The Players
The field was impressive with many high profile players. There were four previous WSC winners — David Boys (1995), Joel Wapnick (1999) and Panupol Sujjayakorn (2003) and Adam Logan (2005).
From North America there were the current champ Jim Kramer (US) and former champ Adam Logan (Canada), as well as former Canadian champ Ron Hoekstra
From the UK there were former national champs winners Phil Appleby, and Harshan Lambadusuriya, as well as former Scottish champ Allan Simmons.
From Africa there were former national champs Trevor Hovelmeier (South Africa) and Dennis Ikekegegor (Nigeria)
From Asia there were Malaysian champ Ganesh Asirvatham, Indian and former Gulf Champ Akshay Bhandarkar, former Australian Champ Cheah Siu Hean (Singapore).
From Australia there were current Australian champ and winner of the first World Youth Scrabble Champs David Eldar, former Gulf champ Naween Fernando, and former British champ Andrew Fisher.
Team NZ
New Zealand was represented by
Jeff Grant, who is one of only two players to have played in all nine WSC events (the other is Joel Wapnick). Jeff has multiple NZ national and Masters titles and his best place in WSC is 3rd in 1995
Day 1
Team NZ got off to a fair start, with only Jeff, Lynne and Nigel winning their round 1 games, with Jeff in 3rd place on spread. By round 4, Nigel had climbed up to 5th on the leaderboard with 4 wins. Lynne was on 3 wins, Jeff and Joanne were on 2 wins, and Howard on the board with 1 win after losing his first 3 games. There were at that stage 6 unbeaten players.
At the end of day 1 after 8 games three players were on 7 wins - Paul Allan (Scotland), Nigel and Charnwit Sukhumrattanaporn (Thailand).
Howard had recovered from his early misfortunes and was on 5 wins, together with Joanne. Lynne was on 4 wins while Jeff could manage only 2 wins on day 1. Howard achieved a whopping 694-372 victory over Evan Berofsky (Canada), including the triple-triple FIBERIZEs for 262 points.
Day 2
After four games on day 2 Nigel was one of only two players on 10 wins and in second place on spread. Wellington Jighere (Nigeria) was in the lead with a 1228 point spread. There were 5 players on 9 wins, including Joel Wapnick (Canada) and Edward Oculicz (Australia). Howard's 7 game winning streak came to an end in round 11 and he slipped to 30th place on 7 wins.
At the end of 9 games on day 2 Wellington and Nigel retained their 1st and 2nd places on 13 wins each. Ganesh Asirvatham (Malaysia) had climbed up to 3rd place on 12 wins.
Howard stayed in touch on 9 wins, while Jeff, Joanne and Lynne continued to struggle. Jeff and Joanne were paired in round 14, with Jeff achieving the win.
Day 3
Nigel hit the outright lead in the first game of the day to be the only player on 14 wins from 17 games and he continued his good form through to round 21. Ganesh had also matched Nigel on wins and remained in 2nd place. Wellington lost his first two games and slipped back to 3rd place. The only two other players who could go ahead of Nigel were Hubert Wee (Singapore) and Joel, both on 15 wins.
In round 22 Nigel played Ganesh and lost 350-479, putting Ganesh in front with his total spread of 2706 against Nigel's 1457. Wellington retained 3rd place by betting Hubert, while Joel lost to Charnwit. In the meantime Howard had won all his games except a round 20 clash with Nigel and was in 11th place.
In round 23 Nigel played Hubert again and lost 399-411. Ganesh played Wellington and lost 406-478, so going in to the final round these three were all on 18 wins.
In the final game Nigel played Wellington, while Ganesh played Joel. Ganesh was almost assured a place in the final as neither Wellington nor Nigel could match his spread. The only way he could lose out on a finals spot was if he lost the last game and Nigel and Wellington drew. Nigel would only miss out on a finals berth if he lost to Wellington. Nigel's first rack was EU?ACER and he played CAERULE for 72 points. Wellington hit back with WAITRONS through the A. Later Nigel got down OUTSMELL (72) and XI (52) to take a 117 point lead. Wellington played PENCILS, but hooked the S onto CAERULE and it was challenged off by Nigel. With two tiles remaining Nigel got down ANTIPODE and the game was in the bag. He won 502-353. In the meantime at the other table Ganesh lost to Joel 368-501, so he and Nigel would play the finals.
Howard lost his last two games and slipped back to 22nd place on 14 wins. Jeff finished on 11 wins, Lynne on 10 and Joanne on 9.
Final
During round play, Ganesh had played Nigel twice and won both times.
In the first final game Ganesh missed OUTCRAWL for 101 points, electing instead to play COTWAL for 36. in the next move Nigel pounced with VARSITY for 81 to take a healthy lead. Ganesh struggled with poor tiles until he was able to get SERINGA down for 66. However Nigel was able to retain the lead while Ganesh had racks from hell (e.g. EEEEISS, EEEEOIS). Nigel won 412-316.
Ganesh's poor racks continued in game 2 with an opening rack of AUESEYO, but he played off YOU and picked up THR to give him AETHERS and an early lead. Unfortunately he then had to exchange tiles when he picked up IIIEEUG and again later when he had GSVNQDM. The first bingo went to Nigel with ODONATE but Ganesh countered with ANTIENTS and there were only 26 points in it. Ganesh got down DUPLIED to take a narrow lead, but Nigel scored well with his X late in the game and Ganesh had no reply. Nigel wins 400-371.
In the 3rd game Ganesh opened his account with TRECKING for 66. Nigel replied immediately with RECOPIES (74) and followed up with JOW (46). Ganesh found ADNATION (63) and there were only 3 points in it. A tight board developed and neither Ganesh nor Nigel could play their bingoes until Ganesh was able to use a D to play DIRTIEST on a triple (77). Nigel replied with EQUINIAS (86) and OVERAPT to attain a 123 point lead. With 3 tiles left in the bag Nigel kept the board open, playing off two tiles leaving two triple-triple and one triple opportunity. Ganesh took one triple-triple spot with TAILLEUR (122) but was still 11 points behind as he took the one remaining tile. Nigel played TOROIDS for 27 to take an unassailable lead. Nigel wins 500-467 and becomes the World Champ.
This report was complied from full coverage of the champs by John Chew. Full results are here.
Photos
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