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RECREATION DIVISION - by Simone Windon

The Western Scrabble Network was represented in D division by five players. Phillip Smith, a very recent member, was undefeated at the end of the first 4 games and finished with 5 wins. This was his first tournament and he emerged with a very respectable rating of 785. The highest word score was 86 and this was shared by Diana Field with "justice" and me with "jetties". Although John Vanderbyl asserted his dominance with 8 straight wins, this didn't stop some fine performances from WSN members, with the next 3 highest ratings gains going to Arie Holla (48 points), me (46 points) and Tresham Rendel (25 points). Possibly it was the experience playing at altitude that helped.

INTERMEDIATE DIVISION - by Mark Smith

Intermediate division proved to be very competitive on the day, with Ann Fiddler winning 7 games from 8 to finish a game clear of Peggy Womersley. There was fierce competition for the last of the minor placings, with no less than 7 players finishing on 5 wins from 8 games. It was Western Scrabble Network member, Jacquelin Hochmuth that finished with the best margin of the 7 players to secure third place. Peggy Womersley also managed to win the high game prize, with a score of 504, whilst Ivana Duria won the high word with, ESQUIRE for 94 points.

With myself being so involved in running various aspects of the tournament, it was difficult for me to notice too many of the unusual or notable plays, although here are a few from my own games. In my first game of the day i was most pleased to be able to play vELVETED, through an open E. It was a busy period for that game, when my opponent Janet Chambers came straight back with LAUDERS, and the very next play I was lucky enough to see SANNIES. The end result of this game was that I won, 420 to 406 I think, with Janet losing score holding on to win the prize of highest losing score for the division for the day.

In the last game of the day, sitting on just 3 wins, I managed to get back into the game against Sandra Elliot, with a nice 50 point play of QATS on the TWS, to claw back within 40 points. Then i noticed that the opening move by Sandra of MAZED, which of course later in the game was extended to AMAZED, with the A sitting just two places below the TWS. So on the second last play of the game, I front hooked UN to AMAZED to make UNAMAZED, for a 60 point play to be right back in the game. Sandra then had a chance to win the game by extending JUN to JUNkIES to reach the bottom left TWS, and win the game narrowly, but was not able to see it in time with the little time that she had left on the clock. All in all it was a very eventful game.

Well done again to the winners of Intermediate.

ADVANCED DIVISION - by Denise Smith

(As told by a person who spent almost the whole day at the lowest ranked
table).

My congratulation to the placegetters in Advanced section: Rex Shakespeare, Ian Close and Margaret Andrews. They certainly deserved the accolades they received, also Rex with his high game of 514 and Noni English with her High Word EQUINOX for the great score of 114.

My congrats also to Margaret Berliner for the highest LOSING score in B Div on the day. She got 427. I played her in the last game and for a while I thought I just might qualify for at least this prize but alas it was not to be. In the final moves of the game she allowed me to win thus robbing me of my only chance of glory for the day.

I must admit that I did not do much hobnobbing with the upper echelons of the division, except for Ian Close in the first game. Just the thought of getting a High Game or Word on the day was beyond my wildest expectations. (Ho-hum&It is, after all, only a game). From Table 20.

MASTERS DIVISION - by Chris May

I was asked to write the report about Masters for this tournament; I'm not sure that this was the wisest of schemes, considering that I had to dash away immediately after I'd finished my last game (to another commitment), and therefore wasn't present when the winners were finishing doing their winning things. At any rate, here are things I do know about the tournament: for a start, A section had an extremely strong showing considering that the venue was further from central Sydney than are most tournaments in the greater Sydney area. I guess the nationals are not far away. Secondly, everyone will be coming back next year because the tournament was great. (Tony, pay me later). The WSN members are to be congratulated for having put such a massive effort into organising everything from the minibus to the novice briefing to the sausage sizzle to the Prize For Getting A Really Good Score Even Though It Wasn't A Win. Easily recognisable throughout the day by virtue of their fashionable WSN T-shirts, Club WSN members, the Family von Hunt and World Champion TD, Wilma Vialle, created a good, efficient
tournament with no dramas.

In Masters, John Holgate and Edward Okulicz were fastest out of the blocks, and their Round 2 matchup resulted in a 462-427 win for Edward, who caught up to John's early lead with moves like the classy TUTRIX for 58. Meanwhile, after bingoing out with DARTRES in the first round to beat Norma Tracey, Istruggled against Rod Talbot, with my ENDNOTES and DARRAINE unable to overcome his sequence of good scoring moves. Round 3 saw Edward up against Susan MacGillivray on table 1 - you gotta watch these Canberra players, hopefully they'll all be busy at the Nationals coping with the bureaucratic nightmares of rotating boards. Susan, who had already sent Bob Jackman and John Barker packing, soon made it three big scalps in a row when Edward made an uncharacteristic endgame mistake (caused by mistracking) and permitted her to go out with DENTALIA to the A. Rod also notched up a third win, as did either Moana Nepia or Pat Schuberg (I can't remember which, I'm sorry to say). My up-and-down day reached its highest peak in round 3 against the luckless Betty Foreman - plays of POSTDATE, RESIGNED, BEGORRAH (for 140) and DOILTER helped me to a 617 score, which lined me up against Susan in the fourth round. The juggernaut continued and I went down by 42 points after
Susan played DOSSIER, SCUTTLED and ANTILOGS in consecutive moves, with the last two blocking my RATOONED and HAGRODE potential counterplays. I did get PRABBLE down eventually, but 'twas too late. Susan's run ended thereafter against Rod, the only other undefeated player at lunch, but was most impressive nonetheless, and she ultimately gained 50 points for the day's work. The afternoon saw the top players bouncing back, with John, Edward and Bob all making their way towards table 1. Most of my games apart from round 8 took the full allotted time so I didn't see many of the words played, but I know that Edward and John both managed to knock off Rod (Edward winning the last 5 games straight to finish, yet again, a game clear of the field. Improving on a rating of 1905 is rather impressive). On my somewhat more lowly tables, Pat Schuberg rebounded from the loss occasioned by my second triple-triple of the day (FAIRLEAD) to finish very strongly, as did Moana Nepia. And Bob Jackman walked the walk by making classy plays such as BRUNTED/BROCH (showcasing his excellent shorter word knowledge) en route to a 5 point victory over me, where I must confess to having had all the esses and blanks, as well as two of the heavy letters. As a totally random thought, an unfamiliar word I spotted on a top table was POLARON, although I can't remember who played it, or even if it was a bingo.

Cheers to all, congrats again for great tourney.
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Thus endeth* the report by the appointed authors.