TLW61 - Nomads Results

The Association of Premier Scrabble* Players
Issue No. 61 NEWSLETTER August 1998
NEW CHAMBERS DICTIONARY
The new Chambers dictionary is now available. If it hasn't hit the shelves of your local
bookshop yet, it should be there very soon. I had hoped to have a review copy, so that I could
give you the lowdown on some of the new words, but unfortunately it appears to have got lost
in the post.
Early indications suggest that there are fewer new words than in previous editions. Those
which have been listed on the internet include the new three-letter words BAC and KOI
(most of us are familiar with koi, but I can't for the life of me remember what a bac is). And
for those who bemoaned the disappearance of OP - you'll be pleased to hear that it's on its
way back.
On page 25 you'll find a statement from Chambers regarding the next edition of OSW,
scheduled for publication in September 1999. For those of us who crave a single, world-wide
Scrabble dictionary, it makes for encouraging reading.
APSP NEWS AND VIEWS
The APSP Committee Comer this issue includes Chairman Graeme Thomas's annual report,
some examples which will hopefully help to clarify the proposed new ratings system, and the
final agenda of the AGM. The agenda includes information on how to give proxy votes. For
those who can't attend the BMSC this year (which includes me), this is your only chance to
vote on the motions that have been put forward. I've already registered my proxy votes; I'd
strongly advise you to follow my lead.
EDITOR IN RESIGNATION SHOCK
That caught your eye, didn't it? It's not quite that dramatic really. I've decided to hand over
the reins of the newsletter at the end of the year. Which gives the APSP plenty of time to find
a successor - or successors. An advert for the position is printed on page 9.
I've enjoyed my two years in office, but I feel it's time to devote more time to family (my
wife) and friends (the cat), and to pursue some of my other interests (golf, and playing
Scrabble instead of writing about it).
So let's try and make my last couple of issues memorable. Bombard me with board positions,
amuse me with witty anecdotes, confront me with controversy... I look forward to hearing
from you! -
STRABBII* n a nftnlvfrd imiIi- nurl ul I Wb

In this issue...
I COMMITTEE CORNER |
Page 3
1998 Annual General Meeting: Final Agenda Page 3
Chairman's Report Page 4
Rating calculation examples Page 7
[ EVENT REPORTS | pagel,
[ RATINGS AT 25TH JULY 19981 p lg
1998 ratings Page 21
| ANNOTATED GAME; PHIL APPLEBY V PENNY DOWNER | page22
| OFFICIAL SCRABBLE WORDS; NEW EDITION | page25
| ACROSS THE BOARd| Page 26
| BEATING THE BEST; SOME USEFUL TIPS |
| HOW LUCKY CAN YOU GET?)
Page 28
MAJOR SCRABBLE TOURNAMENTS | Pflge 29
| TWENTY QUESTIONS ; MARTIN REED | Pflge 3,
Page 32
[WORD PLAY | page35
The X-Files Page 35
Maharaja Curry House Page 38
World Cup 1998: The OSW Select XI Page 38
| READERS'LETTERS
ANSWERS TO PUZZLES | p 4,
TOURNAMENT DETAILS | Page 42
News of some forthcoming events Page 42
| FORTHCOMING EVENTS \ Page 44

Committee Corner
1998 Annual General Meeting: Final Agenda
1. To receive the Chairman's report.
The report is on page 4.
2. To receive and consider the accounts of the Association for 1997, (he Auditor's report on the
accounts, and the Treasurer's report on the financial position of the Association.
The accounts are on page 6.
3. To elect officers and other members of the Committee.
The current Committee comprises: Margaret Browne, Elie Dangoor, Pete Finley, Martin Fowkes, Lois
McLeod, Vanessa Peters, Graeme Thomas, Russ Thomas, Fran Thompson. Gareth Williams, and Mike
Willis. All are standing for re-election, and there are no new candidates.
Those wishing to join the Committee may do so by putting their names forward, in writing, to the
Secretary or Chairman a week before the meeting. The names of any additional candidates will be
announced at the meeting.
4. To confirm that the Auditor remains in office.
5. To fix the subscription for next year.
It is proposed that the subscription remain at £10.00.
6. To alter the rules.
6.1. To ratify the Committee's decision to rate games played according to both Official Scrabble Words
and the Official Tournament and Club Word List (together known colloquially as SOWPODS) in the
same system as OSW games.
Note: the OTaCWL is the current word list used in North America. It replaces the old book, the Official
Scrabble Players Dictionary.
If the motion fails, then a further vote will be taken: to rate SOWPODS games in a separate system from
that used for OSW games.
6.2. To change the ratings system.
If the motion is successful, then a further vote will be taken to determine which of two proposed systems
should be adopted. Those systems were described in the June newsletter; further examples ore shown on
page 7.
Page 3

6.3. To change the name of the Association.
Detailed proposals for various name changes were in the June Newsletter.
7. Any Other Business.
The AGM will lake place at 8pm in Rutland Hall. Nottingham University, on Sunday 30th August 1998.
Members who are unable to attend the AGM but who wish to vote on one or more items may give their
proxy, in writing, to the Chairman: Graeme Thomas, 3 Grove Lea, Hatfield, Herts., AL10 8LA. The
proxy may direct the Chairman, for each motion, to vote in a particular way, or it may allow him to vote
at his discretion. In either case, the proxy should make it clear what is expected of the Chairman.
Chairman's Report
Introduction
Once again I am pleased to report another successful year for the APSP. We have seen growth in all
areas of our activities.
Tournaments
There was a modest increase in the number of tournaments, but many tournaments were rather larger
than before. The Isle of Wight organizers found a new venue, and then managed to put on the biggest
weekend tournament other than the BMSC. Later, in March, the Swindon tournament smashed all
records, with the same exception.
The disappointing news this year was the announcement that Spear would not hold a National Scrabble
Championship. Paul Colder and Terry Hollington have stepped into the breach with their own
tournament, but the differing financial position will mean that there will be no Regional heats. This will
mean a small decrease in the number of tournaments in 1998.
Martin Fowkes has again performed his job as Tournament Coordinator to perfection. As I remarked
last year, his task is much easier if organizers arrange their affairs such that they don't try to rush things
for a newsletter deadline.
Sponsorship
We have managed to receive small amounts of sponsorship from the usual sources again this year.
Nottingham University has again agreed to a sliding scale of fees for the BMSC, which could result in a
large effective sponsorship deal if the numbers warrant it. Forte Hotels gave away holidays as part of the
Winter Matchplay tournament, and Psion have also been generous with their support.
1 must include here thanks to Chambers for their ongoing sponsorship of Scrabble. They continue to
offer their books at a 35% discount through Margaret Browne, and have this year sponsored the NSC.
World Championships
The British team did very well at the Washington WSC. For most of the tournament the top tables were
a sea of red shirts, although our team just failed to clinch enough places in the top 20 at the end. We still
don't know if there will be a World Championship in 1999.
Page 4

Committee
The current Committee comprises Margaret Browne, Elie Dangoor (Treasurer), Pete Finley, Martin
Fowkes (Tournament Coordinator), Lois McLeod, Philip Nelkon (JWS Representative), Vanessa Peters,
Allan Simmons (President), Graeme Thomas (Chairman), Russ Thomas, Fran Thompson, Gareth
Williams (Secretary), and Mike Willis. The Ratings Officer is Andrew Fisher, and the Newsletter Editor
is Phil Appleby.
Pressure of work has caused Allan Simmons to retire from the Committee, and from the APSP
Presidency. I would like to thank Allan for all the hard work that he has put in for the APSP over the
years. He will be missed.
I would also like to thunk the other Committee members for all the hard work that they have done over
the past year.
Publications
The Newsletter has been edited for the past year by Phil Appleby. The newsletter is always a splendid
read. Phil has decided to retire as Editor, from the end of 1998, and so the Committee is searching for a
replacement. This will not be easy. I would like to thank Phil for the efforts that he has made over the
past couple of years, and for the excellent newsletters.
The onerous task of stuffing the newsletters and entry forms into their envelopes was performed again by
Margaret Browne and her long-suffering family. I know that this is an unpleasant job, and they deserve
public thanks for doing it.
Membership
The membership has risen rapidly to the numbers it had at the end of the year. (For some reason many
members do not renew until well into the year, thus missing out on the benefits of membership.) I
expect (hat the numbers will grow to nearly 600 this year. Managing this is a large task, and I would like
to thank the Secretary, Gareth Williams, for his unflagging efforts.
We asked the members this year for their views, in a questionnaire. The response was staggering. The
Committee are grateful for ihe views expressed. Generally, it appears, you think that we are doing a
goodjob.
Summary
The APSP has again achieved most of its objectives:
Promoting Matchplay Scrabble
Introducing cash prizes
Operating a Matchplay rating system
Organizing and encouraging many Scrabble tournaments
Obtaining sponsorship
The Committee and I are always interested in the views of members, and so please let us know how you
think we are doing.
Financial Summary
The table below gives the financial position of the APSP at the end of 1997. The accounts are healthy.
It is too early to say what the 1998 position will be, but it looks as though the surplus for 1998 will not
be as large as that for 1997. primarily because of greater newsletter costs.
Page 5

Income
Membership
Tournament Surplus
Interest on Tournament receipts
Clocks
Expenditure
Association of Premier Scrabble Players
1997 Income and Expenditure Account
Newsletter/Year Book/Meeting Expenses
Bank charges
Legal Expenses (F.D.F. surplus)
(DeficitySurpIus on Year
Surplus Brought Forward
Surplus Carried Forward
Current Assets
Building Society Accounts
Bank Deposit Account
Bank Current Account
Deposit for Timers
Current Liabilities
Prepaid Membership Fees
Milton Keynes Hotel
Newsletter and Travel Expenses
Folkestone Defence
Retained Surplus
£1997 £1996
4330
502
384
_J4
5249
3689
18
-1235
2473
2776
4381
7157
Balance Sheet
5080
460
254
^8
5811
4269
17
_124
4410
1402
2979
4381
31 Dec 97 31 Dec 96
Page 6
1417
5171
10259
_625_
17472
-2125
-7568
- 621
•10314
71S7
535
12
13599
-2214
-7150
- 277
^124
-9765
4381

Rating calculation examples (by Graeme Thomas)
A few people have recently approached me claiming that the explanations given, in the June
Newsletter, for the two proposed new rating systems were not very dear. Two players said
that my claimed advantage for the current system (that it is understood by everyone) was fin
from the mark. I shall work through some examples, in the hope of making everything
dearer. The ratings are my own, but since I do not have complete records, the calculations do
not mutch my current rstms.
The descriptions so far refer to "tournament ratings" and "tournament rating points", so I'll
start with an explanation of those terms. They apply equally to the old system and to the two
new systems. Full examples are given in the Handbook.
Consider my performance at the recent Stoke Rochford tournament:
Round
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
e
9
10
11
12
Total
Opponent
Moira Conway
Steve Ba Intent
Shanker Menon
Helen Greenaway
Richard Evans
Simon Carter
Rob Dowse
Nuala Clenaghan
Sheila Spate
Martin Bloomberg
Bob Violett
Martin Bloomberg
Rating
158
167
167
167
195
167
160
159
174
156
175
156
2001
Adding the ratings of all my opponents gives 2001. I add SO points for each of the 3 games 1
won, and subtract SO for each of the 7 games I lost; 2001 + 250 - 350 is 1901 tournament
rating points. My tournament rating for that event is the average number of rating points per
game, which is 1901/12, or 158.42, which rounds to 158.
There are some complicating details which don't happen here, but which have to be taken into
account when the ratings are calculated. If players of markedly different ratings play (i.e.
more than 40 points apart) then the rating difference is fixed at 40. (For example, if I, rated
169, played someone rated under 129, then I would use 129 as his rating for calculating my
rating.) Unrated players cause further complications; I do not propose to give details here.
These calculations remain the same for both the proposed new ratings systems. The only
change is with the way the tournament ratings arc averaged over several tournaments. In the
examples below I will be using the following tournaments. The ratings points were calculated
in a similar manner to those from Stoke Rochford.
Tournament
BMSC
Isle of Wight
Winter Matchplay
Leicester
East Sussex
Durham
Exeter
London
Stoke Rochford
Games
17
11
11
5
5
10
19
6
12
Won
•
•
•
■
•
5
Ratine Points
2602
1880
2048
770
737
1866
3003
1113
1901
Page 7
Lott
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
7

Current system
Under the current system my rating is just the average number of rating points per game since
a fixed date, which is now January 1, 1997. (For less active players, that date is January 1,
1996.) We just add all the ratings points from each tournament, and divide by the total
number of games played. Each January all the ratings calculations are performed anew, with
a year's worth of ratings points dropped at once, when that fixed date changes. (There are
further complications when less active players are involved; I will not give details here.)
Rolling system
In the first of the proposed new systems, we will only keep the last 70 games played, rather
than those games played since a fixed date. Prior to the Stoke Rochford event I had 67 games
counting, not including the BMSC, and therefore I need 3 games from the BMSC. To avoid
keeping gamc-by-game records, the system will just use the average from that event; in other
words, we'll pretend that instead of a 17-game event gaining 2602 points, it was a 3-game
event gaining 2602*3/17 = 459 points.
Tournament
BMSC
Isle of Wight
Winter Matchplay
Leicester
East Sussex
Durham
Exeter
London
Total
Games
3
11
11
5
5
10
19
6
70
Rating Point!
459
1680
2048
770
737
1886
3003
1113
11896
So my rating, under the new system, has 70 games and 11896 rating points. That would give
me an overall rating of 11896/70, which is 169.94, rounded to 170.
After Stoke Rochford I need to drop those 3 games from the BMSC and 9 games from the ble
of Wight. That last leaves me with 1880*2/11 = 342 points from a theoretical 2-game
tournament.
Tournament
Isle of Wight
Winter Matchplay
Leicester
East Sussex
Durham
Exeter
London
Stoke Rochford
Total
Gomes
2
11
5
5
10
19
6
12
70
Rating Points
342
2048
770
737
1886
3003
1113
1901
11800
I would now have 11800 rating points, which would give me an overall rating of 11800/70,
which is 168 57, rounded to 169.
Weighted rolling system
Now for the second proposed method. Here, the games are weighted so that the more recent
ones count more heavily. The weights used are 100 for the most recent game, down to 31 for
the oldest game. Prior to Stoke Rochford, the most recent tournament was a 6-game event in
London, and so these games would be weighted at 100, 99,98,97,96, and 95: this is an
average weight (AW) of 97.5. Multiplying the rating points (RP) by the average weight
PagcS

(AW) gives the number of weighted rating points (WRP) for the tournament, which is
108,517.5. The full list of calculations is given in the table below:
Tournament
BMSC
Isle of Wight
Winter Hatchplay
Leicester
East Sussex
Durham
Exeter
London
Total
Games
3
11
11
5
5
10
19
6
70
RP
459
1B80
2046
770
737
1B86
3003
1113
Wetebts
31-33
34-44
45-55
56-60
61-65
66-75
76-94
95-100
4585
AW
32
39
SO
58
63
70.5
85
97.5
WRP
1468S
73320
102400
44660
46431
132963
255255
108517.5
778234.5
My rating at this point would be 778,234.5 divided by the sum of the weightings (4585), to
give me an overall rating of 169.73, rounded to 170.
Taking Stoke Rochford into account, I have:
Tournament
Isle of Wight
Winter Matchplay
Leicester
East Sussex
Durham
Exeter
London
Stoke
Total
Rochford
Games
2
11
5
5
10
19
6
12
70
RP
342
2048
770
737
1886
3003
1113
1901
Wtichti
31-32
33-43
44-48
49-53
54-63
64-82
63-88
89-100
4585
AW
30.5
38
46
51
59.5
73
85.5
94.5
WRP
10431
77824
3S420
37587
112217
219219
95161. S
179644. S
767504
My rating would now be 767,504 divided by 4585, which is 167.39, rounded to 167.
Pros and cons of the systems
The major problem with the current system is that very active players carry with them a lot of
games, which means that the rating system does not respond very quickly to good or bad
performances. At Stoke Rochford I performed at 11 points below my rating, and yet my
overall rating will change by at most one point, because I have played nearly 250 games in the
last 18 months. Also, players' ratings usually change dramatically on January 1", but most
players don't change in ability over the New Year, and so at least one of the ratings must be
inaccurate.
The rolling system is more responsive to the games recently played, but it is also just as
responsive to the games played 70 games ago. (The examples do not really show it, as the
games dropped were almost as bad as those gained. Perhaps I ought to have used fictitious
ratings, instead of the real ones.) It is more difficult for players to calculate their ratings than
the current system, because players need to keep track of which tournaments should be
dropped.
The weighted rolling system is even more responsive to current form. My rating should have
dropped markedly after Stoke Rochford, and the weighted rolling system showed that. The
drawback is that the calculations are tedious, and are likely to be error-prone. The numbers
involved are much bigger (even though the final result isn't), and this may put people off. It
shares with the rolling system the problem of remembering which tournaments should be
Page 9

While I was writing this article 1 tried to keep track of the mental effort required to calculate
my ratings. For the current system I did the calculations in my head (although I checked with
pencil and paper). I needed to write things down for the rolling system, although I suppose
that in extremis I could have done it mentally. I needed a calculator, as well as lots of paper,
to work out the weighted rolling system. Clearly other people will be better or worse than nic
at such mental arithmetic, but the difference in effort required will be comparable.
Where I have lied In this article
In order to keep things as simple as possible, I have made some assumptions about the
proposed new systems which will not necessarily be true. The first is that the two systems
will keep 70 games counting towards players' ratings. This is the recommended number, but
experience may show that more or fewer games will be better.
The second assumption is that the weightings used in the weighted rolling system will be 100
for the most recent game, down to 31 for the least recent game. Again, these are the
recommended values, but they may need altering in future. A smaller set of weights (for
example, starting with 70 for the most recent game, down to 1 for the oldest game) will make
the ratings more responsive to recent games; larger weights will make the ratings less
responsive.
The third assumption is that the ratings will retain their current sizes. There has been much
pressure for ratings to be quoted to 4 figures, rather than 3. Statistically this is nonsense, but
if we're changing the rating system anyway, this might be a good time to bow to that
pressure. Indeed, for the rolling system it might even be worth publishing the number of
rating points, rather than dividing everyone's total by 70. There would then have to be special
provision for new players.
Wanted: Newsletter Editor
The APSP is looking for a new Newsletter Editor, to replace the irreplaceable Phil Applcby, who
will finish his stint at the end of this year. The Committee has decided to try a new idea: the
Editorial Team. We are still not sure exactly how this will work in practice, but we hope that it
will reduce the efforts needed by any one single editor.
If you want to join the editorial team, please let a Committee Member know. Previous writing
experience, email access, and a sense of humour will all help, but are by no means essential.
Chris Hawkins posted the following on the uk-scrabble mailing list, and asked whether he might
have set some kind of record. Well, can anyone beat seven syllables??
I 'collect' long words in games, the latest being against Peter Dean (in our 1001st encounter as it
happened). Peter played OrlGlNAL as a four-timer for 82 points, which 1 later extended to
ORIGINALITY (11 ietiers) for 14 points, then UNORIG1NALITY (13 letters) for 16 points. This
is my first 13-letter word played in a game (my previous longest were 12's : PERSONALIZES in a
Duplicate Scrabble game, and MISCARRIAGES and SUBTRACTIONS in regular games). The
reason I am positing the word as a 'record' is that it has seven syllables. Has anyone (who keeps
records of their mundane Scrabble trivia) played a word with more syllables, or do they know
someone who has?
Page 10

Event Reports
London Matchplay : May 17th (Report by Sandie Simonis)
Glorious sunshine hailed another London Scrabble League Tournament, back again at the ever popular
Pinner venue. The ages of the 82 participants ranged from 8 to 80.
The day itself ran smoothly, apart from a few behind the scenes problems, such as an urn being kaput,
along with an unhelpful, grumpy caretaker. Also, the delivery of a large consignment of drinks for the
bar threatened to disrupt the quiet of the playing area. Quick intervention and the use of assertiveness
techniques saved the day!
The scoresheets provided a fascinating overview of words challenged. DERRING(S) was played in all
three divisions, and was quite rightly challenged as it is not allowable. Some impressive 3-letter hook
knowledge in Divisions 2 and 3 produced challenges to GOOR, JASP, GIEN, FOOT, ROON, LEAT.
BIGS, RINE and BOOL. Other impressive players were A1ZLE, ULULATE, WEIL and STRIGIL.
Division 1 produced surprising challenges of words such as OARY and TAM, as well as the rather more
impressive KORFBALLS, ECLOGUE and SUTTEES.
The usual theme word competition (words associated with Pinner/Middle/Sex) proved popular with lots
of offerings and, as always, none to do with Pinner or Middle. Unfortunately my comprehensive list got
lost at work and a colleague threw it away thinking it was the crude, idle doodlings of the student nurses
we work with! From memory there were two shags, two vulvas, buttery (Helen Gipson refusing the
enlighten us as to its relevance) and the high-scoring hooking by Graham Buckingham for 104. Lesley
Watson seemed to play a whole game with the theme in mind, finding breeder (74), bitchy (32) and
ovaries (73). However the highest scoring and therefore winning move was UNSEXED (120), played by
London League player Martin Leverton.
Spot prizes always add to the fun, albeit creating more effort for the director. Prizes went to Darryl
Francis, Barry Grossman, Peter Dean, Pam Windsor, and Lesley Watson. Highest spread in the last
round went to Graeme Thomas (+227), Norma Galley (+158) and Roz Lishak (+164). Ratings prizes
went to Brian Bull, June Edwards and Clive Abrahams.
Once more the winner of Division 1 was local boy Evan Simpson, who again has to make space at home
for the magnificent Ivor Freedman trophy. An excellent performance by Les Nyman gave him 2nd place.
Division 2 was won by David Ellis, while 8 year old Austin Shin overwhelmed all the opposition in
Division 3 (to the delight of everyone else) to win first prize. Definitely one to watch for the future.
Division A
1. E.Simpson
2. L.Nyman
3. P.Nelkon
4. H.Gipson
5. D. Green
6-0
5-1
5-1
4-2
4-2
♦ 497
♦ 271
♦ 212
♦ 278
+ 203
Divison B
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
D.Ellis
E.Jardine
C.French
G.Gruner
D.Shenkin
Cardiff: May 30th (Report by Mary Allen)
6-0
5-1
5-1
5-1
4-2
♦ 742
♦ 763
♦ 380
+ 55
+ 326
Division C
1 A.Shin
6-0 ♦ 159
2 J.Clark
5-1 ♦318
3 P.Steadman 4-2 + 415
4 P.Fernadnez 4-2 +351
5 F.Shammas 4-2 ♦ 25
The event was successfully directed by Gareth Williams, and there were no major disputes to settle. The
sun shone and the food was very good. The Roger Alien Memorial Shield was won by Steve Balment
Page 11

after a tough final game against Janet Phillips. Two Buckleys appeared in the Division B results, but they
hail from different towns.
There are no tales to loll that compare with David Acton's account of the Durham event, except to say
that, despite all the rain we have experienced, someone still hasn't missed an off-white mackintosh that I
have in my possession!
The event raised £280 for the Cancer Research appeal.
Division
1.
2.
3.
Steve
David
A
Balnent
Williams
Trevor Bently
5-0
4-1
4-1
♦ 390
♦ 548
♦ 231
Divioon B
1. Alan Buckley
2. Wanda de Poitiers
3. Jean Buckley
APSP Masters : June 6th-7th (Report by Phil Appleby)
5-0
4-1
4-1
♦ 644
♦ 345
♦ 332
For some years the APSP Masters has been held at the Falslaff Hotel in Leamington Spa. This year it
moved, to the studios of Yorkshire Television in Leeds, home of Countdown and the event's organiser,
Mark Nyman. Indeed this was familiar territory for most people - of the 16 players, fourteen had
appeared on the show. Playing in a TV studio had its advantages; a crew from the local Calendar news
programme interviewed Mark and Tournament Director Graeme Thomas - a nice bit of free publicity for
the APSP. And it was fun looking out for celebs during lunch breaks in the canteen.
There had been some debate before the event about whether the word source should be SOWPODS,
which the majority of the qualifiers preferred, or OSW, which had been the word source used to qualify.
Players from both camps talked of withdrawing if their word source of preference wasn't used. In the
end a compromise was reached. OSW players would play all of their games using OSW. SOWPODS
players would have to use OSW when playing an OSW player, but SOWPODS for all their other games.
It was an odd arrangement, but in the end it seemed to work quite well. Four players (Brett Smitheram.
Alec Webb, Martin Fowkes and Jackie McLeod) chose the OSW option.
Alec started superbly, beating the two highest-rated players, Mark Nyman and Phil Appleby, in his first
two games. But by the end of Day I it was Andrew Fisher who had risen to the top of the pile with a 7-1
+426 record, his only defeat coming against Garcth Williams by a single point. Phil was second, one
game behind, with Brian Sugar, Andy Cook and Gareth on 5 wins. All eyes had been on Terry Kirk,
whose previous record in this event had not been auspicious. But after losing his first two games, Terry
had won three of his next five, and was well off the bottom. This position was occupied by the
unfortunate Martin Fowkes, who lost his first seven games before finally getting a much-needed win
against Philip Nelkon in the final game of the day.
Day 2 began with only 15 players. The overnight leader had failed to arrive. A call was put through to
his hotel, and his clock was started. Andrew arrived, breathless and with half his time gone, having been
roused by a member of the hotel staff. It seemed to make no difference; he still managed to eke out a
10-point win against Andy Davis. It was the start of a nightmare run for Andy, who lost every game on
the Sunday. The reigning Master, Mark Nyman, was having similar problems. It just shows that even the
very best players can have "one of those days".
Game 9 was enlivened by a loud expletive uttered by Andy Cook. Such an occurrence is relatively
common in the US, but is not considered appropriate behaviour in Britain. Andy's outburst was the
consequence of a lost move which led to defeat against David Webb , a mistake which was ultimately to
Page 12

prove very costly. Nevertheless, a run of five consecutive wins had pushed him into contention going
into the final game. But the real star of Day 2 had been Brian Sugar, with six consecutive wins. With
Andrew slipping up twice, against Terry Kirk and Andy Cook, the leading positions going into the final
game were:
1. Andrew Pi3her
2. Brian Sugar
3. Andy Cook
11-3 + 865
11-3 +618
10--8 -717
In the final game Andrew was playing David Webb, Brian was playing Di Dennis, and Andy was drawn
against Andy Davis. Andy C got the win he needed, and by a large margin of + 128. Brian had lost to Di
(as I'm told is traditional), so if Andrew lost by more than 20 points, the title would be Andy's. But it
wasn't to be. A hard-fought game ended in a 7-point defeat for Andrew - he'd lost the battle, but won the
The full results were as follows:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Andrew Fisher
Andy Cook
Brian Sugar
Phil Appleby
Terry Kirk
Russell Byers
Alec Webb
David Webb
11-4
11-4
11-4
10-5
9-6
8-7
8-7
8-7
+ 858
• 845
♦ 593
♦ 192
+ 320
♦ 120
- 8
-155
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
Jackie NcLeod
Brett Smitheram
Di Dennis
Gareth Williams
Philip Nelkon
Martin Fowkes
Mark Nyman
Andy Davis
7-8
7-8
7-8
6-9
5-10
4-11
4-11
4-11
♦ 431
-172
-210
-485
-526
-524
-526
-753
Here ure a few of Ihe more impressive words played (and challenged). One of the features of an event
such as this is that many great words go unchallenged, since both players know them. In the game
between Andrew Fisher and Russell Byers, I spotted KACHERI and VARROAS on the board; neither
was challenged.
AUBADES. BARTIZAN. CAPOEIRA, CHUSING, CLEPING. COWHIDE, CRIMINI.
DEMOBILIZES, DISCOURE, EPULIDES, FAGOTTI, FILMIC, FLENSE, FREEBIE, GAZOOKAS.
GRIFFE, GUIMPE. HIDDENLY, HOACTZIN, JILLAROO, MATUTINE, MENHADEN. MIDIRONS.
OENOMEL, PADUASOY, PENTOSAN, PRUINA, REGENCE, SADZA, TENTFUL, TITUPY,
UNCLEWS, VANITAS. VAUDOOS, YOJANAS, ZEBROID.
The following selection are OSPD-only, so if you haven't ventured into SOWPODS territory yet, look
away now.
AXONE, BLOOIE, COHEAD, FISHPOND. IODATING. NONRIVAL, OVERURGE. RAVELLER.
REKEY. REWAXES. STRANDER, TAILWIND, TTTHONIA, WHEEZERS
Lincoln Open : June 6th (Report by Mike Holland)
The venue for the tournament was the Sincil Bank Community Centre, located at Lincoln City Football
Siadium. With Ihe club having recently clinched promotion to the Second Division, we were also keen to
put on a good team performance to make the event a success. Everybody seemed to enjoy the day, and
everything ran very smoothly. Thanks are due to all who played a part, especially to Theresa Hill, for
organising the tournament, and to Graham Wakefleld for his technical expertise on the computer.
Page 13

There were 66 competitors, 32 in Division A and 43 in B. Having never played in the top division
before, nobody was more surprised than myself to be leading the field at the end of the 4th game.
However the dream of a home win evaporated when I was convincingly beaten by Steve Balmcnt in the
decider. The eliminator for the B Division was between Liz Dunlop and Shirley Heal, with Li/, securing
victory. Winners' trophies were sponsored for the A Division by Lincoln City Council, and the B
Division by the Lincoln Echo. Cash prizes were also awarded to the first five in each division.
Diviuion A
1
2
3
4
5
Steve Balment
Lewis Mackay
Paul Nind
Georgina Law son.
Mike Holland
5-0
4-1
4-1
4-1
4-1
♦ 407
♦315
♦ 268
♦ 160
♦ 97
Divioon B
1.
2.
3.
* .
5.
Liz Dunlop
Mary GillotC
Shirley Heal
Jackie GillotC
Kay Ward
5-0
4-1
4-1
4-1
4-1
Peterlee Matchplay : June 14th (Report by Susan Skirving)
♦ 364
♦ 449
♦ 367
♦ 354
♦ 246
We held our first tournament in 1994 and 28 people look part. Our club had only 6 members, not many
to run an event, but we managed with a little help from our friends. This year we held our fifth
tournament and 42 people entered. Many of them were chalking up five years' attendance, and though
our club membership has dwindled to S, once again we had a little help...
The day of the tournament was cold, wet and miserable - no chance of sandwiches al fresco this year this
year! Sadly our venue was also under par due to some recent fire damage, but tea/coffee and a chance to
thaw out was available at regular intervals in the neighbouring building.
Thank you to everyone for arriving on time, which meant we started promptly and stuck to the schedule.
By the end of the day the winners in both Divisions had chalked up impressive 5-0 win-loss records, and
three other prizewinners had matched or bettered their placings in our 1997 tournament (Joyce
Cansfield, Helen Cowic and Martin Thompson). Dave Dawson, 4th in Division One, had achieved the
notable feat of losing with the lowest spread (-1 in Round Three). In Division Two, one of Cleveland
Scrabble Club's newest recruits, Nancy Ward, finished in 4th place with 4 wins and a spread of -50.
Finally, after directing the last four tournaments, Samantha Beckwith got the chance to play in this one!
Hope you enjoyed it Sum!
We hope to continue our annual effort and look forward to welcoming old friends and new
acquaintances in the future.
Diviuion Ono
1 . Peter Finley
2. Joyce Canufield
3. Martin Thompson
4. David Dawson
5. Ki lma Warwick
5-0
4-1
4-1
3-2
3-2
• 363
♦ 244
♦ 243
♦ 365
♦ 131
Divioon Two
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Joy Hodge
Ann Coleir^n
Helen Cowie
Nancy Ward
Florence Davies
5-0
4-1
4-1
4-1
3-2
♦ 342
♦ 325
♦ 142
- 50
♦ 216
Havering Weekend (Stoke Rochford): June 20th-21st (Report by Christina French)
At 7.58 a.m. on Saturday June 20th I made a telephone call to one of the Havering Club members who
lives in Harold Wood. Essex ... "Hello Brenda, it's Chris, I'm at Stoke Rochford in Lincolnshire and we
are in a bit of a quandary - we had a cancellation last night at 10.00 p.m. - are you busy this weekend?"
"I'm still asleep" came a sleep filled reply "hang on let me wake up ... yes alright, if you need me."
Page 14

"Garry Clark will pick you up at 9.00 a.m. I'll see you later, oh and Brenda,... thanks ..."
We "go on" about our Club in the brochure we produced for the tournament but Brenda proves what we
say in the handout - our members are terrific people who support the Club tremendously.
Before the tournament started Terry Kirk presented me with the Frank and Tilly Moss shield and plaques
for winning the London League Handicap Pairs Competition along with David Hurst from the Havering
Club, in a very tight final against Di Dennis and Evan Simpson. I would like to thank Terry for
arranging this competition as it gave me the opportunity to play top A division players and has
encouraged David to enter rated events in the future.
The Havering Weekend Event was divided into four divisions, with 92 players taking part, and a touch
of Woman Power reigned in some of the divisions.
Sue Thompson put in an incredible performance in the C group, winning all 12 games: with a rating of
122 she far surpassed her rated ability (the lop rating in the division was 139). She was followed by
Philip Aldous on 9 wins and Jean Bakewell, another "B" class player in the division took third place
with 8 wins. Teresa Cole won the ratings prize.
In division D Woman Power had an even stronger presence. Claire Violett won 11 games, Fredu
Marcus came second with 8.5 wins and Pat Friend made up this womanly trio with 8 wins. Eric
Rowlands won the ratings prize.
In division B, Woman Power was again working its magic. Margaret Prichetl, a "B" class player won
the division with 9 wins (there were 16 other players in the division rated above Margaret). Gary Fox
came second with 8 wins. Ivy Dixon Baird took third place with 8 wins, with just deux points
separating Ivy and Gary. Alison Sadler won the ratings prize.
In Division A, however, Man Power reigned supreme. Barry Grossman was leading after day one, with
Terry Kirk. Russell Byers and Gareth Williams in the top four places. Barry and Russell were the two
players who kept up a steady string of excellent wins. After game 11 they were both on 10 wins and the
final game between them went to Russell by deux points. Barry took second place, leaving third place in
the hands of Terry Kirk. Shenkar Menon put in an excellent performance, coming fourth and winning
the ratings prize.
Divioion A
1. Russell Byers
2. Barry Grossman
3. Terry Kirk
4. Shanker Menon
5. Bob Violent
Division C
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Sue Thompson
Philip Aldous
Jean Bakewell
Mary Lindsay
Stuart May
11-1
10-2
10-2
8-4
7-5
12-0
9-3
8-4
8-4
8-4
+746
»729
• 411
+ 181
♦ 474
♦ 737
+ 294
+ 368
+ 234
+ 168
Divison B
1. Margaret Pritchett 9-3 ♦ 431
2. Gary Fox
8-4 +448
3. Ivy Dixon Baird
8-4 +446
4. Alison Sadler
8-4 + 149
5. Harjorie Smith
7-5 +415
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Divison D
Claire Violett
Freda Marcus
Pat Friend
Helen Sandier
G. Cox
11-0-1
8-1-3
8-0-4
8-0-4
7-1-4
+ 865
+461
+ 378
+ 153
+ 476
There were plenty of other prizes on offer. The theme words for Saturday centred on football and Russell
Byers outshone all other offerings with FLOODLIT. The highest scoring word prize for the Saturday
went to Freda Marcus for STARTED for 138 points.
Page 15

On the Sunday we had many Fathers Day related words played with an UNCLE from Mike O'Rourke (as
in "what my mum tells me to call him"), MONK, SPROG, FREEMAN, OLDISH, DADS, POTTIES.
URINALS (?), but the winner with a "spot on" word was Dot Taylor with GENITORS.
The highest scoring word prize on the Sunday went to Neil Rowley with SHELFING for 176 points.
The weekend puzzle prize was won by Moiru Metcalf: Moira has since written to me and said she
enjoyed the tournament so much she will start entering other rated events.
The highest losing spread prizes in the last round went to Barrie Hall in division D and Robert Richland
in division A.
The sale of raffle tickets raised £147.50 for the Teachers Benevolent Fund, with some excellent raffle
prizes on offer, from a de luxe Scrabble set to a signed copy of my son's X-File's book, which he had
published last year, and which Mike O'Rourke (obviously a man of taste) chose without hesitation.
As usual, David as Tournament Director held the tournament together with ease. Mauro Pratesi who
was magic on the machine (the computer), Alice Violett, who presented Bob with her own Fathers Day
card, Alan Austin (as in Maureen's husband), Margaret (as in Alan Bailey from Portsmouth), and Keith
Lindsay (as in Mary) were great fun and very hard working companions over the weekend ...
... "One minute I was on the motorway, and five minutes later I entered this amazing place" Richard
Evans said to me: that sums up Stoke Rochford nicely.
* For all those entrants who asked me when (he next Havering Weekender will take place I have
provisionally booked Stoke Rochford for the weekend of 26th/27th June 1999.
APSP Summer Matchplay : July 4th-5th (Report by Paul Golder)
If the rumours are to be believed this could have been the last time the Summer Matchplay is held at
Sorby Hall; just as we were all getting used to it, too. The plus points were for the second year running
every round went very smoothly, with no interruptions in the timetable caused by slow play. The minus
points were confusion over which of my two published timetables were to be used (which were
thankfully sorted out after the long Russian-style tea queue, when Sorby's chef decided to use the 1996
timetable) and the stage at the front of the room, which was clearly put up by Pink Floyd's roadies
judging by the trouble it caused us. (This probably sounds a little cruel but having been the first person
to full off it, 1 was just a tiny little bit relieved when other people did too). 96 people took part, including
10 players in the SOWPODS division.
Russell Byers, the highest rated player and last year's runner-up, slatted well but three consecutive
defeats on Saturday evening left him out of the running. Karl Khoshnaw, meanwhile, had won his first 5
games, but lost to Karen Willis in the final game of the evening. He was joined on S wins at the end of
the day by the overnight leader, Andrew Perry. Karl retook his place at the top after the first game on
Sunday morning, when he beat Moira Conway and Andrew lost to Nick Ball. Andrew spent the rest of
the day chasing Karl hoping he would slip up, but Karl won all his games on the Sunday to finish as a
highly deserving champion. Steve Perry, who spent most of the tournament in contention, lost his final
game but his spread enabled him to hang on to third place, just ahead of Nick.
Page 16

Division B was a much tighter affair, with S players ending on 5 wins out of 6 on the Saturday night,
Sylvia Swaney and Ivy Dixon-Baird occupying first and second place. Sylvia beat Ivy in the first game
on Sunday morning and kept the lead until losing to Roma Hollingworth in game 10. Ivy's superior
spread allowed her to take over at the lop and a last-round win of 121 against Roma was enough to keep
her there. A late run from Chris Davison won him third place on 8 wins with Lydncy team-mate Pete
Liggett also on 8 wins in 4th place.
In Division C, David Phillips got off to a flier on day one with six straight wins, but early morning
defeats by Wayne Kelly and Simon Wood let Wayne in to take over at the top, with Matthew Pinner
chasing in second place. Both players having won their first two games. Wayne then lost to Matthew in
game 3 but went on to win all the remaining games by a comfortable margin to secure the highest spread
of the tournament of +968. David was third with Jill Bright finishing in fourth place.
The ratings prizes were won by David Meadows, Roma Hollingworth and Barric Hall.
1 think my favourite word was FLOKAT1S by Raymond Tate. Some of the other excellent words played
over the weekend were: NEMATODE, DAMOISEL, ACUITIES, COALMINES (onto ES), SERPIGO.
1MBRUTED. REMEDIAT, OOLONGS, VOMICAE, HERBARIA, APLANATS, MISSHAPE,
LYRATED, MUDWORT, LOTOSES. ERUCTING, PURSLANE, GOWANED and ORDALIUM.
Divioion A
1 K.Khoshnaw
2 A.Perry
3 S.Perry
4 N.Ball
5 A.Byrne
10-1
9-2
7-4
7-4
6-5
+ 647
+ 852
+ 332
+ 99
+434
1Siviaon
B
1 I.Dixon-Baird 9-2 + 658
2 S.Swaney
9-2 + 491
3 C.Davison
8-3 +284
4 P.Liggett
8-3 + 211
5 R.Hollingworth 7-4 +368
Division C
1. W.Kelly
2. M. Pinner
3. D.Phillips
4. J.Bright
5. B.Hdll
10-1
9-2
B-3
7-4
7-4
+ 968
+483
+216
+ 251
+218
On to the SOWPODS division... This was my first SOWPODS event that 1 oversaw and hopefully it
won't be my last. Although numbers were on the low side there was no shortage of excellent Scrabble.
The event took place over 11 games and so the first 9 constituted a round robin, with rounds 10 and 11
being played as King of the Hill. As it happened, three of the five pairs were the same for each of rounds
10and II.
David Webb was the overnight leader; having lost his first game by 120 to Andy Davis, five in a row put
him one win ahead of Andy and Darryl Francis. Unfortunately, David's Sunday started badly with
defeats by Darryl Francis, Marco Post and Graeme Thomas. Andy also started with three defeats and
this led Darryl to streak clear with 7 wins at the end of the Round Robin stage; only Evan Simpson, who
was on 6 wins and a huge spread, could realistically catch him, and would need to beat Darryl in Rounds
10 and 11 to do so. However. Darryl wrapped it up with a 40 point win in Round 10 and then won the
final game by 146 to finish three wins clear of everyone else.
Marco had a great tournament for his first one despite finishing 4th from bottom, with wins against
Gareth Williams, Graeme, Evan, Martin and David.
1
2
3
4
5
Darryl Francis
Evan Simpson
Andy Davis
David Webb
Martin Reed
9-2
6-5
6-5
6-5
6-5
+ 588
+ 519
+ 260
- 92
-137
6 Gareth Williams
7 Marco Post
8 Graeme Thomas
9 Shanker Menon
10 John Grayson
Page 17
6-5
5-6
4-7
4-7
3-8
-186
- 70
-196
-314
-372

Ratings at 25th July 1998
36 x 199 Allan Saldanha (GH)
145 x 169 Helen Grayson (Exp)
132 x 198 Phil Appleby (GH)
131 x 169 Jake Jacobs
92 X 196 Andrew Fisher (GM)
42 x 169 Tony Killilea
142 X 194 David Webb (GM)
181 x 169 Cecil Huscat
96 X 193 David Acton (GH)
36 x 169 Linda Pray
107 X 192 Hark Nyman (GH)
128 x 168 Nicholas Ball
142 X 191 Andrew Cook
227 x 168 Donald MacLeod
116 X 191 Brett Smitheram
69 x 168 Diane Pratesi (Exp)
93 X 190 Clive Spate (GH)
105 x 168 Andrew Roughton
52 X 188 Richard Evans (Exp)
253 x 168 Graeme Thomas
173 X 188 Allan Simmons (GM)
200 x 167 Helen Greenaway
140 X 187 Russell Byers (GH)
63 x 167 Sheila Spate
163 X 187 Andrew Oavis
328 x 166 Steve Balment
296 X 187 Terry Kirk (Exp)
302 x 166 Any Byme
135 X 187 Brian Sugar (Exp)
74 x 166 Hary Grylls
63 X 186 Philip Nelkon (GH)
309 x 166 Ruth Maclnerney
168 X 186 Gareth Williams (GH)
32 x 166 Jayne Mackenzie
15B X 185 Neil Scott (Exp)
89 x 166 Martin Thompson
91 X 183 Di Dennis (Exp)
48 x 165 Jonathan Anstey
128 X 163 Alec Webb (Exp)
139 x 165 Danny Bekhor
69 X 182 Karl Khoshnaw
120 x 165 Simon Carter
207 X 181 Martin Fowkes
93 x 165 Philip Cohen
135 X 181 Helen Gipson (Exp)
105 x 165 Simon Gil 1am (Exp)
43 X 181 Steven Gruzd
56 x 165 Debbie Heaton
50 X 180 Peter Finley (GM)
71 x 165 Kenneth Oliver
142 X 180 David Kendix
34 x 165 Kwaku Sapong
126 X 179 Darryl Francis (Exp)
95 x 164 Paul Hind
172 X 179 Evan Simpson (Exp)
59 x 164 Graham Wakefield
96 X 178 Elie Oangoor
50 x 163 Edward Garrett-Jones
120 X 178 Penny Downer
53 x 163 John Howe11
194 X 178 Andrew Perry
51 x 163 Martin Thomas
131 X 177 Joyce Cansfield (Exp) 40 x 163 Karen Willis
60 X 177 John Grayson (GH)
139 x 162 Caroline Atkins
53 X 177 Ian Gucklhorn
124 x 162 Brian Bull
74 X 177 Harshan Umabadusuriya 30 x 162 Alan Catherall
267 X 177 Jackie McLeod (Exp)
144 x 162 Christopher Finlay
64 X 177 Mike Willis (Exp)
122 x 162 Alan Georgeson
95 X 176 Paul Golder
219 x 162 Alan Sinclair
251 X 176 Sandie Si morns
260 x 161 Rob Dowse
135 X 176 Bob Violett (Exp)
77 x 161 Jane Gibson
70 X 175 Dick Green
52 x 161 Ken Heaton
114 X 175 Gary Pol hi 11
168 x 161 Marion Keatings
142 X 175 Noel Turner (Exp)
94 x 161 Chris Lloyd
105 X 174 Paul Allan
106 x 161 Bob Lynn
104 X 174 Ruth Horgan-Th (Exp) 229 x 161 Steve Perry
58 X 173 Hartley Hoorhouse (Exp) 51 x 160 Adebowale Ajose
90 X 173 Peter Preston
88 x 160 Irene Bell
243 X 173 Robert RicMand (Exp) 34 x 160 Christina Brown
70 X 172 Chris Hawkins
107 x 160 Peter Dean
209 X 172 Wilma Warwick
106 x 160 Graham Harding
155 X 170 Barry Grossman
172 x 160 David Meadows
97 X 170 Shanker Menon
225 x 160 Janet Phillips
66 X 170 Chris Vicary
164 x 160 Martin Reed
Page 18
91 x 160 Neil Rowley
70 x 159 Amie Ballantyne
78 x 159 Bob Berry
261 x 159 Nuala Cienaghan
126 x 159 Loz Crouch
70 x 159 Angela Evans
87 x 159 Iain Harley
86 x 159 Chris Keeley
33 x 159 Russell Hurch
203 x 158 Moira Conway
118 x 158 David Holland
95 x 158 Frankie Hairey
31 x 158 Roy Miller
58 x 158 Les Nyman
61 x 157 Eryl Barker
215 x 157 Gary Fox
62 x 157 Timothy Lawrence
65 x 156 Cathy Anderson
52 x 156 Kathryn Le Grove
57 x 156 Thomas Mensah
310 x 156 Raymond Tate
107 x 156 Pam Titheradge
112 x 155 Martin Bloomberg
149 x 155 Ooug Brown
46 x 155 Paul Chadwick
58 x 155 Chris Davison
175 x 15S Nick Deller
146 x 155 Malcolm Quirie
142 x 155 Rachelle Winer
109 x 154 Alan Chi Ids
40 x 154 David Dawson
74 x 154 Ron Hendra
75 x 154 Elisabeth Jardine
80 x 154 David Lawton
274 x 154 Mike 0'Rourke
137 x 154 Kate Surtees
143 x 154 Fran Thompson
49 x 154 David Williams
171 x 153 Diana Beasley
127 x 153 Ian Burn
120 x 153 Ivy Oixon-Baird
69 x 153 Colin Hall
54 x 153 Terry Kollington
85 x 153 Brian Jones
113 x 153 Mary Jones
33 x 153 Keith King
33 x 153 Carol Stanley
218 x 152 Adrienne Berger
31 x 152 Liz Furness
157 x 152 Christine Hamilton
49 x 152 Anne Hidden
76 x 152 Pauline Johnson
83 x 152 Kate Leckie

38 ) ( 152 Ivan Swallow
81 ) i 152 Dennis Walker
57 ) ( 151 Eileen Anderson
248 ) c 151 Peter Ashurst
72 ) < 151 Sue Bowaan
70 ) ( 151 Brenda Hargereson
157 jt
151 Doreen Marsh
35 ) < 151 Huw Morgan
238 ) ( 151 Maureen Rayson
31 ) ( 151 Helen Rees
93 x 151 Alison Sadler
42 )( 151 Judy Straughan
46 x 151 Peter Thompson
48 x 150 Oluyeni Adesiyan
53 x 150 Tony Bailey
74 j(
158 Pat Colling
54 i(
ISO Christine Cooper
78 ) ( ISO Laura Finley
154 t 150 Joy Lloyd
65
112
37
93
51
85
73
151
61
72
63
41
65
102
52
129
182
125
32
42
37
42
97
71
73
50
64
75
90
174
77
30
99
243
50
< 150 Lou McHeeken
( 150
c 150
c 149
( 149
( 149
( 148
< 148
( 148
( 148
( 148 Martha Mitchell
< 148 David Nunn
( 148 Bryn Packer
i 148 Carole Rison
( 148 Alec Robertson
( 148 Norman Smith
« 148 Maria Thomson
« 148 Tom Wilson
« 147
( 147
« 147
« 147
« 147 Ron Hanton
« 147
< 147
t 146
< 146
< 146 Graham Buckingham
( 146 Marjory Flight
< 146 Sandra Hoffland
< 146 Pat HacBean
« 146 Lewis Mackay
( 146
t 146
Helen Mitchell
Adam Philpotts
70 ) c 150 Richard Woodward
58 ( 149 Margaret Browne
187 ic
149 Hoya Dewar
75 ( 149 Billy Dott
ISO ic
149 Christina French
319 I(
149 Sheila Green
109 i(
149 George Gruner
52 i
Stella Lander
Jean Rappitt
Lesley Trotter
Ian Betteridge
Daraian Eadie
David Ellis
Lorraine Gordon
Margaret Burdon
Dorothy Churcher
James Horsfall
Peter Liggett
Jean Williams
Ricky Zinger
Trevor Bently
Linda Bird
Ken Matthews
Carol Smith
t 146 Sylvia Swaney
< 146 Josef Thompson
57 X 146 Henry Walton 30 x 138 Mike Holland
129 X 145 Margaret Bright 56 x 138 Sharon Landau
102 X 145 Yvonne Eade 67 x 138 Jane Lowndes
67 X 145 John Mitchell 57 x 138 Tess McCarthy
238 X 145 Margaret Pritchett 97 x 138 Val Wright
115 X 145 Lorna Rapley 95 x 137 Liz Allen
118 X 145 Teena Walls 69 x 137 Janice Bease
75 X 144 John Balloch 45 x 137 Jean Bridge
54 X 144 Louise Brundell 40 x 137 Joe Caruana
43 X 144 Pao Fair!ess 88 x 137 Joan Caws
58 X 144 Davina Latham 93 x 137 June Edwards
127 X 144 Carol Mai kin 72 x 137 Agnes Gunn
no X 144 Anne Ramsay 84 x 137 Debbie Hollowly
184 X 143 Mary Allen 85 x 137 Sheila Jolliffe
71 X 143 Alan Bailey 64 x 137 Stuart Pierce
73 X 143 Edelle Crane 67 x 137 Rita Todd
61 X 143 Tony Davis 40 x 137 Brian Watson
59 X 143 Joanne Hi ley 63 x 136 Etta Alexander
88 X 143 David Keeble 40 x 136 Jean Carter
44 X 143 Julie Nelkon 32 x 136 Va1 Couzens
75 X 143 Jayne Reilly 60 x 136 Janes Crooks
66 X 143 Derrick Thome 34 x 136 June Hill
60 X 142 Sheila Anderson 83 136 Fay Madeley
85 X 142 Liz Barber 33 136 Stella Magnus
180 X 142 Vivien Beckmann 333 136 Marlene Skinner
41 X 142 Linda Hi Hard 135 136 Dorothy Taylor
139 X 142 Eddie HcKeown 85 136 Wendy Tiley
67 X 142 Sylvia Heyrick 53 135 Rita Brookes
45 X 142 Barbara Price 88 135 Ian Caws
227 X 142 Marjorie Soith 71 135 Dorothy Dean
184 X 142 Anne Steward 161 135 Prisciila Encarnacion
71 X 142 Jan Turner 48 135 Chris Fenwick
31 X 142 Frances Ure 78 135 Kenneth Gordon
102 X 141 Philip Aldous 80 135 Roma Hollingworth
47 X 141 Beryl Brown 136 135 Kay Johnston
114 X 141 Ann Davidson 42 13S Ann Pitblado
30 X 141 Sheila Hinett 83 135 June Wilson
63 X 141 Steven Hopper 41 134 Doreen Blake
117 X 141 Michael Partner 41 134 Jacqui Brown
33 X 141 Richard Saldanha 37 134 Georgina Cook
82 X 140 Marie English 73 134 Barbara Dein
101 X 140 Jilly Garnett 40 134 Susan Skirving
37 X 140 Maureen Greening-Steer 65 134 Donna Stanton
105 X 140 Norma Howarth 42 134 Evan Terrett
54 X 140 Sally Lewis 80 134 Isla Wilkie
97 X 140 Gwynfor Owen 69 134 Margaret Yeadon
42 X 140 Christopher Quartermaine31 133 Alan Buckley
85 X 140 Barbara Shantnas 54 133 Lois Cakebread
331 X 140 David Shenkin 75 133 Jean Dyraock
48 X 140 Carol Smith 52 133 Patricia Fenn
107 X 140 Rose Spencer 85 133 Jean Gallacher
38 X 140 Malcolm Wearn 31 133 Norma Galley
47 X 139 Shirley Angel 1 103 133 Eric Howarth
62 X 139 Heather Frankland 58 133 Lois McLeod
75 X 139 Norraan Haddow 87 133 Adesanmi Odelana
67 X 139 Peter Kelly 56 133 Mary Oram
231 X 139 Ken Quarshie 97 133 Gertie Roberts
222 X 138 Syd Berger 45 133 Angela Spilsbury
110 X 138 Linda Bradford 134 133 Peter Terry
97 X 138 Maureen Brough 37 133 Pat Wheeler
72 X 138 Ceridwen Oavies 47 132 Michael Baxendale
33 X 138 Alistair Dowling 50 132 Janet Braund
Page 19

51 x 132 Hike Buckley
37 x 132 Gerry Donnelly
53 x 132 Stan Skinner
63 x 132
60 x 131
36 x 131
37 x 131
54 x 131
48 x 131
60 x 131
135 x 131
30 x 131 Ann Hughes
32 x 131
68 x 131
30 x 131
100 x 131
70 x 130 Winnie Buik
40 x 130 Wanda De Poitiers
112 x 130 Mary Lindsay
36 x 130 Esther Naylor
62 x 130
30 x 130
35 x 130
62 x 129
58 x 129 Eileen Basham
55 x 129
40 x 129
40 x 129
32 x 129
66 x 129
79 x 129
42 x 129 Sandra Walton
32 x 129
48 x 128
69 x 128 Margaret Armstrong
57 x 128 Maureen Austin
52 x 128 Theresa Cole
51 x 128 Sally Fiszman
55 x 128 Michael Harley
41 x 128 Dale Lloyd
246 x 128 Marigold Page
41 x 128 Monica Stockweil
79 x 128 Gladys Tierney
65 x 127 Sheila Booth-Mi 11ard
33 x 127 Joseph Ooku
71 x 127 Sharon Colder
78 x 127 Joan Lawrence
263 x 127
32 x 127 David Phillips
53 x 127 Gilli Simons
52 x 127
67 x 127
94 x 126
108 x 126 David French
61 x 126 Mavis Harding
56 x 126 Mary Riggans
157 x 126 Sue Thompson
161 x 125
47 i 125
41 x 125
71 x 125
88 x 125
Joyce Squire
Nora Bain
Eve ConIon
Jill Dyer
Ann Edwards
Jill Fisher
Vera Flood
Val Hoskings
Graham Maker
Kim Phipps
Joan Rees
Lesley Watson
Willie Scott
Len Shuttleworth
Ho Tilley
Charley Adesoji
Jessie Brown
Martin Cairns
Luke Keegan
Brenda Rodwell
Jean Shaw
Eric Smith
Sheena Wilson
Elizabeth J Allen
Phiiippa Morris
Edith Smith
Linda Vickers
Jennifer Clifford
Janet Bonhan
Stella Brown
Jean Buckley
Helen Cowie
Marjorie Garrett
34 x
210 x
137 x
36 x
71 x
46 x
60 x
80 x
72 x
37 x
175 x
62 x
57 x
83 x
95 x
33 x
60 x
70 x
37 x
31 x
32 x
149 x
164 x
223 x
43 x
53 x
167 x
34 x
93 x
69 x
38 x
62 x
51 x
114 x
38 x
35 x
45 x
71 x
93 x
37 x
45 x
55 x
56 x
57 x
68 x
34 x
54 x
33 x
112 x
51 x
86 x
87 x
62 x
53 x
164 x
90 x
58 x
76 x
284 x
70 x
65 x
53 x
125 Joyce Gershon
125 Stuart May
125 Pamela Windsor
124 Linda Barratt
124 Samantha Beckwith
124 Hilary Birdsall
124 John Cakebread
124 Marjorie Hislop
124 Malcolm Roberts
124 Kitty Rugman
124 Julie Tate
123 Jean Bakewell
123 Martin Byrne
123 May Hacdonald
123 Jessie Tollick
122 Joy Hewgill
122 Hilda Hudspeth
122 Joe Marsh
122 Janet Mil ford
122 Dennis Nelson
122 Doris Street
121 Elizabeth Draper
121 Vemon Draper
121 Ruby Flood
121 Lynn Giles
121 Barbara Kent
121 Celia Osborn
120 Betty Balding
120 Sue Ball
120 Kate Barratt
120 Bobbie Bennett
120 Eileen Bradshaw
120 Nicholas Butler
120 Florence Davies
120 Phyllis Fernandez
120 Louise Gray
120 Margaret Irons
120 Doreen Morris
119 Carmen Oolan
119 Lena Glass
119 Keith Haynes
119 Barbara Hill
119 Joy Hodge
119 Brian Keegan
119 Alice Nadin
119 Joyce Smith
119 Jo Tebbutt
118 Peter Edwards
118 Margaret Harkness
118 Audrey Harvey
118 Anne Lawton
118 Haureen Reynolds
118 Peter Sime
117 Kate Boutinot
117 Garry Clark
117 Peter Ernest
117 Pat Rockley
117 Winifred Stitt
117 Simon Wood
116 Peggy Frawley
116 Vanessa Peters
116 Harry Sinclair
Page 20
92 X 116 Winifred Smith
89 X 116 Edith Tempest
183 X 116 Chris Wide
42 X 116 Sonja Wyld
33 X 115 Harjorie Gardner
124 X 115 Barbara Grant
50 X 115 Peter Hall
68 X 115 Paul Harding
113 X 115 Heather Ilott
126 X 115 Joan Murphy
98 X 115 Christine Nicholson
64 X 115 Dawn Pierce
51 X 115 Hay Quigley
30 X 115 Iris Shuttleworth
95 X 114 Alice Allwood
72 X 114 Pat Burgess
161 X 114 June Clark
133 X 114 May Gray
107 X 114 Paul Pye
47 X 114 Mary Ralfs
62 X 114 Vera Sine
50 X 114 Joanna Skirving
99 X 114 Claire Violett
90 X 113 Sue Bullock
33 X 113 June Faulkner
56 X 113 Nicholas Jenkins
33 X 113 Colin Rivington
76 X 113 Fuad Shammas
36 X 113 Sheila Tutt
45 X 112 Agnes Clark
52 X 112 Shirley Heal
31 X 112 Teresa Hill
50 X 112 Alison Pritchard
52 X 112 Malcolm Shaw
30 X 112 Ann Toft
53 X 112 Kath Ward
31 X 112 Margaret White
33 X 111 Una Collinson
45 X 111 Paul Farnworth
134 X 111 Lorna Llewellyn
52 X 111 Steve Powell
63 X 111 Sheila Reeve
63 X 111 Roy Saunders
65 X 110 Pat Friend
80 X 110 Irene Lindsay
53 X 110 Kay Malpass
46 X 110 Isabelle McLean
86 X 110 Eve Hillington
54 X 110 Alice Tozeland
71 X 110 Jacqui White
65 X 109 Betty Benton
48 X 109 Gordon Cox
75 X 109 Julia Glen
43 X 109 Kathleen Higgins
226 X 109 Norah Thompson
36 X 108 Don Beavis
64 X 108 Mary Broadhead
78 X 108 Florence Fellows
62 X 10B Daphne Fletcher
30 X 108 Freda Marcus
43 X 108 Jean Stevens
36 X 107 Margaret Bigg

67 x 107 Mabel Choularton
37 x 107
110 x 107
64 x 107
33 x 107
42 x 107 Christine Jukes
42 x 107 Mary Keevey
70 x 107 Olivia Pattern
60 x 107 Paul Steadman
35 x 106 Rhoda Gray
54 x 106 Joan Johns
123 x 106 Molly Lane
66 x 106 Connie Riach
79 x 106 Douglas Robinson
54 x 106 Margaret Seabrook
58 x 106
30 x 106
47 x 105 Mary Adams
50 x 105 Edith Grant
S3 x 105 Marian Izatt
48 x 105
52 x 105
30 x 104
52 x 104
157 x 104
47 x 103
122 x 103
Zoe Cooper
Trish Johnson
Angle Jones
Rosemary Jones
Betty Sharp
Pearl Smith
Henna Robinson
Helen Sandier
Anne Walker
Dorothy Milks
Irene Wool ley
John Brown
Harjorie Lefley
55 x 103 Mary Hanson
44 x 102 Audrey Barrington
1998 ratings
193 x 102 Paul Cartman
52 x 102
58 x 102
58 x 101
45 x 101
59 x 101
30 x 101
50 x 101
56 x 100
50 x 108
51 x 100
36 x 108
60 x 99
30 x 99
155 x 99
56 x 98
31 x 98
31 x 98
163 x 98
189 x 97
57 x 97
38 x 97
65 x 96
48 x 96
32 x 96
34 x 96
41 x 96
69 x 95
53 x 95
Rona Oryden
Adele Jones
Peter Basham
Ann Clark
Rosalyn Lishak
Stuart Ross
Peter Shuttlewood
Sheila Anderson
Winnie Haston
Jo Holland
Miriam Moss
Lionel Howard
Sheila Ross
Eric Rowland
Jack Baker
Nellie Cox
Les Searle
Lucy White
Marcia Davies
Fay Goble
Dixie Haynes
Vera Allen
Barbara Cox
Kath Jennings
Jean Johnstone
Jean Iris Williams
Fred Burford
Susan Bury
54 >
85 ) i 87
37 ii
86
163
39 i 85
62 i(
85
71
65
47
39
36
36
48
68
31
188
95
i 85
( 85
( 83
t 83
» 83
( 80
k 79
k 79
k 78
( 76
x 71
40 x 70
40 x 69
Violette Little
148 > 94 Barrie Hall
70 > i 94 Olive Matthew
40 > 94 Lorna Wishart
86 > 93 Myra Copleston
47 > i 92 Beryl Trace
37 i 91 Rita Manton
49 ■ 90 Karen Allen
47 ) c 90 Margaret Hills
63 ) e 69 Ralph Edwards
49 ) c 88 Doreen Coieman
51 ) i 87 Joan Cussens
Mavis Ernest
Mary Warwick
Pamela Brown
Dorothy Edwards
Gwen Linfoot
Jean Ross
Dorothy Henry
Cindy Hoi Iyer
Hoira Hetcalf
Stanley Wilkinson
Mary Shi el Is
Peggy Shortt
Nancy Yorkston
Margaret Craig
Christine Cartraan
Bessie Winter
John Hscdonald
Courtesy of Andrew Fisher, here are the provisional ratings for 1998 games only. The list contains only
players with at least thirty games this year, so contenders such as Helen Gipson, Andrew Cook and Alec
Webb are not featured.
Andrew Fisher
Phil Apploby
David h'obb
Brian Sugar
David Kendix
Russell Dyers
Richard Evans
Terry Kirk
Neil Scott
Brett Smitherara
Di Dennis
Penny Downer
202/47
194/52
193/60
193/60
192/41
190/43
189/33
188/88
188/48
187/60
187/36
187/31
Andy Davis
Martin Fowkes
Allan Sinsnons
Darryl Francis
Mark Nyman
Evan Simpson
Andrew Perry
Karl Khoshnaw
Joyce Cans fieId
Sandie Simonis
Gareth Williams
186/67
186/65
186/52
184/45
184/40
183/80
183/57
183/41
183/36
180/69
180/63
Quick as a flash....
What's the only OSW word formable from VIAGRA plus a blank?
Smelling of roses...
Amateur golfer Justin Rose was in the news recently. What two 9-letter words can be formed
from Ihe letters in his name?
See page 41 for the answers.
Page 21

Annotated game: Phil Appleby v Penny Downer
The following game took place at the Southampton Open in March. It nas the deciding game in the A
Division, with Penny on 4 wins and Phil on 3.5. The winner of the game would be lite winner of the
event. Our annotator this issue is Evan Simpson, one of the UK's most consistent experts over the past
few years, and the winner of a trip on Concorde in the 1997 Mind Sports Olympiad.
Penny 1: BEFILST
FIB G8a 16 16
BEFIT D8a for 26 is the highest scoring non-S play available here, hut FIB leaves the very promising
LEST combination.
Phil 1: GLMNP?? -16
IMPLyiKG H8d 83 83
Many possible bonuses playable. IMPaLiNG H8d would have yielded 3 more points.
Penny 2: ELSTBIT -67
BIT G13a 24 24
Penny misses the rather tricky STILB1TE (CI3a for 76). BILLETS El la 36 is another non-bonus
possibility.
Phil 2: EEHQRSY+59
RHYME E9a 35 118
Nice to pick up an S immediately after the bonus, but a fairly awkward rack. Phil finds the best play.
Penny 3: EILSTAE -94
LEARIEST E6d 66 90
LEALT1ES El la (a double-double scoring 82) is the best play. The move played is equal second in
terms of score.
Phil 3: EQSEENR +28
QI DlOa 11 129
Phil dumps the Q. Nothing much else was on and his rack is starting to look promising again.
Penny 4: ADEEEMO -39
OEDEMA D3d 29 119
The players now have half the E"s shared between them. ADEEM (D4d. 33) or EDEMA (A8a, 33) score
well but leave vowel heavy racks. The move played could result in a large score at B3d.
Page 22

Phil 4: EEENRSO +10
PEE HlOa 12 141
An O wasn't exactly the letter he was looking for, but a quiet opening move will hopefully allow the
rack to mature.
Penny 5: EENNOTX -22
NEXT J12d 32 151
In terms of both score and leave, XENON FI4a for 36 is easily the best move. NEXT is next best.
Phil 5: ENORSIO -10
EROSION K4d 70 211
Behind for the first lime - but not for long. Phil finds the only playable bonus.
Penny 6: ENODNRK -60
DRONE J3d 18 169
Terrible pickup. DRONE at Lid scores 22 but Penny may think this is too open (however, both blanks
have gone). Her move lakes away the hot J6 square.
Phil 6: EGLLORU +42
GRUEL F2d 17 228
TROULE (or TOLLER) J15a is worth 21 points.
Penny 7: NRAAIOT -59
AE C4a 2 171
XOANA J 14a scores 24. A bonus behind, Penny attempts a rather unsubtle board opening...
Phil 7: LOCGORV +57
CLOG Bid 18 246
GOV L2d scores 26, but Phil CLOGs Penny's opening quite nicely.
Penny 8: NRAIOTI -75
01 L8d 8 179
Ol provides another opening, but a good score from Phil and Penny may find herself too far behind to
get back. TRAIN is a good leave, and provides the possibility of an -ING ending from AlSa, but I prefer
ACINI A la 24 which also tidies the rack up quite well.
Phil 8: ORVAIKW +67
KIVA M9d 28 274
VROW L4d scores 40, keeps the K for scoring potential, and takes away one of the possible bonus lanes.
KIVA actually concedes a place for a 7-letter word ending in S.
Page 23

Penny 9: AINRTDF -95
DRAFTING alSa 101 280
Just what was needed and Penny is right back in it.
Phil 9: ORWAOUU +67
AROW Lid 28 302
Ouch! Hundred point play conceded and an awful pickup. AROW must be best despite the two U's left
behind.
Penny 10: AACIJPS -22
JASPS al2a 44 324
Great pickup! JASPS is best (PANAX F14a for 37 is worthy of consideration).
Phil 10: OUUHSTZ -24
HON F14a 32 334
The lead has changed yet again. ZHOS N6d scores 44.
Penny 11: ACIEIIN -10
AECIA Hla 21 345
Penny's turn to struggle. ACINI Ala 24 looks good again. Penny's move keeps the troublesome I's.
Phil 11: STUUZDU -11
CUZ B2a 24 358
Just when you need another U SUD (M13a, 32) is a possibility.
Penny 12: IINATVY -13
NAVY L12d 32 377
NAVY is best, but will it be enough?
Phil 12: DSTUUW -19
UT B14a 10 368
Nice play by Phil. Penny can't go out with HT and she can't block Phil's out play. If he plays WUDS this
move Penny scores 17 at O7d forTI, and the games ends in a tie.
Penny 13: IIT + 9
AIT C4d 10 379
Phil 13: DSUW -19
WUDS N6d 24 392
Page 24

mmm
TM N O
Final score: Phil 393 Penny 386
Summary: Penny did well to get back into the
game, aided by some poor racks in the middle game
for Phil. Phil's cool nerve finally carried the day.
(Pity he doesn't take penalties for England....)
Endgame note: There is no way for Penny to win
with the final racks. The closest she can get is by
playing IVY on move 12 at N12dfor 20, keeping
ANTI. After Phil's WUDS, she can go out with
TRAIN at K2afor 12. This produces a final score
of Phil 380 Penny 379.
Official Scrabble Words: new edition (a statement from Chambers)
The 1998 edition of The Chambers Dictionary is beginning to appear in the shops now and is officially
published on 29 August 1998. There are several thousand new words or new meanings of existing words
in this dictionary, and preliminary work has already started on organizing the work of compiling a new
edition of Official Scrabble Words (OSW) which will be published in September 1999.
You will be aware that the National Scrabble Association of the USA and Canada have their own word
list - The Official Tournament and Club Word List (formerly OSPD) - which is used in all officially
sanctioned tournaments in North America. You will be equally aware of the enthusiasm amongst some
players for a single word list which would combine the US list with OSW.
Chambers believe it to be an appropriate time to produce a Scrabble word book combining the two
sources and permission is currently being sought from the copyright-holders of the US.
The proposed word list would include all 2-9 letter words only, from both sources. Longer words are
listed in the current OSW, but these may be omitted this time making way for the estimated 30,000 new
words which the book will contain. Words derived from the American word list would be highlighted in
the new-format OSW word list.
The final decision about publishing a combined book depends on a number of factors including: (1) that
permission is granted by the American copyright holders; and (2) that the UK Scrabble movement gives
a recommendation to Chambers that a combined wordlist is desirable. We expect the opinion of the UK
Scrabble movement to be passed on to us by Philip Nelkon of Spear's, who is consulting as widely as
possible on this matter.
Although I cannot yet confirm whether the next edition of OSW will include words from the US list or
not, work is in hand on revising 0SW3 from the new edition of The Chambers Dictionary, and I will
confirm the final nature of the wordlist to the Scrabble movement as soon as possible.
Page 25

Across the board
My thanks once again to those who have sent me game positions for inclusion in this issue. It's a mixed
bag this month - a couple of brilliant plays, an example of extraordinary luck, a game where both players
had winning opportunities, and one of the most unusual final boards I've ever seen in a game of
Scrabble.
'•□□«□□□«□□
□•□□nii
Diane Prated sent me this position, which
occurred in a game at the Summer Matchplay. The
result of the game was no longer in doubt, but
Diane's opponent Raymond Tate nevertheless
found a brilliant play.
Raymond's rack: EERSTV?
Diane's rack: NOU
Score: Raymond 250
Diane 474
Diane's previous move had been IODINE at Dl la,
blocking off the floaters in LOWERING and
SEIZINGS. See page 41 for details...
This position occurred early on in a friendly game
between Andrew Fisher and Gary Polhill. I'm
sure you can see several possible bonus plays, but
can you spot any that score more than 80? Andrew
did.
Page 26
Andrew's rack: AEERTT?
Score: Andrew
Gary
11
43
See page 41 to see Andrew's exceptional play.

This incident occurred in a SOWPODS game at the
Summer Matchplay, between Evan Simpson and
Gareth Williams. Leading 294-177, and holding
BDIMORY, Evan played DICY at I12a through the
C of RUC, to block a possible bonus place. Gareth
successfully challenged DICY, and played LUAU
at Gld, making AS and YUP. Can you see what
happened next?
After a few seconds thought Evan played
MORBIDLY at Ala for 221, his highest
word-score ever. Needless to say, Gareth's
challenge was unsuccessful. Has anyone else come
across an instance of a phony being followed
immediately by a nine-timer?
This position occurred towards the end of a
tournament game between Mike O'Rourke and
Chris Hawkins. Holding EEIRTX?, and trailing
by 130 points, Mike tried EXIsTER at N9d. Chris
challenged successfully. At this point Mike realised
he could have tried ExcITER, and mentioned this
to Chris, who commented that he thought it was
EXCITOR, not EXCITER.
Chris then played FLAP at D2a, making
PRECOURSE. Mike challenged, again
successfully, and played the aforementioned
ExcITER. Needless to say, the word was good, and
with the 11 points on Chris's rack, Mike won by 2
points. The moral is: if you get a second chance,
snatch it!
Darryl Francis posted the following curious findings on the internet...
If you go into Lexpert and search for the words that can built from the letters of FORD ESCORT,
the first word that comes back is CORRODES!
And FORD CORTINA gives FORN1CATOR.
And FORD FIESTA gives DRAFFIEST. Since DRAFFY means "worthless", it can hardly
be an association Ford would relish.
Page 27

And finally... this was the end board position in a
game between Southampton Club players Chris
Finlay and Jean Swallow. Notice anything odd
about it? No? Then look more closely... The left
and right sides of the board are exactly
symmetrical.
Beating the best: some useful tips
Has anyone else come across this before? 1 certainly
haven't seen anything like it.
For the record, Jean won the game 356-339.
/ 'in sure you know the feeling. You look at the pairings and see, with a sinking heart, that you 've been
drawn to play the highest rated player in your division - someone you 've never beaten before. Andy
Davis is now one of the country's top players; he's also the reigning British Matchplay Champion. But a
few years ago he was an up-and-coming unknown who regularly found himself in just such a situation.
I'm sure anyone, of any standard, will find his advice useful...
There's no two ways about it - if you are drawn against a player with a rating higher than your own, and
especially those near the top of the list, you will need the "rub of the green". But don't despair, there are
ways in which you can help to make your own luck.
1. Don't convince yourself that you have lost before the first tile is drawn from the bag. Think positive.
2. If you're playing someone who has consistently thrashed you in the past, do your best to assure
yourself that these players are not clairvoyant, and have not cast an evil spell on you. Try to approach
these games as you would any other, and it will pay dividends. For example, take this year's Easier
event. I beat Sandie Simonis and Mark Nyman, against whom my previous tournament record had
been 8 losses from 8 and 7 losses from 7 respectively.
3. Know your own vocabulary relative lo that of your opponent. Where possible, be aware of your
opponent's strengths and weaknesses. Some players (particularly those stalwarts of the high-score
days) are excellent bonus-spotters, but arc not so hot on the unusual 4s and Ss. 'Top" players who
Page 28

have emerged over ihe last couple of years (David Acton and Brelt Smitheram spring to mind) seem
to have an excellent all-round vocabulary. If you suspect that your opponent has a significantly
superior knowledge of bonuses to your own. try playing a tighter game than you would normally.
4. Avoid silly mistakes. In particular, you cannot afford to miss turns against top players by playing
phoneys. If you are uncertain of a word, don't play it. (unless, of course, you have no alternative).
5. Most importantly of all, never give up until the final tile is played.
Major Scrabble Tournaments
Golf has its majors. Tennis lias its majors. How about Scrabble? Martin Thompson lias been musing on
the possibilities...
After several years of playing on the British Scrabble circuit I'm confused- I'm not really sure how you
would define a major Scrabble tournament. It's a straightforward enough question which anyone could
ask you. but would you be able to explain it? To make things easier this is a hypothetical conversation
between an experienced tournament player and a reporter wanting to do a newspaper article who has
done some research into the Scrabble scene. We'll call them 'P' for player and 'R' for reporter:
R: What is a major Scrabble tournament?
P: Any APSP rated 'A' division tournament which anyone can enter, (feels satisfied with this answer)
R: Fine, but I've just looked in the APSP handbook which lists six APSP organised tournaments- are
these majors?
P: 1 guess so.
R: But I've compared rulings lists with these tournaments and lots of top players don't play in them.
P: It's a matter of personal choice.
R: Of course. Let's sec:- Durham- too far away; Easter event- takes up all of easier and tough if you are
a Northerner; Winter matchplay-loo expensive; Summer Matchplay- what happened this year? Only 20
players in 'A' with very few of the elite.
P: I see your point aboul the Summer one but Ihere were a lot of the elite playing in the SOWPODS
division.
R: The what division?
P: It's all to do about playing with a different dictionary which has caused a schism in the Scrabble
movemeni but that's straying away from your question.
R: Fine. What about the BMSC?
P: Got to be number one.
R: Alright if you have the £ 100 entry fee. What about the APSP Masters?
Page 29

P: Very competitive tournament.
R: But it's an invitation event. That strays away from your original answer.
P: But it's an exception.
R: So all invitational events are included. What about the North East masters?
P: Regional events do not count as major tournaments.
R: Even if all of the players are experts? Anyhow- are non APSP organised APSP rated tournaments
majors?
P: In the general scheme of things, yes
R: Are weekend events more important than one day events ?
P: I guess so.
R: 1 hale to bring up the quality bit again, but for example it seems that the Peterlee tournament is
weaker than the Luion one.
P: Yes, because belter players go to Luion.
R: Why?
P: Because the South East is a stronger region and players tend to go to tournaments nearer to home, but
there is nothing to slop players entering any tournament if they are prepared to travel so my original
answer is still valid.
R: Without going into the regional bias, surely the National Championships is the top event?. After all,
the small entry fee attracts all the top players and having to qualify from regional heals makes it lough.
P: The NSC is a glamour event whereas the BMSC is the players tournament. The NSC is primarily to
market the game of Scrabble rather than to try and establish the best player, which is reasonable 'cause
without Scrabble there would be no tournaments. Plus the NSC has been handicapped by dubious
organisation, umpteen formats including not playing Scrabble lo win ( R raises eyebrows), and nol
having cash prizes which is pan of the APSP constitution.
R: I can see that money is important. However, didn't Scrabble at the Mind Sports Olympiad last year
have much greater cash prizes which must rank il as more important?
P: Yes. but a lot of lop players didn't enter because it was played during the week and SOWPODS was
used and the organisation was dubious anyway money isn't everything.
R: How irue. One more question- is the World Championship and overseas events such as the North
American and Thailand Open classed as major tournaments?
P: The World Championships is the one. Partly as it's so hard to qualify for it and the cash prizes are
substantial. Overseas events are big as well although you don't seem to need to qualify for them;
provided you can finance your trip, can play in SOWPODS or OSPD only and can adapt lo the double
challenge rule.
R: That simple huh! Anyway thunks for your help. You've cleared things up for me.
P: Anytime.
Page 30

Twenty Questions : Martin Reed
A new column for the newsletter in which well-known Scrabble personalities answer 20 standard
questions, some Scrabble related, some not. An attempt to gel behind the manAvoman and find out a
little more about them.
To kick off this new series that well known hon viveur and all round good guy. Martin Reed, fills in the
blanks to give us an insight into what makes him tick.
1. What do you do for u living?
I'm u Financial Advisor for a large Insurance company.
2. Who is your favourite opponent and why?
I think it must be Terry Kirk. He's always so gracious in victory and defeat, a real pleasure to play.
3. Conversely, who is your least favourite opponent and why?
It can be be no other than Karl "Lucky" Khoshnaw. He just seems to get all the luck against me no
matter what I do. liven he admits that he gels more than his fair share against me.
4. How did you get into playing Scrabble?
Probably like a lot of people I thought that I was brilliant just because I could beat the rest of my family.
I joined Richmond SC and was roundly thrashed by all and sundry. Fortunately this fired up my
competitive spirit and I've been playing ever since.
5. Do you prefer male or female opponents?
Definitely female even though they make tough opponents.
6. Tell us one thing Ihut no one else knows about you.
I've got one leg half an inch shorter than the other after it was broken as a child.
7. Away from Scrabble, what is your greatest claim to fame?
For one whole football season, in the mid 70's, I was in the opening shots of Match of the Day.
8. Do you keep the fact that you play Scrabble secret from your work colleagues/other friends?
Absolutely. I made the mistake of telling a colleague about Scrabble a couple of years ago. I was ribbed
for a good couple of months afterwards.
9. If you could change one thing about Scrabble what would it be?
I'd introduce SOWPODS as the word authority immediately.
10. What other hobbies/pastimes do you indulge in?
Tcnpin bowling, computing and football.
11. Huvc you ever appeared on television?
Yes. In additional to Match of the Day, I've been on Countdown, Fifteen to One, Say the Word and I'm
recording a new programme for Channel 5 in August.
Page 31

12. What is your current APSP rating and what do you think it should be?
It's currently 161 but I'd like to think I'm a 170+ player.
13. How Tar would you travel to play in a one day tournament?
I'll drive for about an hour and a half to reach a tournament. Maybe more if the in-car company was
entertaining.
14. Who would be your ideal date for a romantic evening out?
Gillian Anderson (Scully in the X-Files). Stunningly beautiful and intelligent to boot.
15. What was your greatest moment in Scrabble?
Qualifying for the NSC finals in 1996 and finishing 20th overall.
16. On average how many games of Scrabble do you play a week?
Including games against (he computer 20 to 25 I suppose.
17. Which football team do you support?
Chelsea. Come on you Blues!!!
18. What do you think is the the best word that you have ever played?
HERBARIA as a natural bonus in the recent Sheffield tournament. It was my third bonus in a row after
two easy spots using blanks. WOMB1EST (OSPD-only) was also quite memorable.
19. Would your life be better if you stopped playing Scrabble?
My wife probably thinks so! I don't think I could stop, it's just too much of a way of life now.
20. Have you ever lied about your age?
Never. I'm still young enough not to have to I hope.
How lucky can you get?|
It was a quiet afternoon at the Alternative Palace of Sometime Parliamentarians. Sir William Haughty
was on a speaking tour in America where, along with Baroness Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev, he was
a big favourite on the college circuit - his outspoken and reactionary views were particularly popular in
the more Republican South.
A couple of ancient peers were playing Speed Scrabble in the comer of the room - they'd reduced their
usual 2-hour game down to a mere 90 minutes - and a small group of regulars were gathered at the bar.
Sir Stephen Fordingbridge, formerly a junior minister in the Treasury, and now the foremost statistical
authority in the club, was holding forth.
"I've been studying the results of all my games from January 1990 through to December 1997."
Page 32

Many of Sir Stephen's conversations began with this statement. It was remarkable how many different
ways there were of analysing the same series of games.
"As you're probably aware, I've already performed detailed studies of the effects of picking blanks, S's
and the big four. But now I've also factored in E's."
He paused for effect.
"My conclusion is that without E's, a player is doomed. Utterly doomed. E's uren't enough on their own
of course, but if you pick up a smattering of the other good tiles, there's no stopping a man who picks up
more than his fair share of E's."
All this Scrabble talk had given Sir Stephen an appetite for a game, and he called over Geoffrey
Winstanley, the disgraced Education minister. "I say Geoffrey, how about a quick game. Does £5 a point
sound like a decent wager?". It did, so after replenishing their G&Ts, they began their game.
Sir Stephen drew an E to Geoffrey's L. "My first E already - things are looking good", he chortled, and
selected his opening tiles: EEEESS?. It looked promising, but after a couple of minutes he gave up
looking for a bonus and played SEE at G8a. Geoffrey immediately played EXULTING at H8d for 101.
Sir Stephen frowned. This wasn't quite what he'd planned, but an immediate bonus would be a more
than adequate response. He turned over his three new tiles: three I's. He decided to change, the three I's
and an E, keeping ES?. Geoffrey played DIAGONAL at G13a. The board looked like this:
At this point Sir Stephen made an error, an error
which might conceivably have affected the rest of
the game. He missed a bonus. Having picked up
three A's and a G to go with his ES?, he failed to
see GALAbEAS or GALAtEAS through the L of
EXULTING. The truth was that he didn't know
either word, so even seeing them wouldn't have
done him much good. Instead he played SAGE at
G8dfor2l.
With barely a hint of apology, Geoffrey reeled off
his third successive bonus, CITATION at L6d for
72. The score was Sir Stephen 27, Geoffrey 249.
Three moves in, and already it was beginning to
look like an expensive afternoon. Instinctively,
forlornly even. Sir Stephen's hand tenderly fingered
the bulging wallet in his inside jacket pocket.
And so it went on. Sir Stephen continued to pick glorious tiles, but in completely the wrong order.
Geoffrey continued to pick garbage which happened to make words. The next few moves were:
Sir Stephen
AAS?EEE EALE(Nlld)
AES7SSQ QATS(JlOa)
8
33
35
68
Page 33
GeolTrcy
AILLTVY
ACJPRTV
VITALLY (O6d)
JAP (J6d)
112
34
361
395

ESS7EET EE(I8d) 14 82 CRTVFNN VATIC (I7a) 27 422
EESST7E SEE(L14a) 16 98 FNNRIOW FROWNING (a 15a) 107 529
The board was becoming increasingly difficult.
Having picked up two U's, Sir Stephen felt that he
had to balance his rack and hope to play a bonus on
the left side of the board. Somehow he had to find
a way of cutting his losses, which now amounted to
well over £2,000. He decided to play EAU at K9a
for 9.
But Geoffrey was in no mood for mercy. OUK at
A 14a pretty much killed off the board.
In a highly successful attempt to rub a mountain of
sodium chloride into his already gaping wounds,
fate decreed that Sir Stephen would now pick up
the second blank, but even with EESTU?? there
was no bonus.
Geoffrey decided it was time to bring a humane end to his adversary's suffering. He leant over towards
his anguished opponent. 'Tell you what old chap. I'll let you off the two grand if you give me your share
options in the Nether Wallop Education Trust." Sir Stephen was excrutiatingly grateful. The
aforementioned shares, which he had reluctantly accepted some years earlier as a gift from his
ex-headmaster, were virtually worthless. Unless, as Geoffrey had recently discovered from his former
colleagues, a large Japanese car company was about to buy up several acres of school playing fields in
(he outskirts of Nether Wallop in order to build a new production plant.
So in the end it was a contented pair who returned to the bar, after the deluxe Scrabble set had been
safely packed away and relumed to its customary position in the corner cupboard (or "Cabinet", as
ex-ministers were wont to call it). Geoffrey was about to become even wealthier than he was already
(Canyon Pictures had paid handsomely for the rights to produce a film based on the events which had
led to his resignation), while for Sir Stephen there was the thrilling prospect of feeding the results of this
latest, particularly unusual game into his ever-expanding Scrabble Statistics database. Already he was
tingling with anticipation at the thought of providing empirical evidence to prove that the importance of
E's and S's was vastly overrated.
Shortly before the World Cup. England footballer Teddy Sheringham was in the news because of his
allegedly over-enthusiastic imbibing habits. But the Daily Express had a different version of events.
My thanks to Diane Protest for spotting this:
According to friends of England footballer Edward Sheringham the two-day bender in the
Algarve enjoyed in the middle of preparations for the World Cup was, in fact, a golf and Scrabble
break with the boys.
Says Teddy's pal.... "Everyone is trying to paint a picture of a wild lads' holiday but it wasn't like
that. Teddy drives us mad with his Scrabble - he even brought a travel set."
Page 34

Word
The X-Files
More helpful wordsfrom the Newsletter's resident lexicographer Nick Deller...
Well, I've succumbed to World Cup fever - that's why I'm sat hunched over my computer writing this
on a Sunday afternoon when by rights I ought to be in Sheffield for the Summer Matchplay. Thanks to
the miracle of publishing deadlines, as 1 write the World Cup's not finished - only four teams are left,
and who knows who'll win? I'm hoping for Brazil, as the only OSW word amongst the semi-finalists,
but knowing my luck as a tipster Ronaldo'll get ill and they'll lose the final 3-0 to two Zidane headers
and a late clincher from Petit. Or something.
Nothing very inspirational happened in my only recent tourney at Stoke Rochford, so I'm left
"scrabbling" for ideas for the article. I thought about presenting the list of SO odd OSW valid players
from this year's World Cup squads that has been floating around the internet, but looking at it, the likes
of SHEARER, FLOWERS and SEAMAN would have been perhaps too challenging for even me to
present wittily! So, I've decided to go back to basics this month, and do the 40 3-letter X-words.
Glancing at the list, I don't quite know them all myself! So it's worth doing.
AXE: What unsuccessful World Cup managers face following the tournament.
BOX: What Argentinian divers use in preference to a swimming pool (Bitter, me? Surely not...)
COX: Chap who shouts at rowers and is the inevitable butt of "Large oarsmen, small cox" jokes.
DUX: A leader, the top academic prize winner and so on. And here's me thinking all this time that it
was the birds that really cool kids go to chuck bread at on the town pond. I was never a dux, strangely
enough.
FAX: A means of communicating information over the telephone network by way of an unpleasant
high-pitched squeal. I've suffered phone conversations that fit that description without a fax machine
being involved!
FIX: Something that absolutely never happens in World Cup matches between neighbouring
German-speaking nations. Oh dear me, no.
FOX: Vicious, randomly violent and yet strangely cute wild animal. Best avoided by top academic prize
winners.
HEX: Something that brings implausibly bad luck and all that kind of thing. Also occasionally referred
to as a "Penalty shoot-out".
HOX: Ooh, one of these that sends me on a wild goose chase through Chambers. Shakespearian, which
explains it - it means to hamstring, which is to lame by cutting the hamstring.
Page 35

KEX: A tail umbelliferous plant. OK... so umbelliferous means "having flat-topped inflorescences"...
which are... oh heck, I'll be chasing this one all night! It's a plant thing. That'll do!
LAX: Adjective describing defensive play by Scottish footballers. I'm going to get into trouble for that, I
can feel it in my water...
LEX: Lex is luw in Latin. And therefore dull.
LOX: Could be two things, either liquid oxygen or smoked salmon. I've always had a grudging regard
for people who smoke salmon, since it seems to me to be an awfully difficult thing to light. And I
couldn't begin to guess where to inhale from...
LUX: A unit of luminosity, being one lumen per square metre. I could attempt a gag here, but the source
is so obscure that I suspect no-one except me would have a hope of understanding it.
MAX: It's gin, but that's boring, so I feel it's time for the never-popular "Poetry Corner". Ahem! 'There
was a young lover named Max, who was courting his sweetheart by fax. One digit misdialled left his
amoret Tiled with the monthly return for his tax." I theng yew...
MIX: I well remember an ITV footie commentator - perhaps the immortal Kevin Keegan - waxing
lyrical on how the Irish national manager had "got the mix right". For some reason I found this
hilariously funny, which is odd considering it's not particularly humorous.
MUX: Ah, dialect for a botch up, or a foul up, or to create one. As in "Cripes, ol' Nick's muxed that
endgame and no mistake".
NIX: Several of me. Not really! It's to cancel something, though it's also a spiteful water-spirit.
NOX: Nitrogen oxide, which I'm told is quite a nasty pollutant - comes out of cars and power stations
and all that kind of stuff.
PAX: It's peace, but rather implausibly it's also a snog. OK, there's a tad of artistic licence in there, but
not much!
PIX: I'm not sure if it's still trendy to refer to photographs as "pix". Frankly, how would I know? But
that IS what it means. Honest.
POX: All manner of fairly nasty, spotty little diseases.
PYX: A box. Well, one of several boxes actually. But to cut a long story short, a box.
RAX: The little receptacles used by all those young 'n' hip Scrabble prodigies to hold their tiles.
Actually, it's just a Scottish stretch, but to be honest I prefer the bluff definition!
REX: A curious plural of the equally curious REAK, which is a prank of sorts.
Page 36

SAX: I believe it was Mel Smith in the superb remake of "Rockin' around the Christmas Tree" who
responded to Kim Wilde's suggestion that it was time for a sax break by counselling waiting for the end
of the record. It wasn't particularly funny.
SEX: Oh dear. Malencss or femaleness, and other things which I won't go into here.
SIX: There are lots of ways I could approach this, but really it's just half of one and six dozen of the
other. I'll move on.
SOX: Ah. we all remember the Bobbysoxers of the mid-1980s. Let it swing, oh let it rock 'n* roll, let it
swing, oh let the feelin' take control, woh-oh-oh...uh-oh. (coughs embarrassedly). It's socks.
TAX: Just a little under 23% of not very much, in my particular case.
TUX: The jacket worn by unpleasant cabaret singers. Trust me, I KNOW my unpleasant cabaret singers!
VEX: Back in April 1997. when I did threes with vees, I defined this thus: 'To harass, to distress, to
annoy, to trouble, agitaie. disturb... heck, this is MY word!!!!". Frankly, 16 months on there is little to
add.
VOX: The vox is the voice. We all know the U2 lead singer Bono - his second name is Vox, the whole
thing means "good voice", and I hate him.
WAX: Candles are made of candlewax, therefore bees are made of beeswax, ears are made of earwax,
turtles are made of turtle wax... this isn't entirely true, is it!
WEX: Obsolete forms of wax.
WOX: The most streetwise of Chinese chefs are never seen without their wox. Actually, a wox is an
obsolete pan of speech related to wax.
XIS: A load of Greek letters.
YEX: A Scots word, meaning to hiccup, belch or spit. I've heard that the Eskimos have fifty words for
different types of snow, and we in England have heaven knows how many words for different kinds of
yexing.
ZAX: A variant of SAX. in the sense of a slate-trimming chopper.
ZEX: A variant of ZAX. surprisingly.
Hooray. I've finished! Now 1 can drive around the streets and beep my hom. beep beep beep! Au revoir.
mes braves! A I'Octobre!
Page 37

Maharaja Curry House
Elie Dangoor has been tickling his taste buds, andfinding out how OSW and Chambers cope with his
favourite kind of cuisine. Words marked with a * are not allowed in OSW3...
On a visit to a recommended Indian eatery in Neasden, North West London, I was pleased to discover
that the owner is something of a Scrabble expert. He gave myself and my fellow gourmand a cordial
welcome.
As we looked at the menu, we were informed that the chef had been instructed to prepare OSW dishes
only. We were offered POPADUM (or the more spicy POPPADUM), NAN (or NAAN with extra
flavour), PARATHA and ROTI as a choice of breads. We ordered two LASSIS, a wonderful yoghurt
drink, and opted for the set menu, which seemed to be more of a banquet.
There was MULLIGATAWNY soup with a mixture of DAL, DAHL, DHAL and DHOLL, which was
rather tawny but tasted superb. Vegetable SAMOSAS, onion BHAJEES and spinach BHAGEES
rounded off the starters.
I was pleased to see my favourite dish, TANDOORI chicken, cooked in their TANDOOR, a clay oven.
There was TIKKA which was similar but off the bone. My companion was disappointed that there was
no lamb pasander*. chicken masala* nor balti*, but we were assured that the menu would be revised by
the year 2000 and the contents should be known by August this year.
We nibbled into some chicken KORMA, some SHASHLIK (known to some as SHASHLICK) and an
extra hot VINDALOO with a choice of BASMATI, PILAU, PILLAU, PILAW, PILAFF or PILOW rice.
We almost couldn't decide! The vegetable BIRYAN1 rounded it off quite nicely while the condiment
tray had mango CHUTNEY and RAITA.
As they didn't have any kulfi*. a delicious rich ice cream, and we were pretty full anyway, we asked for
the bill and gave our compliments to the chef.
We headed down to the local Scrabble club, and I am not sure if it was anything to do with the smell of
our breath, but we won all our games!
World Cup 1998: The OSW Select XI
So, did everyone enjoy the World Cup? Yes, me too. And like so many football pundits around the
world, I decided to come up with my own select XI. The difference is that everyone in this squad can be
found in the pages of OSW, as well as on the football pitches of France.
Seaman (England)
Berg (Norway) Fish (S.Africa) Soldo (Croatia) West (Nigeria)
Hadji (Morocco) Petit (France) Batty (England) Collins (Scotland)
Shearer (England) Henry (France)
Substitutes: Boffin (Belgium), Luna (Mexico), Burley (Scotland), Winter (Holland), Burton (Jamaica)
Page 38

Readers' Letters
Note: Any opinions expressed by APSP Committee members in the Letters section are personal
opinions, and do not necessarily represent committee policy.
Graeme Thomas: Over the recent months various people have approached me over the SOWPODS
issue. Although they have been fairly evenly split on the issue, the one thing that they have in common is
the fervour with which those views have been expressed. Comments such as "it will mean the end of
Scrabble" have been made, by people from both sides of the debate.
This puzzles me, as it is only another word list. I am really not bothered about which one I play with. I
have offered my services to two tournaments as a SOWPODS reserve player, and I don't much care
whether I squeeze into the SOWPODS division or not. (At the lime or writing, it appears as though 1 will
pluy SOWPODS at the Summer Matchplay, and OSW at the Nottingham Nomads.) I neither know nor
care which division I shall be in at the BMSC, if there is sufficient demand there for a SOWPODS
division.
Next ycarOSW4 will be published. 1 don't hear cries of "it will wreck Scrabble" because of the extra
words it contains. Why, then, is there so much frothing at the mouth over SOWPODS?
I am not denying that there are various pros and cons over the adoption of SOWPODS. 1 continue to be
baffled, though, by the emotions that the issue provokes.
Sandie Simonis: I feel I must respond to a statement made in Graeme Thomas's 'Response to the
Questionnaire' on page 5 of the June '98 newsletter. "I know that a search for a venue in London with
proper disabled access failed, as there was nowhere available at a reasonable price".
As organiser of the London Scrabble League Tournament for several years, it has always been my
number one priority to have a venue with proper disabled access. What I have failed to find is one that is
also large enough to accommodate everyone who wishes to enter, costs less than £400 to hire, allows us
to provide our own lunch and refreshments, and has good parking facilities and is reasonably near good
public transport. Pinner meets nearly all my requirements but inevitably there are disappointed players
every year, as only about 80 can be reasonably accommodated and 1 get applications from over 100. Be
assured I do not intend to compromise on disabled access to any tournament that I organise and hope that
all others will do the same.
StU Goldman (USA): My copy of the APSP Newsletter had arrived when 1 picked up my mail
yesterday evening, and I happened to notice immediately the paragraph on page 9 entitled "Clock
Alterations". I have a very easy solution to the problem of what to do when both players arrive late for
a game being timed by u SamTimer or its equivalent.
One player's clock is started by the director, and he or a monitor stands by. When the first player shows
up, the other's clock is started. When the other player shows up, both clocks arc stopped, and the
Page 39

situation is resolved as in the following example: The first player was 2 minutes and 50 seconds late.
S/he is not penalized for the time s/he waited for the other player, so the clock continues until it reaches
25 minutes, which is when penalties begin. The other player's time is up when his or her clock reaches
22:10—25 minutes minus 2:50. This is noted in writing by the tournament official, and initialed by both
players. If there are penalties, it is merely a question of reading the clock, something I trust any player
can do.
1 must tell you how much I enjoy your Newsletter. It is concise, interesting and well written.
Ed: Thanks for your comments Slu. particularly the last bit!
Steve Balment: As Issue 60 (June 1998) contained quite a lot about ratings, I'd like to add my
thoughts to the debate, especially from the viewpoint of the "very regular player".
1. It was stated that the current rating system is simple to operate and understand. A "straw poll" I've
conducted at recent tournaments indicated that the vast majority of players don't understand the system
at all, never mind why the lurches occur.
2. I've read the two proposed new versions, and hope that the English transcript of Version 2 will be
available soon! (I cannot make head nor tail of it).
3.1 had more luck with Version 1 and have applied it (hopefully correctly) to my own situation during
1998. I have so far played 12 tournaments (110 games) in 1998 which have produced tournament ratings
between 152 and 199. Based on the current system my rating at the beginning of the year was 164 (from
218 games) and I calculate it to have crawled up to 166 now (from 328 games). Based on the proposed
new Version 1 it would mean I started on 164 (but only on 70 games). Adding the relevant tournaments
in, and keeping the latest 70 games each time, my rating would have varied between 164 and 173 with a
current standing of 170. At no point has the rating moved more than 3 points up or down so I don't think
the "considerable swing" listed in the "against" column for this system applies.
I certainly would be more interested in the new system as I do have a bit more chance to move my rating
up (or down) than if I include all 1997 and 1998 games as now.
4. Why is the top-rated player in the latest list a person who hasn't played for some considerable time?
And why is a player who has only played 21 games at the top of the 1998 list? Worth equivalent to £ 15
in football? Must be an Alan Shearer clone then as he appears to have missed half the season injured!!
5. Why are people on the same rating listed alphabetically, and not in games played order? For example,
surely someone who has a rating of 188 from 173 games should be "ahead" of someone with 188 from
127 games? (I cannot claim any bias here, as I'm near the front either way!)
Hopefully the information above about ratings is useful, as I've applied the proposed new system to an
actual situation in order to try to put things into perspective and not just because my rating would
improve under the new method. I would still favour the new system even if it meant my rating was lower
because there is more chance for it to move more regularly. Certainly from the regular player's point of
view there is no difficulty in keeping track of your last 70-ish games. (I only need to go back to Durham
98 at the moment).
Page 40

Finally, on a completely different subject. If we change the name of the association. I would favour the
Association of British Scrabble Players, as it better defines who we are, and phonetically the
abbreviation isn't much different.
Ed: Thanks for your letter Steve. With regard to the fourth point in your list - perhaps it's time to make
the minimum number of games for a valid rating rather higher than its current 30, which I guess dates
back to the days when there were considerably fewer tournaments to choose from.
Joan Murphy: Would it be possible to see an annotated game between two of the top players where
one has all the rubbish? Actual please, not contrived.
To my horror, in a game in Lincoln last week I had a rack with 6 I's and and R. Never recovering from
this shock, there followed racks with further unlikely combinations of vowels: UNAU, ETUI, EUOI...
okay, but not all the time.
So, pour encouragcr les autres. please try to comply with this request.
Ed: So, a plea to all you top players out there: if you have a really horrid game, with the tile gods
doggedly against you. please record the racks and send them in. My own experience is that such games
do happen occasionally, hut ifyou make rack management a major priority on every move, and aren 't
afraid to change once in a while, you can ensure that they're a thankfully rare experience.
Answers to puzzles I
Quick as a flash... agravic
Smelling of roses... JOINTRESS, JOINTURES
Brilliant plays
In his game against Diane Pratesi, Raymond Talc's brilliant find was SERVIETtE at D7d for 74 points.
Andrew Fisher's play (a not entirely dissimilar type of word) was mARIONETTE at ESd for 86 points.
The Nunn Challenge (June solution)
Space constraints have prevented me including the Nunn Challenge in this issue. It will be back in
October. Meanwhile, here's the solution from June...
A
8
N
3
B
11
O
4
C
12
P
5
D
13
0
6
E
14
R
7
F
19
S
20
G
15
T
21
Page 41
H
16
U
10
I
9
V
22
J
17
W
23
K
18
X
24
L
1
Y
25
M
2
Z
26

Tournament Details
Unless otherwise stated, the following notes apply to all events:
• The cost of the event includes a ratings levy-
• Positions are determined based on wins and spread.
• Smoking is not permitted within the playing area.
• If you do not enter a division on your application form, you will be placed in the appropriate division
based on your rating.
• Entrants can request to play in a higher division, although the tournament organiser reserves the right
to reject the request.
• Tournament organisers reserve the right to refuse entry to anyone applying to enter the event.
• Send an S AE with your entry form for confirmation of entry and additional details such as directions
to the venue.
News of forthcoming events
There are still places left at the BMSC. which runs from August 29th-3lst. And don't forget that the
weekend also includes the AGM. See page 3 for the full agenda.
The Mind Sports Olympiad has changed venue. Instead of the Royal Festival Hall, it will be held at the
Novotel London Hammersmith. At ihe time of writing, there has been no confirmation of prize money,
although the organisers are still negotiating with potential sponsors. There are some round-the-world
flights to be won at the event, courtesy of British Airways, but not playing Scrabble.
The APSP Winter Matchplay is confirmed for the weekend of November 21 st/22nd, organised as
always by Mike Willis. Entry forms will be circulated with the October Newsletter, but you might like to
pencil it into your diaries now.
"AT LEAST WE WONT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT
GOING TO THE LOO BETWEEN GAMES"
Page 42

Glasgow Scrabble Club Tournament: October 17th
Venue: South Dalziel Church Hall, Orbiston Road. Motherwell (no smoking on premises)
Time: Registration from 10:00/10:30. First game: 10.45 am. Prizegiving: approx 5:30 pm.
Format: S games maichplay.
Divisions: A and B, plus C if there are enough entries.
Prizes: Cash for top 3 players in each divison, based on win and spread. Amounts dependent on
number of entries. Other prizes.
Cost: £ 13.00 to include morning tea/coffee and biscuits, buffet lunch, and refreshments before
leaving. No deduction for chess clocks or APSP members.
Entries: Please send cheques payable to "Glasgow Scrabble Club Tournament Account", by
3rd October 1998, to Mrs Mary Jones, 40 Riverside Pork. Netherlee, Glasgow G44 3PG.
For confirmation of entry, map, and instructions to reach the venue, enclose an SAE.
Entry money can be refunded provided cancellation is received by October 10th.
Telephone: For telephone enquiries before 3rd October, call Tom Wilson on 01698 263054
After October 3rd, call Mary Jones on 0141 637 8945.
Notes: Please state any dietary requirements on entry form.
Swansea Scrabble Event: November 28th
Venue: Gorseinon Institute Community Hall, Lime Street, Gorseinon, Swansea.
Time: Registration 10:00 -10:30. First game: 10.45 am.
Formal: 5 games matchplay.
Divisions: A and B. Maximum number of players: 64.
Prizes: Dependent on number of entries.
Cost: £8.00 for APSP members, £8.50 for non-members. Deduct 50p if bringing chess clock.
Cost includes tea, coffe and biscuits. A packed lunch is recommended, although there are
plenty of eating places in close proximity.
Entries: Please send cheques payable to "Robert Johnston", and send them to Robert Johnston at
8, Y Berllan, Dunvant, Swansea, SA2 7RW. For confirmation of entry and a map, enclose
an SAE.
Telephone: Robert Johnston at 01792 296886.
Page 43

Forthcoming events I
Date
Aug 22-23
Aug 24-30
Aug 29-31
SepS
SepS
Sepl3
Sep26
Oct4
Oct9-ll
Oct 10-11
Octl7
Oct 17
Oct 17
Oct 18
Nov 3-6
Nov 6-8
Nov 9-13
Nov 17-24
Nov 21-22
Nov 28
Dec 6
1999
Jan 29-31
Feb 3-10
Mar 16-23
Tournament (No.fames)
* Scottish Round Robin
Mind Sports Olympiad
•BMSC(17)
♦ Alness (5)
• Canterbury (6)
• Newcastle (5)
• Shefftnatch '98 (5)
* Bournemouth Open (S)
£ Langham Hotel, Eastbourne
* National Championship (14)
* East London (6)
• Glasgow (5)
SW Evergreen (3)
•Middlesborough(S)
£ Langham Hotel, Eastbourne
£ Langham Hotel, Eastbourne
* Hope Scrabble holiday
Malta Scrabble Holiday
♦ APSP Winter Matchplay
* Swansea (S)
* Merton (6)
•Chester Weekend (16)
Cyprus Scrabble Holiday
£ Park Hotel, Tenby
Contact
Donald McLeod
Vanessa Peters
Lois McLeod
May MacDonald
Vanessa Peters
VivBeckmann
Rob Dowse
Margaret Bright
Derrick Thome
Paul Golder
Pat Macbean
Tom Wilson
Derrick Thorne
Trish Johnson
Derrick Thorne
Derrick Thorne
Clive Spate
Kathy Rush
Mike Willis
Robert Johnson
Vanessa Peters
Kathy Rush
Kathy Rush
Beryl Brown
Telenhone
01314454489
01713669237
01582 594910
01349 882016
0171 3669237
0191 2731705
01142683555
01202722123
01323 731451
01277633339
0181 539 1358
01698263054
01934 643183
01642457108
01323 731451
01323 731451
0115 9200208
01928 733565
01908 668117
01792 296886
0171366 9237
01928 733565
01928 733565
01432 37010
Note: * = registered for rating; ? = subject to ratings confirmation; £ = commercial event.
Correction: The address printed in the last newsletter for entries to the Newcastle event on
September 13th was inaccurate. It should have read: Rona Falconer, 18 Nuns Moor Crescent,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE4 9BE. If anyone has sent an application to the address printed in the
June newsletter, and has not heard from Rona, please ring Viv Beckmann on 0191 273 1705.
The APSP Newsletter is published regularly six times a year, in February, April, June,
August, October and December. The deadline for the next issue is September 25th, 1998.
Please send contributions to Phil Appleby, Thorns Cottage, Mount Pleasant Lane,
Lymington, Hampshire, SO418LS, or e-mail to phil_appleby@ uk.ibm.com. If you need to
contact me urgently, my phone number is 01590-682971.
Page 44
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