Trans Tasman 2006 Report

Round nine was another success for the Kiwis, winning eight games and their lead advanced to 13 wins. Round 10 was an even round and in round 11 the Kiwis had a 5-7 loss. The hard luck story of round 10 was Mike’s 464-505 loss to Julian. Near the end of the game Mike, holding the tiles ADELNRY, played the brilliant CHANDLERY using a spare CH at the top of the board, On a triple word score this move was worth 110 points plus 5 for the challenge, putting him into the lead. He then drew the Q out of the last tiles in the bag and was unable to play it. Julian eked out his tiles and picked up the points for Mike’s unplayed Q.

In round 12 the Australian team had a big turn around, winning 3-9. So at the halfway point in the Challenge NZ was holding on to a narrow lead of five wins. We must have fed the Aussies too well at lunch because the only Kiwi to win a game in round 13 was Peter. The average score for the Australian team in that round was 458! This turned our team’s five win lead into a five win deficit.

The Australians forged ahead in the next three rounds with wins of 8-4, 10-2 and 8-4. This gave them a healthy 21 win lead at the end of day 2.

Unfortunately I have mislaid the player’s record of highlights. One I recall seeing in a game involving John was his opponent’s conversion of SPORTED into OUTSPORTED for 45 points on a triple word score—other nice words on that board were BOSKIEST and VETIVERT. Another nice board I saw had TAENIAE, METAIRE, ETCHINGS, VARMENT and TABLOID. And another had the bingos ANERGIAS, VAURIENS, AGAROSE, TOWNLET, BANQUET AND INTERNS. Howard reported a 6 game losing streak—his longest ever.

The Australians were also in the lead in the individual standings, with Jeff being the only Kiwi in the top six places at the end of day 2. In the evening the teams and their supporters went to a local Thai restaurant where we enjoyed a pleasant meal together.