a nice Crystal Bowl.
his young fan.
playing board.
playing board.
| Saturday 7th November saw 86 players attend the annual Luton event. There were four divisions with seven rounds played. 21 of the entrants were members of the London Scrabble League. In Divison A, Australian visitor Karen Richards again made mockery of the English players by stomping through the field winning all seven games. Her highest game score was 465, her lowest was 385 and no winning spread was above 81! Bob Berry lost his opening game with Diane Pratesi 401-403 then went on to win all the rest of his games with the exception of a 399-399 draw with Jessica Pratesi. Bob's 5½ wins was enough for second place. Philip Nelkon's 346-301 final round win against Russell Byers gained Philip third place with 5 wins ahead on spread from Christian Brown who lost his last game... to Karen Richards. Other players competing in A were Barry Grossman, Sandie Simonis, George Gruner and Chrystal Rose. In Division B four players finished on five wins. Andrew Eames led going into the last round being sole player with 5 wins. Carol Arthurton beat him 415-370 to not only overtake Andrew in the table but win the division with a 419 spread. Andrew was demoted further by Margaret Pritchett who finished second having beaten Ann Golding 387-357 to finish with 343 spread. Out of the top three was Ivy Dixon-Baird on spread. Ivy beat Kim Hands 422-332 and finished with a 232 spread in fourth. Heather Laird and Graham Bonham finished 7th and 8th respectively with 4 wins each. Top rated player in Division C was Marian Hamer. Marian faced Marie Perry in their first v second place pairings in the final round. Marian beat Marie 405-277 and in the process, won the division with 6 wins and a 545 spread. Marian's only loss was in round 3 against Peter Bailey. Phyllis Fernandez and Eileen Foster drew their round 6 match 347-347 then both won their final round matches and finished 2nd and 3rd on 5½ wins. Top ten finishers included Ena McNamara in 5th with 4 wins and 340 spread and Cody McCormick in 8th with 4 wins and 127 spread. Christine Hunt and Ted Anscomb finished first and second in Division D with 6 wins each. Chris' spread slightly better than Ted's; 668-105. Chris' winning margins were greater than Ted's. David Phillips returned to the tournament scene after a ten plus year absence and was placed in a lower division than his old rating warranted and scored 5 wins finishing 3rd ousting Malcolm Davis into fourth also having the same number of wins. Viv Bishop, Valery Jansen and Renée Gilbert represented the London League in this division with Viv finishing the highest of the three in 13th place. Another rating discrepancy, this time with youngster Tim Butcher initially meant he was the recipient of the ratings prize. Further investigation revealed Angela Rigley should have been the correct winner. All three UK representatives in the World Youth Scrabble Championships going to Malaysia played in the event and a fourth youngster, Natasha Pratesi gained her best personal tournament performance to date with three wins finishing just behind Viv Bishop. The Lloyds Bank Shield lists the past winners of this Luton event; 1994: Robert Viollett, 1995: Robert Viollett, 1996: Robert Richland, 1997: Paul Golder, 1998: Helen Gipson, 1999: not held, 2000: Bob Berry, 2001: Stewart Holden, 2002: Sandie Simonis, 2003: Mark Nyman, 2004: Robert Richland, 2005: Chris Keeley, 2006: George Gruner, 2007: George Gruner, 2008: Bob Berry. |
| Glasgow on 7th November saw 52 players in competition split into three divisions playing 6 rounds. Divisional winners included Billy Dott in A, Moya Dewar in B and Julie Tate in C. Competing in C was Simon Rosenstone who was already one win in arrears forfeiting the first round when he arrived too late for round one. |
| Another H-B Holidays event took place on the weekend of October 30 - November 1st. This time Hereford was the venue with 16 players taking part. Another Moira took the stage for the London League! Moira Metcalf being the only League member in attendance. Janet Phillips took the A division with 12 wins from 14 rounds while in division B, Moira scored 7 wins and 13 spread, two wins and 609 spread behind winner Peter Lindeck. |
| A New Player event took place in Peterborough on November 1st. 24 players with limited or no tournament experience took part in a six round competition. Valery Jansen was one of those 'new' players and finished 10th with 3 wins and 3 losses. Also playing were Countdown champions Charlie Reams and Kirk Bevins. Winner was Matt Bayfield with maximum 6 wins - he'll now start his next tournament with an unnaturally inflated rating of 180! Alongside the 'New' Players event was an 'Experienced' players event comprising 22 invited players. Sadly the rating imbalance was vast with 187 Austin Shin and 183 Martin Harrison at the top, down to 58 Bill Croft and 70 Joe Knapper at the bottom. Joe along with the other two UK WYSC representatives, Tim Butcher and Jessica Pratesi, played in this event. Australian WYSC supremo, Karen Richards was playing but failed to finish inside the top ten. London League member Reeyaaz Goolamhossen finished 14th with 3 wins. Tim Butcher came in with 3 wins, Jessica Pratesi was one of five players on 5 wins in 6th. Top three were Mark Goodwin and Diane Pratesi in 2nd and 3rd respectively and one win in front and yielding a 1250 spread was Martin Harrison. |
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| Winner is presented with a nice Crystal Bowl. | Runner-up mobbed by his young fan. | Craig at the playing board. | David at the playing board. |
| The Final of the National Scrabble Championship on Sunday 18th October saw David Webb (47, from Harpenden, Herts) battle Craig Beevers (28, from Stockton on Tees) in a best-of-five play-off at the Cavendish Conference Centre in London's West End. The match was broadcast live to an audience in the auditorium comprising of many League members (I stopped counting after having greeted Sandie Simonis, Priscilla Encarnacion, Dave Shenkin, Susan Thorne, Ruth MacInerney, Philippa Morris, Moira Conway and Mrs Elizabeth Russell!). Former National Champion Brett Smitheram was on hand to explain and comment on the moves as they happened. Relaying the moves from the playing room via a video link were Jessica, Mauro and Natasha Pratesi who were the annotators. It was also relayed on the Internet for those unable to attend. As always the only sound in the room was the hum of the projector and the occasional rattle of tiles on board. It all adds to heightened tension and thrill of playing in the event knowing every move will be scutinised and queried. Last year's defeated finalist Craig Beevers was in no mood to fail this time and luck of tiles clearly was evident as David Webb's racks proved to be. All the games can be viewed and played through here The first game started in David's favour when OBVIATE went down for 77. Craig's REFUSION two moves later put him in front. SINGLETS from David saw David lead 258-211. DELATION by Craig put the ball back in Craig's court 312-290. Craig's better scoring plays of 23, 37 and 24 saw Craig go one win ahead by 432-391. Game 1: final position. Game two saw Craig take the advantage having played AESTHETE for 90 and a set of high scoring moves followed at which point Craig's ZANTE was replied by David's BUMBAZED with the Z as the blank for 101 along the top row to put David 286-240 in front! BUMBAZED, meaning to bamboozle, is one of those words you either know exists or didn't give a hope in hell of it being a word at all. It certainly proved the word of the finals as it came out of the blue. In the end it didn't help David. Craig's bonus plays of DIURONS for 94 and ONLIEST for 69 secured his second game victory 505-393. Game 2: final position. Game three proved an anti-climax as Craig's GRINGOS for 77 put him ahead 109 to 74. Both players scored highly before OESTRAL for 72 made the score 327-230 in Craig's favour with little chance of a David recovery. UNPICKED for 51 put Craig 405-313 in front and looked comfortable for the win and the NSC 2009 title. A late SUBRENT for 70 by David just closed the scores up but was not enough. Craig won by 469-430. Game 3: final position. A super show by both players who played to their maximum ability on the day. A touch of nerves shown by both players with luck of tiles giving one player more advantage than another. |
| An International flavour to the 2nd Israeli Open attracting 46 players from across the globe played 20 rounds during the weekend of the 16th-18th October in one big division! Head of the pack was former WSC champion Adam Logan of Canada who finished on 17½ wins and 1584 spread, a mere ½ win ahead of Theresa Brousson from Malta on 17 wins. Theresa recorded the highest game score of the tournament of 660 in the opening round of the opening day! Scot Ricky Zinger came third with 15 wins while Englishman Mike Whiteoak came 4th with 12½ wins. Mike was credited with the best word of the tournament - CATACOMB. Two more familiar names in 5th and sixth: Paloma Raychbart flying Israel's flag and Cecil Muscat playing under the Maltese flag. Paloma and Cecil scored 12 wins each. Further down the table was Australian Karen Richards in 10th with 11 wins and Rachelle Winer from England in 11th also with 11 wins. |
| Cock of the North event in Coventry attracted 34 people who played 22 rounds on the weekend of 2nd-4th October. Five London League members made the trip. In Division A Chrystal Rose finished in 8th place with ten wins well behind top two Phil Robertshaw in second place with 18 wins and 1557 and winner Harshan Lamabadasuriya on 19 wins and a whopping 2053 spread. Division B was won by Moira Conway with 17 wins and 1607 spread and two wins in front of Barbara Goodban. Ted Lewis and Jake Berliner rolled home with 10 and 9 wins respectively. In a close finish in Division C Caroline Elliott finished 4th with 13 wins behind Carmen Toscano and Anne Darby on 13½ wins. Winner with 14½ was Margaret Marshall. |
| Bournemouth on 4th October had 9 divisions playing a straight round robin of 7 rounds. Of the 70 players 5 were London League members. Gary Oliver was the A Division winner with 6 wins and 712 spread. Highest placed League member playing in B was Graham Bonham who was one of four players on 3 wins but three behind divisional winner Ralph Gibbs. Next player up was Karen Game who entertained them all in Division C and found herself sandwiched between Kim Hands and Alan Childs all finshing with 5 wins with spread as the deciding factor. Janet Bonham came top in Divison D having won six times in front of three players on four wins and three on three which included Cody McCormick. Finally in the bottom J division Charles Tollitt mastered eveybody with 7 straight wins in front of Colin St Hill one win behind but with a larger 794 spread to his credit. |
| H-B Holidays Morecambe on 16th-19th October. 14 rounds of double round robin, three divisions of 8. No Moira Conway or Philippa Morris but winning Division A with 12 games and exactly a 1000 spread was former member Robert Richland!! In B, a rarity, Carmen Toscano and Richard Pajak tied on wins and spread, 11 wins and 560 spread. Helen Nelson won the other division with 10 wins but a very low 42 spread. |
| Cheadle House on 23rd-25th October 28 players played 22 rounds. Division Acomprised 16 players including two ex League members. Twelve competitors in B including one current member, Heather Laird. Robert Richland continued his winning ways by winning 14 out of the first 15 games of the tourney. Robert slackened off a bit at the end with only 3 wins in seven game but did enough to come top with 17 wins and 1027 spread. Robert was two wins ahead of Toke Aka in second on 15 wins, and three ahead of duo Karen Richards and Steve Perry in third and fourth with 14 wins. It was a closer finish in B With Peter Ashurst finishing top with 14 wins ahead of a triplet of players on 13; Rowan Callaghan, Viv Beckmann and Linda Barratt. Heather Laird finished 7th with 12 wins. |
| At Edinburgh on Saturday 10th October, 54 players competed in six rounds. Only League member Simon Rosenstone made the trip up North! Simon played in Division C. In Division A both Ross Mackenzie and Kate Surtees scored 5 wins but Ross' 621 spread was better than Kate's 322. Moya Dewar scored a maximum six winning Division B. |
| Salisbury on Sunday 11th October had 9 groups of eight (for those forgetting their times tables that totals 72!) playing to a round robin format. Only five players were members of the London Scrabble League. Highest placed of those was Graham Bonham who found himself mid-table at the end of play in 5th place with 3 wins in Division C. Maureen Chamberlain's six wins won the C Division. Karen Game played in D and was one of three players who finished with three wins, a 91 spread meant she finished third. Winner of D was David Lawton with 5 wins and 251 spread. Three League members starred in Division E. Janet Bonham managed to win six times and with a 468 spread. Janet had to thank Heather Laird for drawing a game with Janet's nearest challenger, Brenda Margerson. That draw made Brenda finish second with 5½ wins! Heather herself finished with 2½ wins ahead of Andy Gray with 2! Other winners: Ed and James Rossiter finished 1-2 in Division A with 5 wins each and 378, 78 spread respectively. Four players followed with 4 wins including Philp Nelkon. Abraham Sosseh won division B also with 5 wins. Mark Murray just edged Julie Nelkon at the top of Division F by two clear wins! Anne Darby won Division G with 5½ wins and Rod Winfield won H. |
| Ramsgate on October 13-15 saw 16 players of which three were London League members. The 15 rounds were split as follows: Rounds 1-3, single round robin with top 2 in B-D promoted and the bottom 2 in A-C relegated. Rounds 4-9, double round robin with top 2 in B-D promoted and the bottom 2 in A-C relegated. Rounds 10-15, double round robin. Notably Viv Bishop made the rise from Division D to Division B in subsequent rounds. In the first stint of round robins Viv managed a three way tie at the top of Division D, sharing 2 wins with Derek Newberry and Renée Gilbert. Renée missed out promotion on spread. In Division B Jake Berliner finished in second spot sandwiched between three players on two wins and thus promoted. In the second six games Jake got relegated back to B! In Division C Viv Bishop edged out Derek Newberry on spread having finished with 3 wins. Renée Gilbert won 5 games and was promoted from Division D behind Linda Moir also with 5 wins but with the better spread. Onto the final set of six games. Renée again finished second to Linda Moir in C with Renée scoring 4 and Linda 5. Jake Berliner won Division B with 5 wins and 592 spread with Viv's luck finally running out scoring only one win. The highest rated player by 21 points was Chris Vicary with a 170 rating. So it was no surprise that Chris won all three stints, 13 of his 15 games, in Division A with a 1275 fifteen game total spread. |
| During the weekend of the 10th-11th four players from each of the four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland came together to play 12 rounds of very high quality competitive Scrabble in the invitational Four Nations event. Included in the teams were seven grandmasters and two experts. England were represented by Lewis Mackay, Harshan Lamabadasuriya, and ex League members Bob Violett and Elie Dangoor. Together they won 28½ games to finish winners of the event, two points clear of Ireland. Wales finished third with 24 wins and Scotland (who boasted 3 grandmasters in their side, including ex League member Allan Simmons) in the wooden spoon spot with 17 wins. |
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| Winner of the John Meikle Trophy. | Winner of the Billie Gray Memorial Trophy. | Scored 248 for HACKINGS |
| END OF SEASON REPORT Moira Conway provides the following report No prizes for guessing who has won the League Trophy this season. Yes, it’s Sandie Simonis!! Despite a poorish start (29th after 3 matches) a consistent performance throughout the season has given her the trophy once again. The real battle was for second, third and fourth places with Lynne Kay, Vincent Boyle and the two Mikes (Lott and Chappell) continually changing places. But in the end it was Mike Lott who held on for second place. John Meikle Cup 1 17.67 436.59 21 Sandie Simonis 2 17.04 440.41 27 Mike Lott 3 16.78 448.12 23 Vincent Boyle 5 16.38 424.61 12 Lynne KayBilly Gray Memorial Trophy This is awarded to the player who has made the most improvement having played ten games in this and in the last season. They cannot have won the trophy before. This season the members in the first three positions had already won it. Mike Lott in April -October 1988, Sammy Idowu-Johnson in October 07-March 08 and Stella Magnus in April-October 04 This means that the trophy goes to Clive Whichelow. The top seven players all receive £6 in prize money. Mike Lott 3.50 Sammy Idowu-Johnson 3.40 Stella Magnus 3.38 Clive Whichelow 3.37 Jenny Albon 2.32 Pamela Kikumu 2.22 Rick Joseph 2.20High Word Scrolls There were ninety-seven reported moves scoring 100 and over this season. Jake Berliner, Vince Boyle , George Gruner, Ruth MacInerney and Cody McCormick all had three but Alastair Keens-Douglas managed to get FOUR!! CONQUEST, GROTTIER, HORNIEST, QUATRES and REJOINED all appeared twice in the list with QUATRES being played on both occasions by Joe Bridal. Colin St. Hill HACKINGS 248 Gold John Simon ZESTIEST 203 Silver Ralph Obemeasor BREATHES 176 Bronze Joyce Hoffbrand CERAMICS 176 BronzeHigh Game Scores These are awarded when a player achieves a score of 450 (Bronze), 550 (Silver) and 650 (Silver) for the first time. There are no gold winners, 3 silver and 4 bronze winners. Betty Balding 568 Silver Josephine Colman 580 Silver Colin St Hill 578 Silver Judith Abraham 453 Bronze Mike Elman 505 Bronze Reeyaaz Goolamhossen 484 Bronze Jonny Maitland 500 BronzeSix people scored over 600 in a game this season, four of them beating their seasons best but not quite reaching 650. They are Jaya Kannan (628), David Shenkin (617),Victoria Kingham (615) and Pam Vahed (604). Also beating their previous best were Viv Bishop (522), Ann Chivers (405), Maggie Fleming (519), Charles Gale (526), Lyn Hourahine (514) Monica Marden (423), Joel Stanley(511), Jennifer Turovski(400) and Michael White (433). Well done to all members. The full results can found here |
| On Sunday 27th September 36 players were invited to play 9 games at the Old Fire Station in Hockley, ten of which were London Scrabble League members. Kevin Synnott and Evelyn Wallace were the co-organisers with Mauro Pratesi performing his usual computer operator duties. Nine rounds, twenty minutes per player, round robin format for Divisions B and C. Swiss pairings based on previous rounds in A. King-of-the-hill last round. Division A saw the top of the table clash in round 7 going to Calum Edwards who beat Steve Perry 431-371. Calum was on top. Diane beat Cecil Muscat 366-304 to go 1 win behind Calum but level on wins with Paloma Raychbart and Steve Perry. Calum further went ahead defeating Paloma 393-308. Diane Pratesi and Steve Perry remained in contention having defeated Vince Boyle and Barry Grossman respectively. In the last round Calum led by one win and played Steve while Diane entertained Paloma, both matches were second time pairings. Diane got the better of Paloma for a second time winning 418-389 while Steve demolished Calum 561-316. The top three all had 7 wins and final positions determined on overall spread. Steve had 778, Diane had 550 and Calum had 237. The highest scoring word prize in A went to Mike Chappell. Mike scored 102 for JENNIES in the opening rounds. Diane Pratesi was close with EXPOSING for 101 but later in the day Mike played VALIDEST for 167 to win the bottle of wine. Division B saw Nick Jenkins take the lead from round three. By round 7 Nick was on six wins with Ann Golding, solely in second place on 4½ wins, with their round robin pairing to come in the next round! Ann winning 342-314. With Dave Shenkin beating Len Edwards 413-330, both Ann and Dave had a chance to topple Nick if Nick faltered in his last round match to John Garcia. Nick did not falter and beat John 397-378. Ann lost 350-465 and surrendered second place to Dave Shenkin who finished on 6 wins having beaten Phil Kelly 384-374 in the final round. Chrystal Rose was eventually placed third winning her last game 402-101. Dave Shenkin started with the highest word score in B with DYSLEXIA for 86 but Victoria Kingham supplied the "biggest" word of the day with SEQUOIA for 97. Victoria went on to beat her score with DEFACING for 101 in the final rounds. Marian Hamer led from round one in Division C after a 507-214 win. By round 5 four players including Marian and Phyllis Fernandez had 4 wins. By round 8 Derek Bower was the leader when he beat Marian 388-294. Phyllis Fernandez, having beaten Marie Perry 357-312, had tied with Derek on 7 wins going into the last round. The fixed round robin format had Phyllis and Derek matched in the last round. Phyllis overcame Derek 376-306 to win C. Derek held onto second place. Marian finished with a 439-314 win against Marie Perry but it was not enough to take third from Damian O'Malley. Damian won his last game 461-281 and with it, third place. Natasha Pratesi had led the highest scoring word prize with WINNERS/FOES for 76 but got overtaken by Damian O'Malley's SCATTERS for 88 in the next round. In the end, Derek Bower scored 95 for PEWTERS and won the bottle of wine. |
| H-B HOLIDAYS was held in Southsea from 18th-21st September. 34 players in four divisions attended but neither Moira Conway or Philippa Morris graced the Southern Seas! For the record the divisional winners were: in Division A, Peter Darby with 12 wins, Nicky Huitson won B with 10 wins, Kerry Constant won C also with 10 wins and Fay Goble won D with 12 wins. |
| Carol Smith organised the Norwich Tournament on Sunday 20th September. Two divisions of 20 and 22 players, 6 rounds. Six London Scrabble League members competed. In Division A Philip Aldous, John Ashmore and Alec Webb all finished with 5 wins with spread separating them for 1-2-3. Lou Brundell and Victoria Kingham were 7th and 8th with 4 and 3 wins respectively. Heather Laird won Division B scoring 5 wins and 525 spread aheaad of Pat Friend who had the same number of wins but a 75 spread. Phyllis Fernandez and Cody McCormick each had 4 wins and finished 8th and 9th respectively. Valery Jansen managed 2 wins and finished 19th. |
| On Saturday 26th September 8 teams played for the right to be 2009 National Scrabble Club Teams champions at Bradford. The Essex Essential team consisting of Bob Violett, Christina French and Robert Richland who qualified from the South East final were well off the pace and finished well behind the Lincoln Allstars. Lincoln consisting of Mark Harrison, Ben Wilson and Gerard Fox finished top with a combined 13½ wins ahead of the favourites and many times winners Nottingham Nomads with a combined 12 wins. |
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| Winner with 12 wins and 882 spread. | Runner-up 11 wins and 900 spread. |
| The weekend of 12th-13th September at The Great Barr Hotel in Birmingham saw the semi-final of the National Scrabble Championships event organised by Mattel. One big group of 56 players playing 14 rounds of highly competitive Scrabble to find the top two to play off in a best of five final at London's Cavendish Conference Rooms on Sunday 18th October. Mike Chappell (described in a report on the event by Rebekah Oruye for the Sunday Mercury, as a "self-confessed 42 year old nerd"!), Sandie Simonis and Jackie McLeod were the only players from the London Scrabble League to have qualified in a varied field of individuals spanning the whole spectrum of the ratings list. Other qualifiers included; Elie Dangoor, Calum Edwards, Mark Nyman, Ed Martin, Austin Shin, last year's winner Allan Simmons and losing finalist Craig Beevers. Craig got off to a great start with 8 straight wins before losing 339-486 to Mark Nyman! Both were overtaken in round 10 by David Webb after he defeated Mark 410-394. By round 13 David led with 11 wins, Craig was on 10 wins and Mark had 9 wins. Craig lost to Ed Martin 401-475 while David's 482-416 victory over Mark meant that David qualified for the final with one round to go and was "Gibsonised" for the last round. Pairings were: Ed to play Mark and Craig to play Mikki Nicholson, all four having an opportunity to meet David in the final if results went their way. In the end Craig beat Mikki 504-354 to secure his place and Ed beat Mark 582-370 to finish third. David could even afford the luxury of losing to Howard Wilde 335-433. "This year's National Scrabble Championships is due to reach an exciting conclusion at the Cavendish Conference Centre, 22 Duchess Mews, London W1G 9DT on Sunday 18 October (nearest tube : Oxford Circus). The final will be best of 5 games starting at 10.30 a.m. The final is between Craig Beevers 28, from Stockton on Tees and David Webb 47, from Harpenden, Herts. We will be presenting the Final, as it happens, in the Auditorium adjacent to the area where the game takes place. The 2000 NSC Champion, Brett Smitheram, will be on hand to explain and assess the moves as they occur and the audience will be able to make their own comments and ask questions as the action unfolds. Entry is free. We expect the BBC to be filming there for a documentary that they are working on so it would be really good if we could have a full auditorium. There will be online coverage at the Centrestar site, if you are not able to attend." Philip Nelkon. |
| Kelvedon Hatch again saw the Havering Autumn Scrabble Tournament played on Saturday, 5th September. 72 players attended and split into three equal divisions along with 18 London Scrabble League members who made the trip into Essex to play six rounds of Scrabble. In Division A Vince Boyle led with 5 wins and 389 spread from Karen Richards, Lou Brundell and Paul Bassett on 4 going into the last round. Vince beat Lou by 167 points to easily win the top prize with maximum wins and 556 spread. Karen beat Paul Bassett by 28 points to come second. The only person finishing with 5 wins. While Calum Edwards continued his prize winning streak by beating Danny Bekhor by 38 in the last round to finish 3rd with 4 wins and 362 spread. Lou finished in seventh place with 4 wins. Ruth MacInerney scored 108 for playing the move SWEARER/KIPE/DOR. Bob Berry, Dave Shenkin and Chrystal Rose also featured in this division. In Division B and going into the last round, Phyllis Fernandez led with 5 wins with 286 spread from Jaya Kannan, Sharon Landau, Feroza Bartlett and Sue Ball on 4. Feroza lost to Derek Bower by 20 points. Derek thus overtook Feroza for fifth place. While the top four played each other in the last round where Sharon defeated Jaya by 95 and Sue defeated Phyllis by 55 and positions switched dramatically with three of those players ending up on 5 wins. Sue's win over Phyllis was not enough to overtake Phyllis in the table. Phyllis had a 231 final spread ahead of Sue on 176 spread. Sharon's final round win was sent Jaya to fourth place on 4 wins and win Division B with 5 wins and 337 spread. Reeyaaz Goolamhoosen finished 13th with 3 wins and won the ratings prize. Heather Laird, Jake Berliner, Linda Bird, Barbara Dein, Norma Galley and Cody McCormick also played their parts in this division. In Division C Paul Carter led with 5 wins from Valery Jansen, Joan Ress and Michelle Minnaar and Susan Thorne on 4 wins going into the last round. Paul defeated Valery by the narrowest of margins, 2, to finish with maximum wins and 299 spread. Valery dropping to third. Michelle's 41 point win against Joan enabled her second place with 5 wins and 458 spread. While Susan Thorne's loss to Esther Kaskett by 38 demoted Susan to eigth. Brenda Young and Renée Gilbert also played in this division. Pictures of the winners and Tournament standings, wallchart and scorecards can be found here |
| Scarborough was the place for the next round of HB HOLIDAYS during 4th-7th September. Four groups of eight inlcuding London League Members Moira Conway and Philippa Morris. Moira was edged out of first place in Division A finishing third with 8 wins and and 151 spread, behind Stephen Balment and Jill Bright on 9 wins with spreads of 460 and 20 respectively. Three players finished Division B with 9 wins from 14 rounds and happily Philippa finished in front of Hilary Birdsall and Esther Bacon on spread. Anne's Darby and Atherton won Divisions C and D respectively both scoring 10 wins. |
| Warm up events 28th-29th August; Yarnfield: Such was the nature of promoting the BMSC by having television camera recording the event for a documentary later in the year. In the process of filming an exhibition game between Mark Nyman and one of the presenters it was decided to have it played in the final round of the Ladies event - right next to the top table where the two games vying for the Kay Thorne Trophy for Division A took place. As well as all four players were very distressed by all the noise which filtered throughout the whole room it caused more than one player to feel slightly peeved at the inconveniance at such a crucial point of the tournament. So in mid game both games (Karen Richards v Janet Phillips and Diane Pratesi v Alison Sadler) had to up sets, racks and clocks, and relocated to another part of the room. Karen was leading at this point on five wins followed by Janet, Diane and Alison on 4. Not standard procedure at any level. Karen held on to win 417-351 to win the Kay Thorne Trophy while Diane's 501-453 defeat of Alison secured second spot thus neither Diane or defending champion Alison were able to get thier name on the trophy for a second time! Margaret Staunton deafeted top rated player Amy Byrne 404-335 to finish third behind Diane. Moira Conway and Chrystal Rose featured in this division and finished well off the pace. Heather Laird turned out to be the only London League member to come home with a prize this weekend. Going into the last round of Ladies Division B Heather was on five wins ahead of Carmen Toscano, Barbara Hill and Marlene Skinner. Heather consolidated top spot by defeating Carmen 418-360 and finshing undefeated with 6 wins and 290 spread. Marlene beat Barbara 343-321 to finish second. Caroline Elliott scored her highest ever game score in her round one win 552-339 against Janet Bonham. Although Caroline finished ninth with 3 wins, Janet recovered to finish eighth - one win ahead of Caroline. Only four London League players competed in the 38 strong Mens Division. Graham Bonham was our only League player in Division M but finshed well behind the leaders! The other three players in Division N; Dave Shenkin, Andy Gray and Ted Lewis all finished on three wins in mid-table. Division M was decided in the last round when leader going into the last round, Russell Byers on 5 wins, lost to John Ashmore 301-402. John's finishing spread not enough to overtake Russell's while Steve Perry beat Nick Deller 586-431 to also finish on 5 wins but Steve's final spread merely enough for third place. Russell took home the John Rusted Trophy. Similarly in Division N where Paul Ashurst squared up with Alan Bailey and Chris Harrison faced off with David Meadows. All had four wins. Alan beat Peter 331-327 to win the division from Chris, who had defeated David 379-264. |
| Main event, sponsored by Denki: 20 games, spread over 3 days of the Bank Holiday weekend, 29th-31st August. The "open" A Division consisting of 64 players of varying rating abilities, 194 to 140. The competition turned out to be a two man show with Harshan Lamabadasuriya and Mark Nyman leading from the start. Ed Martin following close behind. By round 18 Mark had developed a two win advantage with 16 wins ahead of Harshan and Ed with 14 wins. The last two rounds was strict king-of-the-hill which matched Harshan with Mark for the third time. Honours even between the two. Mark won the first encounter 514-460. Harshan the second 444-327. Ed was matched with David Webb whom he despatched 381-346. Harshan came within one win of Mark by defeating him 450-340. Harshan now needed to win his last game by 49 points to overtake Mark. Harshan won 457-415 - 42 points! 7 points shy of the £1,000 cheque. All their four encounters were annotated by Mauro Pratesi, Ben Wilson and Natasha Pratesi and put on the Centre Star website by Stewart Holden and can be played through to see if you can match the experts plays. Ed naturally finished third but Calum Edwards who beat Ed in the final round 437-368 came fourth. John Ashmore scored 140 for SUDATION and the nine letter BONEMEALS in the same game. Last year's winner, Allan Simmons finished 12th with 12 wins and 580 spread. Famous names featured in the eleven players that finished on 10 wins. These included; outgoing ABSP chair Terry Kirk 27th, Sandie Simonis 29th, Robert Richland 30th, interim ABSP chair Ross Mackenzie 31st, Vincent Boyle 32nd, WESPA chairman Elie Dangoor 35th, Barry Grossman 36th and Graham Bonham 38th. |
| 34 players competed in B Division. Carolyn Emery, Paul Thomson and Peter Thomas each took turn leading the table. Jessica Pratesi had won the frst five games but once going a win behind them was unable to break into the top three. In the end she fought Alison Sadler for fourth spot! Alison having defeated Jessica 454-316 finished fourth demoting Jessica to sixth. Carolyn was one win ahead of Peter Thomas going into the last round (20) and was "Gibsonised". A bit of a surprise regarding she had a massive spread over Peter in second place yet technically, had results not gone Carolyn's way, could have surrendered first place. Carolyn Emery won her last game 462-450 so was never in any danger. Carlolyn finished top with 16 wins and 988 spread. Peter Thomas lost his head-to-head match with third placed Paul Thomson 498-375 tying both players on 14 wins. Paul's spread of 1133 was better than Peter's 196 spread. League members Dave Shenkin and Moira Conway both finished on 9 wins.
The remaining three divisions consisted 20 players playing to a round robin format with king-of-the-hill final round. Seven players finished on 11 wins in Division C; Janet Bonham came sixth and Barbara Morris seventh. Other members Jake Berliner, Heather Laird and Ted Lewis finished further down the list. At the top was Stephen Balment on 14 wins and was uncatchable and was "Gibsonised". Janet Bonham had the disticntion of beating Stephen in the final round 450-428. Tia Knowles beat Yvonne Eade 441-329 for second place and Sarah Jane Jamison beat Barbara Morris 470-360 to come third. |
| Philippa Morris was the only member playing in Division D. Philippa finished on 7 wins. Way out in front was Marlene Skinner with 15 wins and 762 spread. Samantha Beckwith came second with 13 wins and 422 spread with Linda Barrett third, top of four players on 12 wins on spread. Division E was won by Val Hoskins on 16 wins and 1320 spread, second was Paul Cartman. Caroline Elliott came eight with 11 wins. Also playing were Joe Knapper and Tim Butcher, who along with Jessica Pratesi, have been chosen to represent the UK in the forthcoming World Youth Scrabble Championship in Malaysia in December. Joe and Tim got seven wins each. Jessica's 12 wins enabled her to win a special prize of a round board donated and awarded by WYSC organiser Karen Richards for the highest placed under 18 player of the tournament. The Centrestar website hosts full stats, annotated games, link to more pictures, etc; of the event www.centrestar.co.uk/09bmsc.html. |
100 players attended the Weekend Nottingham Nomads tournament on 8th/9th August. This was the 29th Nomads weekend ably run by Clive and Sheila Spate. The groups were named after card games on Saturday and hairstyles on Sunday. Both days comprised 10 nine player round-robin groups and one group of ten. There was no 5 point penalty, no self adjudication, no computer producing fixtures and results, so no problems resulted! Martin Harrison won 10 games in a row in the top group, finishing second behind Wayne Kelly on Saturday and winning the group Sunday. Jessica Pratesi continued to climb the ratings - she was the only player to beat John Ashmore on Sunday click for board, also defeating Austin Shin for the first time click for board. As always happens on these weekends the players promoted on the Saurday do badly on Sunday while players relegated on Saturday do better on Sunday! Of the thirteen members of the London League; five were promoted, five remained in the same division while only three got relegated. Ruth MacInerney being the only Divisional winner amongst them. Achievements of London League (and related) members are thus:Saturday: Sunday: A: 4th Elie Dangoor 4 wins -37 spread A: 3rd Elie Dangoor 5 wins 245 spread A: 8th Di Dennis 3 wins -251 spread A: 9th Jackie McLeod 2 wins -386 spread B: 3rd Jackie McLeod 6 wins 261 spread B: 2nd Diane Pratesi 6 wins 360 spread B: 6th Diane Pratesi 3 wins -172 spread B: 5th Di Dennis 4 wins -47 spread C: winner Peter Thomas 6 wins 396 spread B: 7th Jessica Pratesi 3 wins -349 spread C: 3rd Jessica Pratesi 5 wins 149 spread B: 9th Peter Thomas 2 wins -510 spread C: 8th Moira Conway 3 wins -263 spread C: 5th Graham Bonham 4 wins -156 spread D: winner Ruth MacInerney 7 wins 580 spread C: 9th Ruth MacInerney 2 wins -164 spread D: 2nd Graham Bonham 5 wins 68 spread D: 3rd Moira Conway 5 wins 90 spread D: 6th Dave Shenkin 4 wins -52 spread D: 8th Dave Shenkin 3 wins 125 spread G: 3rd Ted Lewis 5 wins 407 spread H: 6th Ted Lewis 3 wins -65 spread G: 6th Janet Bonham 3 wins 142 spread M: 3rd Philippa Morris 4½ wins -239 spread H: 3rd Philippa Morris 5 wins 163 spread M: 5th Janet Bonham 4 wins 26 spread I: 6th Caroline Elliott 4 wins -46 spread P: 7th Caroline Elliott 4 wins -253 spread J: 8th Viv Bishop 2 wins -387 spread T: 2nd Renée Gilbert 6 wins 167 spread K: 5th Renée Gilbert 3 wins 38 spread T: 3rd Viv Bishop 5 wins 281 spread K: 6th Carol Joahill 3 wins -76 spread T: 6th Carol Joahill 3 wins -57 spread |
| 96 players made the trip to Coombe Road, New Malden on 18th July 2009. Not a bad turnout considering a clash with the English Open and Bournemouth HB holiday weekends and Brighton the following day. Although adverse weather conditions was not cause for concern this time, there were still many cancellations, no shows and many last minute additions! All four Divisions contained 24 players. Elizabeth Terry was TD assisted by Susan Thorne and Maggie Fleming combined with the local scouts employed in their regular roles as runners and Mauro Pratesi computer operating, Division A had the option of self adjudication. It was an interesting to note that the winner of each division was a B rated player. Bob Berry managed to avoid all but one of the top rated players to win Division A. His 6 wins from 6 games came after a 442-346 win against the second highest rated player, Gerry Carter in round five was to prove crucial in winning the division. A final round win 460-344 against Paul Thomson secured Bob another Division A title. Gerry returned to winning ways with a 431-370 win v Nick Ascroft to come second on four wins. Theo Kumi defeated Olatunde Oduwole 463-397 in the final round to finish with 4 wins in third spot while Diane Pratesi's 412-407 defeat of Calum Edwards gave her fourth spot also on four wins. Had David Holmes and Vincent Boyle not managed a 401-401 tied game, there could have been eight players on 4 wins behind Bob Berry! Finishing with 4 wins from fifth to eighth positions were Paul Thomson, Sandie Simonis, Nic Ascroft and Gary Fox. Sheila Green won Division B at her first attempt, previously she had been part of the organisational team! Sheila was tied on five wins with Stephen Wintle going into the final round and with Stephen's spread of 605 far better than Sheila's 319. Sheila triumphed 506-323 and won B. Stephen held onto second place from Margaret Keegan who beat Colin Parker 405-337 in the last round to finish third 28 points behind Stephen on spread. Computer program tsh threw up an amusing match-up in the first round and paired Jaya against Jaya, (Kannan v Baranage that is)! Other London League players in this division were; Ruth MacInerney (highest placed LSL member at 13th), Ron Hendra, Marian Hamer and Kim Phipps. In Division C it was a case of "Birds of a feather" as Ken Bird and Linda Bird finished perched at the top of the (bird)table! Ken with 6 wins and 320 spread. Linda the sole player on 5 wins and 310 spread. Linda's only defeat was at the hands of Ken as early as round 2 when Ken won 421-352. Peter Sime led the players on four wins in third even though he lost his last round match 349-411 to Ken Bird. League interest came from Phyllis Fernandez and Maggie Fleming, who both got off to poor starts but ended the tournament with final round wins. Division D went to the unrated Sara Hardy with 6 wins and 469 spread, ahead of Reeyaaz Goolamhossen on 5 wins and 501 spread. An incorrect scoresheet was the culprit determining the top final placing. The wrong scores had been written against the players in a previous round but was not picked up, which meant Doreen Clayton (5 wins and 39 spread) was inadvertantly awarded third spot. Brenda Young, whose scoresheet was at fault, was now adjusted under TD orders and was officially placed third with 5 wins and 423 spread. Doreen was now fourth but will keep her money prize and will pass the third place trophy to Brenda via a League evening. Loads of League members played in D including; Viv Bishop, Renée Gilbert, Ann Best and Ann Chivers. The above example was one of the many scoresheets filled in incorrectly, many a spread did not match the actual score difference, player codes missing, two players consistently had their player code wrong - one thinking his player code was his ABSP rating of 92! It went on and on. Amazingly no one came to the organisers to query their wins, score or spread was wrong! A reminder to all tournament players to check the tables for wins and spread and query with the computer operator and not wait until after the results have been announced and the prizes awarded! Among the words challenged were: ASBESTIC, BUNTY, CROTONS, DEEWANS, DOMELIKE, GYOZA, HOHA, KYANG, OGHAM, OXYACID, RERADIATED, WAREZ, WOMYN and ZIRAM. The next New Malden Tournament is on the 6th March 2010. Entry forms can be downloaded from here. |
| HB HOLIDAYS took it's turn at Bournemouth during 17th-19th July. Three groups of six played with 5 London League Members present. Of the three memebrs in Division A Jake Berliner scored 5 wns, Graham Bonham 8, but in front with 10 wins and winning the division was Moira Conway. Philippa Morris and Janet Bonham played in B and scored seven and eight wins respectively. Ginny Dixon, winner of B, scored 11½ wins. Division C was won by Irene Lawes on 11 wins. |
| The English Open tournament in Coventry comprised 21 games played over 3 days attracting grandmasters, experts, two World Champions plus the odd London League player. You would have thought that World Champions Nigel Richards and Mark Nyman would run away with things but didn't bank on the prowess of Ed Martin and Lewis Mackay. Nigel led the division with 14 wins from 16 rounds before starting a 5 game losing streak! In round 19, against Mark Nyman, Mark scored a nine-timer with LANCETED on the second move with Mark going on to win 611-421. Ed Martin too was in contention but two losses in rounds 19 and 20 meant he had to beat Mark Nyman in the last round to come third. Lewis Mackay had mustered 14 wins up to round 21 and was faced with having to beat Nigel to win the tournament. Lewis won the last game 420-413 to win Division A while Ed Martin bested Mark 450-395 to gain third spot. In a ten player Division B Dave Shenkin finished the event on 8 wins well behind the winner Maureen Chamberlain on 15 wins and 906 spread. Seven of the 22 Division A players were ex-London League members. Main League interest was in Division C where Ted Lewis was the winner in a tight finish. Tied on 14 wins with Barbara Goodban going into the last 21st round. Ted faltered 393-418 to Carmen Toscano in the last round as Barbara fell to Pauline Weatherhead 345-401. This gave Pauline 14 wins as well! It was all down to spreads. Ted's final spread of 919 was enough to win the Division. Barbara scored 645 with Pauline on 462. Caroline Elliott also featured in this division. Full results, stats and wallcharts at: http://www.centrestar.co.uk/09engopen/html/index.html |
| On Sunday 19th July 14 players who played at New Malden made a weekend of it and participated at Rustington near Brighton. Of the 64 competitors, only 5 players were current League members. In the 22 strong Division A Danny Bekhor and Phil Kelly were first and second with five wins each. Danny's spread of 424 better than Phil's 200. Karen Game was our other member in action in A. A 22 player Division B was won by Ruth Marsden with five wins and 536 spread ahead of Pamela Windsor also on five wins and 263 spread. Heather Laird and Phyllis Fernandez competed in this division - their combined wins totalling 5! In a 20-player Division C the winner was Sheila Tutt whose five wins totalled a 235 spread while Jan Vokes-Taylor's five wins amounted to 193. Susan Thorne competed in this division coming 6th with 4 wins. |
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| Fixtures Organiser | Results Co-ordinator. | Newsletter Editor. | Membership Secretary. | Mailing Co-ordinator. | Complaint's Officer. |
| Viv Bishop is our Fixture Organiser and has all the data, files, computer program etc to create the monthly Fixture List. Please send all messages about temporary and long term changes to your fixture requirements, to Viv either by writing or (preferred) by email by clicking this link. eg. "I can't play on February 8th" or "I'll be on holiday the first week in August", "I can no longer play on Tuesdays." The deadline for informing will be found at the end of the fixture list. It is generally around the 7th. Note that these must be in time eg. for February (and possibly the first few days of March) must be informed by early January. Other information e.g. change of address should still be sent to Janet Bonham.
The results should be sent to Moira Conway as soon as possible after the match has been played. You can click this link to a score sheet, save it to your computer, fill it in when needed and email it as an attachment to Moira click here. Sending in of score sheets via the postal system are still accepted by Moira, but do write results on the envelope. If you have a stock of old score sheets bearing the names of Graeme Thomas, Sheila Green, or even Peter Dean, you may continue to use them, but please note that Graeme, Sheila, and Peter are no longer handling the results.
From August 2009 David Holmes will/has become our Newsletter editor. Please forward any articles and snippets of interesting note to David click here. Daivd takes over from Richard Wooward who has had to move to Staffordshire when his father fell ill and had to look after him. Mauro Pratesi will act as Deputy Editor.
As of January 2008 Jake Berliner is in charge of collating and posting the monthly mailing to paid up League members. Jake can be contacted via the Address List that is sent out to members.
As of March 2009 Philip Cohen is our Complaints Officer. Thanks go to Joyce Hoffbrand who had been in the role for almost a year. Any member wishing to complain about breaches of the London Scrabble League's Rules is asked to WRITE or EMAIL the Complaints Officer. (His address can be found in the twice yearly mailing or in the home page/files section of the London League's Groups' mailing list or click the email link by clicking here). In case of a player who does not arrive at a fixture having failed to inform the host/hostess at all, a telephone call is sufficient. Players in breach of the Fixture/Games Rules are liable to suspension; persistent offenders may be expelled from the League.
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