More from Sherrie Saint John, as transcribed by Adam Logan and
posted by John Chew, with the help of Gregg Foster.
--
Round 3

To quote Laura Klein, " we are an hour behind schedule and lunch is an
hour long.  Do you know what that means?"  This round began at 12:15.
Things seem to be moving along well.  I've not heard any complaints
from the players themselves.  The room manages to be relatively quiet
despite all the hangers-on.

Jim Kramer (USA) notes that two players are 0-2 with -4 spreads.

The room is very comfortably cool.  Several players, though, used to
warmer inside temperatures, are clad in leather jackets, scarves, and
sweaters.  The North American players received a bonus in their goodie
bag, and many of them are in evidence now: gray L. L. Bean PolarTec
pullovers with a "1997 Worlds" emblem tastefully embroidered on the
upper left front.  In a most sensitive fashion, the Canadian pullovers
say "Canadian Team".  If the glory and attention isn't enough incentive
to qualify for the Worlds, perhaps the fashions will encourage us!  Be
thankful this isn't you writing this.

Tony Sim, a non-competing player from Singapore, has been leaning over
my shoulder periodically during the morning's events.  He says very
little, nods every so often -- He says, "Hello everyone!"  Tony has
competed in previous World Championships, but this year, his place was
usurped by Austin and Quek.  I think he still likes them, though!
#:\)$

Ian Anderson, director of New Business Development for Asia Pacific for
Mattel, is here, too.  He is working on getting championship
tournaments to occur in other parts of Asia.  This coming year in
China, he is planning on holding an English-language tournament in
March, and then, he hopes to have an Asian-Pacific championship in
Manila, the Philippines, in late July or early August of 1998.  He
works out of the Australian office, and he will be working with Philip
Nelkon of Mattel-UK on these projects.  It is, in fact, Philip who will
be going to China and teaching the game to university students.  There
are 33 universities in Beijing alone, says Anderson.  There is only one
English-language paper there, the China Daily, and they will be
cosponsoring the outreach at these universities.

In a discussion with me, Anderson took a bold stand by saying he
believes there is little point in having a stack of dictionaries at a
championship like this.  The judges are literally barricaded behind
huge stacks at this event.  We should use, he says, only one word
source.  Needless to say, he qualifies as a SOWPODS proponent.  He
discussed the newly released Redwood Official Word List, combining both
dictionaries.  If the word is only OSPD-acceptable, it has a $ by it.
If it is only OSW-acceptable, it has a #, and words in both
dictionaries are signless, as they should be.  It was just released
this week to general distribution in Australia and New Zealand.  It
comes in both hard and soft cover versions.

He discussed with me at length a new Scrabble card game that has become
quite popular, available only to players within Mattel's Scrabble
copyright umbrella.  Many players can play at once and it is great
fun.  In a recent game of Scrabble cards, just as Anderson was
beginning to pull ahead, Nelkon surged into the lead and took the
victory away from him.

Back to the tournament.  A challenge slip came in that said UNWEAL.
Paul Avrin (another word judge), laughed and said, "Oh, an Elmer Fudd
word!"  Imagine his surprise when he ruled in acceptable!  I think that
will be his word for the day.

Jan Dixon, one of the many non-playing expert players, promises that if
she sees anything remotely noteworthy, she will pass it on, perhaps
even via me.

Laura has announced that we all should be back here by 2 PM.  I trust
everyone will be able to eat by then, as it is 1:15 as I type this.