Trans Tasman 2004 Report

From the outset the NZ team knew that it faced very strong opposition. The Australian team contained former Australian champs Bob Jackman, Paul Cleary and Edward Okulicz. Naween Fernando had come fresh from winning the Gulf championship which he first won 13 years ago at the age of 12. Andrew Fisher is a recent import to Australia from England. He is a former winner of the British National Champs and is co-author of the recently published book "How to Win at Scrabble". Then there were former TransTasman team stalwarts Joan Rosenthal, Esther Perrins and Rod Talbot. The team was completed by four young men who have made significant progress in the Australian ratings recently - Chris May (20 years), Julian McKail (30), Michael Cameron (18) and David Eldar (15).

The tournament was played in accordance with Australian national rules with the exception of the challenge rule. A compromise was reached between the Australian and NZ rules such that incorrect challenges were subject to a 5-point penalty per challenge (not per word as in NZ). The only other significant difference between NZ and Australian national rules was regarding scoring at the end of play when a player is left with tiles on the rack. Under Australian rules the point value of tiles remaining on the rack are added to the score of the player who goes out and taken off the score of the player who is left with tiles on the rack. This makes no difference to whether a player wins or loses but could have caused an issue for the NZ'ers who are used to doubling the value and adding it to the score of the player who goes out. Balanced starts were included in the draw, with Australians starting game 1 and alternate games up to game 12 and NZ players started round 13 and alternate games thereafter. Players were not allocated to tables and each playing pair chose their own table before play. Rotating boards and electronic clocks were available for all tables.

Round 1 results came as a surprise to the Kiwis as only Howard and Jack managed to score a win. In round 2 Howard and Jack both won again, while Steven scored 560 against Esther and Liz achieved victory over Paul. At the end of round 3 the Kiwi team knew that it was in for an uphill battle when only one NZ win was achieved by Patrick.

An excellent lunch was served and NZ took time to regroup. There were a number of stories of missed opportunities or mistakes, such as Andrew's play in round 1 when he had two places to play a bonus and win, but he hooked an O onto the end of DOC and his word was challenged off allowing Chris to win.

After lunch the Kiwis did better with 5 wins in rounds 4 and 5, but managed only 3 in round 6 and 4 in round 7. In the last round of the day the Kiwis drew with the Aussies, but by then significant damage had been done and morale was low in the Kiwi camp. The win board at the end of day 1 was described by Jeff as "spotty" on the Kiwi side and "blocky" on the Aussie side. I thought a better description of the NZ side was "measly".

It was good to see NZ supporters Julie Atkinson and Sheryl Davidson at the venue.

Olga took note of a number of interesting plays as follows:

• Joan and Jack at adjacent tables played FUGU simultaneously
• Joan played the lovely BOTRYTIS onto an S against Glenda
• Patrick played COPYCAT against Edward
• Steven scored 5 bonuses in his game with Esther - WADDING, REPLACES, RECLOSE, UREDINIA and BASINET
• Bon scored the high word of the day with REPACKED
• David played QINDAR around the DA on the board against Glenda, scoring a triple word score and blocking the only bingo opportunity
• Esther played EQUIPAGES using the U and S on the board
• Glenda extended FENESTRA to FENESTRATED on a triple word score
• Paul played INVALIDATED around VALID.