This year we had 24 entrants in the tournament and this worked well for a double round robin, with three grades of 8 participants. This means that each member of a grade plays all the others in the grade twice. This was our highest number of entrants in quite a few years, with no other tournaments on the same weekend and that helped to boost our numbers. By closing date we had 23 entries and were pleased to get a late entry from Barbara Cornell from Golden Bay, who had competed in Nelson a few years ago. We had two new competitors from Nelson: James Flynn and Yolande Taylor, both entering their first Scrabble tournament. We had several competitors from Christchurch, three from the Wellington area, Betty Erikson from Wanganui, Jo Ann Ingram from Tauranga, Karen Rodgers from Picton and Dorothy Latta from Dunedin.
We were pleased to have Lynley Jenness as our scorer this year and she was able to use her expertise in spreadsheets to smooth over a minor problem with the system. Lynley had brought her 10 year old son, Lewis Hawkins, to compete in Nelson for the first time. We used our usual venue at the Nelson Suburban Club, and this year we were able to use a larger room, the Ken Ching Room, so there was plenty of room for everyone. We introduced a new system of pre-ordering lunches and this worked well so that everyone wanting to eat in the Club Café was able to get a meal with the minimum delay.
After the first couple of games, Lewis was in the lead in Grade A, Malcolm Graham in B and Phyllis Paltridge in C, but these positions were to change slightly, and after game 4, Murray Rogers had moved into top place for A, while the other two stayed in the lead of their grades. Murray stayed in first place for the rest of the tournament, Malcolm was pipped at the post in the last couple of games by Allison Torrance, who was winner of B Grade. Betty Don began to move up in position in Grade C over the course of Saturday’s play and by afternoon tea time she was at the top, where she stayed, winning comfortably with 12.5 wins.
The local press turned up on Saturday morning, took several photos and conducted a few interviews and we were expecting quite a substantial article. When it came out on Monday, Lewis was the star of the show, with a quarter page colour photo right on the front page of the Nelson Mail.
TOURNAMENT PRIZE WINNERS
Grade A
1 Lynn Wood WELLLINGTON 11 WINS
2 Murray Rogers INDEPENDENT 10 WINS
3 Lewis Hawkins CHRISTCHURCH 9 WINS
Grade B
1 Allison Torrance CHRISTCHURCH 11 WINS
2 Malcolm Graham CHRISTCHURCH 10 WINS
3 Gabrielle Bolt CHRISTCHURCH 9 WINS
Grade C
1 Betty Don INDEPENDENT 12 WINS + 1 DRAW
2 Phyllis Paltridge CHRISTCHURCH 11 WINS
3 Barbara Cornell INDEPENDENT 9 WINS + 1 DRAW
Thanks to all those who came to Nelson to make this one another successful tournament. We will be having next year’s at the same time, the last full weekend in February, so please enter the 27th and 28th February 2016 in your calendar. Thanks to the Suburban Club for letting us have the use of the Ken Ching Room and for providing lunches and refreshments.
The Nelson Scrabble Club (Inc) is the original Scrabble club in Nelson and has now been going for 20 years, and for the last 6 years as part of the Suburban Club. As is the case with many clubs we have a declining membership and new members are always welcome to our club night in the members bar starting at 7.00 pm. Most people have played Scrabble at some time, usually with their families, but competitive scrabble is rather different, with lots of 2 and 3 letter words as well as the 50 point bonus scoring 7 letter words.
If you don’t like playing in the evening, the Saturday Afternoon Scrabble Club also play in the members bar on Saturdays at 1.45 pm.
Why not come along and give competitive Scrabble a try, or just watch us playing?
Phone Tony or Gill 545 1159.
Tony Charlton
Nelson Scrabble Club (Inc)