Round 21

Jan Dixon and I got to annotate the exciting last game. Board 1 had Joe
Edley (me annotating) vs. Matt Graham (Jan annotating). Edley won by
99. The game was very tense and could have gone either way up until the
very end. Both players were in good form, very polite and sportsmanlike
toward each other. And that game will be coming to you soon. Some of
the highlights, though, were: Matt's: DECURVES (69), NONSOLAr (68).
Joe's were: ELOINERS and ANGIOmAS. That last play pretty much gave him
the game.

Someone just challenged TERN. Jim Kramer, who adjudicated said, "He
won't lose that turn!"

Board 2 had Joel Sherman vs. Akshay (THA). Joel had a strange first
rack: IMORSSS. Took about 5 minutes to decide if SORISMS if was good.
Convinced himself no, so he took more time and played SORI for 8
points. His next play he used his only vowel U, to play MUCKS for 33.
Then he bingoed with GIRASOLS (70). Basically, that got him off to the
lead and he was able to extend that through. Akshay's better plays
were: BAYOU and JUKED. Virtually all the big plays in this game were
Joel's. His other bingos were VApOURED and INCRUST. He own by 200
points. The score was 487-283.

Table 3 was a win for Bob Felt (USA) against Russell Byers (GRB). To
haer Russell tell it, he got "Thumped." 487-329. Still in good spirits,
Russell can even smile about it. I think he still finished in the
money. He thinks he is 7th, unconfirmed.

Adrian tells me that someone played MALOX against GIJOEL and he
challenged it. It's good. The tournament directors, of course, knew it
was from his table. adrain tells me, since I'm so tired and stupid that
MAALOX the brand is spelled differently.

Table 4 had Mark Nyman victorious over Allan Saldanha (all GBR).
496-331. Mark played AtIMIST, TREADLER, GERBERA

Allan knew that Mark had a good rack, because Mark kept playing off two
at a time: YEW, ZAP. And Allan knew he wouldn't play like that with two
blanks left in the bag at that point.  Some words: ROQUET, FIGO,
EXTINES, WEEST, BUFO, NONCE, POME, ANTIMERE. Wow.

We've got a strange last game situation. Gitonga is playing Ron
Teikert. There are two extra tiles in the game. A blank and an N. The
third blank is on Ron's rack. Two tiles were missing from another game,
the very ones. Someone speculates that they were not completely removed
from the tile bag when the new ones were added in.  Gitonga was clearly
very upset about this.  We can't be certain, but onlookers thought that
one or the other was accusing the other one of "cheating." The game is
continuing even as the room is nearly empty and everyone is talking
loudly.  They each have 6 or 7 minutes left on their clocks.  An added
tension maker is that the game was very close when the additional tiles
were discovered. Ron won the game. 439-417. Gitonga ends up with 12
wins and Ron with 13. Ron had a mere 28 seconds on his clock. When I
came up to the table, he asked me what had happened at hte other
tables. For more than one hour we've all known the final contestants,
but Ron, who was in this protracted game did not. I told him his two NY
buddies were in the finals. Gitonga just shook Ron's hand and said,
"Okay, don't feel bad about it. It happens."

I'm sure this situation was very difficult on them both. Yawo and  Addo
from Ghana just came over to discuss the situation. They are speaking
Ga. I keep asking for more letters. They keep telling me I have them
all. Addo tells me I type like a machien.