Round 11 A sumptuous lunch has passed. Everyone seems to be on time for this round. The room is once again relaxed and quiet. The London Sunday Times reporter, Tim, is still here keeping up on every nuance. We've had many reporters in and out, but none with the staying power of Tim! Here's to hoping that the Times gives him a good two-page spread! Joel Sherman (USA) has moved up to Table 1 and he is now playing Russell Byers (GBR). Byers has been sitting in that seat nearly all day now. Andrew Cook, a non-playing British expert, is with me now. Mattel flew him over here and he isn't even playing! I think they are grooming him for things to come. He has one of those fun red jerseys too :). He is telling me that Team GBR has the top 4 places in the tournament now. 1. Russell Byers 2. David Acton 3. Allan Saldanha 4. Mary Nyman The other two players with 8 wins are: 5. Joel Sherman 6. Joel Wapnick Andrew was brought over my Mattel because he won the National Championships last month. Coming here on a "holiday" was his first place prize! What a prize. He notes that the room is much quieter here than at other tournaments. He and Charlie Southwell, the tourament director are discussing why this is. All we can ascertain is that everyone is well-behaved. Andrew participated in the Southeast qualifying championship last August. Due to his good performance, he then went on to the National Finals. Everyone played 10 games and then the top 4 played a further 3 games for a total of 13 games. When the smoke cleared, the top 2 did a best of 5 final. He competed against Jackie Mcleod (the first woman to make it to the finals there). He was "lucky" to win it 3-0. I think he is just being modest... He is, of course, very pleased with the good performance of the British contingency. David Webb (GBR) is working very hard, says Andrew. He has just come up through the ranks recently to his elite place on the team. Andrew is sorry he is not playing. He says, "It would be really nice to have a go at playing here. It isn't often that one gets the opportunity to play againt such a top-class bunch of competitors." Okay, I admit, I paraphrased. He is too classy to say "a bunch." Oh, a little newsbreak: The entire GBR team is staying at the nearby Holiday Inn. We will be posting this information on the bulletin board outside for the all important babe alert. I'll send Jim Geary (USA) over to give them anagramming party tips. That little joke was for you, Graeme. :) Akshay; Bhandarkar (BAH) just defeated David Webb (GBR) with a whopping 543-300. That has gotta hurt! Gareth Williams (GBR) just defeated Sammy Okosugah (NIG), 415-382. I'm closely watching the matchup between Matt Graham (USA) and Joshua Addo (GHA). Joshua is wearing his NSA hat AND a leather jacket and claims he is cold. It is nearly 80 degrees in this room! Challenge information: Joe Edley (USA) has played BARATHEA in two consecutive games today. Rita points out that IDEOLOGY is only good in the OSPDII+. Someone tried NOVICED (not good anywhere). A challenge just came in for a member of the Seinfeld cast. And it was ruled Acceptable. Any guesses? I'll put at end of this post. Also, within one minute of each other, they got the challenges: GALE and BLAW. :) Acton just lost to Nyman. 484-459. Mark played the amazing: UNSOUNDLY, of course attaching SOUNDLY to UN. I see both ZO and QI there. Acton did TEMBLOr. ABY and KHI seem to be the only OSPD words on their board. Edley won 519-408 over Wapnick. MEUSINGS by Wapnick. Edley found UNSTOPS for 90 points playing atop YOK! Good game. In the match between Graham and Addo, Graham pulled out the win 508-456. Matt's better plays were: AROYNTED, TEQUILA, and CHAZAN. Addo put out a Y in the triple line and Graham came on strong with AROYNTED, getting him into the lead. Addo did REdLEGS, YAcHTES, and ENDEARS. Addo was leading until AROYNTED got slammed won and then it was all Matt's game. Sammy Okosagah (NIG) just lost to Gareth Williams (GBR). Williams sQuASHER, using up all the blanks selfishly for himself. Sammy tried to be big about it, but the game does go downhill once both blanks are out. Oh, Sammy now says, it wasn't that way at all. He actually responded to SQUASHER with PIECENS, but then Gareth got another bingo: NESCIENT. Then Sammy did EULOGIAS. He did quite well, actually... He has run off and I don't know their score. Oh well. Look it up in John's posting, okay? Russell won 462-448 over Joel. This is a tough loss for Joel. Shoot. Oops, we do have some folks on this list who will be HAPPY about this win on Byers' part. Byers played: RELAXINS for 110, a double double. He also did UNvEILED 77. Then ENGIRDS (74). Joel did OUTAsKED (86) and ASHIEST (78). Russell's sister, Esther, has won six games so far. She didn't get to sit at Table 1 as long as her brother! Joel says he made only one mistake: the first play. He scored 86 points, but he could have made 89, which would have blocked that RELAXINS. If he had played OUTbAKED, it would have made a WORLD of difference. I guess that is why they call this THE WORLDS. Even the tiniest of judgment makes all the difference... Wow... I am stunned as I sit here. Joel, munching on a bagel (so NY) is in good spirits and seems okay about the win, well, by that I mean Byers' win. Akshay Bhandarkar (BHR) played DAvid Webb (GBR). I already mentioned Akshay's win. He played ZEATINS for 113 points! He got another 3 bingos after that: BORNITES, dOULEIA, and DESpAIR. No wonder he won! He is 8-3, a definite contender. And, he is all of 17 years old. Watch out, he is going to be around for a long time, too! Steve Gruzd (ZAF) beat out Jere Mead (USA) 432-317. Elaine's last name is BENES. sherrie saint@mit.edu