Over the weekend of the 3rd and 4th of October there were two 7 game tournaments held in Manuden, Essex. In the first tournament there were 20 players in Division A and 8 in Division B.
4 East Berks Players took part in the first event… and here is how they got on.
Wanda :
I was very pleased to have won 6 out of 7 games on the Saturday and winning the B division.
My biggest win was the first game of the tournament by 208 points but most of the others were only 30 point wins (and one loss of 56).
My penultimate game was against Chrystal Rose and we were both on 4 wins but she had a bigger spread than me so I needed to win this game. Chrystal was ahead for the first third of the game but then I managed to pull away with a double double score of 108 for MUGGIER. I managed to maintain a lead until the end to end up on 5 wins. I won the last game by 120 points to win the division.
Some bonuses I played:- ADAPTED-73, MISFITS-85, NATURIST-77, MUGGIER-108
Some bonuses my opponents played:- BEANIEST-83, AERONAUT-60, GAUNTLY-66
Richard :
On 3-4th October I played in Division A of the Manuden Tournament.
On day 1 I had a very good start winning game 1 despite my opponent getting 3 bonuses in his first five moves.
In Game 2 I had a 3 early bonus start of FALTERED for 98, ABUSING for 69 and INEXACT for 84. I was also scoring well with non bonus plays while my opponent was struggling with poor tiles. After another bonus of SAINING I finished with my biggest winning margin in a tournament game of 646-293.
This good run continued with wins in game 3 and 4 to lead the tournament. Game 5 was against the top seed where I bonused early with EURONOTE but he replied with back to back bonuses of DEMIGODS and ERODABLE. I kept in the game with a bonus of STEROID but then picked up CJLRTXY that ended my hopes I also went on to lose game 6 by 150.
Despite this I won the final game to finish in second place with 5 wins from 7 and a spread of +397..
Richard -, EMICATED 83, EURONOTE 77, BALLOTEE 66, , SAFRONAL 95
Opponents -DRISHEEN 78, DEMIGODS 80
Helen :
I hadn’t checked to see who was playing at the Manuden tournament before I arrived, to find that there was a strong field. I was rated 12th of the 20 players in Division A.
Game 1 didn’t go well for me, with my opponent playing 3 bonuses in the first 4 moves (WASHIER, VAULTERS and ADOPTER) to leave me 150 points behind, from which I never recovered. Having also lost game 2, more narrowly, I won game 3 to leave myself on 1 win from 3 at lunchtime. Not too bad so far.
After lunch, I lost the next game by just 10 points, then won the next two games easily to be placed at 3-3, in 8th place after 6 games.
My final game was against the 5th rated player, and the game didn’t go my way, oh no, not at all. I scored a respectable 380 points, but my opponent ended up on 590 points after playing 5 bonuses, 3 of them in the last 4 moves including a 9-timer, PREADULT, for 118 points (the other bonuses were RETRIALS, ROSETING, FASTENED and SENECIO).
I finished in 12th place, exactly where my start rating had suggested. A good but not brilliant day.
Some bonuses I played: UNCTIONS 60, PHOTONS 72, BARGESTS 67, INTERAGE 70
Some bonuses my opponents played: BONNETED 70, DEBONAIR 63, PORRECT 72, PREADULT 118, SENECIO 81
Graham :
Sometimes the first few racks of a tournament set the tone for the whole day.
My first rack of the first game contained an X and a Q - a good healthy amount of points on the first 2 racks were promised. The game continued in a similar vein, I bonused a few moves later with MITTENS and then spent the game defending – a low scoring win 391-371.
During the day I was to play the 1,3,4 and 5 seeds and came a cropper against 2 of them (losing 269-502 to one and 342-536 to another) . I finished the day on 4 wins out of 7, which as I was one of the lower rated in the division was very pleasing.
Bonuses from me included : PORGIES 84, SUPREME 93 (overlapping 5 other words), SOUARIS 80 PATENTED 94 STELLAR 65
Against : CONGRESS 80, HUITAIN 93 TOURISMS 86 POUSADA 77
Well done to Wanda and Richard for winning prizes!
