament high word BRONZERS for 137, and knocking off my high word to that point (LEVULINS, 131).
Actually, the LEVULINS play is an interesting story. I was playing Rod Talbot, who ended up fifth (so he keeps his Great Ratings Race lead), and we had ZING on our board. I had had poor tiles on a previous move and had played AXEL, exposing the L to a triple-triple opportunity. I went to the bag and ended up with VEILS?? I spotted SILVERIZING (94 points) as an 11-letter bingo and felt pretty sure that I would get it on, because I thought that Rod would play to the exposed L, that being the only real hot-spot on our board. But instead, Rod played ROSITED to create ZINGS and kill my SILVERIZING. Undeterred, I focussed on the exposed L and found LEVULINS which was worth more than SILVERIZING anyway! C'est la vie...
I had the good fortune to get to a 2-game lead going into the 3 King (Monarch) of the Hill rounds at the end of the tourney. I had to play Bob Jackman in all three games. Bob needed to win all three to take the tourney. He won two and grabbed second spot; Joan Rosenthal was third and John Holgate fourth.
It was nice to see Betty Foreman play her 1000th tournament game and take the prize for highest ratings gain (+108). I managed to snare the high game prize with 552.
Thanks to all players for the spirit in which the tournament was (generally) conducted. Thanks also to Wilma, Pat and Gary Pollard for their great job in the organisation of this year's Winter Masters.
Results after game 20
WINTER MASTERS 1999 -- MASTERS
Rank Player Wins Mar
--------------------------------
1 Paul Cleary 15 1146
2 Bob Jackman 14 1750
3 Joan Rosenthal 13 956
4 John Holgate 13 721
5 Rod Talbot 13 342
6 Rene Chelton 12« 26
7 Daniel Piechnick 12 499
8 Peter Tobler 12 106
9 Betty Foreman 11« -220
10 Joanne Craig 11 469
11 Barbara Berlin 11 300
12 Derek McKenzie 11 198
13 Harry Malcolm 11 104
14 Marie Knight 11 92
15 Norma Tracey 11 -160
16 John Barker 10 344
17 Robert Tomkins 10 21
18 Graeme Lock Lee 10 -37
19 Ros Gibbons 10 -112
20 Jean McGiffen 10 -172
21 Audrey Newman 10 -525
22 Sue Gergelifi 9 274
23 Karen Richards 9 -23
24 Cheryl Michler 9 -174
25 Jeff Chelton 9 -332
26 Alison Rae 9 -379
27 Ian Close 9 -504
28 Gordon Meggs 9 -524
29 Jan Serisier 9 -1001
30 Betty Coleman 8 -151
31 Jean Noonan 8 -326
32 Gloria Gallagher 8 -589
33 Jenny Templeton 8 -679
34 Sal Costanzo 7 -298
35 Zina Costanzo 7 -742
HIGH GAME: Paul Cleary 552
HIGH WORD: Derek McKenzie 139
"BRONZERS"
Stats for Tournament : WINTER MASTERS 1999
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| state Name | National | State | Wins | Rating Points |
| | Old New | Old New | Exp Act | Old Change New|
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
+Section: *MASTERS + + + +
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| NSW Paul Cleary | 4 3 | 2 2 | 13.9 15.0 | 1880 +19 1899 |
| NSW Bob Jackman | 1 1 | 1 1 | 15.2 14.0 | 1925 -18 1907 |
| NSW John Holgate | 18 14 | 7 6 | 11.4 13.0 | 1763 +32 1795 |
| NSW Joan Rosenthal | 8 8 | 3 3 | 13.4 13.0 | 1835 -7 1828 |
| NSW Rod Talbot | 11 12 | 5 5 | 13.3 13.0 | 1808 -4 1804 |
| NSW Rene Chelton | 69 61 | 19 16 | 11.1 12.5 | 1581 +31 1612 |
| SA Daniel Piechnick | 20 19 | 2 2 | 11.4 12.0 | 1748 +13 1761 |
| NSW Peter Tobler :act | 15 17 | 6 7 | 12.6 12.0 | 1783 -11 1772 |
| NSW Betty Foreman | 136 74 | 35 19 | 6.2 11.5 | 1454 +109
1563 |
| NSW Joanne Craig | 44 34 | 12 11 | 10.1 11.0 | 1668 +19 1687 |
| VIC Barbara Berlin | 21 40 | 11 23 | 14.7 11.0 | 1745 -74 1671 |
| NSW Marie Knight | 26 25 | 9 9 | 11.3 11.0 | 1725 -3 1722 |
| QLD Derek McKenzie | 29 29 | 1 1 | 11.7 11.0 | 1710 -11 1699 |
| VIC Harry Malcolm | 30 28 | 15 14 | 10.5 11.0 | 1699 +11 1710 |
| NSW Norma Tracey | 154 92 | 42 27 | 5.8 11.0 | 1423 +106
1529 |
| NSW John Barker | 54 58 | 14 15 | 10.4 10.0 | 1627 -7 1620 |
| NSW Jean McGiffen | 28 27 | 10 10 | 10.2 10.0 | 1715 -3 1712 |
| NSW Graeme Lock Lee | 97 64 | 27 17 | 6.4 10.0 | 1520 +72 1592 |
| NSW Robert Tomkins | 60 81 | 16 24 | 13.5 10.0 | 1617 -69 1548 |
| NSW Ros Gibbons | 128 126 | 34 35 | 9.7 10.0 | 1468 +5 1473 |
| NSW Audrey Newman | 67 68 | 18 18 | 10.3 10.0 | 1588 -4 1584 |
| NSW Sue Gergelifi | 62 89 | 17 25 | 12.4 9.0 | 1604 -69 1535 |
| SA Karen Richards | 84 95 | 6 6 | 10.1 9.0 | 1544 -21 1523 |
| NSW Cheryl Michler | 138 124 | 36 33 | 7.9 9.0 | 1451 +23 1474 |
| NSW Jeff Chelton | 127 135 | 33 37 | 9.8 9.0 | 1470 -14 1456 |
| NSW Alison Rae :act | 93 98 | 26 29 | 9.6 9.0 | 1529 -11 1518 |
| NSW Ian Close | 177 149 | 47 42 | 6.7 9.0 | 1387 +45 1432 |
| NSW Gordon Meggs | 228 172 | 55 47 | 4.0 9.0 | 1302 +100
1402 |
| NSW Jan Serisier | 150 146 | 41 40 | 8.5 9.0 | 1428 +10 1438 |
| NSW Betty Coleman | 188 178 | 49 48 | 7.0 8.0 | 1369 +20 1389 |
| NSW Jean Noonan | 149 163 | 40 44 | 8.8 8.0 | 1428 -17 1411 |
| NSW Gloria Gallagher | 86 128 | 24 36 | 11.8 8.0 | 1541 -74 1467 |
| NSW Jenny Templeton | 190 183 | 50 50 | 7.2 8.0 | 1362 +17 1379 |
| VIC Sal Costanzo | 90 141 | 47 67 | 11.4 7.0 | 1535 -87 1448 |
| VIC Zina Costanzo | 111 151 | 57 71 | 10.5 7.0 | 1497 -70 1427 |
|+-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+--------------