TLW 111 - Nomads Results

Thanks again to Dave French for all his help and for being such an excellent TD, members of
Norwich Scrabble Club for providing the lovely cakes for afternoon tea, Sheila for making
the teas and James (aged 9) for being such an excellent runner.
Special thanks to my husband, Mike, I don’t think I could do it without his help.
NSCT Final
23rd September18 games
NSCT Team Results
1 Edinburgh 13.5 504
2 Nomads 12 1330
3 Cleveland 11 85
4 Cambridge 9.5 98
5 Ashton 7 9
6 Trav Hillbillies 7 -615
7 Newport (IOW) 3 -1411
NSCT Individual Results
Edinburgh
S Gillham 5
A Byrne 5
W Warwick 3.5
Nomads
R Byers 4
A Phillpots 4
J Robinson 4
Cleveland
C Beevers 5
P Johnson 4
Cambridge
P Bassett 4
Ashton
P Robertshaw 3
Trav Hillbillies
J Phillips 3
Newport (IOW)
H Parker 2
Congratulations to Edinburgh who become the first Scottish team to win the NSCT Championship
Nottingham Newbies
30th September
Norwich A
Bob Violett 6 532
Nuala O’Rourke 5 319
John Ashmore 4 399
Ratings prize
Gerard Fox 4 351
Norwich B
Rosalind Wilson 6 351
Angela Burke 5 97
Paul Cartman 4 272
Ratings prize
Dorothy Kemlicz 4 246
The ABSP New Player Event was a venture into the unknown, allowing only unrated or
provisionally-rated players to come along for a day and play a five-game event in standard
tournament conditions, but with extra help and guidance available from the start. I booked
a small, cheap room on the basis that we would only need 12 players or so in order to
recoup costs and so any potential losses for the ABSP would be minimal.
One week after putting the details out we didn’t have any entries and I started to fear a flop,
but then six arrived in three days and they kept coming in steadily after that and at 24 entries
I feared the event would be over-subscribed. A straw poll on the day indicated that over 30
of the 46 players had found out the details via the welcome message on ISC placed by Herve
Bohbot (admin), for which I am extremely grateful. Two more people told me they had read
about it in Allan Simmon’s column in the Telegraph, while Geoff Cooper arranged a large
party from Doncaster and other uk-scrabble readers seemed to have helped with word-of-
6
6
mouth informing. By the time we finally closed entries I already knew that barring major
disasters on the day we would be thinking about hosting a second event next year.
I arrived at the centre on Saturday morning by 8.15am and it wasn’t long before Olakunle
Ajayi arrived and graciously helped out by handing out the welcome packs containing one
past copy of TLW, one past Onwords, one scorebook, a list of twos and threes and various
other useful items. Jared Robinson arrived with two laptops and a printer and did a superb
job on the computer all day, managing most of the challenges (with help from Steve Balment
and Marlene Skinner adjudicating by OSWI) and printing positions/pairings without any difficulty.
46 players were in place by the designated start time, we didn’t need our reserve player, my
introductory speech had gone well, many questions about prodecure had been answered to
everyone’s satisfaction, the mood was convivial and by 10.15am we were ready for the off.
During the first game there were the expected number of queries on aspects of the clock or
how exactly to handle exchanging tiles, etc. At the end everyone handed in their scoresheets
with player numbers and spreads all perfectly correct. The challenges ranged from the expect
plethora of two-letter words (mostly invalid) up to impressive offerings such as CAUTERY,
TOUZLES and DEXTEROUS (a wonderful nine-letter play from Eddie Frelford scoring 104).
Having lectured the players fairly strictly over the importance of checking every unknown
word played against them there were mercifully few phonies left on the board during the first
game; only one of the teachers from a nearby school let the side down by refusing to challenge
her opponent’s moves and thus letting him get away with at least two phonies.
Lunch was ably provided by the Centre’s catering team. The rest of the games played out
well with the number of questions decreasing each round. Olakunle Ajayi and Paul Walford
had a great battle to decide the winner, the final spread +40 after two bonuses from each
player and a tight endgame. We gave spot prizes of Scrabylon DVD to Ronan Webb, who
had travelled over from near Dublin, for the highest-scoring word on the day (BURGEONS
for 158 the only nine-timer) and to Felicity Rees for final spread closest to zero (-1 to be
precise).
I grilled people on the way out, asking whether we’d be likely to see them again at another
event; the majority gave a genuine “Yes!” and I’ve spoken to several people on ISC since
who are already talking about which event they will be playing next. I’m delighted to be
able to describe the event as a huge success; of course the real proof of the pudding will be
to check the player list in six months time and see how many people have become regular
players. I have no doubt that as they venture into their first ‘open’ tournament, the Scrabble
community will make them very welcome. If anyone is reading this and thinking they would
like to host a New Player Event in their own part of the country, I will readily assist in
providing playing equipment and suchlike. It would be good if not all of these events happened
in Nottingham!
Nottingham Newbies
Olakunle Ajayi 5 397 (hand-painted ABSP board)
Gillian Simpson 5 214 (round board)
Dave Dunford 4 628 (Pocket SamTimer clock)
Paul Walford 4 435 (Protiles & silk tile bag)
7