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Three East Berks players travelled to Staverton Park, near Daventry for a 15 game tournament between Christmas and New Year.
There were 4 round-robin groups of 16, and one small group of 14 (a round robin followed by 2 'king-of-the-hill' rounds).
Fiona played in the smaller E division and won 9.5 games out of 15. Some of her wins were by quite large margins including +198, +157 and +134. The draw was also a high scoring encounter 403 points each. Well played Fiona!
Graham played in Division C, and after a slow start managed to win 8 out of 15 games. His biggest win was by 140 points, but his worst loss was by a staggering 263 points! Ouch !
Helen was the lowest rated player in Division B and a late flurry of wins, gave her a total of 7 out of 15. An excellent performance given she started bottom of the division. Her biggest win was by 100 points.
The venue was very good, with an excellent break-out area nearby where tea and coffee was on tap (sadly no biscuits!). There was even a communal 500 piece jigsaw puzzle and pool table for those wanting a different activity between Scrabble games.
There were lots of good words played over the weekend - the three that Fiona, Graham and Helen were most proud of were DOURINE (a disease of horses), NETSUKE (Japanese clothes fastener) and JOOK (Scottish word to dodge).
Above are a couple of Helen's boards!
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East Berks Scrabble club recently held its Christmas Party with the ever-chaotic continuous Scrabble, a brain-stretching quiz and scrabble bingo. Lots of chances to win a variety of prizes.
Trophies were also given to 2023 competition winners :
Handicap - Graham
Best Improver - Maureen
All-play-all winner Division D - Charles
All-play-all winner Division C - Sharon
All-play-all winner Division B - Fiona
All-play-all winner Division A - Graham
Well done to all winners!
The club is open next on Thursday 4th January 2024 730pm.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
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On the 18-19th November, Richard played in the A division of the ABSP Winter Matchplay held in Milton Keynes. Here is his report :
Well done Richard - some very tough competition in deed.
Here is one of his boards.
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In the first few days in November, Fiona played in 2 scrabble tournaments in Malta - here is her report - thank you Fiona!
The Malta Scrabble club hosts an annual tournament which is attended by players from all over the world. I thought that some November sun, combined with Scrabble sounded much nicer than rain in Blackwater! There were a number of tournaments – I attended the one day early bird, and the main three day event. ! I was joined by a countdown friend, Tom, for the early bird – it was Tom’s first tournament and he’d spent the plane journey learning the 2 letter words! I played people from England, Scotland, Ireland, Malta, Australia and India, and lots of other countries were represented too – a truly international event
The warmup day didn’t go particularly well Scrabble-wise, but I played some lovely people and won 2 of my 9 games. The main tournament was 25 games, and I won 10, but many of the games were very close and I finished with a positive spread which I think is a tournament first for me! I also got my highest tournament score of 549, and averaged 392 points per game so despite the low win rate I was happy enough with how I’d played.
Over 34 games there were lots of bonuses! My favourites were SUIVANTE and DEADEYES, and my highest scoring bonus was ADJOINS for 117 points. Others included DRACONES, MONIKER, TRITONE, SEAMIEST, ROTARIES, BLEMISH, TALENTED, UNREADY, HOARSER, RURALIST (twice!), TILLERS, SALLIES, TERRIES, MEALIER, MENDINGS, CURRANTS, INSOFAR, ROISTER, RUSTLING, SONNETS, SAURIAN, WEDGIES, UNSTAGED, RELISTS, STUNNERS, LISTENER, DETAILS, STOUTLY, AVIATED, IONISING, EGOTISE, SERRATE, ENTITLES, PEASANT, FAIRIES, OUTLIER, ABIDING
There was a 5 point per word penalty for challenges, so a lot of invalid words stayed on the board. 5 points shouldn’t be too much of a deterrent, but I did have one game where my unsuccessful challenge swung the game to my opponent!
The hotel was lovely, and there was a small sandy beach nearby which was deserted at sunrise. The sea was the perfect temperature for a swim! The Malta Scrabble club had arranged a meal out and a tourist day, and those were a lot of fun too. I’d definitely recommend it if you fancy some winter sunshine!
One of my games – I didn’t challenge IFFS – I should have, it’s invalid!
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These statistics cover the year running from the beginning of October 2022 to the end of September 2023. Results are overleaf. Winners were as follows:
Best improver for 2022-2023: 1st Maureen Barlow
2nd Maire Bennett
3rd Keith Radbourn
Quarterly improver prizes: Q1: Martin Stephens
Q2: Maureen Barlow
Q3: Gillian Cranston
Q4: Deborah Porter
Winter League: Division 1: Richard Spencer
Division 2: Fiona Titcombe
Division 3: Martin Stephens
The All-play-All: Group A: Graham Harding
Group B: Fiona Titcombe
Group C: Sharon Hewitt
Group D: Charles Parker
Handicap: Graham Harding
Highest game scores were:
· 618 Graham Harding · 598 Graham Harding · 596 Helen Harding · 589 Graham Harding · 588 Graham Harding · 576 Wanda de Poitiers · 575 Graham Harding · 573 Graham Harding |
· 571 Richard Spencer · 569 Wanda de Poitiers · 565 Graham Harding · 563 Richard Spencer · 558 Richard Spencer · 556 Helen Harding · 552 Helen Harding · 551 Fiona Titcombe |
Other players scoring over 500 points in a game were: Peter Tart (highest score: 518) and Pat Llanwarne (516).
The highest single moves were:
· 131 ASTEROID Graham · 118 JINGOES Fiona · 116 BITTERS Helen · 114 FADEINS Wanda · 113 SLITTERS Joy · 112 JOLTERS Fiona · 110 LAZIEST Helen · 109 RETAINS Maire · 108 SHOWIER Pat |
· 107 EGOTIZED Graham · 106 NOURISH Gillian · 104 CARDIES Peter · 104 METRICS Graham · 103 ZAIRE Graham · 101 WHOOPED Graham · 100 AMPUTEE Hepzi · 100 BARMIER Helen
|
Name |
Old Rating |
New Rating |
Rating Change |
P |
W |
D |
L |
Average |
Highest score |
Highest ever |
Maureen Barlow |
121 |
137 |
16 |
121 |
69 |
0 |
52 |
352.4 |
476 |
528 |
Maire Bennett |
73 |
84 |
11 |
124 |
27 |
0 |
97 |
288.5 |
390 |
448 |
Keith Radbourn |
74 |
85 |
11 |
125 |
29 |
1 |
95 |
283.7 |
418 |
418 |
Graham Harding |
169 |
178 |
9 |
159 |
132 |
0 |
27 |
432.6 |
618 |
661 |
Helen Harding |
171 |
178 |
7 |
150 |
127 |
0 |
23 |
426.1 |
596 |
597 |
Michael Spencer |
93 |
95 |
2 |
131 |
39 |
1 |
91 |
312.6 |
413 |
502 |
Fiona Titcombe |
136 |
138 |
2 |
81 |
44 |
1 |
36 |
386.6 |
551 |
551 |
Wanda de Poitiers |
156 |
156 |
0 |
131 |
89 |
0 |
42 |
414.7 |
576 |
592 |
Pat Llanwarne |
149 |
148 |
-1 |
59 |
36 |
2 |
21 |
361.4 |
516 |
516 |
Charles Parker |
111 |
107 |
-4 |
120 |
47 |
0 |
73 |
325.5 |
477 |
509 |
Richard Spencer |
176 |
171 |
-5 |
130 |
101 |
1 |
28 |
436.1 |
571 |
625 |
Martin Stephens |
103 |
97 |
-6 |
80 |
30 |
0 |
50 |
330.0 |
464 |
477 |
Joy Wade |
121 |
109 |
-12 |
93 |
46 |
1 |
46 |
346.9 |
484 |
484 |
Hepzi Rodrigues |
150 |
137 |
-13 |
79 |
44 |
0 |
35 |
366.7 |
499 |
554 |
People with insufficient games (52, or an average of 1 per week) to qualify for best improver |
||||||||||
Mary Twomey |
96 |
99 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
285.3 |
316 |
316 |
Sharon Hewitt |
143 |
141 |
-2 |
44 |
25 |
0 |
19 |
354.3 |
456 |
548 |
Peter Tart |
136 |
127 |
-9 |
14 |
5 |
0 |
9 |
366.7 |
518 |
518 |
Deborah Porter |
138 |
107 |
-31 |
38 |
13 |
0 |
25 |
340.2 |
441 |
542 |
New members without a previous year's playing record |
||||||||||
Gillian Cranston |
101 |
50 |
17 |
0 |
33 |
346.6 |
448 |
448 |
||
Amanda Lowe |
79 |
80 |
15 |
0 |
65 |
282.9 |
376 |
376 |
||
Jen Brennan |
72 |
29 |
7 |
0 |
22 |
302.3 |
436 |
436 |
||
Paul Stanger |
67 |
19 |
3 |
0 |
16 |
263.9 |
357 |
357 |
||
Ann Shaw |
56 |
30 |
0 |
1 |
29 |
229.4 |
317 |
317 |
||
Guests |
||||||||||
Jim Macey |
141 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
360.7 |
388 |
388 |
||
Kate Lester |
|
101 |
|
6 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
303.2 |
363 |
363 |
Gill Cheetham |
86 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
4 |
254.8 |
340 |
340 |
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