Scrabble Event, 1st November

[Ben Wilson]

Following all the recent discussion on these forums concerning Scrabble, the tactics of and the playing of, now is the perfect time to announce the upcoming Scrabble event I am organising in Peterborough. Titled 'Scrabble 111', it is a tournament especially for players who have never experienced tournament play or have only minimal experience of it.

It's always been a mystery to me why there's not been more Countdowners taking up Scrabble, especially since the advent of Apterous. The differences in dictionaries are not as pronounced as some may think- it's the same language after all. Learning the 2- and 3-letter words takes virtually no time at all and, importantly, can be learned without jepoardising any Oxford knowledge. When combined with the skills many of us have learned on Apterous, this alone is enough to carpet bomb your way to the top of the lower divisions of most official tournaments. And when some of them hold top prizes of £1000, the rewards become obvious.

At the end of the tournament you'll receive a provisional rating with the ABSP which will be used in future tournaments that you enter. Much like Apterous, a high rating is its own reward, and there are prizes awarded by the ABSP each year for high ratings and high year-on-year ratings gains.

There are loads of tournaments nationwide with one almost every week, and there will be very few people for whom there isn't a convenient event at some point in the year. And even then, it'd be easy for people on c4c to unilaterally decide to go to one particular tournament as a 'c4c Scrabble event'. I'm surprised that's not already happened, to be honest with you.

Scrabble 111 will take place on Sunday 1st November at the Millfield Community Centre in Peterborough (PE1 2PE for satnav fans), starting at 9:45am. Entry will be £5 per player which will include tea and biscuits but not lunch. The top 3 places will receive gift vouchers from Tilefish with £50 for the winner and £10 each for 2nd and 3rd, as well as free ABSP membership for 2010 and free entry into COLIN 2010.

If you're interested, click here for a detailed entry form . If you have any questions at all about the event, feel free to ask!

cheers, and hope to see you all in November,

Ben

[Jon O'Neill]

tldr

[JackHurst]

Hi Ben, I've never really considered playing scrabble, but if i find it as interesting as i find countdown, I might try and pick it up. I have a question for you, is there a scrabble equivalent of apterous? I've found a site called quadplex which seems ok, but do you know of any others which are better or whatever?

[Sue Sanders]

Hi Ben, I've never really considered playing scrabble, but if i find it as interesting as i find countdown, I might try and pick it up. I have a question for you, is there a scrabble equivalent of apterous? I've found a site called quadplex which seems ok, but do you know of any others which are better or whatever?

Get yourself a Facebook profile. If you're a bit anti that social networking thing, well, so was I but it's fine - you don't need to put a photo on, you don't need it to be your real name and you just ignore anything that comes in, which will be nothing if you 'reject' the small handful of requests to be your friend that you might get. Once you've got a profile, click on the 'settings' and get the Scrabble one. (It's called Scrabble@worldwide if you want to google it) If you have problems, look me up on Facebook, Sue Sanders London Network and I'll send you an invite. It's very good. And you can either play other friends of yours who are on Facebook, or just tout yourself for a game. It has a dictionary that activates as you 'play' your word which will advise you if it's not legal, but doesn't forfeit your go. The only downside - I find some of the words that are allowed to be very dubious, and don't enjoy seeing them on the board and...it's addictive!! But you play at you own speed - you can select opponents who like a speedy game or a drawn out game. They don't have to be online for you to play your go.

Hope that helps and hope you enjoy it.

[Charlie Reams]

The Facebook application is shit. Try ISC.

[Sue Sanders]

Well Jack, I hope you appreciate that I was just being helpful but apparently my opinion is worthless.

Hope you find a Scrabble game you enjoy....and someone with good manners to play it with. Feel free to contact me on Facebook if you want.

[Charlie Reams]

apparently my opinion is worthless.

Sorry if you felt I was implying that, I was just being pithy. The Facebook one is alright if you want to have a sneaky game at work, but ISC is really much better (and even then still isn't that good). The main thing is that many of the world's top players play on ISC and watching them is, IMO, very educational.

[Ian Dent]

Charlie - Do you play serious Scrabble?

[Shaun Hegarty]

I used to play from time to time on Lexulous, which was/is good, it's just they had to change the odd thing due to copyright stuff.

[Charlie Reams]

Charlie - Do you play serious Scrabble?

I dunno about serious, I learnt the 2s and 3s and I'm aware of some of the most common CSW/ODE differences. I played at Ben's last new-player event and finished 2nd.

I used to play from time to time on Lexulous, which was/is good, it's just they had to change the odd thing due to copyright stuff.

Last time I looked Lexulous changed just about everything that makes Scrabble good. 8-letter racks, weird board layout, etc. Urk. Have they changed some of this back?

[Shaun Hegarty]

I used to play from time to time on Lexulous, which was/is good, it's just they had to change the odd thing due to copyright stuff.

Last time I looked Lexulous changed just about everything that makes Scrabble good. 8-letter racks, weird board layout, etc. Urk. Have they changed some of this back?

I don't know. Come to think of it, that was around the time I stopped playing there, probably shouldn't have mentioned it.

[Jon O'Neill]

In fairness, I would encourage people to go to a Scrabble tournament to see what it's like. It's good if there are other Countdowny people there to chat to between rounds.

[Michael Wallace]

Well I've gone and set up an ISC account. I'm rubbish, and will probably remain so for a very long time, but if anyone else uses it and fancies a game, I'm Coatimundi on there.

[JackHurst]

Well I've gone and set up an ISC account. I'm rubbish, and will probably remain so for a very long time, but if anyone else uses it and fancies a game, I'm Coatimundi on there.

I'm worse, I'll play you when i figure out how to.

[Charlie Reams]

Well I've gone and set up an ISC account. I'm rubbish, and will probably remain so for a very long time, but if anyone else uses it and fancies a game, I'm Coatimundi on there.

I'm worse, I'll play you when i figure out how to.

It's a bit fiddly, but this is a rough guide:-

Type "f coatimundi" in the command box (bottom right), which will bring up some stuff about him
Rightclick on coatimundi (anywhere it appears) and choose "+buddies coatimundi". That will inform you every time he's online.
Then, if he actually is online, right click on his name again and choose "match coatimundi". The rest is straightforward, but make sure you set the dictionary to SOWPODS (should really be CSW) rather than TWL (the American wordlist).

[Sue Sanders]

Well I've gone and set up an ISC account. I'm rubbish, and will probably remain so for a very long time, but if anyone else uses it and fancies a game, I'm Coatimundi on there.

I'm worse, I'll play you when i figure out how to.

I have just tried to download the ISC thing but it just didn't happen. Then on a second try kaspersky said 'NO' so I'm sticking with Facebook -which is exactly like Scrabble, right down to docking left over letters off your score. Otherwise I'd have taken up your offer, Michael. What's with the american rodents obsession ?(if I'm not showing my ignorance here)

[JackHurst]

Well I've gone and set up an ISC account. I'm rubbish, and will probably remain so for a very long time, but if anyone else uses it and fancies a game, I'm Coatimundi on there.

I'm worse, I'll play you when i figure out how to.

It's a bit fiddly, but this is a rough guide:-

Type "f coatimundi" in the command box (bottom right), which will bring up some stuff about him
Rightclick on coatimundi (anywhere it appears) and choose "+buddies coatimundi". That will inform you every time he's online.
Then, if he actually is online, right click on his name again and choose "match coatimundi". The rest is straightforward, but make sure you set the dictionary to SOWPODS (should really be CSW) rather than TWL (the American wordlist).

Thanks Charlie. Im guessing if im going to look at lists of 2's and 3's ill be looking at the SOWPODS list.
My usename on there is ronalds, if anyone wants to play me.
I'll stop posting stuff vaguely off the topic of bens scrabble comp now. If i get any good, i might be tempted to go.

[Craig Beevers]

If you really want to get a feel for Scrabble I'd highly recommend Quackle

http://people.csail.mit.edu/jasonkb/quackle/

You have to be fairly masochistic to want to play it - Quackle will essentially play like a world champion+ so will regularly annihilate most people. But seeing how it evaluates moves is crucial. Scrabble is all about finding moves and evaluating their relative strength. Getting a feel for the rack leaves is a big part of that.

[Sue Sanders]

If you really want to get a feel for Scrabble I'd highly recommend Quackle

http://people.csail.mit.edu/jasonkb/quackle/

You have to be fairly masochistic to want to play it - Quackle will essentially play like a world champion+ so will regularly annihilate most people. But seeing how it evaluates moves is crucial. Scrabble is all about finding moves and evaluating their relative strength. Getting a feel for the rack leaves is a big part of that.

Just out of interest, and to save me googling it, (as someone who likes to send other people off to do the donkey work for her) what would be considered to be a respectable score in Scrabble?

[Daniel O'Dowd]

Well I've gone and set up an ISC account. I'm rubbish, and will probably remain so for a very long time, but if anyone else uses it and fancies a game, I'm Coatimundi on there.

I'm worse, I'll play you when i figure out how to.

It's a bit fiddly, but this is a rough guide:-

Type "f coatimundi" in the command box (bottom right), which will bring up some stuff about him
Rightclick on coatimundi (anywhere it appears) and choose "+buddies coatimundi". That will inform you every time he's online.
Then, if he actually is online, right click on his name again and choose "match coatimundi". The rest is straightforward, but make sure you set the dictionary to SOWPODS (should really be CSW) rather than TWL (the American wordlist).

Why? SOWPODS gives us a huge advantage over the US in world events, there are barely 5 or 6 nations left who use just TWL on its own. It makes our game far more aggressive and open. While I'm here, I should say I played a couple of games last night and might be back into it a little, handle Sexkimo if anyone wants a game.

[Craig Beevers]

Just out of interest, and to save me googling it, (as someone who likes to send other people off to do the donkey work for her) what would be considered to be a respectable score in Scrabble?

Depends on the opponent. A better measure is move average as that's generally independent of your opponent. The best players in an A division would average over 450 at around 40 per move.

When I play at my club I hit 600 around once every 10-15 games, game average just under 500.

If you're getting 400s and the games don't regularly drag on past 15 moves each then that's a decent club level.

Long-winded 350 games with lots of step-laddering would be lower division standard.

[Sue Sanders]

Just out of interest, and to save me googling it, (as someone who likes to send other people off to do the donkey work for her) what would be considered to be a respectable score in Scrabble?

Depends on the opponent. A better measure is move average as that's generally independent of your opponent. The best players in an A division would average over 450 at around 40 per move.

When I play at my club I hit 600 around once every 10-15 games, game average just under 500.

If you're getting 400s and the games don't regularly drag on past 15 moves each then that's a decent club level.

Long-winded 350 games with lots of step-laddering would be lower division standard.

Ah Ok .Ta. Just checked one of my current games on FB where tiles are all gone so will end in a move or two - 28 moves between the two of us, he has 304, I have 381 and I got 2 seven letter words. My best recent score was 495 but that was against a poor opponent. I get a 7 letter word or two most games.

Don't think I'm ready for annihilation on Quackle yet then!!

[Charlie Reams]

Rightclick on coatimundi (anywhere it appears) and choose "+buddies coatimundi". That will inform you every time he's online.
Then, if he actually is online, right click on his name again and choose "match coatimundi". The rest is straightforward, but make sure you set the dictionary to SOWPODS (should really be CSW) rather than TWL (the American wordlist).

Why? SOWPODS gives us a huge advantage over the US in world events, there are barely 5 or 6 nations left who use just TWL on its own. It makes our game far more aggressive and open. While I'm here, I should say I played a couple of games last night and might be back into it a little, handle Sexkimo if anyone wants a game.

Because it's no longer called SOWPODS, it's called CSW.

[Craig Beevers]

Just out of interest, and to save me googling it, (as someone who likes to send other people off to do the donkey work for her) what would be considered to be a respectable score in Scrabble?

Depends on the opponent. A better measure is move average as that's generally independent of your opponent. The best players in an A division would average over 450 at around 40 per move.

When I play at my club I hit 600 around once every 10-15 games, game average just under 500.

If you're getting 400s and the games don't regularly drag on past 15 moves each then that's a decent club level.

Long-winded 350 games with lots of step-laddering would be lower division standard.

Ah Ok .Ta. Just checked one of my current games on FB where tiles are all gone so will end in a move or two - 28 moves between the two of us, he has 304, I have 381 and I got 2 seven letter words. My best recent score was 495 but that was against a poor opponent. I get a 7 letter word or two most games.

Don't think I'm ready for annihilation on Quackle yet then!!

At my club the other A division players (they'd be A division in one-day events, but B/C division at big tournaments) average about 1-1.5 bonuses per game. The weaker players would get less than 0.5 per game, they'd be in the lowest division at a tournament and about the standard of most people at a new player event. Playing online does tend to lead to much more open games though, as well as if you play on Facebook you're not penalised for phonies (as far as I know) - playing in a tourney you will generally doubt yourself a lot more and score zero when stuff gets challenged off.

Quackle is primarily an analysis tool, so you don't necessarily have to play to get a lot of use out of it. You could just put games/positions in and see what you missed.

[Charlie Reams]

Quackle is primarily an analysis tool, so you don't necessarily have to play to get a lot of use out of it. You could just put games/positions in and see what you missed.

Quackle is also fun to play in the sense that you know from the beginning that you have virtually zero chance of winning, so you can treat each move like a puzzle to find the optimal solution, and ignore the contest element. I probably win about 1 game in 100 but it's still fun, and I pick up lots of words too (including ALIENER ).

[Nick Boldock]

Hi Ben, I've never really considered playing scrabble, but if i find it as interesting as i find countdown, I might try and pick it up. I have a question for you, is there a scrabble equivalent of apterous? I've found a site called quadplex which seems ok, but do you know of any others which are better or whatever?

I used to play on Quadplex but the amount of people who quit on you when you're thumping them is unbelievable, and very irritating. I've been heavily beaten on occasion but I wouldn't dream of quitting - it's incredibly rude at best.

I also once got accused of cheating by one lovely chap on there, and I was only three plays into the game!! He actually opened accused me of using a solver. I discretely advised him to fuck off and that was the end of that game...

Have always fancied having a bash at a Scrabble tourny but never got my finger out. Might do it one day. I'm better at Scrabble than I am at Countdown, by quite a way I think, though I don't play much these days.

[Nick Boldock]

At my club the other A division players (they'd be A division in one-day events, but B/C division at big tournaments) average about 1-1.5 bonuses per game. The weaker players would get less than 0.5 per game, they'd be in the lowest division at a tournament and about the standard of most people at a new player event. Playing online does tend to lead to much more open games though, as well as if you play on Facebook you're not penalised for phonies (as far as I know) - playing in a tourney you will generally doubt yourself a lot more and score zero when stuff gets challenged off.

Quackle is primarily an analysis tool, so you don't necessarily have to play to get a lot of use out of it. You could just put games/positions in and see what you missed.

Very modest of you to not mention you are currently ranked #13 in Britain! (Nice work).

[Craig Beevers]

Well I was 2nd (1st if you ignore Nigel, who's the world champ from NZ), dropped 5 points lately. Also dropped from 11th globally to wherever I am now. The odd thing was I'd lost my last 6 games when I'd moved up to 196 ABSP (British) rating and 2033 international rating in the first place. Must be saving all my good luck for the club.

[Martin Smith]

I usually play in the B division, where I'm usually near the bottom - and I think the two tournaments I've played in are relatively weak events. My club average is around 385, but that's complicated by a handicapping system whereby a player whose average is 25 points lower than their opponent gets a 25-point headstart. At a rough guess (bearing in mind that I've played off 25-35 all year, which is about average) I'd say my true average is about 365-370, and I usually get about 2 bingos per game (although I tend to play towards those). A good Countdown vocabulary plus learning the 2/3 letter words should make that possible within a couple of years.

[Sue Sanders]

I usually play in the B division, where I'm usually near the bottom - and I think the two tournaments I've played in are relatively weak events. My club average is around 385, but that's complicated by a handicapping system whereby a player whose average is 25 points lower than their opponent gets a 25-point headstart. At a rough guess (bearing in mind that I've played off 25-35 all year, which is about average) I'd say my true average is about 365-370, and I usually get about 2 bingos per game (although I tend to play towards those). A good Countdown vocabulary plus learning the 2/3 letter words should make that possible within a couple of years.

It's reassuring to know you play towards the 'bingos' - I sometimes wonder if my tendancy to hang onto blanks and 'ing' and other good building letters is actually a false economy but it's such a buzz, after waiting to see whether your opponent is going to either make or break your chance, to lay all 7 letters!

[Matt Bayfield]

If I get some CSW practice in with Quackle, I might be tempted by Ben's tournament, so ta for the shout. I've never played competitive Scrabble in the UK, but did play a little bit of club/tournament Scrabble (with the TWL98 lexicon) in the US a few years ago.

Over 39 club and tournament games with TWL98, I had averages of 375 points and 1.26 bingos per game, so I don't think I'll disgrace myself as long as I learn the CSW 2s and 3s.

Somewhat surprisingly, I've just beaten Quackle in CSW play twice out of my first 8 attempts, although I haven't been putting myself against the clock and I've been using a cheat sheet of the CSW 2s. Presumably this unexpected early success is because I've got Quackle playing in its Speedy mode. I am guessing it will whup my ass every time if I set it to play as Championship Player?

[Craig Beevers]

That's the thing with Quackle, it quantifies how good those leaves are so you are in a better position to know whether it's worth sacrificing x points to keep something.

[Michael Wallace]

It's reassuring to know you play towards the 'bingos' - I sometimes wonder if my tendancy to hang onto blanks and 'ing' and other good building letters is actually a false economy but it's such a buzz, after waiting to see whether your opponent is going to either make or break your chance, to lay all 7 letters!

From reading the odd beginners' guide I've started trying the tactic of keeping any letters I have in my rack from the word RETAINS (although no duplicates), which has already started paying off in terms of bingos. I suspect it's a crude tactic that would be scoffed at by anyone half decent, but it's been a good starting point for me.

[Sue Sanders]

It's reassuring to know you play towards the 'bingos' - I sometimes wonder if my tendancy to hang onto blanks and 'ing' and other good building letters is actually a false economy but it's such a buzz, after waiting to see whether your opponent is going to either make or break your chance, to lay all 7 letters!

From reading the odd beginners' guide I've started trying the tactic of keeping any letters I have in my rack from the word RETAINS (although no duplicates), which has already started paying off in terms of bingos. I suspect it's a crude tactic that would be scoffed at by anyone half decent, but it's been a good starting point for me.

That's marvellously crazy. But what a shame it's not all the letters from RACCOON!

[Ben Wilson]

I suspect it's a crude tactic that would be scoffed at by anyone half decent, but it's been a good starting point for me.

Au contraire. Whilst the intricacies of rack leave are infinitely more complicated than that you're off to a more than adequate start.

[Charlie Reams]

It's reassuring to know you play towards the 'bingos' - I sometimes wonder if my tendancy to hang onto blanks and 'ing' and other good building letters is actually a false economy but it's such a buzz, after waiting to see whether your opponent is going to either make or break your chance, to lay all 7 letters!

Playing towards bingos is generally a good tactic, as long as you don't sacrifice too many good opportunities in the chase. Nevertheless keeping ING is generally frowned upon because, unless you happen to draw an -ING bonus (not as likely as you might think), the combination is not particularly good. On the other hand -ING bonuses are, of course, generally easier to spot, so if you don't rate your bonus-spotting skills too highly then it can pay off in the short term. But in terms of improving your game long term, a more flexible tactic (even something simple like the RETAINS method) is better. Depends what you want to get out of it, of course.

[Craig Beevers]

ING is a strong leave (+7.14), but you have to bear in mind the board. Often a 7 letter -ING bonus won't fit anywhere on the board which would negate a lot of the usefulness, alternatively if the board is wide open it would be worth a little more.

[Sue Sanders]

ING is a strong leave (+7.14), but you have to bear in mind the board. Often a 7 letter -ING bonus won't fit anywhere on the board which would negate a lot of the usefulness, alternatively if the board is wide open it would be worth a little more.

Just out of interest - I assume you would advise against something I used to do in the past - skip a go to hope you get an opportunity to laid your 7 letter word next go?????? (and thank you for your imput on this, Craig, as you're clearly a Scrabble God!!)

[Craig Beevers]

ING is a strong leave (+7.14), but you have to bear in mind the board. Often a 7 letter -ING bonus won't fit anywhere on the board which would negate a lot of the usefulness, alternatively if the board is wide open it would be worth a little more.

Just out of interest - I assume you would advise against something I used to do in the past - skip a go to hope you get an opportunity to laid your 7 letter word next go?????? (and thank you for your imput on this, Craig, as you're clearly a Scrabble God!!)

Yea definitely not a good idea.

[Charlie Reams]

In case this wasn't obvious, I'll be there.

[Ben Wilson]

The ABSP's flagship event, the British Matchplay Scrabble Championship, will be taking place tomorrow at Yarnfield Park in Stone in Staffordshire. Full coverage of the event will be available on http://www.centrestar.co.uk including scores from each and every game, annotated details of certain top games, round-by-round commentary provided by yours truly and photos from Craig. With illustrious players such as the world #1 Lewis Mackay and the 1993 world champion (and former Countdown producer) Mark Nyman in attendance, it's bound to be one hell of an event.

I'm kinda gutted I'm not playing, to tell you the truth.

[Ben Wilson]

Photos from this year's BMSC can be found here- http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=lo ... 398&ref=nf

Full coverage, including games to play through (details as recorded by yours truly) and up here- http://www.centrestar.co.uk/09bmsc.html . The round 20 game between Countdown and Scrabble legends Harshan Lamabadusuriya and the one and only Mark Nyman was the decider for the entire tournament. Harshan had to beat Mark by 49 or more points to overturn him at the top of the table. I was sat alongside Mark for the duration of the game and the atmosphere was as electric as I've ever experienced at any competitive event. As for the result... well, play through it and see for yourself.

[Jon O'Neill]

Photos from this year's BMSC can be found here- http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=lo ... 398&ref=nf

Full coverage, including games to play through (details as recorded by yours truly) and up here- http://www.centrestar.co.uk/09bmsc.html . The round 20 game between Countdown and Scrabble legends Harshan Lamabadusuriya and the one and only Mark Nyman was the decider for the entire tournament. Harshan had to beat Mark by 49 or more points to overturn him at the top of the table. I was sat alongside Mark for the duration of the game and the atmosphere was as electric as I've ever experienced at any competitive event. As for the result... well, play through it and see for yourself.

That was bullshit. Nyman had no tiles at all. Oh well, I expect these things level themselves out over a career. Good to see him still at the top of the game.

[Ben Wilson]

A bit of an update on this- I will be taking entries and giving out goody bags of Scrabble stuff to everyone who gives me their £5 at CoLei. Also, everyone who participates in the event will get a special little freebie at the end of the tournament regardless of whether they win or not, all courtesy of the kind folks at the ABSP.

[Dinos Sfyris]

I'm in

[Ben Wilson]

Update to say that this tournament is now very much filling up with 14 confirmed entries- anyone giving me their entry at CoLei will be guaranteed a place and a starter pack but after that I can't guarantee the immediate sending out of the packs as I'll be awaiting replacement elements for them.

[Michael Wallace]

Whilst I can't make this tournament, I wanted to bump this thread to announce that I just got my first triple-triple, scoring a (personal best) of 131 with TRANNIES.

My life is so exciting

[Phil Makepeace]

Got my starter pack today - thanks Ben, it's very informative. Might have to take a break from apterous and start some heavy ISCing in the week leading up to it.

[Ben Wilson]

With 22 confirmed entries the event is now all but full- if you want to enter last minute now really is your last chance to do so.

[Phil Makepeace]

Just a quick heads-up for anyone else travelling from or via London. Kings Cross station is shut until 08:30 - the only option is to get the 07:28 from Finsbury Park.

[Charlie Reams]

Kirk and I are setting off now - exciting!

[Sue Sanders]

Kirk and I are setting off now - exciting!

That's quite sweet. Mind how you cross the road and don't talk to strangers.

[Craig Beevers]

Matt Bayfield won the new player bit, unbeaten on 6 wins, according to uk-scrabble. Congrats to him.

[Darren Carter]

Congratulations Matt....

[Matt Bayfield]

Cheers chaps. I have to say that my opening game, with a young guy called Stephen Hunt, was a cracker. He's an internet player rated 1600-ish on ISC, and with a huge vocabulary, so I was well pleased to pip him, by something like 446 - 419, by consistently scoring at 30 pts a turn, then playing a smart endgame.

I also managed a 500+ game (520-odd, plus 20 further points in challenges) against the chap who ultimately finished second, despite him drawing both blanks. That's almost certainly the first time I've played 3 natural bingos in a game against a human. (I've had 3 bingos many times in the past, but they've always used at least one blank.)

My other 4 games were fairly mediocre, but I did enough to beat fairly inexperienced players who clearly hadn't been taught some basic Scrabble strategies. Two of my opponents played a blank on their first or second turn for a benefit of only 10 or so points.

All round, an enjoyable day and a credit to Ben's organisational skills. Sadly there are no clubs near where I'm living right now, but I'm sure I'll pop up for the odd tournament every now and then, especially now I have a year's free ABSP membership...

[Sue Sanders]

Two of my opponents played a blank on their first or second turn for a benefit of only 10 or so points.

Arrgh - that must have been horrible to witness. I'm genuinely disturbed by that!

[Phil Makepeace]

Sorry I didn't make it, as promised, on Sunday. I fell down a flight of stairs at Finsbury Park station (while going up!) and was escorted to UCH by a smashing TFL employee. I'd already done the hard bit that morning after getting up at 6.15 on a student's sleep pattern. No lasting damage, though there'll be no Co-lympics for me.

[Jon Corby]

No lasting damage, though there'll be no Co-lympics for me.

Special Co-lympics?

[Phil Makepeace]

No lasting damage, though there'll be no Co-lympics for me.

Special Co-lympics?

Seems unlikely.

Ankle:



Shin:

[Phil Reynolds]

Ankle:



Shin:

Don't stop.