Volume 1, Issue 47 May 21-28, 2019 Walking off in style

Volume 1, Issue 47

Walking off in style May 21-28, 2019

Worcester Scrabble Club News

"Then Bonsu came down from the tree, and ran away till he saw a plain by the edge of the sea, where a pinang dara and a birah plant were growing side by side near the shore. When he reached them he called to him wild pigs, woodpeckers and porcupines, and they came..."

From "Studies in Religion, Folk-lore, & Custom in British North Borneo and the Malay Peninsula"

Ivor Hugh Norman Evans

Cambridge at the University Press, 1923

Note: The pinang, or areca palm, is native to Malaysia. Chris K. played the word this week. As to Ivor H.N. Evans, I'd have used an Oxford comma after "woodpeckers" in the text above.

Every Scrabble player loves to make bingos, and there's nothing better than making one on the final turn to win a game. Such walk-off bingos are fairly common among expert players, but they are always fun to see. Veteran club

member Mike Wolfberg this past Tuesday had the distinction of making two such plays to win games. The first came in a game against Nicole K., who was leading by about 100 points late in the contest. Mike played off a B to form "BA" as seen at left. Nicole, without a lot of options to block, played KEY for 22 points. Mike drew the final tile, an O, and from the rack of EORSTV? Played STOVERs for 94 points and out, winning 346-338. It was the low winning score of the evening, and perhaps the most stylish -- at least until Mike's game against Chris S. That contest began with Chris making BrOMINE. But Chris missed making (T)ECHNOID and Mike's TENSORS made it close. It stayed that way until the end, when Chris, seeing Mike was building a strong rack, played MI(C)/FIT to block the top row. Mike played E(MIC), forcing Chris to try W(E)N, which would mean Mike would need to find a bingo ending in N from his rack of EIQRSU? The answer, SQUIREe(N) for 69 and out, gave Mike a 405-349 victory. Chiefly an Irish word, SQUIREEN means a petty squire, usually a gentleman farmer, who aspires to the rank of squire, but is perhaps not quite there. STOVER means various things, including food for a journey, winter food for cattle, hay from clover, broken straw from the threshing floor, and other variations depending upon local usage in rural England. ESTOVER, which Mike could have made, and which is usually seen in the plural, ESTOVERS, means "necessities allowed by law," with various meanings. The OED says: "Wood which a tenant is privileged to take from his landlord's estate so far as it is necessary for repairing his house, hedges, implements, etc.; alimony for a widow or for a wife separated from her husband; maintenance for an imprisoned felon."

As the 2018-2019 club

season draws to a close...

Memorial Day weekend signals the start of summer and also signals the approaching end of yet another season for the Worcester Scrabble Club. We have been meeting fairly regularly now since about 2006, and while the records of past glories are scattered in various notebooks, journals, and corners of the internet, new achievements are always being realized. While there is one more week worth of games to round things out, it seems pretty clear that five-time club champion Seth Lipkin will finish with the best record and highest average for the year. Seth, shown at right conducting a post-mortem following one of only 12 losses on the season (Chris K. won this one by a score of 387-368), is 40-12 on the year, for a winning percentage of .769, and a scoring average of 442.1.

Mike Wolfberg will finish the season with the most wins, 139 and counting, and likely the most games played, having reached 200 last Tuesday. Chris Kulig has been in 196 contests and could well become the second player to crack 200 for the season next Tuesday. The everdangerous Beth Mix seems to have lost her bid to reach .500 (but don't relax for a second playing her), while Carol McDonald, at 62-51, will finish well above the .500 mark. Everyone's favorite world traveler, Nora Keil, has secured her annual goal of averaging over 300 points -- here's to seeing Nora break 500 in a game next season.

A "Collins" game?

Chris S. and Chris K. met up last Tuesday for an OWL game, but if you examine the board here carefully, you'll see that each got away with a Collins-only word. Chris S. opened with GINZO, and Chris K. made the beautiful MA(Z)ELTOV. Chris S.'s AWESOME reply is valid; GINZOS# is not. It's GINZOES in OWL. The word is a derogatory term for an Italian. Chris K. hit back with a Collins word -- PAPERI(E)R#! Chris S.'s second "Italian" play of SECONDI won a challenge and helped him pull out a 374-370 win.

Borrow that word

Ultimately, nearly every word in English comes from another

language. Don Finkey's play of (L)OaNWORD in a 498-366 win over Chris S. reminds us of that simple fact. A beautiful find by a very strong player, 14-6 this year.

2

No rest for the weary and bleary

In professional sports, the off-season is a time for rest, recovery, golf, family, reading, you name it. In Scrabble, there is no off-season. Our club year runs from the first week of June to the last week of May. So, the May 28 meeting will complete the 20182019 year. The 2019-2020 year begins June 4. Personal bests will be retained, season totals reset. As participants know, our club is super friendly and fun and we are always looking for new players. If you've always wanted to try it, or know someone who might, don't be shy. We're really nice to newcomers. We play by NASPA rules, but newcomers get to use cheat sheets and don't lose a turn on challenges. Every game is between two players. Of the 813 this year to date, 808 were OWL games, only five used the Collins lexicon. (grrr...) All were in English. But if you own a tile set in Spanish, Italian, Latin, or some other language, and have an opponent and a lexicon for reference, well, you're welcome too. It's a Scrabble club, and not an English-only Scrabble club. Not that anyone will be playing in foreign languages. But you never know. I'm excited to announce what you already knew: Dues for the 2019-2020 year will be $0 per week.

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