Over the first 2 days of the Easter weekend, Helen and Graham played in a 10 game tournament in Coventry.

They were both playing in a 12-player Division A.

During the tournament they played most of the players in the division, and a couple of players twice. One of the games involved playing each other !

 

 

For Graham the highlight was the first game of the tournament a 578-473 point win, the game featured a 9timer MISLEARN (140) and WIDDLES for 102!

 

Helen's  highest scoring move was using a rack of  AELOSX? after a P had been placed on the middle square.... POLeAXES for 101 !  SEQUOIA for 92 was her next best. Two unusual words played against Helen were ETHIOPS and ECONUT.

 

Three of the games that Helen and Graham played had very close finishes.

 

Here is one involving Helen.

 

 

 

 

Helen is just behind on 336 (EIKNNS) against 355 (T) , but the highest Helen can score is SKEIN or KINES (27) from b2. Her opponent played his T to make TUP for 7 points and win the game by 1. (In fact there is a higher scoring move of TOHO (I 11).

 

Here is Graham's close game.

 

 

 

His opponent is leading 381-359 and holding some useful tiles (DGIT) which could score well next turn. Graham (ANOVR?) found the playout OVERRAN (b4)  which scored enough to win by 1 point.

 

 

As mentioned earlier Helen and Graham had to play each other.

 

 

 

A real tussle of a game, but Helen (holding IR) edged into the lead 371-351. Graham held ABCDDST. The highest Graham could score was BACS (H1) for 36, leaving Helen to find a move scoring more than 6 with IR. She could only find FIR (M 13) to score 6, and the game resulted in a draw. Honours even!

 

But...what if Helen hadn't played out in one move? If Helen played KI (18), then Graham played his highest score DID (a1) for 15, Helen couldn't have scored more than 6 with the remaining R, so she would have lost by 5 points.  So playing FIR for 6 points and a draw was the correct move for her.

 

But... there is a different 36 point move for Graham - DIDACTS A1. This means Helen's FIR won't be enough to win as there is only a B to be added/subtracted. Playing KI isn't enough as Graham's B can score 12 at H1. So playing BACS guaranteed a draw for Graham, playing DIDACTS guarantees a win! 

 

Some tough games for both Helen and Graham, and they were both pleased to finish the tournament with 4.5 wins out of 10.