Round 14

9:00am start today. 

Table 1 pits Byers (GBR) against Grant (NZ). 

Two Americans are in a duel at Table 2: Edley and Sherman.

Table 3 has two GBR teammates: Downer and Nyman.

Word Judge words:

RONG# is right.

YPIGHT# is good.

BEWIGS is good. (didn't we go through something like this earlier with the WIG words?)

Easy words the judges have seen: GERM, LORE, NAG, and GALE (twice).

Edley challenged BARQUES (it is acceptable in both).

In the next play, he challenged VULVAE (which is acceptable in both, too). Both challenges were against Sherman.

Byers lost a challenge at Table 1 on DIARIANS early in the game.

It is good without the S.

ELECTRODE was challenged, too, by someone, and it is a good word. An interesting 9!

Also, they saw MARTINATE, which was not acceptable. Moments later, Gerald Davids (ZAF) came up to John and said, "If you have NATTIER on your rack and the only way you can win the game is to play through MA, do you have any hope?" So, I guess we know who made the play :). John looked it up in Maven and told him NO. :)

Jim Nanavati (CAN) won't tell me anything about this round's play. He said he did terrible.

John L (USA) played RONG# in a tournament in Pittsburgh last month. His opponent held, but did not challenge. John had a very pleasant game this round where it was fun playing again. Obviously he won. He is back to 7-7. Going 50 percent is pretty awesome in such a tough field.  His opponent was Missaka Warusawitharama (SRI). 431-392. Missaka played DILATIVE$ and RATTLERS. John's were EXSERTS and PIGGIEST.

Countrymen Gitonga faced Shafique (both KEN) at table 7. They both have the very same small clipboards with big plastic shields. They look a bit like schoolboys playing battleship with their clipboards facing each other. 399-373: it was Shafique's turn to win. ZINGATEs and POLITElY were two of Shafique's better plays. He won with KAURIES through KA for 22. Shafique said it was really unfortunate that he had to face Gitonga now and that one of them had to win. Gitonga says the glass is half-full not half-empty and that they are lucky they are both here at the Worlds. Stanley Njoroge Ndungu (KEN) just came over. He was just deposed by Jim Geary (USA). I tried not to sound too happy when he told me this. :) Missaka Warusawitharana (SRI) just stopped by our table. He retells me what John L. told me earlier. Akshay Bhandarkar (BAH) just played Mike Sigley (NZ) and Akshay won. He was lucky actually, he says. Shafique explains to everyone that Gitonga lost because he had no vowels at the end. Gitonga says: "Hey, if we are going to complain about these kind of things, then we are going to have no fun." I think Gitonga is almost happy he lost this game for crying out loud! In Akshay's game he got two bingos: GARAGeS and VENDOrS. Mike got RATTING.

Adam Logan (CAN) beat out Kendall Boyd (NZ) this round. 

Steve Gruzd (ZAF) faced David Boys (CAN) in this round and he lost by 4 points.

Brian Cappelletto (USA) was 12 minutes late this morning. His opponent, Linda Pray (OMN), didn't end up starting his clock. I'm told that Brian needed a cup of tea. Understandable. 

Jim Geary (USA) said he was one of 12 who went to see Matt Graham (USA) perform his standup last night. Jim said it was good and that Matt was funny. Round 15 was just about to start and I couldn't get any of the jokes. I'll try later.

Just last night I sat in my room, relaxing for a few minutes, and reread the Sports Illustrated reprint inside the NSA's media kit. I had forgotten just how intimate a peek S.L. Price, the writer, had taken into the lives of the players mentioned within that article. S.L. Price even mentioned one of Matt's standup performances. Whether it happened as written or not, the writer talked about Matt lapsing into free association about a Scrabble word in the middle of his routine. I think any player here would stand a risk of the same....