July 2012 - The Last Word Newsletter
Transcription
July 2012 - The Last Word Newsletter
W O R D G A M E N E W S The Last Word The Independent Tournament SCRABBLE® Newsletter A Monthly Newsletter SCRABBLE® Equipment Collection Issue 30 - July 2012 ArdenCup Results Tarrytown Results The Last Word is an independent publication for tournament SCRABBLE® players. It is not affiliated with Hasbro, Mattel, the North American SCRABBLE® Players Association (NASPA), the Word Game Players’ Organization (WGPO), or the National SCRABBLE® Association (NSA). Our mission is to provide content of interest to all SCRABBLE® players, so please let us know if there are topics you would like us to add. We welcome contributions: stories, artwork, etc. For the time being, we are hoping to provide this Newsletter at no charge; however, since it is a 100% volunteer effort, we would appreciate any donations. Advertisers are encouraged, too. If you would like to have The Last Word emailed to you, please send a request with your email address to [email protected] and we will add you to our mailing list. Editor in Chief: Cornelia Guest Columnists: Jan Cardia, Timothy Cataldo, Judy Cole, Joe Edley, Stu Goldman, Jeff Kastner, Joan Mocine, Tony Rasch, Lester Schonbrun, Larry Sherman, Chris Sinacola, Siri Tillekeratne, Linda Wancel Editors-at-large: Robin Pollock Daniel, Joe Edley, Stefan Fatsis, Ted Gest The Last Word is a volunteer effort. We appreciate your donations. (PayPal or snail mail--contact [email protected]) Photographer-at-large: Betsey Wood Contributors: Mike Baron, Brian Cappelletto, Laurie Cohen, Curran Eggertson, Troy Frost, Robert Gillis, Jeremy Hildebrandt, Dan Horowitz, David Klionsky, David Koenig, Matt O’Connor, Larry Rand, Carol Ravichandran, Joel Sherman, Barbara Van Alen, John Venditti, Mike Wier, Meg Wolitzer For advertising rates, please email [email protected] Copyright © 2012 GuessWhat! Some data copyright ©1999-2012 NSA; copyright © 2010-2012 NASPA; and copyright © 2005-2012 Seth Lipkin and Keith Smith. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark of Hasbro, Inc.in the USA and Canada. Elsewhere it is the trademark of J.W. Spear & Sons, Ltd. T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S Table of Contents From the Editor 3 Emails to the Editor 4 Advertising Section: Equipment, Tournaments, Organizations, Books 5 Tournament News 12 Bobbie Sageser Memorial Tournament, Durango, CO by Larry Rand and Barbara Van Alen 12 The 11th Annual ArdenCup Memorial by Cornelia Guest 14 Tarrytown Memorial Day Weekend Tournament by Matt O’Connor; photos by Betsey Wood 16 Fifth Annual Three Rivers Revival by David Koenig 18 SWILLLNS 2012 by Mike Baron 21 Washington, D.C. Summer Tournament by Ted Gest 23 Michigan Madness by Carol Ravichandran 25 Tournament Results 30 New Faces: Troy Frost 32 Joe Edley’s Puzzle Corner by Joe Edley 34 SCRABBLE® Equipment Collection by John Venditti 38 The Wordsmith: Shining up to Collins by Chris Sinacola 44 Book Reviews: Bob’s British Bible & Bob’s Color-Coded British Bible reviewed by Cornelia Guest 48 Word Trivia Quiz by Siri Tillekeratne 49 SCRABBLE® Strategy Video Guide: Know your “S” back hooks by Curran Eggertson 51 David Klionsky on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” 52 Scrab-doku by Jeff Kastner 53 Club News edited by Larry Sherman 56 One Up! Cup for July by Timothy Cataldo 58 Linda’s Library by Linda Wancel 59 Historic Moments: SCRABBLE® Through the Years by Stu Goldman 60 Fill in the Blanks by Jeff Kastner 62 SCRABBLE® and Scrabblers in the News edited by Judy Cole 64 New Record Set for Low Combined Score 69 Know the Rules by Jan Cardia 70 Word Star by Jeff Kastner 71 Passages edited by Larry Sherman 74 SCRABBLE® Resources 78 Tournament Calendar 81 Archives 89 2 F R O M T H E E D I T O R From the Editor At most of the tournaments I attend I am the director, so I tend to look at tournaments from a director’s point of view. I like games to run smoothly, with few directors calls; for players to finish in a timely fashion; for noise to be minimal; and for results slips to be accurate and legible. I direct regular tournaments, School SCRABBLE® tournaments, and unrated tournaments for newer players. I’ve come to appreciate the School SCRABBLE® rules regarding recounts and time limits, both of which keep games on schedule. I’m sure I’m not alone in applauding the new rule regarding overtime, which gives an automatic loss to any player going 10 minutes over the time allowed. While many players might wonder how that could happen, believe me: When it does, the whole tournament schedule is disrupted. Recently I’ve been playing more often, and last weekend at the Albany tournament I found myself siding with the players for a change when I made a mistake on a results slip. I’d lost a close game, uncharacteristically going over on my clock in an effort to find a winning bingo (I didn’t find it). When my opponent and I filled out the results slip, we both forgot to include my 10-point overtime penalty. Later he mentioned it to me, and I tried to see if the slip could be corrected. It couldn’t. Luckily, the 10 points didn’t make a difference in my opponent’s final placing, but I still felt bad that I’d submitted an inaccurate slip. Recently another player had a similar incident, turning in a slip that didn’t include the points for tiles from her opponent’s rack. The director’s ruling followed the book: No change was allowed. As a director I agree that slips should be filled out accurately; however, I see little harm to a change that both players agree should be made. Yes, it’s a nuisance. Yes, it requires changing the submitted results in the computer. Yes, it might mean pairings that were based on the slip might be wrong. However, it seems that the correct score should be what is entered. In the past I’ve corrected slips with the agreement of both players, and it hasn’t been that much trouble. I feel allowing a results-slip correction is not as extreme as allowing a recount. A recount slows down the tournament--and might not even be accurate. While the likelihood is that a recount finds mistakes if they were made, who’s to say that the recount is always correct? If players are held accountable for the results they submit, why not make them accountable for the score they reach at the end of the game? Usually the errors involved are small, both on results slips and in recounts, but fixing the results slips has a much smaller effect on the smooth running of the tournament. Being vociferously against recounts, I often hear, “Don’t you want the correct result?” If we wanted correct results, shouldn’t we recount every game? Who knows how many math errors are made in games that are not recounted--probably quite a few. And if we wanted the correct result, why would we turn away two players who agree they’ve made an error on the results slip? I’m happy to see the new rule changes that went into effect June 27th (http:// www.scrabbleplayers.org/wiki/images/3/32/Rule-changes-20120627.pdf). They show careful thought to improving the tournament experience for all players. But I worry sometimes that the many rules players now have to know--no talking, the 6-zero forfeit, the new courtesy tile rack clarification--may make the game less attractive to newer players. Let’s be sure that players feel the game is still fun--and fair. Cornelia Guest 3 E M A I L S T O T H E E D I T O R Emails to the Editor Should you wish to send an email to the editor comment on any of the Newsletter articles—or make suggestions or corrections—please email Cornelia Guest at [email protected]. Snail mail is welcome at 135 Codfish Hill Road, Bethel, CT 06801. Emails chosen for publication may be edited at the editor’s discretion. _______________________________________________________________________________ Cornelia: Haven’t had a chance to read the rest of the newsletter yet, but an interesting thing caught my eye after a rapid glance. In the article “What’s Your Play,” Carl Twickler could have played pINTANO at 11E for a double-double and 99 points, instead of his actual 10-letter bingo play for 86. Jeff Kastner 4 A D V E R T I S E M E N T PROTILES The tiles preferred by expert SCRABBLE® players worldwide Double Injection Molded Lifetime Tiles, Custom Silkscreened Tiles, Large Font Tiles, World Class Tiles, Bulk Orders WWW.Protiles.net [1] 5 A D V E R T I S E M E N T SamTimer.com Home of the famous Digital SCRABBLE® Clock-the Preferred Clock in most Expert Tournament SCRABBLE® Games in North America. Thousands of Satisfied Customers!! SamTimer, SamBoard and SmoothTiles were chosen to be the official Timer, Board and Tiles of NASPA NSC09! 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Cool clock. -- Conrad Bassett-Bouchard We love this new clock! -- KC Frodyma We played with it at a closed tournament--we really like this FlipTimer. -- Cesar del Solar ORDERING OPTIONS: email [email protected] We Accept: Checks, International Money orders, Visa/Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Diner's Club, PayPal - use [email protected] 7 A A D D V V EE R R TT II S S EE M M EE N N TT See http://wordgameplayers.org for flyer, registration and contact info Made for Word Lovers by Word Lovers BROW-RAISERS EDITION II Brow-Raisers Edition II is a brilliantly organized study guide geared towards the success of beginning and intermediate players. It provides an efficient means to learn the words most important for winning an extra game or two. Excellent Present! http://www.browraisers.com/ ADVERTISE HERE! With more than 1,500 subscribers and over 3,000 hits per issue, The Last Word is a great way to reach Scrabblers around the world. For information on our reasonable rates contact [email protected]. 8 IncredibleTileBags.com Fun. Unique. Festive. Over two dozen new styles in stock! Select a new bag for your trip to the NASPA Nationals or the WGPO Word Cup or your next local tournament. Check out our Sale Bin, up to 33% off! www.IncredibleTileBags.com A D V E R T I S E M E N T OLD GREENWICH July 27-29, 2012 Come play SCRABBLE® this summer at the Old Greenwich, CT tournament July 27-29 at the beautiful Hyatt Regency Greenwich. Five tournament options: NASPA TWL & Collins Main Events: 16 games Friday night-Sunday afternoon NASPA TWL & Collins Early Birds: 5 games Friday afternoon Unrated Newcomers Tournament: 3 games Saturday morning PLUS JEOPARDY! GAME SHOW SATURDAY NIGHT! Saturday buffet lunch included for all Main Event players. Free parking for all players. Gym, pool, shuttle bus to nearby shopping. Special nightly hotel rate for Scrabblers including Internet. Prizes galore!!! Directed by Jason Keller & Cornelia Guest. Sign up using our flyer at cross-tables.com. Contact: Cornelia Guest (914-772-6535). 9 A D V E R T I S E M E N T Come Join Us! Come celebrate SCRABBLE® and New York City this Labor Day Weekend at the first multi-day NYC tournament since 2008! On Museum Mile, across the street from Central Park’s beautiful Conservatory Gardens. Special rates for Scrabblers at nearby hotels. Division A (>=1700) Division B (>=1400) Division C (>=1100) Division D (<1100) Collins Division* (Open) UNLIMITED PLAYUPS as long as top three divisions remain even. Director reserves the right to adjust pairings to even divisions. *8-player minimum required 10 Early Entry (postmarked by 6/15): $125 Regular Entry (postmarked by 8/15) $150 Late Entry (postmarked after 8/15) $175 No Refunds after 8/29 Saturday 9/1 9-10 am: Registration 10 am: Games 1-4 3 pm: Games 5-8 Space is limited. Enter early to avoid being shut out. NO WALK-IN ENTRIES. Sunday 9/2 NO COMMUTER FEES! 10 am: Games 9-12 3 pm: Games 13-16 CONTACTS (No calls before 11am EDT) Paul Avrin, [email protected], 212-799-6092; Cornelia Guest, [email protected], 203-244-5324 Monday 9/3 10 am: Games 17-19 2 pm: Games 21-22 ! & Awards A D V E R T I Words with S E REAL M E N T Friends! Saturday, September 29, 2012 The Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel 1401 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ Click here for the flyer with all details. www.arcofmonmouth.org/scrabble Yes, you can buy brains— right here. One Up!® is the ultimate mind game— it's not only faster and harder than SCRABBLE®, it's also way more exciting than trying to memorize the dictionary. Seriously, do you think you have enough intellectual soup in the kitchen, so-to-speak, to whip out the biggest words and win? Click here to order! A steal at $15.00 with FREE SHIPPING! ADVERTISE IN THE LAST WORD! With more than 1,500 subscribers and over 3,000 hits per issue, The Last Word is a great way to reach Scrabblers around the world. For information on our reasonable rates contact [email protected]. D U R A N G O Bobbie Sageser Memorial Tournament: Durango, CO By Larry Rand and Barbara Van Alen Twenty-two players from seven different states came to Durango Memorial Day Weekend to honor the memory of Bobbie Sageser, a SCRABBLE® "fanatic" in the very best sense of the word. On display for all the players was a poster with old pictures and Bobbie's obituary, plus one of her old SCRABBLE scrapbooks and one of Barbara Van Alen's. The Bobbie Sageser Memorial tournament results in both divisions were resolved in the final round. David Weiss won division A with a 14-4 +998 record, finishing 374 points ahead of Larry Rand (14-4 +614). Jeff Martin won his final game and finished third. In division B, Keith Hagel came from way back in the pack and edged David Goldberg in the final round, finishing 14-4 +1772 over Dave’s 14-4 +915. Barbara Van Alen took third place honors. Best Over Seed (BOS) winners were Leslie Millard and Anne McCarthy. Leslie also won the Best Upset by defeating the top seed, Wally Schultz, and Julia Swaney beat Keith to take the honors in division B. The high losses in each division were Lee Brook’s 433, and Leslie’s 446. The high wins were spectacular: Keith (613) and David Weiss’s (625). Division A winners David Weiss, Larry Rand, and Jeff Martin Division B winners Keith Hagel, David Goldberg, and Barbara Van Alen Saturday morning a Fun Prize was awarded for the lowest winning game, with copies of Bob's Bible going to Nancee Mancel (311) and David Goldberg (331). In the afternoon the “Bibles” were awarded for the highest scoring game. Jeff Martin (481) and Keith Hagel (613) bested their respective fields. On Sunday morning the winners of Bob’s Bible went to the players with the highest scoring play starting with “D”: Barbara Van Alen (DEARIES, 80) and Glenda Short (DEDICATE, 74). The 12 D U R A N G O afternoon winners were those with the highest Double/Double or Triple/Triple. Barbara Van Alen scored an 81-point T/T, ODONATES, through a DO on the board to take the Division B prize, and Jeff Martin scored the D/D BURGEONS to win the Division A prize. Two special prizes were donated by Mike Baron (a singed copy of his SCRABBLE® Wordbook) and Caesar Jaramillo ($25). Mike's prize, for the high play beginning with "B," went to Glenda Short (BAROQUE, 112). Caesar's prize, for the high play containing "B" and "S," went to Larry Rand for STABBED (96). Everyone had a good time honoring the memory of Bobbie Sageser and playing her favorite game over the Memorial Day weekend in Durango. The final results and prize money follow: Division A Rank Name (seed) Wins Spread 1. Weiss, David (A004) 14.0 998 ($240) (HG-$20) 2. Rand, Larry (A002) 14.0 614 ($160) 3. Martin, Jeff (A005) 11.0 597 ($100) 4. Schultz, Wally (A001) 11.0 49 5. Barrett, Ryan (A003) 10.0 71 6. Millard, Leslie (A010) 9.0 284 (BOS-$80) (UPSET-$50) (HG-$20) 7. Mancel, Nancee (A007) 8.0 -328 8. Short, Glenda (A008) 5.0 -520 9. Beard, Susan (A006) 5.0 -811 10. Wayne, Patty (A009) 3.0 -954 Division B Rank Name (seed) Wins 1. Hagel, Keith (B013) 14.0 2. Goldberg, David (B014) 14.0 3. Van Alen, Barbara (B012) 13.0 4. Johnson, Mike (B011) 12.0 5. McCarthy, Anne (B016) 11.0 6. Brooks, Lee (B015) 9.0 7. Readle, Robert (B018) 8.5 8. Saylors, Louanne (B017) 8.0 9. Swaney, Julia (B020) 7.5 10. Savadge, Gertrude (B021) 7.0 11. Ashe, Julie (B019) 4.0 12. Bocaz, Kimberly (B022) 0.0 Spread 1772 ($230) (HG-$20) 915 ($150) 974 ($100) 711 828 (BOS-$80) 516 (HL-$20) -165 -179 -144 (UPSET-$50) -371 -1044 -3813 13 A R D E N C U P M E M O R I A L The 11th Annual ArdenCup Memorial By Cornelia Guest Director Tom Tremont with ArdenCup winners (L-R): Penny Sitler, Div. E; Don Rathberger, Div. D; Lisa Odom, Div. A; Lou Cornelis, Div. B; and Doug Lundquist, Div. C. Eighty-nine players attended the 2012 ArdenCup Memorial SCRABBLE® tournament, held for the first time this year at a new venue: the Holiday Inn in Elmhurst, IL. Started by the late Bob Denn in 2002, this Memorial Day Weekend tournament is one of the largest in the Midwest, drawing top players from across North America. Director Tom Tremont made all players feel welcome with his warm smile and enthusiasm. Throughout the tournament he helped raise money for Zyzzyva, Director!, and Cross-tables by encouraging players to donate at least a dollar each. Players were treated to minimuffins and coffee, thanks to Liz Berman, Club 518, and Tom. The tournament also offered a plethora of prizes, with the first winner, Alan Helfgot, winning $75 in a drawing from early entries. The top prize in Division A went to Lisa Odom, who finished with a 15-5 +985 record over three players with 13-7 records: Marty Gabriel (+775), Scott Jackson (+517), and Paul Epstein (+334). Melissa Routzahn, seeded 21st, won the prize for Best Over Seed, placing 7th with a 12-8 +207 record. Lisa Slankard, seeded 22nd, won the prize for Best Upset Win, beating Joey Mallick in the opening game. Other prizes were awarded for High Play (Lisa Odom: CLIQUING, 230), High Loss (Scott Pianowski, 467), Low Win (Ed De Guzman, 338), and High Win (Joey Mallick, 587). 14 A R D E N C U P M E M O R I A L Lou Cornelis was the Gibsonized winner of Division B, finishing with a 17-3 +979 record. Behind him with 13-7 records were Scott Garner (+1080), Marty Marcus (+507), and Kevin Schutz (+404). Best Over Seed went to bottom seed Harriette Lakernick, who finished 8th, and Best Upset went to Mason Shambach, seeded 11th, who beat top seed Lou Cornelis in Game 2. Other winners were Jacquelyn Fyr (High Loss, 458), Kit Morehead (Low Win, 340), and Carol Dustin (High Win, 522, and High Play, LEFTISTS, 149). Division C came down to the wire, with Doug Lundquist beating Lynda Finn in the KOH game to take the division, 16-4 +1570. Lynda finished with a 15-5 +787 record, over Tobey Roland, with a 13-7 +854 record. Tasha Asberry, seeded 13th, finished 9th to win the prize for Best Over Seed, and Lesley Salas, seeded 15th, won the prize for Best Upset for her win against 2nd seed Tobey Roland. Other prizes went to Worapol (“Golf”) Ratanapitasuk (High Loss, 439), Cornelia Guest (Low Win, 289), Doug Lunquist (High Win, 580), and Danny Kidd (High Play, PARTAKES, 176). Don Rathberger was Gibsonized in winning Division D, finishing with a 17-3 +1004 record over Susan Hoehn (13-7 +606) and Tom O’Laughlin (13-7 +606). Best Over Seed was a three-way tie between Julia Bogle, Chris Sitler, and Ruth Jacobsen. Brad Williams, seeded 13th, won the prize for Best Upset for his win over top seen Susan Hoehn. Other winners were Kirk Troutman (High Loss, 453), Ellen Levine (Low Win, 320), Charles Hounmenou (High Win, 603), and Ellen Levine (High Play, CHEERERS, 158). Penny Sitler was the winner of the largest division, Division E, besting 24 other players with her 16-4 +1956 record (the highest spread of the tournament). Second was Janice Konkol (15-5 +776) and third Dave Fischer (13-7 +931). Best Over Seed was 20th seed Anthony Canzoneri, who finished 11th; and Best Upset went to 23rd seed Willie Mae Smith for her win over 2nd seed Greg Graf. Other prizes went to Roberta Krenek (High Game, 525), Jim Nalepka (High Loss), newcomer Rob Riddle (Low Win), and Victoria Bledsoe (High Play, JINGLES, 107). The ArdenCup for Highest Scoring Word with the letters in “ArdenCup” was shared this year by Paul Epstein (ENDEAVOR, 89) and Cornelia Guest (MARGINED, 89). Both of their names will appear on the plaque on this perpetual trophy. Cornelia Guest and Paul Epstein shared the ArdenCup prize for their 89-point plays MARGINED and ENDEAVOR. 15 T A R R Y T O W N Tarrytown Memorial Day Weekend Tournament By Matt O’Connor; photos by Betsey Wood This past Memorial Day Weekend Linda Wancel held a four-day tournament in Tarrytown, NY. The venue was the Doubletreee Hotel by Hilton, a great location just off the Hudson River and next to many restaurants and shops. In between the 20 games players had plenty of time to eat, sleep, and mingle with other Scrabblers. There were fun events held on Saturday and Sunday nights. On Saturday night, there was a SCRABBLE® Blanks Gone Wild Tournament. The rules were that if you played a blank and your opponent had on his/her rack the natural letter that you’d designated for your blank, your opponent can swap the natural letter for the blank. On Sunday night there was a trivia contest held by Mark Berg, which was a lot of fun for all. Winning Division 1 in the Friday afternoon Early Bird was Brian Galebach, who finished 5-1 +298. Second place went to Andrew Friedman, who finished 4-2 +248. In Division 2, top honors went to Charles Rohrmann, Jr., who went undefeated. His spread was 479. Marshall Resnick was 3-3 +178 and took second place. Early Bird winner Brian Galebach In the main event, the winner of Division 1 was Joel Sherman. Ben Schoenbrun was second, and they had a laugh because of how ridiculously well Joel drew in their last game. They were doubly Gibsonized in their last game, with Joel 99.9% guaranteed first and Ben almost certainly second. Will Anderson finished third and Stefan Rau fourth. 16 Director Linda Wancel with Division 1 winner Joel Sherman T A R Linda Wancel with Gibsonized Division 2 winner Judy Cole R Y T O W N Division 2 was similarly not hotly contested. Judy Cole had already won the tournament after 18 games. Second place, however, was a fight. In the last game Marie Puma, Marjorie Schoenboom, and I fought for second. I had to win by 68 more than Marjorie, 80 more than Marie, or have them tie to attain second. Marie or Marjorie simply had to win by as much as they could. Coincidentally, I won by exactly 68, and Marjorie won by 69, meaning that Marjorie won second place by 69 spread points. I took third 69 spread points behind. Marie Puma took fourth and David Engelhardt fifth. Cheryl Allen-Munley took the class prize for beating expectations the most. She was seeded 19th but finished 8th. There was also a four-game Late Bird on Monday for those who needed a little bit bigger SCRABBLE fix. Will Anderson won the first division, with Terry Kang Rau second. In Division 2, Marshall Resnick was amazingly Gibsonized after 3 games when he was 3-0 and everyone else was 1-2. He then lost the last game and finished 3-1. Linda Wancel came in second place with a 2-2 +84 finish. All in all I believe this was a great tournament! Top right, clockwise: The author, Matt O’Connor, with his third-place check in Division 2; Ben Schoenbrun, second in Division 1, was Gibsonized with Joel Sherman for the top two places going into the final game; Kieran O’Connor managed data input; Sue Gable and Verna Richard Berg; Nancy Konipol and Adam Townsend; Bernie McMahon won a SCRABBLE® Flash game for “Best Memorial Day Word”: GLORIES. Bernie notes: “In another game against Marjorie Shoneboom there were actually three Memorial Day Bingos. First I played SOLDIER, but then she had FUNERALS, and her outplay was INTOMBED!” 17 T H R E E R I V E R S R E V I V A L Fifth Annual Three Rivers Revival By David Koenig For the fifth year in a row, Terry Schroeder and Stan Angrist of the Pittsburgh SCRABBLE® Club organized the Three Rivers Revival tournament in early June. I have been fortunate enough to attend in three of the five years, including this one, held June 2-3. For the fourth consecutive year the site was the Pittsburgh Airport Marriott. The venue is spacious, comfortable and well-lit, and codirector Terry tells me that she gets positive comments about it every year. This tournament is always a pleasure on multiple accounts. Terry and Stan run everything efficiently and smoothly. The weather in Pittsburgh this time of year is in my experience always pleasant. The tournament often coincides, as this year, with the Arts Festival in downtown Pittsburgh. Local Pittsburgh player Karen Smith organizes a cadre of volunteer bakers and provides the tournament with many tablesful of homemade cookies, including delightful little ones that look like Scrabble tiles with all different letters etched in them. And the tournament location bridges the geographical gap between the East Coast and the Midwest, bringing together many players who otherwise would see each other much less frequently. 51 Scrabblers competed in this year's edition of the Three Rivers Revival, an increase over the 46 participants of the previous year. It also included the tournament's first ever division using the Collins SCRABBLE Words (CSW) lexicon for international tournament play. Though this small division included only four players, among them this writer, all of us were very excited for this new beginning and hope to continue growing CSW play at this and other stateside tournaments in future years. Three of the four CSW participants, Chris Lipe of Rome, New York, Brian Bowman from Villa Hills, Kentucky and I, hailing from Silver Spring, Maryland, also played in the 2011 World SCRABBLE Championship in Warsaw. The fourth, Medina, Ohio player Pete Zeigler, was kind and brave enough to even out the division although all of his games would be against players rated substantially higher than he was. Pete was a very good sport, and if he ever did get frustrated about his results, he certainly did not show it. He managed to win one game on each of the two days of the tournament and had several other close matches. The other three CSW players fought a hard battle, each of us finishing with an 8-5 record. I won the division on the strength of a +1142 spread, which was nearly 800 points higher than second-place finisher Chris Lipe's +346. I had to defeat Brian Bowman in the last round on Sunday to do it. Sunday was also Brian's 30th birthday, and the entire group sang "Happy Birthday" to him during the closing ceremony. In the TWL A division, 2010 tournament champion Jason Keller of Highland Park, New Jersey was a heavy ratings favorite, with a 100-point rating edge on the rest of the field. For a while it looked like 18 T H R E E R I V E R S R E V I V A L he would run away with it, as he gained a two-game lead on Saturday by jumping out to a 7-1 start. However, local Pittsburgh player Mike Yowonske, who was playing in only his second tournament, five years after his first, gave Jason a run for his money. After Mike defeated Jason in the penultimate round, they both stood at 9-3. The winner of their fourth match of the tournament would take the title. In the final game, Jason put up a decisive 522 points to Mike's 373, for a final record of 10-3 +889, and won the A division at Pittsburgh for the second time. Mike had to settle for second place with his 9-4 +254 record, but as a consolation he earned an 1800+ rating for the first time. The TWL B and C divisions were both won by local Pittsburgh players named Smith. Cookie queen Karen Smith's 10-3 +578 performance clinched the division B title. Muskegon, Michigan's own Cheryl Melvin was right in it until Karen bested her in the final game. Cheryl’s 9-4 +169 record was good enough for second place. The C division was won by Jenny Smith, no relation to Karen. Her 11-2 +353 was the best win-loss record of the tournament, and she was the only player to clinch before the last round. Joe Larson, also of Pittsburgh, finished 9-4 +682 for second place. If you haven't been counting, that's four Pittsburgh players who finished in either first or second place of their divisions. I leave you with these creative verses that codirector Terry used to greet all the players before the first round of play: Good morning and welcome to the fifth edition Of what has become a Revival tradition. I humbly ask a small piece of your time To make some announcements in doggerel rhyme. We’re actually going to play eight today, And we’ve provided cookies to munch while you play. I would like to request Karen Smith to please stand Guys and gals, she’s the cookie queen; give her a hand. When submitting the slip with results of a game Please help me by writing both number and name. If it's confidence in that last play that you lack Then flip the slip over and write on the back. The word judge computers, of which there are four, 19 T H R E E R I V E R S Can be found in the alcoves across from each door. The pairings and standings I’ll post for you all On the colored division boards up on the wall. If you’ve just played a game that was under duress And you’re craving a ciggie to relieve the stress, Leave the room, make two rights, and you’ll find the solution Contributing to local outdoor pollution. If the duress you’re under is a different kind, And bathrooms the answer that you need to find, Leave the room, take two lefts, and proceed down the hall, Then bear left, choose your door, get in line for a stall. Keep a lid on your beverages so they don’t splash. When you have cookies, please clean up your trash. And some of you will have forgotten, I wager, To silence or turn off your cell phone or pager. There’s good stuff for the raffle, the proceeds will go To those the guys on the net that keep us in the know: That Zyzzyva guy helps us study our stems, And those cross-tables folks who report on our games. That’s it for the rhymes, without further ado Let the word play begin, and good tiles to you. 20 R E V I V A L S W I L L L N S 2 0 1 2 SWILLLNS 2012 By Mike Baron; photos by John Chew "KUDOS to" was a list I posted at the Southwest International LLL-Note Special (SWILLLNS) tournament June 9-10. People could write whatever they wished about another player (or themselves, I guess). Here were a few: CC: Lisa Odom found AHMNRSU, Jerry Lerman JARGONIZE! Mike T: I like everyone here. Seriously, you people are awesome! Jerry: Mike Thelen played HOGSHEAD for a ton! MikeB: To John Chew for *not* hanging from the chandelier after last night's escapades. Anyway, I thought we might start something positive, by suggesting a "KUDOS to" sheet to be posted at future tournaments. It should yield some entertaining results and have at least a few people feeling pretty good. :) For more info about SWILLLNS 2012, please take a look at John Chew's incredible site devoted to it (especially the pics). I couldn't imagine how he served as Director, Photographer, Results and Pairings Poster, *AND* Player. http://poslarchive.com/swilllns/2012-swilllns/html/ 21 S W I L L L N S 2 0 1 2 Kudos to John, and top finishers 1. Chris Cree 13-5, 2. Jerry Lerman 12-6, 3. Mike Thelen 12-6 [1], and 4. Lisa Odom 12-6. Also to Top <1700 finishing player Steve Pellinen, and SCRABBLE® Wordbook prize (signed by all players) for high J or W play (in honor of the late Jim Wait) Susan Beard (WATERING 89 pts), who also was the biggest ratings gainer, +70. As well, I think we broke the record for greatest weightgain per tourney player for a weekend event. Two-time SWILLLNS winner Chris Cree (1984, 2012) and his friend Mike Baron, the tournament organizer and host. All the best, Mike Baron [1] Who may, with Brian Cappelletto, be the only two humans to ever prevail upon NSC winner Dave Wiegand three times in one tournament. Click here for complete results. 22 W A S H I N G T O N , D . C . Washington, D.C. Summer Tournament By Ted Gest Jason Bednarz, Chris Lipe, Gwen Stewart, and Dustin Dean won divisions of NASPA Club #171‘s annual club summer tournament June 23-24 in Bethesda, Md. The 14-game event was directed by Ted Gest and Carole Denton. Bednarz also won the top division in the club's last summer tournament in July 2011. The victory by Dustin Dean in Division C was notable because it was Dean’s first tournament. Besides prizes for the first three places in each division, prizes were given for high word and high game, and special prizes were awarded in Tournament directors Carol Denton and Ted Gest anticipation of the presidential campaign for the best Obama word and best Romney word. An abbreviated results list follows; the complete results are on cross-tables.com. Division A Jason Bednarz 12-2 924 Brian Galebach 10-4 647 Stefan Fatsis 8-5-1 242 HIGH GAME Erica Norris Bodrazic 588 HIGH WORD PIEBALDS 95 Grant Guenzel Collins Division Chris Lipe 10-4 635 John Van Pelt 8-6 408 Lucas Freeman 8-6 96 HIGH GAME Bob Linn 570 HIGH WORD HYPOGEA 121 Marcia Richards Div. A winner Jason Bednarz Collins winner Chris Lipe Division B Gwen Stewart 10-4 721 Woody Chen 10-4 365 Ted Mast 9-5 432 HIGH GAME Aaron Gilary 515 HIGH WORD RANKEST 109 Nandini Dickens Division C Dustin Dean 12-2 858 Tim Kwan 10-4 956 Matthew Rupert 10-4 418 HIGH GAME Carol Tillson 532 HIGH WORD JELLING 104 Paula McMartin Div. B winner Gwen Stewart Div. C winner, newcomer Dustin Dean, with Ted Gest 23 W A S H I N G T O N , D . C . Youth Division winners (6 games) Jacob Radack 6-0 Bryson Torgovitsky 4-2 Michael D’Arcangelo 3-3 BEST OBAMA WORD MESTINO Marty Gold BEST ROMNEY WORD POLARIZE Dan Milton For everyone’s entertainment, here were the entries in each contest: OBAMA: RESIDER, SEXIEST, SCORNED, SILVERS, NERD, ABOMA, DRIP, FINESSE, FAKER, VAULTING, AMOK, VEXED, REB, ROPY, TRANQUIL, ELECTION, LAURELS, MESSIAH, BENEFITS, COLORED, URBANISE, LAME, VOTER, FANCIERS, OUTSIZE, BOZOS, BRO, SPIRITED, JEFE, VERBOSE, PEAK, TANKER, AGITA, COST, IGNITES, DORKIEST ROMNEY: SEXISTS, FORBODE, ANAL, RUDE, MITT, FOLLIES, SATANIC, TRAINEE, FINESSE, SEIZER, FOISTING, VANITIES, MOBSTER, STOOGE, UNEASES, OVERTURN, DEVOURS, DICIEST, SCARIES, OVERTURNED, NIX, ZERO, MUNDANE, SOBER, BIBLE, SPIELED, ELECTION, MILLION, NOISE, SQUIRE, CONNIVES, FORMENT,SADISTIC, STILING, ELASTIC, ENTITLED 24 M I C H I G A N M A D N E S S Michigan Madness By Carol Ravichandran TAILSKID NOT APPROPRIATELY NAMED GLOWNIAK TAKES DIVISION B IN HER 329TH TOURNAMENT AVERY IS NOT LAST OF THE MOJICANS NEWBIES COME FROM FAR AND WIDE I AM NOT ONLY THE HAIR CLUB PRESIDENT, I AM ALSO A CLIENT TOURNAMENT VENUE HAS SEEN BOTH MAYHEM AND MADNESS OLDEST GAME ON RECORD? ITS DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN AS DIRECTOR GETS CAPALLETTOED AT KARAOKE HIGH LOSS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH ONE MAN'S OOM IS ANOTHER WOMAN'S JOOM I'm #1!, I'm #1, I'm.........Oh, I'm not? MULTIPLE MM CHAMP DROPS IN FOR APRES FESTIVITIES This years Michigan Madness, June 23-24, was almost called US Madness as players from 10 states and provinces apart from Michigan were in attendance. Not bad for a sample size of 46. Five newbies decided to try their hand at their first Carol Ravichandran event. They were: 1. Elizabeth (Liz) Davis - Dayton, OH 2. Avery Mojica - Overland Park, KS 3. Ruchi Batra - Columbus, OH 4. Tom Graim - Fort Collins, CO (my alma mata) 5. Lourdes (Lou) Calip - Flint, MI (first tournament ever....her kids signed her for a Mother's Day present) Also of note......due to the team-management directing style of the tourney, I was able to play in my first one ever. Unfortunately, I did better at directing this time out. With tournament sites few and far between, we were fortunate to obtain the same hotel that hosted Jason Idalski's May Mayhem (aka, the tournament formerly known at February Fury). Nothing calm about Michigan. We were very near the airport, whose wooshing jets inspired contestants to vie for the Best Air Travel Word category. 25 M I C H I G A N M A D N E S S Now I am no Joey Mallick, but I just want to say that if the next stat I am about to reveal isn't a record, it is close. We had two veterans of the circuit square off a few times against each other, and I was just wondering what the record is for the highest combined age of players in a tournament game. The undercard consisted of Sophia Murzin vs Eunice Smith. A lady never tells her age, but suffice it to say we are talkingat least 175 if not more. This years karaoke location was a bar inside of Taylor Lanes (not the name of a country artist). We pretty much had the place to ourselves, and we weren't hounded to buy $3000 worth of booze so it was a win-win situation. We were treated to some great performances of Michigan Madness Karaoke standards by a bunch of liquored-up Ohia people and Paul Epstein. Even Dorcas Alexander graced the stage for the first time after she picked from random one of Dan Stock's parody songs from his 300-song repertoire. But the biggest surprise of the night came as I was waiting patiently for my turn to do my parody--when Dan Stock gets up and does the exact song I was going to do! This was reminiscent of the time when Brian Cappelletto was going to sing Comfortably Numb when Dan Stock beat him to it, forcing him to perform his B material of Pinball Wizard. Originally, Carolyn Easter and I were going to do the song with Denise Mahnken but she had to bow out due to family obligations. We asked Dan Stock to sing with us since he obviously knew the song! The name of my group was Carrell and the song is from my upcoming album "51": I COULD HAVE PLAYED VAN TOL Lyrics by Carol Ravichandran (to the tune of Rolling In the Deep by Adele) There's a bingo hiding in my rack Two minutes left, I ain't got time to track Finally, I see it crystal clear But I can't play it, it really isn't fair Why did I play up, competition's steep If I had played down, I wouldn't play that creep There's a tension hanging in the air My mind is saying, "Get me outta here! The scars of losing remind of pain They keep me thinking that I could have played Van Tol The scars of losing, they leave me insane I can't help feeling I could have played Van Tol Play Division B I played with heart and soul in A But now today, I got beat Maybe I have no business being here Despite all my studying To try to end my fear 26 M I C H I G A N M A D N E S S Think of all the fun that I have missed Playing with fire is a sure way to get dissed The scars of losing remind of pain They keep me thinking that I could have played Van Tol The scars of losing, they leave me insane I can't help feeling I could have played Van Tol Play Division B I played with heart and soul in A But now today, I got beat I could have played Van Tol Play Division B I played with heart and soul in A But now today, I got beat Next time I will stay where I am put Count my blessings when the game's afoot Play in comfort with all of my friends What do ratings matter when you get to the end I could have played Van Tol I could have played Van Tol Van Tol, Van Tol, Van Tol I could have played Van Tol Play Division B I played with heart and soul in A But now today, I got beat I could have played Van Tol Play Division B I played with heart and soul in A But be quiet Be quiet Be quiet Shhhh, Eunice is asleep I believe that Joyce Stock plans to put it out on You Tube. Dan Stock already started on his parody for next year while in the bar...stay tuned for that performance. The next day the tournament rolled on as games were won and lost (What an insightful recap!) as some of us were a little woozy. One of the most interesting games of the day was Steve Grob's 502 loss to Magic Mike Stafford's 509 score. Dan Stock was kind enuf to prepare a synopsis of the tournament results complete with comments for the prize ceremony. Some of the prizes were 27 M I C H I G A N M A D N E S S notated as High Game OOM (Out of the Money: Place-prize winners are not eligible for these prizes). Now, I have always been of the school that the correct term was JOOM (Just out of the Money), which I learned at one of Luise Shatfritz's tournaments in Pittsburgh. It was predetermined that the winner of the tournament would have to play previous multiple MM winner, Evan Berofsky, fresh from his many social engagements with fiancee Amanda Hubble on his arm. Then we decided not to, and all went to Long Horn Steakhouse for some serious aftertournament partying, including bacon-wrapped steak fries with a cheese, sour cream, and green onion dipping sauce. Yum! Coming in 3rd in division C was the Cincinnati kid, Joe Roberdeau, with a 9-5 +350 record. First and second were wrapped up wayyyyyyyyyy before the end of the tournament. Second place was snatched up by 4-digit Henney (11-3 +893). His 10-0 start was very impressive. His other claim to fame was his 106-point phoney "FISHTANK.” We think he was all wet to play that one. Best in show was newcomer Avery Mojica, whose amazing record of 12-2 +1350 catapulted him to success. It won't be long before we label him an expert and he won't be in Kansas any more. The comfort zone, known as Divison B, was highly contested, with the first three places decided solely on cume. Placing third with a record of 9-5 +226 was our highly migrational North Carolinian, Susan Blanchard. Coming in 2nd was that great man of song and 1/2 of the renowned brother team of Van Tol, Hubert Van Tol, 9-5 +387 (maybe I shouldn't have been so hasty with my parody). This was not her first rodeo for our first-place finisher. With 328 previous outings to her name, this was just another day in the garden. Congrats to Elaine Glowniak for maintaining a high enough cume to edge out the competition (9-5 +426). Division A was our largest group, with 20 players. Fourth place went to a man who is not uncomfortable with the sound of his own voice. His ability to ascertain the correct score at any given moment during the game is legendary. Of course, I refer to Mr. Branford himself, Glenn Dunlop, sporting a record of 8-6 +362 (and 3 sweaters). Coming in third by way of the back door was that Georgia peach, Ms. Heather Steffy, with a record of 9-5 +369. This has been her biggest victory since the drumstick incident of 2008 during a Lifehouse (phoney word) cruise. Our bridesmaid of the day was Paul Epstein. Although unable to beat Jason in the final game to obtain the title, he still managed to bolster his rating enough to maintain his overall top ranking in the state of Michigan....a fact that Mr. Idalski is having a hard time coming to terms with. Our winner of Division A was Jason Idalski with a record of 12 -2 +990. We are all proud of him for his continued success. Now if he could only clean up his room. Please see cross tables for the full slate of results. I would like to thank our team for all their great efforts in pulling this thing off: Dan Stock - Director and Computer Czar....he kept the tourney running like a well-oiled machine. Joyce Stock - Even-upperer and Karaoke Videographer....also designated driver Miki Sutherland - Committee chair, door-prize organizer, procurer of ducks Jason Idalski - Site finder by virtue of Mayhem 28 M I C H I G A N M A D N E S S Linda Hoggatt - Karaoke organizer and all around enthusiasm promoter I would also like to thank everyone who pitched in setting up computers, policing the area and drawing door-prize slips. Many hands make light work. Last, but not least, I would like to thank the players for joining together in the spirit of competition. Every year our little gathering gets smaller and smaller due to whatever factors you would care to name, but one thing always stays the same......the enjoyment factor. I like to think that the ultimate goal of a tournament organizer is to achieve the highest AGTWHBA standard as possible...a sort of Beuhrle Meter (see ESPN's Baseball Tonight for explanation) if you will, for the SCRABBLE® world. I mean " A Good Time Was Had By All". You can't put a price on that. Everyone who attends is part of that formula that contributes to the overall success of an event, and I say thank you for doing your part! Without you, we are nothing. Carol Ravichandran Michigan Madness Founder Northville, MI 29 T O Tournament Results JUNE 1-JULY 4 BRANDON MS 6/1 1. 2. 3. 4. Scott Garner Danny Gatlin Callie Dunavin Erica Stutzman BRANDON MS 6/2 1. Scott Garner 2. Ruth Patrick 3. Queen Ester Lewis CALGARY AB CAN 6/2-3 1. Thomas Randall 2. Ben Settle U R N A M E N T R AKRON OH 6/7 1. Stephen DeBacco HANCOCK MA 6/7 1. Brian Galebach HANCOCK MA 6/7-9 1. Evans Clinchy 2. Ed Liebfried 3. Wayne Yorra HANCOCK MA 6/8 1. Terry Kang Rau 2. Andrea Hatch CHARLOTTE NC 6/9 1. Matthew Bernardina 2. Erik Salgado HUDSON OH 6/9 1. Jason Keller 2. Karen Smith 3. Jenny Smith KANSAS CITY MO 6/9 1. David Koenig BERKELEY CA 6/3 1. 2. 3. 4. Lester Schonbrun Bruce Ward Paula Catanese Peter Smith LAGUNA WOODS CA 6/3 1. Maddy Kamen PHILADELPHIA PA 6/3 1. 2. 3. 4. 30 Joel Sherman Jeffrey Jacobson Jeanne Gannon Glenn Filzer S 5. Teri Peppe 6. Jeanne Gannon CORAOPOLIS (PITTSBURGH) PA 6/2-3 CORAOPOLIS (PITTSBURGH) PA (COLLINS) 6/2-3 E 1. Daniel Stock 1. Matthew Hodge 2. Michael Arnold TUCSON AZ 6/9 1. Winter 2. Robert Readle SWLLLNS, CORRALES NM 6/9-10 1. Chris Cree CHARLOTTE NC 6/10 1. Ryan Fischer COVINA CA 6/10 1. 2. 3. 4. Winter Richard Strick Jacqueline Heller Diane Kerner U L T S ARCATA CA 6/10 1. Michael Machi 2. Della Mulvihill BIRCH ISLAND LAKE WI (WGPO) 6/15-17 1. Zbigniew Wieckowski DALLAS TX 6/16 1. Chris Cree 2. Linda Villarreal 3. Nancy Bratcher EDMONTON AB CAN 7/17 1. Wesley Yocom 2. Debra Bates HUDSON NY (COLLINS) 6/16 1. Evans Clinchy KNOXVILLE TN 6/16-17 1. David Gibson 2. Katya Lezin 3. Thomas Michaels MISSISSAUGA ON CAN 6/16 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Geoffrey Newman Trevor Sealy Matt Schlegel John Apissoghomian Troy Frost GUELPH ON CAN 6/17 1. Steve Ozorio MOUNTAIN VIEW CA (WGPO) 6/17 1. Lester Schonbrun MT LAUREL NJ 6/17 1. Ted Barrett T O NORWAY FJORDS AND ICELAND CRUISE (WGPO) 6/20-7/2 1. Jan Cardia 2. Barbara Van Alen BAYSIDE NY 6/23 1. Jeremy Hall 2. Jim Fonti CARY NC 6/23 1. Erickson Smith 2. Flora Taylor 3. Amalan Iyengar U R N A M E N T R E S ALBANY NY 6/28-7/2 1. 2. 3. 4. Robin Pollock Daniel Daniel Citron Roger Cullman Julia Bogle ALBANY NY (COLLINS) 6/28-7/2 1. Andrew Golding ALBANY NY EARLY BIRD 6/28 1. Marlon Hill 2. Noah Lieberman FORT LAUDERDALE FL 6/23 ALBANY NY EARLY BIRD 6/29 1. Ron Tiekert 2. Larry Gradus 3. Merlene Weithers 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. MICHIGAN MADNESS, ROMULUS MI 6/23 1. Jason Idalski 2. Elaine Glowniak 3. Avery Mojica OKLAHOMA CIT OK 6/23 1. Darrell Day 2. Mary Rhoades 3. Carl Solomon WASHINGTON DC 6/23-24 Jason Keller Wallace Schultz Ricky Sirois Lilla Sinanan Daniel Milton Kevin Gauthier Shauna Petrie Dan Horowitz WASHINGTON DC (COLLINS) 6/23-24 LA GRANGE PARK IL 6/30 1. Nigel Peltier 2. P.K. Gott 3. Laurie Coatney T S MINNEAPOLIS MN (WGPO) 6/30 1. Vincent Van Dover WEST COAST CHAMPIONSHIP, RENO NV (WGPO) 6/30-7/3 1. Ian Weinstein ALBANY NY LATE BIRD 7/2 1. Marlon Hill WEST COAST CHAMPIONSHIP, RENO NV LATE BIRD (WGPO) 7/3-4 1. Ian Weinstein 1. Ian Weinstein 2. Mary Aline Stevens AUSTIN TX 6/30 SALEM OR (WGPO) 6/24 L WEST COAST CHAMPIONSHIP, RENO NV EARLY BIRD (WGPO) 6/29 1. Jason Bednarz 2. Gwen Stewart 3. Dustin Dean 1. Chris Lipe U 1. Becky Dyer 2. Craig Sjostrom 1. 2. 3. 4. Morris Greenberg Roberta Krenek Wesley Underwood Florida Jones 31 N E W F A C E S New Faces Since our last issue, 28 new faces have competed at NASPA, NSA, and WGPO tournaments. Two players won their divisions first time out: Dustin Dean, who won Division 3 at the Washington, D.C. Tournament on 6/23-24 with a 12-2 +858 record to earn an initial NASPA rating of 1304; and our featured “new face,” Troy Frost, who won Division 5 of the Mississauga, Ontario Tournament on 6/16 with a 6-2 +613 record to earn an initial NASPA rating of 903. _______________________________________________________________________ Troy Frost The Mississauga SCRABBLE® Tournament on June 16th attracted a whopping 65 players, including two first-time tournament players. One of those players, 26-year-old Troy Frost from Caledon, Ontario, was the winner of Division 5, with a 6-2 +613 record. But Troy is no newcomer to competitive play. For the last couple of years he’s been a regular at the Mississauga NASPA SCRABBLE® Club #422, so he was familiar with scorekeeping, using the clock—and playing hard against tournament regulars. “This tournament was very much like club. The people were friendly and passionate about the game.” Troy, who has played SCRABBLE® with his family and friends since elementary school, teaches English as a Second Language, so he works with words on a regular basis. Troy suggests other players follow the advice he received from fellow Mississauga Club member Craig Rowland: “Avoid fishing for a couple tiles to get a bingo and focus on getting twenty or thirty points a turn and keeping good tiles.” In preparing for the tournament Troy studied the OUT and OVER prefix words. “Those letters come up frequently. I must have been overdoing it, though, since I played a phony one at the tournament: OVERNESS*” His toughest opponent was Merran Dunlop, from Brantford, who finished second. Going into the final game she had six wins. Troy had a bye in the last game, giving him six wins and a +613 spread. All he could do was wait to see what happened. But Merran, a veteran tournament player who has played in close to 200 tournaments over the past 20+ years, lost her final game, and her +372 spread was not enough to catch Troy. Troy enjoyed the tournament, and he was particularly happy to get his best game score of 502. He hopes to play in another tournament this year, but he hasn’t yet decided which one to enter. His advice to others considering trying a first tournament: “Give tournament play a try! New players shouldn’t feel intimidated.” 32 N E W F A C E S Welcome to Troy Frost, Dustin Dean, and the following other new faces: CALGARY AB CAN 6/2-3: Curran Eggertson COROAPOLIS (PITTSBURGH) PA 6/2-3: Deborah Gawryla COROAPOLIS (PITTSBURGH) PA (COLLINS) 6/2-3: David Koenig PHILADELPHIA PA 6/3: Jeffrey Kahn, Jr.; Johan Scheinerman CHARLOTTE NC 6/9: Alex Zhuang COVINA CA 6/10: Francina Bailey KNOXVILLE TN 6/16-17: Carrie Petrocelli MISSISSAUGA ON CAN 6/16: John Apissoghomian, Jr. BAYSIDE NY 6/23: Wanda Sanchez, Jasper Williams CARY NC 6/23: Elisa Diehl (2nd), Matthew Milliken OKLAHOMA CITY OK 6/23: Sharon Caudell, Rebecca Nance (2nd) MICHIGAN MADNESS, ROMULUS MI 6/23-24: Lourdes Calip WASHINGTON DC 6/23-24: Vijaya Lakshmi Lnu, Tim Weiss SALEM OR 6/24: Carol Currie ALBANY NY EARLY BIRD 6/28: Pat Rothaupt ALBANY NY EARLY BIRD 6/29: Mireille Huneault LA GRANGE IL 6/30: Whitney Gordon, Jeff Rohrsen, Brenda Yeatman MINNEAPOLIS MN 6/30: Margaret Knowles, Christopher J. Nelson, Nancy Novack WEST COAST CHAMPIONSHIP, RENO NV 6/30-7/3: Heidi Hugli 33 J O E E D L E Y ’ S P U Z Z L E C O R N E R Joe Edley’s Puzzle Corner By Joe Edley Word Screens A word screen is a rectangle of letters such that all of the letters of the rectangle can be rearranged to spell a word. For instance, in the grid below: a b c d e 1 2 3 4 5 A N S P M T O C R L E D L B E R I G O I L U N E K The words CANTOS, GIRDLE, BELONG, BOILER and LURING are all wordscreens, or “screens” for short, in the above grid, found in 2x3 rectangles, designated by their diagonally opposite corners as: a1-b3, c1-d3, c3-e4, b4-d5 and d1-e3. BLEED is at c1-5, down the third column. GLOB, GONE, GILD, COLD and DIRE are all found in 2x2s, while BORE, LIKE and RATE are in 1x4s. The numbers in parenthesis represent: (a)number of wordscreens (b) total number of words, including all anagrams (c) number of common words. Find all six-letter screens. There are 21 screens, 36 total TWL words and 19 common words. E D N E V Z Z E R E L L C Y L I I L P T I E E O P I C C G M F C A M T N H O B N V G N R I E S B N H A A L S O I I A K D M U E A (21, 36, 19) ANSWERS at end of puzzles. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Blanagram Phrases Replace one letter of each word with the letter next to that word, rearrange, and find the first and last names, respectively, of famous American female historical figures, who represent a variety of milieux. 1. (A) CORAL TURBAN (O) 2. (A) ADVISOR CANNED (U) 3. (H) DATED GOPHER (P) 4. (R) ANIMAL GRANDSON (E) 5. (E) NINJA KEYPAL (O) 34 J O E E D L E Y ’ S P U Z Z L E C O R N E R 6. (A) RELLENO LEFTOVERS (O) 7. (A) IMPALE TRACHEA (R) ANSWERS at end of puzzles. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Wordlocked The object of Wordlocked is to fill in the blank spaces with the correct letters so that the words accompanying the grid can all be found in screens on the grid. You may choose ONLY from the pool of the following TEN letters to add to the grid: AEIOULNRST Add as many or as few of these letters (with repeats) as required. You may notice that these are all of the one-point tiles in that very popular crossword game. The consonants are all of the letters given in the last puzzle at the end of that popular major network TV word game show. Example (with complete solution): A B C 1 D _ _ 2 _ H _ 3 P _ _ HALO HEED HEAL HELP Solution: Since you cannot add any extra D, H or Ps, we can use those letters already in the grid to help deduce what letters to add where. The H and P must be used to create HELP, and so must outline the 2x2 HELP defined with opposite vertices at A2-B3, So we know where an E and L must be placed (A2 and B3) though not yet which specific square. Since the D and H outline HEED, the A2 and B1 squares must both have Es, which means the L of HELP must be at B3. So, now we have: D E _ E H _ P L _ HALO HEAL Since HALO doesn’t have an E, the A and O of HALO must be placed at C2 and C3 to complete it with the H and L of B2 and B3. And since HEAL doesn’t have an O, the O of HALO must be at C3, the A at C2 and the remaining letter, the L of HEAL, must then be at C1. And so the completed grid is: D E L E H A P L O Add only as many of the one point tiles (AEIOULNRST, repeating as needed) that you need to ensure that all words show up in screens. The more stars at the top, the harder the puzzle. 1. ** Y _ D _ _ _ _ G _ _ Y _ B D _ _ BOATYARD ARTERY DEARLY GAOLED GOODLY LADY TED 35 J O E E D L E Y ’ S P U Z Z L E C O R N E R 2. ** _ _ D _ _ _ G _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ B ANNOTATE ANGLED DATING RATION TOEING BRIO LOBE NEAT (3)* *NEAT appears in three different wordscreens. 3. ** _ _ _ D C _ _ _ _ _ C _ _ G _ _ ACTING AORTIC NOTICE TRAGIC UNITED CIAO ORCA TO 4.*** _ _ _ _ _ _ G _ _ _ _ C H _ _ D _ _ D _ _ _ _ _ _ ALLURING THEURGIC CODGER COILED DETACH GROUCH INHAUL LARIAT THREAD AORTA AAH LIN TAO ANSWERS on next page. Joe Edley is a three-time National SCRABBLE® Champion and the author of numerous books, including the bestselling Everything SCRABBLE®. 36 J O E E D L E Y ’ S P U Z Z L E C O R N E R ANSWERS WORD SCREENS: LIEDER, BONACI, ISOHEL, GRINCH, RELIED, IMPACT, GLIMED, LENDER, BIONIC, HANGAR, MIDLEG, RELEND, NIOBIC, REIGNS, ARIELS, ALMUDS, NARIAL, RENIGS, RESAIL, OLEUMS, PELITE, RHINAL, BINERS, BRINES, ALOHAS, RESIGN, SERING, SINGER, HELIOS, HOLIES, SAILER, SERAIL, SERIAL, HAVING, HEROIN, MUESLI BLANAGRAM PHRASES: 1. CLARA BARTON (FOUNDER OF RED CROSS) 2. ISADORA DUNCAN (DANCER) 3. HEDDA HOPPER (COLUMNIST) 4. MARIAN ANDERSON (SINGER) 5. ANNIE OAKLEY (SHARPSHOOTER) 6. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (FIRST LADY) 7. AMELIA EARHART (FLYER) WORDLOCKED: 1. Y A D O R E L G R T Y O B D A A E N G E A T I O N O R B C N I T I T C O A G R A R G U L T O C H A A D E T D O 2. T A D L 3. O E U D 4. A L N I R L I R E A 37 S C R A B B L E E Q U I P M E N T C O L L E C T I O N SCRABBLE® Equipment Collection By John Venditti I've been a member of the National SCRABBLE® Association since 1994 and have played in tournaments from 1996 thru 2003. I belong to the Albany Capital Region (NY) SCRABBLE Association, Dave Goodman, Director. In the last year or so, I have collected six SCRABBLE boards of various designs and colors plus twenty or so SCRABBLE tile bags, racks, rack bags, and tiles of many designs and colors. I’m pleased to share photos of my collection with readers of The Last Word. 38 S C R A B B L E E Q U I P M E N T C O L L E C T I O N 39 S 40 C R A B B L E E Q U I P M E N T C O L L E C T I O N S C R A B B L E E Q U I P M E N T C O L L E C T I O N 41 S 42 C R A B B L E E Q U I P M E N T C O L L E C T I O N S C R A B B L E E Q U I P M E N T C O L L E C T I O N John’s wife Dominga has lots of patience regarding John's activities during the week...bridge on Tuesdays, SCRABBLE® on Thursdays, and golf league on Fridays. Oh, Wednesday is bowling night--but that's their night out together! 43 T H E W O R D S M I T H The Wordsmith Shining up to Collins By Chris Sinacola A few months ago, when I embarked on some regular Collins play, I felt a bit like Jack Nicholson’s character in “The Shining,” Jack Torrance, when he is interviewing for the position at the hotel for the winter. “Do you really want to go and live in that… dictionary… for the winter.” “Sure I do.” After all, what could possibly go wrong? “The… tiles … can be fantastically cruel…” “That sounds fine to me.” Indeed, I figured that the tiles were that much crueler in OWL2 play, where we are forever finding bingoes that simply won’t play. Just by adding the 23 Collins-only twos, I would now able to put a lot more of those bingoes on the board. Of course, no one will last long in the heat of SCRABBLE® battle without the threes, some high-probability sevens, and the short, high-value words containing J, X, Q and Z. I added all those, more or less, thanks in large part to Richard Buck’s homemade cheat sheet. A few weeks went by, and I was having a grand time, battling with Richard and some others at the Worcester club and ekeing out a .500 record. But then, what about the five-vowel eights? I simply had to learn those, and after a few weeks, my patience was rewarded when I was able to play (J)EALOUSE# to a triple-word score. Win? Lose? Who cares? It was the joy of playing words I had not only never seen, but hadn’t even imagined existed in English. “How about your wife and son (and daughters)? Do you think they’ll take to it?” “They’ll love it.” In fact, they didn’t really care all that much, and one evening, in the middle of making up flashcards for the 1,052 Collins-only fours that I didn’t yet know (and, to be honest, still haven’t finished), daughter Lucy suggested a game of SCRABBLE. It was only OWL2, but I figured I’d be OK, especially when I played DETAINED and took a 76-4 lead. Soon, however, I found myself doing exactly what Evans Clinchy had warned me might happen: I was seeing Collins and while I understood I couldn’t actually play those words under the lexicon in effect, neither could I stop seeing Collins. I lost 508-285. 44 T H E W O R D S M I T H “…he must have sufered some kind of a complete mental breakdown. He ran amuck… and killed his family with an ax.” Actually, I just laughed the whole thing off, and proceeded to load the top 200 Collins-only sevens into Zyzzva. By now, you see, the one-day Collins tournament in Hudson, NY was only a few weeks away. I don’t invest a lot of money or time in tournament SCRABBLE, and try not to invest too much ego, but you know how it is – most of us game players have more fun if we can at least take care of ourselves. No one wants to be embarrassed. Having only played about 50 Collins games against humans, I figured Quackle would be the best way to gain some experience and humility. I tried to write down all the new words I saw, which within a few days yielded a list of more than 300 words, all with the #, including ATHENOR#, CORNACRE#, FUNDY#, MAHEWU#, SPAEMAN#, THREENESS#, WATERPOX# and so many more. For a while, I even kept track of wins and losses, figuring that I could track my progress and see how much improvement could be made as I reached each goal, learning so many fours, so many sevens and so forth. But when it got to 18-102, I gave that up. Obviously, playing a computer that has the entire dictionary at its disposal – and which, in spite of all the codemonkeys in the world swearing on a stack of computer manuals and probability algorithms to the contrary does in fact, at least when I play, deal me an inordinate quantity of Qs – is not the same as playing humans. It is, in any case, not the kind of thing I needed to keep track of… A June Saturday arrived, and John Cheras, Brad Whitmarsh and I drove west for our Collins battle. The conversation was something like this: “What was the Donner party?” “They were a party of settlers in covered wagon times. They got snowbound one winter in the mountains. They had to resort to… SCRABBLE … in order to say alive.” “You mean they ate each other up?” Actually, the day turned out a lot better than it had for the Donner party. Stefan and Terry Kang Rau were very gracious hosts, Chris Lipe did his usual outstanding job running the tournament, and the dozen players were all sporting. I discovered that, whether its Collins or OWL2, the computer is rarely far from the mark. It called for me to win three games, and so I did. I was more than a bit lucky to take the first one from Jason Keller – drawing four S’s and a timely blank late in the game – and probably a bit unlucky to drop the next four, two of which might have gone into the win column but for obsolescence. Ah, maddening obsolescence, who can fathom ye? You may recall – and can read along if you still have the original SCRABBLE rules or the box cover from the old pasteboard sets – the days before official word lists. “Before the game begins, the players should agree upon the dictionary they will us. All words labeled as a part of speech (including those listed of foreign origin, and as archaic, obsolete, colloquial, slang, etc.) are permitted with the exception of…” Well, that was the theory. 45 T H E W O R D S M I T H In practice, matters stand somewhat differently, and very imperfectly. I am certainly now a convert to the Collins word list, for the simple reason that it is so very much more inclusive, embracing so many more of the wonderful words that fill the great literature of English – literatures, I suppose I should say, in a nod to the diverse cultures that write in our mother tongue. I simply can’t see the logic of excluding ASKARI#, for example, which I met many years ago reading Stanley’s books on Africa, and once played to my chagrin and loss of turn. For every silly Maori word I must learn, like HAKA#, there are easily dozens of other charming words like DARKMANS# that I would miss if I were to go back to OWL2. And the Scottish, British, and Australian words add immense richness to the game, and juice the scores not a little! But on the Saturday in question, I twice tried to go further than even Collins was prepared to go. The first gamble came in the second game of the day, trailing 320-329 against Richard Buck. The game was late, at that point where it’s time to decide whether to play it safe and probably lose, or bet it all on a longshot. I figure it’s only a game and played O(V)ERWAIT.* Richard thought it over in his usual calm fashion and decided to challenge. Off it came. And down went his R(A)CQUETS for 93 points. Game, set and match, Mr. Buck. And yet, if you turn to Page 334 of the O volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, there you will see “OVERWAIT. Verb. Obsolete. To watch over, supervise.” Gamble No. 2 arrived in game five, with John Cheras. Things were looking pretty hopeful until his late MUX# for 38 points put him up 375-344, with a sure outplay on his next turn. I held EIINS and decided that NISEI would fit so very nicely in front of COWERING, and produce 31 points and six points from John for the win. Provided, of course, that the lovely and entirely plausible SCOWERING* was good. It was one of those “Hey, it’s Collins!” moments that I had heard about. Of course, this being for the win, John was like “Here’s Johnny!”, challenged in a heartbeat, and broke down the door for a 48-point win. And yet, once more, if you’d be so kind as to turn to page 259 of the S volume of the OED, you’ll see SCOWER listed as an obsolete form of the verb SCORE or SCOUR. I’m not really complaining, mind you, but I was sort of promised back when I was 10 that obsolete words would be OK, and you know how it is with promises made when you’re 10… “Is Collins the one that tells you things? How does he tell you things?” “It’s like I go to sleep and he shows me things. But when I wake up, I can’t remember everything.” But heck, who can? Feeling rather obsolete by now, I took my next two games to get to the requisite three wins, and finished up by scoring 429 points against Evans, including winning $20 for playing EUTEXIA#, and lost by a mere 165 points. 46 T H E W O R D S M I T H That didn’t bother me so much, but I really was hoping to use the $20 for fresh-baked pies, except that the first orchard stand in Kinderhook had closed at 5, and the second one, at the New York State border, had apparently closed even earlier. Instead, I put the $20 toward a Collins SCRABBLE dictionary from tilefish.com.uk, whose proprietor cheerfully and promptly shipped it across the pond from Edinburgh – home to so many charming Scots words! - and I have by now been happily immersing myself in it for the better part of two weeks. It’s a lovely book. But I have noticed that there aren’t quite as many obsolete words in there as I would like. Maybe that’s why the Collins dictionary is the official dictionary of the Overlook Hotel… Chris Sinacola is director of the Worcester, Mass. SCRABBLE club, and promises to (mostly) change the topic from Collins next month. He can be reached at his new email address, [email protected]. 47 B O O K R E V I E W S Book Reviews Bob’s British Bible & Bob’s Color-Coded British Bible Reviewed by Cornelia Guest The timing of the release of these two new books by Robert Gillis, of Bob’s Bible fame, could not be more perfect. For the first time ever, the National SCRABBLE® Championship is offering a Collins division, and as we publish, more than 40 players have signed up--including 11 with ratings above 1900. Increasingly more tournaments are offering a Collins division, and the number of entries are growing. Here are two books that can make the transition easier for players interested in trying this expanded lexicon. Both books are designed for those who play both Collins and TWL games. They are perfect for helping players keep the two lists separate in their minds. For those who have been playing Collins for a while, the books are helpful in that they include the new words added in January, 2012. Guide words and thumb tabs on every page make it easy to locate words by length and category. Both books include every 2- to 8-letter CWL12 word, listed alphabetically and accompanied by all hooks and anagrams. Collins-only words are indicated in italics, as are Collins hooks and anagrams. The table of contents includes, by length, then alphabetically, Deleted Words (in 2007 and 2012); Special Q Words; All New Words 2012; All Vowel-Heavy Words; All No-Vowel Words; Words having Front Hooks; Interesting Back Hooks; British-unique JQXZ Words; and Complete British Unique Words (2-8 letters long). These are followed by a complete list of 2- to 8-letter words with hooks and anagrams, and “Crucial New Hook Words” that are 9 letters long and made by adding a front hook or back hook to old CWL 8-letter words. Bob’s Color-Coded British Bible uses color to make it even easier to quickly see which words are acceptable in which lexicon. However, at a price of $67.50 as opposed to $19.95 for the gray-coded version, I can’t imagine the majority of players will opt for color. Undoubtedly these two new books will become as indispensable to new Collins players as Bob’s Bible has been to TWL players through the years. Bob’s British Bible and Bob’s Color-Coded British Bible are both available at Amazon.com 48 W O R D T R I V I A Q U I Z Word Trivia Quiz By Siri Tillekeratne The following words whose unique meanings are given were added to the OSPD in 2006. What are those words? 1. An alcohol containing three or more hydroxyl groups 2. Something with many legs 3. A postmodern movement 4. Muscles on the back of knees 5. Flavored water frozen on a stick 6. A thick pork soup 7. A patient after undergoing a surgical operation 8. To place (a word or phrase) after a grammatically related word 9. Having grown too large for its container 10. A climbing plant with glossy variegated leaves ANSWERS on next page. Siri Tillekeratne is a director of the Calgary NASPA SCRABBLE® Club #374 and a former Director of the Year. 49 W O R D T R I V I A Q U I Z ANSWERS 1. An alcohol containing three or more hydroxyl groups POLYOL/S 2. Something with many legs 3. A postmodern movement POLYPED/S POMO/S 4. Muscles on the back of knees 5. Flavored water frozen on a stick 6. A thick pork soup POPLITEI only POPSICLE/S POSOLE/S = POZOLE/S 7. A patient after undergoing a surgical operation POSTOP/S (opp. PREOP/S) 8. To place (a word or phrase) after a grammatically related word POSTPOSE/S/D/SING 9. Having grown too large for its container POTBOUND only 10. A climbing plant with glossy variegated leaves POTHOS only 50 S C R A B B L E S T R A T E G Y V I D E O G U I D E SCRABBLE® Strategy Video Guide Know your “S” back hooks By Curran Eggertson This is the fifth video in a series of SCRABBLE® strategy tutorials. It is important to know your hooks. If your opponent plays BIND, knowing BINDI can open up a large portion of the board, but not knowing it won’t hinder you. However, with the S, it is likely you may just assume words can take an S-suffix since most of them do. Erroneously guessing will get you into a lot of trouble. Other words which you will assume don’t take an S, including past tense verbs and words ending in -IC, may indeed take an S. You should know all of these! Click photo below to watch the video. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Click here to see other videos in the series. 51 D A V I D K L I O N S K Y O N M I L L I O N A I R E David Klionsky on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” David Klionsky, a SCRABBLE® coach, player, and director from Durham, NC, appeared on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” on June 27th. He answered tough questions-including the name of Katy Perry’s cat--to reach the $22,500 mark, but then chose to stop and take home $11,250 rather than risk losing all but $1,000 on the next question. A teacher and technology supervisor at Seawell Elementary School in Chapel Hill, David founded the school’s SCRABBLE® Club, which has boasted some of the top competitors in School SCRABBLE®. He has also organized a number of tournaments, including the annual Triangle SCRABBLE® Club Charity Tournament for the benefit of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Pediatric and Bone Marrow Transplantation Family Support Program. David was the featured “Player Profile” in the January, 2010 issue of The Last Word. SCRABBLE® brought David to be a “Millionaire” contestant, as he auditioned for the show in New York City last summer on his way to Annette Tedesco’s Albany tournament. He passed the written tests and was interviewed, both on and off camera. He later received a postcard saying he was in a pool of contestants being considered; in September he was notified that he’d been selected. David taped the show in early October, then had to be quiet for eight months till it aired. In an article for newsobserver.com, he said, “It’s been a hard secret to keep. It’s bad enough with friends and family, but with little kids...they’re constantly asking ‘Did you win a million dollars? Did you win? Did you win?!’” The Seawell kids gave David a great sendoff, the whole school surprising him in the courtyard, holding banners and signs wishing him good luck and chanting “Go Mr. K!” On the show David scored $10,000 on his first question, correctly saying that NSFW stood for Not Safe For Work. He answered several other tough questions, but also dodged some. With his lifelines all used up, he faced the question: “Of these slogans used by different U.S. presidents to describe their policies, which came first?” A) New Frontier B) New Freedom C) New Covenant D) New Deal He wasn’t sure of the right answer (B), so he chose to stop playing and take home half his winnings: $11,250. David plans to donate part of his winnings to local charities, including the Blue Ribbon MentorAdvocate program in Chapel Hill. “I had a great time doing the show,” said David, “but am a little relieved that I can get on with my ‘real life’ now. Eight months is a long time to keep a secret!!” 52 S C R A B - D O K U Scrab-doku By Jeff Kastner In a standard Sudoku, your object is to fill in every square of the grid so that all nine rows across, all nine columns down, and all nine 3-by-3 boxes contain the numbers 1 through 9, with no repeats. Same rules apply to this Scrab-doku, but I’ve added a few twists to help you solve it. First of all, I use letters to replace the numbers. These letters are part of a “Keyword” which I’ve scrambled below. I’ve also provided a clue to help you find the correct anagram. Once you’ve unscrambled the Keyword, one of the rows or columns will contain all of its 9 letters in the proper order. This week’s “Scrambled” Keyword: LACKED FIB Clue: Use the alphabet from A thru L, Find the only word that you can spell, With 9 separate letters – none repeat, It’s where NFL teams put their fleetest feet. SOLUTION on the page after next. 53 S C R A B - D O K U Word-Finder Challenge: Here’s an additional test of your anagramming ability. Your object is to find as many 5-letter words as possible, using only the 9 letters of this month’s (Scrambled) Keyword: LACKED FIB. Words must be exactly 5 letters long and must be OWL2 acceptable. Each letter of the Keyword may be used only once within any word you find. So, for instance, BAKED is acceptable, but not BAAED. Par Scores for this month’s Word-Finder Challenge: 16 Words (Novice); 24 Words (Intermediate); 30 Words (Advanced) Once you’ve compiled your list, check out my SOLUTION on the next page. See you next month with another Scrab-doku puzzle and Word-Finder Challenge! …Jeff Kastner Jeff Kastner, originally from New York City, has been living in Phoenix, AZ since 1985. Jeff is one of a handful of players who has ever been ranked in the USA-top-50 in both SCRABBLE® and chess. He is the 2010-2011 Phoenix SCRABBLE® Club champion, the 2011-12 Phoenix “Floating” Club champion, as well as the 2011 Scottsdale SCRABBLE® Club champ. 54 S C R A B - D O K U SOLUTION Word-Finder Challenge Solution: Keyword (Unscrambled): BACKFIELD (40 Words Total) ABIDE ABLED AILED ALCID ALIKE ALKIE BAKED BALED BIELD BIKED BLACK BLADE BLEAK CABLE CAKED CALIF CEBID CEIBA CLADE DECAF DECAL FABLE FACED FAKED FECAL FELID FIELD FILED FLACK FLAKE FLECK FLICK FLIED IDEAL ILEAC KALIF KIBLA LACED LAKED LIKED 55 C L U B N E W S Club News Edited by Larry Sherman If you'd like your club to be considered for an article or if a newsworthy event has taken place at your club in the last month, please submit material to [email protected]. ________________________________________________________________ “Four Corners” night at Albany Club By John Venditti This spring we had a "Four Corners" night one Thursday at our club, Albany (NY) NSA Club #404. I was inspired by my trip out west, where I visited the "four corners" area of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. I wore my 4-corners T-shirt to the club that night. Another item of inspiration was my favorite pizzeria in Rotterdam, NY, called Four Corners Pizza. I brought some pizza to the club along with the decorative box. Well, Kevin Gauthier was my opponent in the game in which we played all four corners! We split the $14 prize money happily and were told by director Dave Goodman the chances were slim that anyone would get those in one game. The backup plan was that whoever scored the highest 3-corner game would win. Anyway, although I had three bingos (PANNIERS, sWARMED, and SIxPENCE) and Kevin had only one (MELODIES), I lost 400 to 428. The lowest scoring play Kevin had was 25 while I had a bunch of teeners and single digits along with an exchange of tiles. But, did I enjoy the game? You betcha...FOUR CORNERS! Albany NY NSA SCRABBLE® Club #404 meets on Thursdays at 6:15 p.m. at the Third Reform Church (Kate St. Entrance), 20 Ten Eyck Avenue, Albany, NY 12209. Contact: David Goodman, 518-459-1584, [email protected] 56 C L U B N E W S The Floating SCRABBLE® Club of Phoenix By Mike Wier, Director The Floating SCRABBLE® Club of Phoenix meets at the convenience of its members. Times and locations vary, with the SCRABBLE® sessions usually held at Barnes and Noble Bookstores or fancy resorts. Last year (ending May 31st) we had 127 meetings attended by 31 players. The 2012 Champion was Jeff Kastner with a winning percentage of exactly 80%. Jeff was also the Phony King with 9.3% of his bingos unacceptable but unchallenged. Patrick Hodges was the 2012 Bingo King averaging 1.83 bingos per game. Patrick also established the all-time record of 21 bingos in one session (8 games with no phonies). Jim Lamerand established the purest bingo record with 149 consecutive bingos with no phonies. Mike Wier played a total of 1297 bingos, 76 of which were phony. Phoenix “Floating” Club meets several times each week in a different Phoenix metro area location. Contact: Mike Wier, 602-789-0337, [email protected]. _______________________________________________________________________________ 12-letter word at Ottawa Club On Wednesday, June 6, in a game between Emilie Henkelman and Sean Baizana at the Ottowa Club, the 12letter word PHoTOGRAPHIC ended up on the board, in all likelihood an extention from GRAPHIC. Ottowa (ON, CAN) NASPA Club #263 meets Wednesdays from 7:00-10:15 p.m. at the Gloucester Public Library, Meeting Room “A,” 2036 Ogilvie Rd., Ottawa, ON, CAN. Contacts: Emilie Henkelman, 613-723-1999, [email protected]; Sue Tremblay, 613-822-0792, [email protected]; Matthew Tunnicliffe, [email protected]. Club website: http:// www.ottawascrabbleclub.com/ 57 O N E U P ! C U P One Up! Cup for July By Timothy Cataldo Calling all vocabularians! Just like last year, we'll post a One Up!® “game situation” every month so all you doubledomes out there can show everyone how brilliant and quick you are. Here's all you need to know now to play: Take one or more letters from the center and add them to an existing word to make a new word. Since there won't be a 'right' answer, we'll be looking for originality, wit and wow! The winner will receive a One Up!® and have his or her name put in the drawing for the Grand Prize at the end of the year. JUNE WINNER Lotta great entries for June, but we're going to make it 2 in a row for the hometown favorite Jeff Kastner. Congrats, Jeff, and thanks to everyone for all your entries — keep 'em coming, doubledomes! Hi Tim, Thanx for making me the May contest winner. I donated the One Up! game you sent me to the June 20th SCRABBLE® cruise prize fund. Any of the other 23 players in the tourney who wins a game by "one up" over their opponent (or closest point margin to it) wins the prize. For the June contest, I will start with SEAR. Then, I'll add all 5 letters from the central pool of tiles (which, by the way, anagram to spell the letter "AITCH"), and produce the new word: THERIACAS. Theriacas (n, pl.) are gooey pastes that were formerly used as antidotes for snake venom. Hope it's a strong enough antidote to make it two in a row for me! Jeff Kastner 58 L I N D A ’ S L I B R A R Linda’s Library Nonfiction: By Linda Wancel The Hot Zone As an avid reader and book lover, I have found that many other Scrabblers also share my passion for books and for reading. So I am happy to have this opportunity to share some of my favorite books with you. These reviews, for the most part, were written for Amazon.com, where I have been writing reviews under a pseudonym for over ten years. I hope that the book lovers among you may find your interest piqued by some of these books. _____________________________________ Fiction: The Thirteenth Tale By Diane Satterfield This is a brilliant, elegantly written debut novel. Although it seemed to start off a little slowly, before I knew it I found myself reading through the night, loathe to put the book down, so engrossed was I by the story. Somewhat gothic in feel, the plot will draw the reader in, like a spider to the fly. Margaret Lea, a young bookish woman with a secret that haunts her and a penchant for writing biographies of obscure literary figures, is commissioned by beloved, popular author Vida Winter to be her authorized biographer. Ms. Winter, who has never before said anything about her life that was truthful, now wishes to set her story straight for posterity. While Ms. Lea is initially suspect at the author's request, upon meeting Ms. Winter she feels a connection and agrees to the commission. Thus, Ms. Lea is led into a labyrinth of mystery, secrets, and a very unusual cast of characters. For her it is a journey that will prove most cathartic and will unlock her own closely held secret. With welldeveloped, interesting characters and a plot that Y By Richard Preston This book keeps readers on the edge of their seats, compulsively turning the pages. In it the author gives an education on the possible origins of different deadly hemorrhagic viruses and the devastation that they cause in both animals and humans. The author describes actual outbreaks that occurred between 1967 and 1993. This is done in an engaging, straightforward narrative that reads like a medical thriller. The nucleus of the story focuses on a 1983 outbreak of Ebola virus in Reston, Virginia, in the tony county of Fairfax, just outside of Washington, D.C. A special, highly trained team of Army specialists and scientists secretly converged on that hot spot to try and stop the spread of this deadly virus, which has a kill rate of ninety percent. The author’s account of the mission is riveting, as is the vivid description of the rain forests and caves of Africa where these hemorrhagic viruses are suspected of originating. The devastation these viruses cause to both animals and humans is horrifying, shocking, and, unfortunately, all too true. The author has managed to make science both accessible to the general public and eminently readable. The Hot Zone is available at Amazon.com. Linda Wancel loves reading, writing, watching films, traveling, and Scrabbling. She is the mother of 28year-old twins and has recently retired after having been a criminal prosecutor for nearly 25 years. is simply ingenious, this beautifully written book was completely riveting. The Thirteenth Tale is available at Amazon.com. 59 H I S T O R I C M O M E N T S Historic Moments: SCRABBLE® Through the Years The Joy of Kibitzing By Stu Goldman As in many games, a SCRABBLE player can have fun just watching. The cardinal rule, of course, is do not by words, expressions or actions interfere with the play. One can even pick up pointers for play with an enlightened kibitz. For example, I first learned to let a blank be a Q in a vowel-heavy rack containing a U in my first year as a club director. Walking around the room I saw an inexperienced player with the rack EEIRTU? I saw REQUITE imediately; QUIETER is also possible, as well as several words not containing a Q. That player exchanged tiles. Another time when I saw a blank as a high-point tile on a kibitzed rack occurred as I was leaving the Game Room, that glorious place where a player could pick up a game with a good player almost any afternoon or evening. I noticed a crowd around a game between two good players. One had the rack EEINST?, which should produce a bingo. The board, however was quite full, and openings were limited. After studying the situation for several minutes I whispered very softly to one kibitzer, "The word she's looking for is SIXTEEN," and left to catch my commuter train without waiting to see if the problem would be solved. Kibitzing a "kitchen table" player can sometimes result in the pain of seeing a great play without being able to use it or share the joy of the actual player finding it. The epitome of that for me was seeing a player not find AGAZE when the G had just been dropped on 15b. I believe I have seen SEALION* played, but cannot remember the actual circumstances of the player who did not know ANISOLE. The most fun I ever had kibitzing was also the time when it was most difficult for me to keep a straight face. It was in the Game Room, with an analog clock, and the players were Linda Gruber, one of the first female experts, and the late Steve Pfeiffer, known for his efforts to disguise any motivation. This is how I described it in Confessions of a Compulsive Tile Pusher: "Rather than taking a decent 30 points with his Z, Steve placed an F six spaces above a TWS square. Experts know that many words having a Z begin with F. When he picked up his new tiles we both saw that he could play FOZIER . . . "Linda [blocked] FOZIER. As she hit the button of her clock she drew back her hand, saying, 'I'm not sure I want to do that.' "She looked to see if she had started Steve's clock . . . We all saw that the clock was neutralized, making it problematical whether she could do something different. 'Can I take it back?' she asked. "Any other player would have assented, being careful only not to appear too eager. For Brooklyn Steve, not seeming too eager involved a full coffeehousing minute of head-scratching, weightshifting, arm-twitching, leaning-of-the-chin-on-the-hands and other gestures designed to simulate deep thought over the strategic considerations and ethical principles involved in taking it back. Finally, waving his arm in a gesture of resignation, he said 'Do wot ya want.' "Linda played elsewhere and Steve cashed his 84 points . . ." 60 H I S T O R I C M O M E N T S Playing on line can sometimes relieve the kibitzer of the necessity not to comment. Recently I logged onto ISC and found a frequent opponent playing an expert we both know. My friend opened an S-spot on a TWS row, and I saw almost immediately that her opponent had SNOWMEN, quite playable. After maybe half a minute, when he hadn't played, I typed a message for my friend that her opponent missed a big bingo. When he played SOWN, I hit enter. A game last night gave me the ending for this piece. I was playing on ISC, and my opponent often made good plays, but also made huge mistakes. The tiles were all used except for 7 on each of our racks. With a small lead, I had EIILRTU; a G in the top left corner of the board gave me GUILTIER. But my opponent had EINORTU, and an M on row 3 was open for a word ending in E. I held my breath. My opponent played RAINOUT off an A near the bottom of the board, letting me go out and win. My friend had logged on to see this and messaged me, "Strange that she missed such a ROUTINE play." I gave her the reqjuired LOL, and we began our game. Stu Goldman lives in California and has been playing tournament SCRABBLE® for 38 years. 61 F I L L I N T H E B L A N K S Fill in the Blanks By Jeff Kastner Here’s a fun game that will put your bingo-finding and anagramming skills to the test. Every one of these seven racks contains six letters and a blank (represented by the “?” symbol). There is one (and only one) bingo in each. What letter do you make the blank in each case and what is the bingo? (All words must be OWL2 acceptable.) Secret Word: Once you’ve filled in all the blanks correctly, unscramble those seven letters to form another unique bingo (the “Secret Word”). Even if you have only a few of the letters, you may still be able to uncover the Secret Word with the following clue: “Worth 120 points, it’s one of the highest scoring opening plays you can make in a Scrabble game.” AEIOUS ? = FLAIRS ? = YOUBAN ? = WHOMSO ? = PAYIDS ? = OUTBNG ? = KANTOR ? = ANSWERS on the next page Jeff Kastner, originally from New York City, has been living in Phoenix, AZ since 1985. Jeff is one of a handful of players who has ever been ranked in the USA-top-50 in both SCRABBLE® and chess. He is the 2010-2011 Phoenix SCRABBLE® Club champion, the 2011-12 Phoenix “Floating” Club champion, as well as the 2011 Scottsdale SCRABBLE® Club champ. 62 F I L L I N T H E B L A N K S ANSWERS AEIOUS ? = SEQUOIA FLAIRS ? = FRAZILS YOUBAN ? = BUOYANT WHOMSO ? = SOMEHOW PAYIDS ? = DISPLAY OUTBNG ? = GUNBOAT KANTOR ? = OUTRANK Secret Word: QZTELAU = QUETZAL 63 S C R A B B L E I N T H E N E W S SCRABBLE® and Scrabblers in the News Edited by Judy Cole See something about SCRABBLE® or a SCRABBLE® player in the news? Let us know! Send your stories to Judy Cole ([email protected]). _______________________________________________________________________________ Clock Watcher During a recent talk at the Tenley-Friendship Library in Washington (DC), Word Freak author Stefan Fatsis described why he prefers live SCRABBLE® to the online version: “There's something very engaging about sitting across from someone with a clock determining how much time you have left to play.” WTOP 103.5 FM (05/15/2012) http:// www.wtop.com/ 41/2864938/WordFreak JUNE/JULY MILESTONES EVANS CLINCHY reached 2000 for the first time at the Jiminy Peak (MA) tournament. SCOTT GARNER reached 1800 for the first time at the Albany (NY) tournament. JASON LI reached 1800 for the first time at the Albany (NY) tournament. MICHAEL THELEN reached 1800 for the first time at the Corrales (NM) tournament. MIKE YOWONSKE reached 1800 for the first time at the Pittsburgh (PA) tournament. DANIEL CITRON reached 1700 for the first time at the Albany (NY) tournament. ________________________________ Hi Ho, Silver! Two-time National School SCRABBLE® champion Matt Silver was named valedictorian of his senior class at Staples High School in Westport (CT). TERRY KANG RAU reached 1700 for the first time at the Jiminy Peak (MA) tournament. TED BARRETT reached 1600 for the first time at the Mt. Laurel (NJ) tournament. TOBEY ROLAND reached 1500 for the first time at the Albany (NY) tournament. Matt, who captained the math team, WESLEY YOCOM reached 1500 for the explained the appeal first time at the Edmonton (AB) tournament. of SCRABBLE® to problem solvers such as himself: “Every turn is a different experience. The placement on the board, analyzing your tiles, figuring out your opponent’s options — it’s all very interesting and stimulating.” Matt will attend Princeton University in the fall. ! 64 Westport Minuteman (06/05/2012) http://minutemannewscenter.com/ articles/2012/06/05/westport/news/doc4fce2e9cddd76769909725.txt? viewmode=default S C R A B B L E I N T H E N E W S Train Tracks Queens (NY) borough historian and SCRABBLE® player Jack Eichenbaum was interviewed in a New York Times (05/22/2012) article about Harold Interlocking, a centuryold intersection of 14 train tracks in Queens. According to Jack, the junction was named in 1910 for Harold Avenue, one of the streets that approach the expanse of tracks in Queens. After Long Island City was absorbed into New York City at the end of the 19th century, Harold Avenue was renamed 39th Avenue. New York Times (05/22/2012) http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/guiding-hundreds-oftrains-a-junction-named-harold/ Word Watchers The Telegram and Gazette (06/19/2012) dropped by a recent session of Worcester NASPA Club #600, which meets every Tuesday evening at the Nu Café. http://www.telegram.com/article/20120619/NEWS/ 106199893/0/SEARCH Big Boards Students at Ashley Academy in Johnsonville (TN) can now enjoy a game on a large outdoor board, complete with plastic tiles the size of books and wooden letter holders the size of a fireplace mantel. The playground honors former school director Boyd Smith who helped to form the SCRABBLE® club, among other achievements, in his 26 years of service to the school. Johnson City Press (05/16/2012) http:// www.johnsoncitypress.com/Living/article.php?id=100337 65 S C R A B B L E I N T H E N E W S Middle school students at the Arts and Technology Academy in Eugene (OR) built a huge, 15-by-15 foot game board in the school's courtyard. KVAL (06/11/2012) http://www.kval.com/news/local/ Eugene-school-unveils-life-sized-Scrabbleboard-158501505.html Tile Romance First time author Falguni Kothari explores the zany world of virtual romance and mind boggling games of SCRABBLE® in her book It's Your Move, Wordfreak! The story revolves around a couple, Wordfreak and Worddiva, who indulge in a flirtatious relationship while playing SCRABBLE® online and what happens to them when they finally take it offline. The Hindu (06/07/2012) http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/ article3500802.ece Block Party Alabama SCRABBLE® player Eric Harshbarger has been focusing on puzzle and game design for the past six years but still continues to design Lego models and sculptures. His current commission is his third small-scale model of Auburn University’s Samford Hall landmark. Each model requires over 5,000 bricks and is 19 inches tall and sits on two 48-stud baseplates. The Auburn Plainsman (05/31/2012) http:// www.theplainsman.com/view/full_story/18778525/articleOne-block-at-a-time?instance=home_news_lead_story Hear Ye, Hear Ye Clinical psychologist and writer Joan Bolker describes how nightly games of SCRABBLE® with her husband of 50 years helped to restore her speaking vocabulary after a cochlear implant restored her hearing. The Boston Globe (06/24/2012) http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2012/06/23/scrabble-andreturn-hearing/7B1zFnuPsmFLnvDXhZN6SN/story.html 66 S C R A B B L E I N T H E N E W S SCRABBLE® Celebrities Celebrities share our love of the game. • Welsh rapper Elro teams with JME and Manga to rap about SCRABBLE® over an animated board where the tiles come to life. ! Chart Attack (05/17/2012) http://www.chartattack.com/watch/2012/05/17/elro-feat-jme-mangascrabble/ •At the Cannes Film Festival, Lawless star Tom Hardy said that he prepared for his role of America’s most dangerous bootlegger, Forrest Bondurant, by playing SCRABBLE®: “It made me pretty tough because my co-star Jessica Chastain beat me. I also played Battleship.” The Sun (05/20/2012) http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/ 4327563/Lawless-actor-Tom-Hardy-prepares-for-tough-film-roles-by-playing-boardgames.html • Sisters Aly and AJ Michalka met up with their mother and fellow actress Alexa Varga to lunch and play SCRABBLE® at The Farm at The Grove in Los Angeles (CA) on May 16, 2012. Just Jared Jr. (05/19/2012) http://www.justjaredjr.com/2012/05/19/ aly-aj-michalka-lunch-with-alexa-vega/ •Scottish tennis professional Andy Murray, currently ranked 4th in the world, hates to lose in any sport – including SCRABBLE® – and recently tweeted about a recent win over his girlfriend, Kim Sears: “HERNIAS. Always good to finish off the game with a 7 letter 88 pointer to beat the missus.” Daily Record (06/05/1012) http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/ news/scottish-news/2012/06/05/andy-murray-reveals-nighton-the-tiles-with-girlfriend-kim-sears-86908-23886307/ 67 S C R A B B L E I N T H E N E W S • Actor Mark Duplass, starring in Your Sister’s Sister, admits to being okay at SCRABBLE® but not as good as those who study the dictionary as in Word Wars. Salon (06/12/2012) http://www.salon.com/2012/06/13/ he_slept_with_a_lesbian_summers_hottest_rom_com/singleton/ •Maya Soetoro-Ng, an education specialist with the East West Centre (EWC) in Honolulu (HI), sees her brother, Barack Obama, at least once a year at Christmas but mostly keeps in touch by playing SCRABBLE® on the iPad. New Straits Times (06/17/2012) http://www.nst.com.my/life-times/sundaylife-times/chat-with-the-first-sister-1.95230 •Tom Cruise likes to play SCRABBLE® and Yahtzee at home but declines to identify the best SCRABBLE® player in his family: “Oh man, you’re gonna get me into trouble if I say who it is. Pass!” People (06/25/2012) http://www.people.com/people/article/ 0,,20603688,00.html • Tennis champion Chris Evert used to play SCRABBLE® to relax before a big match and to pass the time during the long rain delays at Wimbledon. “You’ve no idea when it’s going to stop – you need to relax but you can’t leave the locker room. We’d end up spending a lot of time playing SCRABBLE® in the early stages of the tournaments. There was me, Margaret Court, Martina Navratilova and Virginia Wade. It was good fun.” Financial Times (06/22/2012) http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/ee161e70-ba6f-11e1aa8d-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1yaFfXTBK 68 N E W R E C O R D S E T New Record Set for Low Combined Score On Sunday, June 3, Dan Horowitz and Carolann Atene set a new record at the Philadelphia (PA) Tournament when Dan beat Carolann Atene in Game 2 with a score of -12 to -25 for a low combined score of -37. Both players were playing in the Division 3. Dan finished third in the tournament, with a 5-2 +272 spread, and Carolann was twelfth, with a 0-7 -482 record. The previous record of -26 was set on May 29, 2010, at the Atlanta (GA) Tournament, when Denise Mahnken beat Marie Gier -10 to -16. Dan reported the moves on cgp: “Here's how it played out: 1. Carolann was first, and she passed on her first turn. 2. Naturally, I decided to exchange a few tiles [4] rather than give my opponent the opening she was looking for (especially since I didn't have any high-scoring plays in my own rack). 3. My opponent then exchanged 1 tile. 4. I followed suit and exchanged again [3 tiles]. At this point, the total point value of the tiles in my rack was 12. I had a bit of a dilemma, as my opponent theoretically could have had as few as 5 points on her rack (if she had both blanks and five 1-point tiles). 5. Fortunately, Carolann ended the suspense when she briefly placed the Z on the board, but then removed it before hitting her clock and instead decided to exchange 2 tiles. 6. Now that I knew my opponent had the Z, my decision was a no-brainer, as the minimum number of points she could have in her rack became 14 once the Z was factored in. I then passed to end the game. When my opponent exposed her tiles, I discovered that not only did she have the Z, but she also had the J, the two blanks, and a few other tiles that I didn't recall.” Had Dan considered that his opponent might have traded in the Z she’d exposed? He had: “Based on my opponent’s rating and level of experience [Carolann, rated 613, was playing in her second tournament], I assumed she wasn’t going to throw [the Z] back (and that she probably wasn’t aware of the ‘6 zeros’ rule).” 69 K N O W T H E R U L E S Know the Rules By Jan Cardia, NASPA Rules Committee Chair Jan Cardia, a longtime expert player and chair of the NASPA Rules Committee, writes this monthly column on rules for The Last Word. We are thrilled to have Jan sharing her rules expertise with our readers, and we encourage you to email any questions you may have about tournament and club rules to [email protected]. (Photo credit: Jill Jarrell) ________________________________________________________________________ Question: Why is there a rule that ends the game after six zeros? Answer: There are some situations that just can't have a perfect remedy. There are situations where the absolute best decision is to pass zero. Perhaps your opponent played a phony, but you see that their rack makes a bingo with every vowel. Of course, you don't want to give them a vowel. Furthermore, you have a nice rack that makes plenty of sevens and eights. With the information available, it is strategically correct to let your opponent play first. So, what would happen if you both kept passing? There has to be a finite ending to this stalemate... hence the six-zero rule. Armed with this information, a new strategy develops. Do you think you have fewer points on your rack then your opponent? If not, you should consider trading tiles on the ultimate or penultimate move. On the other end of the spectrum, you can have a very tight board at the end of the game. If you both have unplayable tiles, there needs to be a way to end the game. Jan Cardia has been playing competitive SCRABBLE® for 32 years and in tournaments for 29 years. She has been a member of the Rules Committee since its inception. She divides her time between New York City with her husband, Aldo, and Delaware, where her children and grandchildren all reside. 70 W O R D S T A R Word Star By Jeff Kastner Play Word Star, a word game with similarities to Boggle, created and presented each month by Phoenix, AZ expert Jeff Kastner. The puzzle grid is in the shape of a hexagram…also known as the “Star of David.” Your object is to find and list as many words as possible, using only the 7 letters contained in the Word Star puzzle. All words must be OWL2 or Long List acceptable. There are 3 basic rules to finding words within a Word Star puzzle: 1. Words must be at least 3 or more letters long (with no limit on how long the word can be). 2. Words are formed by using letters that adjoin each other. For example, the words NEW and VIE are acceptable, but not WIN, because the “W” and the “I” are not neighboring letters. 3. Letters within a word may repeat as many times as possible, as long as such letters are repeated twice (or thrice) in a row, or as long as Rule 2 is followed. So, for example, EWE and INNER are acceptable. But, TREE would not be acceptable because the “T” and the “R” are not adjoining. • Note that the Center Star, located in the white middle portion of the puzzle, is the most important letter. It is the only letter that adjoins each of the 6 others in the puzzle. In addition, there are bonus points awarded for using the Center Star as often as possible. The Center Star in this month’s puzzle is the letter “E.” 71 W O R D S T A R Multiple forms of the same word are acceptable (for example, RATE, RATED, RATER, RATERS, and RATES would all be fine, if they were in the puzzle). No points are awarded (and no penalty points are assessed) for any entries on your word list that are not in OWL2 or the Long List, or that do not adhere to the above rules. Points are scored as follows: • • • • 2 Points for each WORD found. 5 Bonus Points for each BINGO (7 or more letters) found. 1 Point for each LETTER of every word found. 1 Bonus Point for each CENTER STAR of every word found. Example of Points Scored: Let’s say a Word Star puzzle has an “S” as the Center Star letter, and your list consists of the following words: ATTIRE ATTIRES SAT SATE SATIRE SATIRES TIRE TIRES Your score would be: • • • • 16 Points for the 8 WORDS found. 10 Bonus Points for the 2 BINGOS (ATTIRES and SATIRES) found. 42 Points for each of the 42 LETTERS used in the 8 words. 7 Bonus Points for each CENTER STAR used (the letter “S” is used 7 times). TOTAL SCORE in this imaginary example = 75 Points. Par Scores for this month’s Word Star: 600 points (Novice); 850 points (Intermediate); 1050 points (Advanced) Once you’ve compiled your list, check out my SOLUTION on the next page. See you next month with another Word Star puzzle! …Jeff Kastner Jeff Kastner, originally from New York City, has been living in Phoenix, AZ since 1985. Jeff is one of a handful of players who has ever been ranked in the USA-top-50 in both SCRABBLE® and chess. He is the 2010-2011 Phoenix SCRABBLE® Club champion, the 2011-12 Phoenix “Floating” Club champion, as well as the 2011 Scottsdale SCRABBLE® Club champ. 72 W O R D S T A R Word Star Solution for: The Last Word July 2012 ENTENTE ENTER ENTERER ERE ERR ETWEE EVE EVEN EVENER EVENT EVER EWE EWER INN INNER INNERVE INTENT INTER INTERVENE INTERVENER INTERVIEW INTERVIEWEE INTERVIEWER NEE NENE NERVE NERVIER NERVINE NET NETT NETTER NEVE NEVER NEVI NEW NEWER NEWT NIEVE NINE NINETEEN REE REENTER REEVE REI REIN REINTER REINTERVIEW REIVE REIVER RENEW RENEWER RENIN RENNET RENNIN RENT RENTE RENTER RERENT REREVIEW RET RETE RETENE REV REVERE REVERENT REVERER REVET REVIEW REVIEWER REVIVE REVIVER REWET TEE TEEN TEENER TEENIER TEETER TEN TENET TENNER TENT TENTER TERETE TERREEN TERRENE TERRET TET TETTER TEW TWEE TWEEN TWEENER TWEET TWEETER VEE VEER VEIN VEINER VEINIER VENEER VENEERER VENENE VENIN VENINE VENT VENTER VERVE VERVET VET VETTER VIE VIER VIEW VIEWER VINE VINIER VINTNER VIVE WEE WEEN WEENIE WEENIER WEER WEET WEEVER WEEWEE WEINER WEN WENNIER WENT WERE WET WETTER WREN PAR SCORES: 600 points (Novice); 850 points (Intermediate); 1050 points (Advanced) BEST SCORE: 2 Points for each WORD found: 134 Words = 268 points. 5 Bonus Points for each BINGO found: 30 Bingos = 150 points. 1 Point for each LETTER of every word found: 715 Letters = 715 points. 1 Bonus Point for each CENTER STAR of every word found: 267 E’s = 267 points. TOTAL = 1400 Points 73 P A S S A G E S Passages Edited by Larry Sherman Each month we will be including information about SCRABBLE® players (births, deaths, marriages, etc.) Please send your news to Cornelia Guest at [email protected]. ______________________________________________________________________________ DEATHS JIM WAIT Jim Wait, 83, of Phoenix, passed away on June 2, 2012 after a courageous battle with cancer. He began playing competitive SCRABBLE® following his retirement in 1988. SCRABBLE cruises and wanderlust offered Jim and his wife, Dorrene, the opportunity to travel extensively to varied locales in Russia, South America, Europe, New Zealand and Australia among others. Jim's alltime favorite trip with Dorrene was to Africa, where they went on safari in Kenya and Tanzania. According to crosstables.com, he competed in at least 122 tourneys from 1983 to 2010, achieving a peak rating of 1873. Larry Rand and Barbara Van Alen write: "Nothing stopped Jim from playing SCRABBLE. During the entire time that he was undergoing treatments, it never mattered how he felt, he was always at club for at least a few games. Never once did anyone ever hear him complain. "Barbara knew Jim for about 30 years, when she first started playing tournament and club SCRABBLE in Phoenix. In 1996, I met Jim for the first time at the Phoenix SCRABBLE Club. He was at times ornery, and often intimidating over a board, but we became fast friends. When I first started playing, Jim invited me to his home and helped me progress with my game, and he was a mentor to his teenage neighbor, Brian Cappelletto. "Jim actually coaxed me into asking Barbara out and then he served as our 'reverend,' when the judge did not show up to do the wedding nuptials. Jim pronounced us 'virtual' man and wife. Jim and Dorrene traveled extensively, and they took three SCRABBLE cruises with us. During the summer months, the Waits and their family generally spent most of their time up in the Prescott National Forest, where they had a beautiful cabin. The trip from Mayer, AZ over the potholed dirt road, through the woods, through the creek, and over the mountains was a real adventure!" From Mike Baron: “Jim was a wonderful man who often had a bit of that Cheshire Cat grin. I believe he was the videographer of the 10th Annual Grand Canyon event in 1990, always willing to help out and add a smile in any way he could. He was a frequent attendee to the Albuquerque events, and it was always a pleasure to see and chat with him there. He certainly was a sweet soul who made the SCRABBLE (and non-SCRABBLE) world a better place." 74 P A S S A G E S From Joel Sherman: "I was introduced to Jim by my dad on the same night that Brian Cappelletto made his club debut, at Barbara Van Alen (then Glass)'s Scottsdale home in 1985. I was warned that Jim played a lot of phonies, and it was even a point of joyful pride to him to get them by. That was definitely one of the things that put that twinkle in his eye, and back then, it was good enough to make him an expertlevel player. Brian and I sniffed them out, tho, and as more players became capable of doing so, his division status dropped a bit, but he was still wily, competitive and warm as long as dad and I knew him. His smile will be missed." From Laurie Cohen: "I liked Jim a lot. One moment comes to mind. Probably about 10 years ago, we were playing at the Phoenix club and after the game, he told me that I missed a really good play with the word VERVAIN. The very next game, I had the same letters on my rack and played VERVAIN! I excitedly pointed the play out to him. He didn't say anything, but just smiled and gave me that characteristic wink. Since then, I've always thought of him (and the wink!) whenever I've seen that word. I'll always have fond memories of the games I played against him at club and at tournaments in Phoenix, the Grand Canyon, Tucson, Albuquerque, and others. He was always a tough opponent -intense, but then always complimentary of your good plays, whether he won or lost. Nice to read everyone's fond remembrances. I'll miss him!" From Brian Cappelletto: "Jim Wait is the one who introduced me to the tournament scene, back in 1985. I grew up with his kids, and lived a few houses down and across the street, 10th Place. His two older kids, Charlie and Laura, babysat me on numerous occasions, and I often hung out with his two younger kids, Scott and Holly. Jim and his wife Dorrene always looked out for the neighborhood and those who lived in it. “My mom started taking some classes when I was 9 or 10 years old or so (this is 1979-1980 or so), ones that would be integral to starting her career in architecture a couple of years later. “I seem to remember Monday night was the usual night that she would be at classes, and on those nights, I would go over to the Waits' house and they would watch me until my mom came back from her classes. At some point during that period, I learned that Jim played tournament SCRABBLE. I was intrigued, because I had started playing with my mom and my grandparents when I was about 7 years old. I got to a point where I rarely lost to them. I thought I could beat anybody, but in reality, I had no idea. "It didn’t take long for me to know why his kids never wanted to play SCRABBLE with him. I was absolutely destroyed in many games, and it took me a long time to finally win my first game against him. He never let anybody win, and it was my job to challenge off the phonies. I must have been crazy to want to keep playing. I’m sure his kids thought so, anyway, though they would often implore me to crush him. I became their proxy. He would spot me the book but it didn’t matter. I started figuring a few things out along the way, and I did start winning occasionally. After my mom had finished her courses and started her career, I didn’t go there on Monday nights as before, but at subsequent neighborhood gatherings, Jim and I would sneak off to play a few games. Jim Wait has the best lifetime record against me. (Sorry, Nigel.) "About the time I started high school he mentioned the Wednesday night club at Barbara Van Alen’s house. In the second half of my sophomore year, in 1985, I finally took the plunge. I was paired with 75 P A S S A G E S Jim Lamerand in my first game, and having been forged by my experiences in those earlier games, I was determined to not allow any phonies to stand. Big mistake, that was. I would go 1-3 that night. And yes, I did play Joel Sherman that night at club, also his debut, as he mentioned in his post. Joel beat me by 6 or 7 points, and it was a close and exciting game. So yeah, after that night, I was hooked, and I was determined to get better. Jim would honk the horn every Wednesday night outside our house and off we went to play at Barbara’s house. "Reading Larry Rand’s post, I could definitely see that story happening as he told it. If Jim had some advice or wisdom to share, he didn’t hesitate. He did warn me from time to time not to let the game take over my life, but at the same time I think he got a kick out of seeing me do well. It is a fine line, and he could see that keeping balance was hard if one wanted to reach the pinnacle of the game. He himself had great balance in his life with family, business, and extensive neighborhood and community involvement. In some strange way, it all worked out, and I wouldn’t trade the overall experience for anything. Maybe I would have eventually found the game if I never grew up on 10th Place, or maybe not, but I think it would have been less likely had I not found someone early on who was willing to keep letting me try until I finally succeeded. Larry and I are living proof of Jim’s generosity of spirit. Where would we be today if not for him? "We lost one of a kind, and anybody whose life was touched by Jim knows this too well. I’m going to miss showing up at the same events and catching up, whether it’s hearing about what his family was up to, and otherwise discussing what was going on. May Jim rest in peace." Friends of Jim Wait are asked to please consider a donation to Hospice of the Valley, 1510 E. Flower St., Phoenix, AZ 85014; Camelback Kiwanis Memorial Fund, 1426 W. Luke, Phoenix, AZ 85013; or All Saints Church. ______________________________________________________________________________ ALLAN SHOEBRIDGE Allan Shoebridge, from Surrey, British Columbia, died in June after a long battle with cancer. A talented SCRABBLE® player, Allan befriended many Scrabblers online playing in “Mad Scrabblers” games. His online friend Jean Le Duc remembers Allan fondly: “Allan and I met via a random game on the Internet around 3-4 years ago and became FB friends because we enjoyed playing with each other, but we never met in person. Over the years we had some fierce games where banter was the norm--especially as to which team, the Giants (me) or the Bears (Allan) was the best football team. We often talked about how fun it would be to meet one day at a game and have a tailgate SCRABBLE game. Unfortunately that never happened. This morning I realized that we still had a game going in which he was kicking my ass. His last posting to me (which I only saw a few minutes ago) said, "I hope to meet you before I die.” I'm so sad that this won't happen either. RIP Allan, I miss you already.” Allan is survived by another Facebook SCRABBLE player: his son Bryan Shoebridge. 76 P A S S A G E S NORA EPHRON Writer and filmmaker Norah Ephron died on June 26 in Manhattan from pneumonia brought on by acute myeloid leukemia. She was 71. Widely known for her hit films “Sleepless in Seattle,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “You’ve Got Mail,” and “Julie & Julia,” Epron was a journalist, an essayist, a playwright, a blogger, a screenwriter, and a movie director. She was also an excellent SCRABBLE® player, and her 2007 New York Times column “Addicted to L-U-V,” which chronicled her addiction to online SCRABBLE®, touched home with many: http:// www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/opinion/13ephron.html? _r=1&ref=noraephron The first film Ephron directed, in 1992, was “This Is My Life,” based on the novel of the same title by Meg Wolitzer, also a Scrabbler. Wolitzer remembers her good friend: "The first time I played SCRABBLE with Nora, on her first move she blithely laid down HOME(R)ING. I was impressed. She had an eye for Bingos, books, films, food, and friendship, among many other things. What a loss." Nora Ephron is survived by her sons Jacob and Max, her husband Nicholas Pileggi, and her three sisters, Delia, Amy, and Hallie. 77 S C SCRABBLE® Resources There are many study tools to help SCRABBLE® players hone their skills, including a number of programs that can be downloaded for free. This section will offer suggestions and links for both players and directors. Play Online SCRABBLE® POGO SCRABBLE® The official SCRABBLE® online game. Created under agreement with Hasbro in 2008. SCRABBLE® ON FACEBOOK Select the SCRABBLE® application on the Facebook home page to play the official SCRABBLE® game. Various groups hold tournaments at this site, including a group called “Mad Scrabblers”. INTERNET SCRABBLE® CLUB A Romanian-based site and application for interactive games. A favorite site for many of the top players. Play Live SCRABBLE® CROSS-TABLES Lists all upcoming tournaments, as well as results of past tournaments. Has SCRABBLE® tournament aides. 78 R A B B L E R E S O U R C E S NASPA CLUB LISTINGS WORDLIST PRO 2.0 Lists competitive clubs throughout North America with their meeting times and locations. Android 2.2+ app for practicing anagramming skills and learning words. Also functions as Word Judge. Lightning fast word searches. Supports TWL06, OSPD4, CSW12, and CSW12 unique words. NSA CLUB LISTINGS Lists casual clubs throughout North America with their meeting times and locations. WGPO CLUB LISTINGS Lists clubs throughout North America with their meeting times and locations. Apps for Scrabblers ZARF A free multipurpose iPhone/ iPad utility for SCRABBLE® players in any language. It provides word list lookup, pattern matching, tournament-style adjudication and a timer customized for tournament SCRABBLE® play. ZYZZYVA/ZYZZYVA LITE iPhone app for practicing anagramming skills and learning words. Zyzzyva includes Quiz, Search, and Judge functions; Cardbox Managment; Dropbox Sync; Custom Lexicon Support; and Lexicon Symbols. Zyzzva Lite (free) includes Search and Judge functions; Custom Lexicon Import; and Lexicon Symbols. You can sync quiz data between the iPhone app and the desktop program. CROSSWORD GAME SCORESHEET This app keeps track of scoring in crossword games such as SCRABBLE®. SCRABBLE® Play SCRABBLE® on your iPhone/iPad. Teacher feature allows you to see what your best word could have been after every turn. Now also available for Android devices: click here. SCRABBLE® TILE RACK Turns your iPhone or iPad Touch into a SCRABBLE® tile rack. For use with an iPad. WORDS WITH FRIENDS The popular SCRABBLE® variant for your iPhone/iPad. Anagramming/ Practice Tools JUMBLETIME A free web site for practicing anagramming skills. MAC USERS: After you do a Jumbletime quiz on a Mac, the scroll bar to view the results is missing. To make it S C R appear, go to the lower right corner and grab the striped triangle and shrink the window all the way to the top left corner. When you pull it back, the scroll bar to the right of the answers to the quiz appears. A B B L E R E S O U An electronic handheld dictionary and anagrammer, with many helpful options and games. Includes the latest word lists, and can be adjusted from OSPD4 to OWL2 lists with a code. AEROLITH A free application for practicing anagramming skills and learning words. QUACKLE A free application for playing, simulating, and analyzing games. ZYZZYVA A free application for practicing anagramming skills and learning words. Also has Word Judge capabilities. SCRABBLE® DICTIONARY Type a word to check for acceptability. OSPD4 words. CLICK HERE TO HELP END WORD HUNGER AS YOU LEARN WORDS C E S Players’ Dictionary, offers lighthearted humor, daily word lists, and more. Admission is to all SCRABBLE® lovers. WGPO Listserv ([email protected] m) This group, open to all members of the tournament community, is a forum for issues of interest to SCRABBLE® players. No approval of any kind is needed to join, and readers need not be members of the Word Game Player’s Organization (WGPO). A free vocabulary testing site. For every correct word, grains of rice are donated through the SCRABBLE® Blogs THE BADQOPH United Nations World Food Program. Feed hungry people DIRECTORY as you expand your vocabulary! This is a database of blogs by known SCRABBLE® bloggers, Online SCRABBLE® primarily tournament players. As of March 29th there were Discussion Groups 196 blogs in the directory. CGP ([email protected]) This group, for NASPA LEXIFIND SCRABBLE® HELPER AND WORD GAME tournament players and directors only, has the largest WIZARD WORDFINDER membership of any online FOR GOOGLE CHROME tournament SCRABBLE® A full-board SCRABBLE® worddiscussion group. Most finder program that shows you important events and changes every word that can possibly be in the SCRABBLE® world are made on an entire discussed on cgp. Admission is SCRABBLE® board, and by approval only. Details can be continuously updates its results found at http://sasj.com/cgp/ as you type letters onto the join.html. board or into the rack. Full version available at http://bit.ly/ OSPD (ospdecwHPt FRANKLIN SCRABBLE® PLAYERS DICTIONARY R Cheat Sheets MIKE BARON’S CHEAT SHEET A great cheat sheet with 2s, 3s, vowel dumps, short high-pointtile words, and good bingo stems. Includes useful front and back hook letters to make 3s from 2s. Adapted from Mike Barron’s SCRABBLE® Wordbook and the Official Tournament and Club Word List, 2nd Edition. MIKE BARON’S CHEAT [email protected] SHEET (for School om) SCRABBLE® and home This group, dedicated to players play) using The Official SCRABBLE® 79 S C R A B B L E R E S O A great cheat sheet with 2s, 3s, vowel dumps, short high-pointtile words, and good bingo stems. Includes useful front and back hook letters to make 3s from 2s. Adapted from Mike Barron’s SCRABBLE® Wordbook and the Official SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary, 4th Edition. John Chew’s software for managing tournaments. COOL WORDS TO KNOW For School SCRABBLE® and home play. A terrific cheat sheet from the National SCRABBLE® Association for School SCRABBLE® and home play. Gives useful information on how to find bingos, plus the 2s, 3s, vowel dumps, and short highpoint-tile plays. COLLINS WORD LISTS Useful links to Collins word lists can be found at the following websites: http:// www.absp.org.uk/words/ words.html; http:// www.math.utoronto.ca/jjchew/ scrabble/lists/; http:// www.scrabble.org.au/words/ index.htm; http:// members.ozemail.com.au/ ~rjackman/. Books BOB’S BIBLE A terrific book to build word power for tournaments. BOB’S BIBLE, SCHOOL EDITION BOB’S BRITISH BIBLE The ideal book for learning CWL12 (Collins) words. (Reviewed in this issue.) BOB’S COLOR-CODED BRITISH BIBLE The ideal book for learning CWL12 (Collins) words, with color-coded entries for easy identification. (Reviewed in this issue.) BROW-RAISERS II A brilliantly organized study guide geared towards the success of beginning and intermediate players. HOW TO PLAY SCRABBLE® LIKE A Tournament Management Software CHAMPION A new guide to winning DIRECTOR! SCRABBLE® from World Marc Levesque’s software for managing tournaments. Also has a Yahoo user group you can join as a support option. TOURNEYMAN Jeff Widergren’s software for managing tournaments. TSH 80 U R C E S vocabulary, organized by word length, familiarity, and part of speech. EVERYTHING SCRABBLE®, THIRD EDITION The ultimate guide to winning at SCRABBLE@ by 3-time National Champion Joe Edley and John D. Williams, Jr. Completely updated to include all new words. (See review in the January issue of The Last word.) THE OFFICIAL SCRABBLE® PLAYERS DICTIONARY, FOURTH EDITION The official word source for School SCRABBLE® and casual play. THE OFFICIAL TOURNAMENT AND CLUB WORD LIST, 2ND EDITION The official word source for NASPA tournament and club play. SCRABBLE® TOURNAMENT & CLUB WORD LIST (COLLINS) The official word list for international tournament play. (Available at SamTimer.com.) SCRABBLE® Champion Joel Wapnick. Fantastic insights into expert playing techniques. (See SCRABBLE® review in the October issue of WORDBOOK The Last Word.) A great word book for SCRABBLE® players by Mike ENGLISH LANGUAGE Baron. OSPD4 words. (POO WORD BUILDER Lists available with words Bob Jackman’s guide to excluded from the OWL2.) building a strong Collins T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R Tournament Calendar Our new calendar format addresses two concerns: 1) Readers wanted as complete a list as possible of tournament dates, not just two months worth of dates; 2) Readers wanted to know easily whether a tournament was sanctioned by NASPA, WGPO, or the NSA (or was unrated). However, because new tournaments are constantly being added to the schedule, it is difficult to be all-inclusive. Please be sure to refer to the Websites of the organization sanctioning the tournament for a complete list. Click NASPA, WGPO, or NSA for the most up-to-date calendars. Links to NASPA and some NSA tournaments are also posted at cross-tables.com. Thanks to Henry Leong, who permitted The Last Word to adapt his calendar from the WGPO Website. Dates Organization Tournament/Location JULY 7/3-4 WGPO RENO NV (LATE BIRD) 7/3 NASPA WILMINGTON DE -- LCT 7/5-8 NASPA WILMINGTON DE (TWL) 7/7-8 NASPA NACOGDOCHES TX 7/7-8 NASPA TCC -- OAKLAND CA 7/7-8 NASPA OMAHA NE 7/8 NASPA BERKELEY CA 7/10 NASPA INDEPENDENCE, OH - LCT 7/13-15 NASPA LINDEN MI 7/14 NASPA SAN ANTONIO TX 7/15 NASPA GUELPH ON CAN 7/15 NASPA PHILADELPHIA PA (TWL & COLLINS) 7/15 NASPA PORTLAND OR 7/20-22 NASPA TORONTO ON CAN (TWL & CSW) 7/21 NASPA TCC-CLARKSBURG WV 7/21 NASPA DALLAS TX 7/21-22 NASPA TCC & TWL -- FINDLAY OH 81 T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R 7/21 WGPO MADISON WI 7/27-29 NASPA OLD GREENWICH CT (TWL & COLLINS) 7/28 NASPA AUSTIN TX (TWL & COLLINS) 7/28 NASPA FORT LAUDERDALE FL 7/29 WGPO DETROIT MI AUGUST 8/2 NASPA AKRON OH - LCT 8/3-8 WGPO WGPO WORD CUP - BLOOMINGTON MN (TWL & EB & PAIRS & CLABBERS & SPEED & TAG TEAM) 8/5 NASPA ASHEVILLE NC 8/5 NASPA BERKELEY CA 8/5 NASPA BRATTLEBORO VT 8/11-15 NASPA NATIONAL SCRABBLE CHAMPIONSHIP ORLANDO FL (TWL & COLLINS) 8/18 NASPA DALLAS TX 8/18 NASPA EDMONTON AB CAN 8/18-26 NASPA IRELAND TOUR AND TOURNAMENT 8/18 NASPA LEVITTOWN PA 8/19 NASPA GUELPH ON CAN 8/19 WGPO MILL VALLEY CA 8/25 NASPA AUSTIN TX (TWL & COLLINS) 8/25 NASPA BAYSIDE NY 8/25 NASPA FORT LAUDERDALE FL 8/25-26 NASPA TCC -- RICHMOND BC CAN 8/25 NASPA STRATFORD ON CAN 8/31-9/3 NASPA PORTLAND OR T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R SEPTEMBER 9/1-3 NASPA ALPHARETTA GA 9/1-3 NASPA IRVING TX 9/1-3 NASPA NEW YORK NY (TWL & COLLINS) 9/8-9 WGPO ALBUQUERQUE NM 9/9 NASPA BERKELEY CA 9/9 NASPA NEWARK DE 9/11 NASPA INDEPENDENCE, OH - LCT 9/15 NASPA DALLAS TX 9/15 NASPA HUDSON OH 9/15-16 NASPA NEW ORLEANS (KENNER) LA 9/15 NASPA MILLBURN NJ 9/16 NASPA GUELPH ON CAN 9/21-23 NASPA TORONTO ON CAN 9/22 NASPA NORWALK CT (REGULAR & YOUTH DIVISIONS) 9/22 NASPA REGINA SK CAN 9/23 NASPA PHILADELPHIA PA (TWL & COLLINS) 9/24-10/3 NASPA EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN CRUISE 9/27-30 WGPO GRITS III, SAVANNAH GA 9/27-30 WGPO GRUNTS, BENZONIA MI 9/28-29 NASPA BLOOMINGTON MN 9/28-29 NASPA CHARLESTON WV 9/29 WGPO PHOENIX AZ 9/29 NASPA ASBURY PARK NJ 9/29 NASPA AUSTIN TX (TWL & COLLINS) 9/29 NASPA FORT LAUDERDALE FL 83 T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R 9/29-30 NASPA NACOGDOCHES TX OCTOBER 10/4 NASPA LCT - AKRON OH 10/6 NASPA CAMBRIDGE ON CAN 10/6-20 WGPO NEW ENGLAND & CANADA CRUISE (TWL & COLLINS) 10/6 NASPA NORWALK CT (REGULAR & YOUTH DIVISIONS) 10/7 NASPA BERKELEY CA 10/7 NASPA BETHEL CT 10/7 NASPA GUELPH ON CAN 10/7 NASPA LAGUNA WOODS CA 10/10-14 NASPA CALGARY AB CAN 10/12-14 WGPO WISCONSIN DELLS WI 10/13-14 NASPA INDEPENDENCE OH 10/13 NASPA PHILADELPHIA PA (TWL & COLLINS) 10/14 NASPA BAYSIDE NY 10/14 NASPA TCC- GREATER TORONTO ON CAN 10/18-21 NASPA LAKE GEORGE NY (TWL & COLLINS) 10/20-21 NASPA ASHEVILLE NC 10/20 NASPA DALLAS TX 10/27 NASPA AUSTIN TX (TWL & COLLINS) 10/27 NASPA BERLIN NJ 10/27 NASPA CHICAGO IL 10/27-28 NASPA TCC - CAN-AM CHALLENGE, MILLBURN NJ 10/27 NASPA FORT LAUDERDALE FL 10/27 NASPA SOUTH LYON MI T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R NOVEMBER 11/2-4 NASPA CAMBRIDGE MD 11/2-4 NASPA FALMOUTH MA 11/2-4 NASPA CALIFORNIA OPEN, SAN FRANCISCO CA 11/3 NASPA BRANTFORD ON CAN 11/3 NASPA EDMONTON AB CAN 11/3 NASPA PITTSBURGH PA 11/4 NASPA LAGUNA WOODS CA 11/4 NSA (SCHOOL) TERROR OF THE TILES SCHOOL SCRABBLE, STAMFORD CT 11/10 NASPA NORWALK CT (REGULAR & YOUTH DIVISIONS) 11/11 NASPA BERKELEY CA 11/11 NASPA GUELPH ON CAN 11/13 NASPA INDEPENDENCE, OH - LCT 11/17 NASPA BAYSIDE NY 11/17 NASPA DALLAS TX 11/17 NASPA FORT LAUDERDALE FL 11/23-25 NASPA TARRYTOWN NY DECEMBER 12/1 NASPA CALGARY AB CA 12/1-2 NASPA FORT LAUDERDALE FL 12/2 NASPA BERKELEY CA 12/2 NASPA LAGUNA WOODS CA 12/2-18 WGPO MALAGA TO RIO DE JANEIRO CRUISE 12/6 NASPA AKRON OH - LCT 12/9 NASPA GUELPH ON CAN 12/9 NASPA PHILADELPHIA PA (TWL & COLLINS) 85 T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R 12/9 NASPA STRONGSVILLE OH 12/15 NASPA DALLAS TX 12/15-16 NASPA LAGUNA WOODS CA 12/22-25 NASPA WILMINGTON DE (TWL & COLLINS) 12/27-1/1 NASPA ALBANY NY (TWL & COLLINS) JANUARY ’13 1/16-28 WGPO AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND CRUISE 1/12 NASPA BAYSIDE NY 1/19-21 NASPA NEW ORLEANS LA (TWL & COLLINS) 1/26-28 NASPA ATLANTIC CITY NJ FEBRUARY ’13 2/9-10 NASPA NORWALK CT (REGULAR & YOUTH DIVISIONS) 2/9 NASPA NACOGDOCHES TX 2/10 NASPA PHILADELPHIA PA (TWL & COLLINS) 2/13-18 NASPA LAS VEGAS NV (TWL & COLLINS) 2/15-18 NASPA TENTATIVE - EASTERN CHAMPIONSHIP, CHARLOTTE NC 2/15 WGPO PHOENIX AZ EARLY BIRD 2/16-18 WGPO PHOENIX AZ (TWL & COLLINS) 2/22-24 NASPA SARATOGA SPRINGS NY MARCH ’13 3/8 WGPO INDIALANTIC FL 3/9 NASPA BAYSIDE NY 3/10 NASPA PHILADELPHIA PA (TWL & COLLINS) 3/15-17 NASPA HOUSTON TX 3/15-17 NASPA POUGHKEEPSIE NY T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R 3/22-24 NASPA PRINCETON NJ APRIL ’13 4/13-14 NASPA EDMONTON AB CAN 4/20 NASPA NORWALK CT (REGULAR & YOUTH DIVISIONS) 4/21 NASPA PHILADELPHIA PA (TWL & COLLINS) 4/27-28 NASPA WEBSTER NY MAY ’13 5/2-11 NASPA BERMUDA & CARIBBEAN TREASURES CRUISE 5/3-5 NASPA NEW YORK NY 5/18 NASPA BAYSIDE NY 5/19 NASPA PHILADELPHIA PA (TWL & COLLINS) 5/23-27 NASPA SACRAMENTO CA 5/23-27 NASPA TARRYTOWN NY 5/25-27 NASPA IRVING TX JUNE ’13 6/8 NASPA NORWALK CT (REGULAR & YOUTH DIVISIONS) 6/15 NASPA BAYSIDE NY 6/15-26 WGPO ITALY - CROATIA CRUISE JULY ’13 7/2-7 NASPA ALBANY NY (TWL & COLLINS) 7/19-21 NASPA OLD GREENWICH CT 7/27 NASPA BAYSIDE NY AUGUST ’13 8/31-9/2 NASPA WILMINGTON DE SEPT. ’13 9/21 NASPA NORWALK CT (REGULAR & YOUTH DIVISIONS) 87 T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R 9/28 NASPA BAYSIDE NY OCT. ’13 10/17-20 NASPA LAKE GEORGE NY 10/26 NASPA NORWALK CT (REGULAR & YOUTH DIVISIONS) NOV. ’13 11/16 NASPA NORWALK CT (REG. & YOUTH DIVISIONS) 10/23 NASPA BAYSIDE NY 11/29-12/1 NASPA TARRYTOWN NY DEC. ’13 12/21-25 NASPA WILMINGTON DE MARCH ’14 3/21-23 NASPA POUGHKEEPSIE NY MAY ’14 5/22-26 NASPA SACRAMENTO CA 5/23-26 NASPA TARRYTOWN NY JULY ’14 7/18-20 NASPA OLD GREENWICH CT AUGUST ’14 8/30-9/1 NASPA NEW YORK NY NOVEMBER ’14 11/28-30 NASPA DECEMBER ’14 NASPA 12/23-28 88 TARRYTOWN NY WILMINGTON DE A R C H I V E S Archives To download previous issues of The Last Word click here. 89