Causeway 2010 Report Number Four

I sat down to game 1 feeling fairly confident. My preparations had been better than ever before. I had revised well, not over-studying. I had got over any jetlag I may have had. I was feeling healthy - no sniffs or snuffles that I frequently pick up from the travel and air-con. And I had not spent the night before socialising in the bar.

So why did it go so horribly wrong???

I came out of day 1 shell-shocked. Only 2 wins. I have looked at the two annotated games. I didn't play that badly - indeed, I played a lot better than Naween. And I was unlucky to lose by 1 point to Howard in the last game of the day - a strategical decision to score that would have given me a narrow victory in the vast majority of cases rather than block one of the two bingo lanes...

Day two started a lot better but collapsed again in the afternoon but at least I had won more than I lost, 6-4 for the day. I was very pleased with PAR(V)OLIN(S) against Mohammed Sulaiman, a game where I got 5 bonuses.

Day three and I had all the top seeds to play. Target was to win half my games but I failed by one, only taking the scalps of Pakorn, Moses Peter and David Boys. I played a near perfect game against Nigel but to no avail.

Day four and I managed to scrape a majority for the day including a cracking game against Komol. This game was annotated but has not yet been posted on the website.

I needed to win all 6 on day five to maintain my rating. Well, I failed that at the first hurdle. And the second.

I should also have fallen flat on my face in game 3 of the day as well against Nsikak Etim. He started humming on my opening move so I asked him to refrain. On move 2 he played GIRNIES with the only playable bonuses through a D which I duly blocked. He then started to play SIGNIE(U)R until he realised it didn't fit and spent the next 5 minutes squirming. He was no longer humming. However, five moves later he had picked the first blank and pulled back some of his deficit. He got the second blank and mEATLOA(F) saw him take a 42 point lead leaving three in the bag. I held EFIRSTV and gave myself a chance with two Es and 2 Us unseen made an opening dumping the F, leaving a spot for a 7 with S in sixth. Nsikak played parallel to his bingo and I played out with REVUIST to win.

Game 4 against Chris May. This game was also annotated but has not been published yet, but I don't need to see it to know how poorly I played. As I sat down to play game 5 against Nathan Benedict I realised I had missed ODOMETr(Y). I probably missed a lot more too. Nathan did not take pity on me.

So on to the icing on the cake. David Boys said after this game that he guessed I was being slaughtered as he could hear me laughing, and it would have been very bad manners to do so if I had been winning. I had said to Adam as we sat down that this had been a tournament from hell for me and he said he hoped to continue the run, but I think even he was embarrassed by his 5 bonuses in the first 7 moves interspersed with two 40+ plays :)

My perception of the tournament was of how many games I was playing catch up from the very start, with my opponent bingoing on move 1 or 2 of the game (Chinedu, Marut, Joel, Naween, Edet, Dennis, Mohammed, David E, Brett, Pakorn, Moses, Brian, David W, Nigel, Theresa, Patrick, Bob, Ron, Jakkrit, Komol, Jason, Joanne, Chris, Nathan and Adam - 25 games out of 45). Naween and Brian both opened with a double, Komol with a hat-trick, Joel and Nathan with three out of four, Nigel two out of three and Adam - see above! I had four other games where my opponent played three-in-a-row bonuses against me (Marut, Panupol, Mikki and Robert Linn).

My blank count was 35/90.

So an extremely disappointing 19/45 and 38th place. Would I do it all again - of course, but maybe next time I will spend more time in the bar in the evenings!

JB JB So Good They Named It Once

I have been home a few days now luxuriating in the joys of a seasonal climate. I am sure the novelty of cold will wear off soon, but for the moment I am loving it in my multiple layers of clothing.

So on to the scrabble.

Causeway challenge was a bit of a roller-coaster ride. I was the number one seed in the UK team and as such was playing the other teams in reverse order. I was on track with my 'expected wins' at the end of day 3 and then the roller-coaster hit the downward slope. Loss after loss. I blew one end game totally, spotting my oppo had an out bingo which I blocked only to give him a floater for an 8. In another against Komol I had the game under control until the end - he made an opening and I bonused with GEALOUS to go 128 up, taking the last 7*, only to find he had ENSSTZ? to play out with STANZES atop my bingo with the Z on the triple word both ways... I spent the next 10 minutes walking around the hotel in a daze before sitting down to lose my next game. 10 losses in a row, one game left to play on day 4. Against the new world champion, Pakorn. Somehow I held myself together. A small crowd had gathered to watch, knowing of my current plight and when I bingoed near the end to make the game safe I let out a whoop of delight/relief. Pakorn took it in good spirits, jokingly tossing his remaining tiles across the board at me at the end. Day 5 was average, and I finished a disappointing 29th, 21.5-23.5. I did not play well most of the time so really deserved no better. The UK team came in 3rd place (bronze medal now hanging next to last year's silver one), behind International A (aka England) and Thailand. Congrats to Mark and Mikki, coming 3rd and 4th respectively behind Nigel and Pakorn.

My plan of getting over the jetlag going out early had sort of worked but then I picked up a bit of an air-con cold/sore throat so still was not sleeping very well. I think I only got about 4 nights full sleep in the three weeks I was away.

I had decided to stay on to play in the JB Progressive Round Robin that was running alongside the World Youth Scrabble Championship, but was wondering if this was a good idea by now. This was a round robin event in groups of 6, with the bottom two being relegated and the top two being promoted. Five rounds in total, 2 each on days 1 and 2, and 1 on day 3.

The top group consisted of me, Nigel, David Eldar, Theodoro Martus, Cheah and Tim Adamson. Great hilarity was had when the top two seeds, Nigel and David, were relegated after the first round. Not quite sure how happy group B were by this turn of events... Nigel and David came straight back up at the end of day 1, Nigel winning all 5. I held on in the top group until the end of day 2. And then won all five on day 3 to claim 3rd place overall with 16 wins.

So that was it, 94 games of International scrabble played over 11 days.

I was getting the bus back to KL with Nigel and Jocelyn so could not stay to see Suanne win the WYSC, but we knew it was almost certainly hers being 1 game clear with a large spread advantage. Confirmation came through on Nigel's phone when we were on the way back.

One last day in KL before getting the 23.40 flight home. I splashed out on an expensive hotel breakfast, and being slightly late down was a little peeved to find they were very prompt in packing everything away at 10.30... I lounged around in my room until checking out with about two minutes to spare, and the hotel stashed my luggage for me. I then lounged about in one of the hotel lounges (that's what they are for) until Henry arrived. We went for lunch and then back to hotel lounging. About 4 pm we decided to up sticks to a Starbucks in a mall nearish to the railway station. The traffic was pretty bad and it took the best part of an hour to get there, and then a lot of driving around the car park until I spotted a space. The rest of the day was spent drinking iced mochas and using the free internet until it was time to go and catch the KLIA express to the airport.

Unlike going the plane was full coming home but I did manage a few hours sleep after watching the Star Trek movie. A couple of hours to kill in Schiphol airport before getting the plane to Edinburgh. I am very happy that the scrabble board for winning the last WSC game made it home in one piece.

* When I emptied the bag there were only 6 tiles. The seventh, an I, was found on the floor on the other side of the table.

Countdown to KL - 12 Days to Go

So I have 12 days until I fly out to KL. I have started thinking about what to take - as little as possible. I do not need a light sweater or jacket. I do need one or two nice dresses for the receptions. One pair of jeans is enough... And I can utilise the hotel laundry services... And I must find my earplugs...

The Mattel publicity machine has started. Yesterday I had a phone call from the Berwickshire news. The girl sounded particularly uninterested in the scrabble, focusing more on where I may be doing some shopping and sightseeing. ITV Borders phoned later in the afternoon and have arranged to come here to do some filming on Tuesday. Could I have a board out and 'anything visual'. So I may hunt out some of my trophies...

I have stopped adding things into my anagrams cardbox like a madwoman. That is not to say nothing more is going in - just more like a slightly deranged woman. I am feeling a lot better for this reduction in cramming.

I am continuing on my anagrams and hooks for the 4 letter words.

And I am going back over the higher probability bonus words from the 6 and 7 letter stems. I am recreating my beautiful coloured spreadsheets that were never updated following the switch to Collins - maybe I can get a couple on show for the ITV crew. They are very visual :)

I have also found some time on the nicer days to get the veggie patch in order. All weeded now and paths made to create smaller beds. I am seconding Paul and Penny is coming to help this afternoon to get the muck on.

Cardbox 42123

Top 19500 7s and 8s reached this morning. Plodding onwards slow and steady.

Causeway team is coming together. Paul Allan, me and Mikki Nicholson are definites. The rest of the team will be two out of Mark Nyman (rated 196) and Ed Martin and Neil Scott (tied on 193). I don't know if that will mean a play-off of some sort between Ed and Neil if Mark takes his place - which he says he cannot confirm until September. It is a little unfair on them having to wait...

Elsewhere many congratulations to Vannitha on winning the Malaysian nationals. This gives her a spot in the Malaysian WSC squad alongside Suanne. The women are coming :)

Causeway Challenge Reflections

I am not going to go through all of my games - there are just too many and I only photographed a few of the boards.

I got of to a very bad start, being slaughtered by 131 by Victor Chua (SG). I rallied in the next game against Saidu Ayorinde (NI), and the following two. I should have won game 5 against Jin Chor, missing a simple bonus to play out when he blocked my outplay bonus of pREPRI(C)E but set up a place for a 7 ending in A. I have no excuse other than there had been nowhere to play a 7 so hadn't been looking for one and I was low on my clock. I won the next game against Ferdy Anthonius thanks mainly to him playing a phony with a blank mid-game so I started blocking. A few moves later he tried another phony with both blanks. I could see fREEfOR(M), although I wasn't 100% sure, but blocked it. Asked at the end if he had missed anything I told him, and then he said I was lucky he hadn't played it!!! Another tight win against Sherwin Rodrigues, playing for the Asian-stars team - this game has been annotated the wrong way round. I finished the day on a downer, losing firstly to Edward Okulicz (Au) in a very strange game and then to Thacha Koowirat (Th). So 5-4 at the end of day 1, with one game blown but one game given.

Day 2 and I started against Mohammed Zafar. Another let-off in this game when he slotted NAStIER under AJEE making a phony hook of (TEE)T missing several easy 9x around a U in fourth which I then blocked. I then lost a tight game against Naween and then a horrible blocked game against Joanne Craig. I followed this up with another big loss against Henry, which was a little unlucky when he followed up MATTOiD with (N)ARTJIES for 116. I recovered after lunch with a win against Gerry although he was steadily pegging back my early lead. Another three losses followed, although I should have converted a loss by 1 to Sam K. into a draw. I finished the day with two wins against Albert Hahn and Cheah to avoid the day being an utter disaster, but was now only 9-10 with my tougher matches still to come.

The next day news was coming through that the situation at Bangkok airport was getting resolved and flights were getting back to normal. It was a huge relief and it certainly made a massive difference to my concentration. I won eight games out of ten on day 3, losing only to both the New Zealanders I played (Jeff Grant and Howard Warner). My games against Andrew Fisher and Marlon Prudencio being annotated this day.

In the evening there was a banquet given for us all, hosted by the mayor of JB. I had about 10 minutes after my last game to rush up to my room and change into the one skirt I had packed. When I got back down to the ballroom most players were already there and a band was playing. It was probably another three quarters of an hour before the local dignitaries arrived and the many speeches started.

Between each course we were given a display of dancing. Team Nigeria were keen to get in on the act :)

And then also songs. And this then turned into a karaoke night.

Some players had made an early exit and around 10 p.m. Amy and I also decided to do a runner. A quick drink in the bar (there is only so much orange squash you can take) and then an earlyish night. I gather there were about another four courses at the banquet so we probably made the right decision.

Before play started on day 4 Michael Tang waited until everyone was in the room to make an announcement. It had been brought to his attention that someone may be cheating, and in clear terms stated that if anyone was caught cheating that they would be thrown out of the tournament and never be allowed to play in anything he organised again...

Day 4 started well for me, with a rare victory against Pakorn. WIN near the end may be sub-optimal but I couldn't resist it. Next up it was Chris May. We were a few moves into our game when Michael grabbed the microphone. Mohammed Zafar had been caught cheating and was told to collect his belongings and leave the room. We were all told to neutralise our clocks while this was happening. And then security was called to escort him out... I lost the game.

Next up was Akshay. Interestingly the quackle analysis is telling me the best move after Akshay's phony of STRONDE(D) is (P)UMY, which will give him DR(Y)STONE as a 9-timer! I followed this large win with another against Adrian Tamas - you know things are going your way when holding IILNORU he gave me a floating B :)

After lunch things didn't go so well, and I lost four of the next five. I almost pulled off a great comeback against Tim Adamson but it was not to be. However, I finished the day on a high note with my first ever victory against Nigel Richards. There is a mistake in the annotation in this game - SEE was played one square higher than shown.

Day 5 and I was realistically out of the prizes unless I had a dream day. Losing the first game against Amit killed off any hope. A draw against David Eldar in game 2 which should have been a big win, but given the choice of challenging David's last play which I was pretty sure was phony meant if I was right a win, if I was wrong a loss and if I let it pass a draw. If I was still in with a shout I would have challenged. Three successive wins after this game, and then I played like a drone against Tony Sim in the last game of the tournament letting him off with a phony bonus.

So, I finished 24.5-19.5 with my win against Mohammed being voided, as close to my expected result of 24.7 as physically possible. Congratulations to David Eldar on an impressive win, Edward O. in second and Harshan in coming third, and to team Australia on their clear victory. Team UK finished in second place, well above their seeding. My silver medal will be displayed on the trophy window sill.

The experience has left me wanting to make the team next year. Michael's organisation of the event was superb. Our only real complaint was the live music in the fifth floor atrium going on until late into the night/early morning. The earplugs given to me by Harshan were invaluable.

Back Home

On Tuesday I slept in but Jane was waiting to feed me when I got up :)

I got back into study mode in the morning after catching up on my email. After lunch Jane and I played some more pool - I now knew she had won some trophies for this activity. I managed to win a couple of games - again through Jane fouling the black but I was getting better, having cleared most of my own balls. 

Gerry got home just after 2 pm and we packed my bags into the car and set of for the Harrow International school to pick up Charlie and Charlotte. Then on to Toy's (wife number 1 - mother) about an hour out of Bangkok. She made me feel very welcome. 

Gerry, the kids and I took the dog (Brady - retriever) for a walk to the  garage a couple of kliks away to get a few cans of beer to go with dinner and when we were almost there Gerry phoned Toy to pick us up to get home again. As guest of honour I got to sit in the front and Gerry, kids and dog all squeezed in the back of the car.

I was treated to the works - full roast lamb dinner with all the trimmings, followed by chocolate brownies and mango. Yummy.

Gerry and I left around 9 p.m. and we got to the airport around an hour later, where we said our goodbyes. 

The plane was about three quarters of an hour late, but as I had about a three hour wait in Amsterdam I was not too concerned. Once we got in the air I settled down to sleep - I was not at all bothered about staying awake for the 'meal'. I could not believe that I slept so well, waking up with only about 3 hours to go.

When I eventually got into Edinburgh there was no sign of Paul. I left a message on his mobile. Ten minutes later I decided to try to text him. Young people look away now...

I had foolishly thought that texting would work the same way as searching my address book to get the required letters, but no - it kept trying to complete my words with the wrong one. My attempts at 'I am' kept getting changed to 'I big...' Eventually I managed the amazingly to the point message 'I at airport'!

Anyway, Paul arrived shortly after having been stuck in traffic on the bypass, the journey in taking almost twice as long as normal. Getting home was uneventful. 

After the initial excitement  from the dogs life is settling back to normal. Paul has ordered me a new USB cable for my camera once I tracked down the part number in the documentation so hopefully in a couple of days I will be able to download some photos from the Causeway...

Chilling Out in Bangkok

When Bangkok airport reopened Jakkrit started sorting out getting the majority of the Thai team home by air rather than repeating their 36 hour+ trip home by road and rail (Pakorn is going on to play in Penang). I asked him to also get me a flight and I am now having two days chilling out at Gerry's before taking my originally planned flight home on Tuesday night (I hope).

Jane has just slaughtered me at pool - the only game I won was when she fouled the black. 

She also keeps trying to feed me - tucking into melon as I type :)

I will cover the highlights and lowlights of the scrabble when I get home. I will, however, say how much I enjoyed the event. 

I feel that I played badly on the first 2 days - I think it was more to do with worrying about how I was to get home rather than jetlag - my focus/concentration was severly lacking. Lack of sleep was suffered by almost everyone. Harshan gave me some earplugs on Tuesday evening so I probably got more sleep than most - I could even keep the air-con on in the room as the sound was sufficiently dulled.

I think the strength of the field meant it was harder than the worlds despite the top U.S. and Canadians not being present and a severely diminished team from Thailand, and at 45 games was the toughest event I have ever played in. Despite playing so many games the scheduling was such that we had the evenings free after eating. Unfortunately I cannot post any photos as I think I have lost my USB cable - I can't find it anywhere in my baggage :(

The U.K. team outperformed their seeding, and we got second place behind an unstoppable team from Australia.

I will be trying my hardest to get in the team for next year. Michael probably wants me to make it too as everytime I tried to pay him he said later - and then as we were preparing to leave for Singapore airport I tried again. 'Pay me when you come next year'.

Johor Bahru - Part 2

Well, there are a lot of people here now. Team Nigeria arrived yesterday. I was pleased that Wellington Jighere remembered me for beating him in the last WSC :) The Australians are also here, and spotted Sam K at breakfast. As I wandered past reception on the way to this internet cafe Narween and Odette were checking in. Team Thailand is somewhere in transit - train and coach trip so God knows if/when they will get here and not even sure who is actually coming now.

Been keeping up with my cardbox and even added a few (very few) new words in.

After first night's good sleep the last two nights have been horrendous. Last night I could hear some kind of repetitive mechanical noise and I just couldn't get it out of my head. It stopped around 3.15 a.m. when I could then here a lot of people/cars/motorbikes - presumably the workers of whatever the machine was going home. By this point I felt awake again although tired. Just hope it gets better tonight and during the tourney - it is a tough field so need to be at the top of my game.

Going to see if I can find my schedule - still not sure where exactly we are playing or at what time...

Johor Bahru Part 1

I found that I did have to go through immigration before I could get to the domestic terminals.

This was a lot less hassle than usual despite the inbound flight not issuing us with forms.

When I got there there was only one desk open and no queue so I requested my form. As I was filling it in a group of about six men just beat me back to the lone immigration lady, but they didn't take long to process.

So I duly arrived. More surprisingly so did my luggage. I followed the signs to the taxi rank and was then told I had to go back to the desk to get a ticket. Michael was right - 40 RM.

A bit of hassle when I got to the hotel - although most of my accommodation will be paid for via Michael they wanted a credit card to cover any miscellaneous items. Fine - I kept an eye on deskman and credit card (had problems in KL in 2003) and it didn't seem to want to swipe. Asked if I had another one he could try I stood firm. Another try and this time it went through. I am a little unhappy that they insisted on putting 1000 RM credit on it - assume I will get that receipt back when the actual bill is paid as I cannot see myself exceeding that limit.

View from room...

Once I had settled into my room - I have actually put my T-shirts and knickers in a drawer as I am here for a week I set the alarm clock to allow myself a short nap. It took a while to get to sleep despite being so tired - have seen on the news that the situation in Bangkok is still ongoing and worrying about what to do if it doesn't get better soon. However, fall asleep I did and when the alarm woke me two and a half hours later I felt even worse.

I forced myself to get up and wandered down to reception to enquire about wifi rates. They are not too horrendous but I am writing my blog notes in advance - when I pay for the wifi access this is gonna be a cut and paste jobby. I then had a little wander about getting my bearings. The hotel is attached to a shopping mall – bizarrely this little section of the city is a duty free zone. I found this out as I decided to have a little aimless meander outside and got stopped by an official from my intended route. To leave you have to go through a customs area.

I haven't spotted any other scrabblers here yet. I guess Ed and David should arrive some time tomorrow. Don't know about Femi (usually last minute) and Harshan.

Well, it is 7 p.m. here now so I'm off for another meander and to get something to eat...

Back in room now, and my idea of getting a good night's sleep may be on hold. The design of the hotel is such that the rooms form a large square, and in the middle on the 5^th floor are the restaurants and bars. Tonight (and I have no idea if, indeed, it is every night) there is live music. I have just suffered the most awful rendition of 'I want to break free' I think I have ever heard. Freddie will be spinning in his grave.

After several false endings the live band finally stopped just before 1 a.m. And then I fell asleep to be woken at 9 a.m, by the alarm. I was still tired and went back to sleep, finally getting up again around 10.30 a.m. after being awoken by the maid service. Having missed breakfast I went into the shopping mall and got a glass of orange juice. Back to my room and cleared my cardbox, wandered back down to reception to see if Ed or David had arrived and bought a 1 hour wifi card from the business centre. Decided to have the buffet lunch in the hotel – I was starving and having checked it out earlier knew there was plenty there I would like. Having forgotten to set the service light on my room as I went out it was still a mess when I got back, so I decided to take my book down to reception to allow my room to be made up and see if I spotted anyone I knew. After about 20 minutes Ed appeared in front of me. He had got in yesterday too so I have no great hopes of reception informing me of David's arrival...

Just got back from dinner and a few beers with Ed. David and Amy appear to have arrived but must have gone straight to bed. Maybe catch up with them at breakfast tomorrow. I should make it...

KL Here I Come

My flight to Bangkok was cancelled when we checked the KLM site this morning.

So on the phone to their e-ticket helpline. Janice was very helpful, seeing whether there were any seats for tomorrow's flight - nope, fully booked. I said I doubted whether the flight would actually happen anyway. She said she would try the day after. I then said would it be possible to change my flight to Singapore as I had only been going to stay in Bangkok a few days before flying on. She checked with her supervisor - no, that was not possible. However, there was a flight to Bangkok tomorrow bouncing at KL, would I like her to change me to that flight. Yes!

So back onto the internet and I have booked an onward flight from KL to Johur Bahru (JB), where the tourney is actually taking place.

Now I just have to persuade the check-in desk to let me and my luggage bail out at KL...

And hope that the situation is sorted before I need to fly home again...

Bangkok - Here I Might Not Come

I am due to fly out to Bangkok tomorrow afternoon but with the current situation this looks unlikely. 

I will try checking in shortly and see what happens. 

Then phone the airline tomorrow to see what they say...

I think I am doomed to never get to play in any tourney Michael Tang organises - the last time I tried the tourney was cancelled after I booked my flight :(