Round 16 Open result

The leader in Open division finally changed at the end of the day. Jocelyn lost to Pui Cheng Wui, and Tony Sim squeaked past Rosario Lambino (PHI) by 1 point to finally take over top spot. Tomorrow onwards the pairings will be King of the Hill with repeat, so Tony and Jocelyn will face off at Table 1.

Marcus Goh (SIN) failed to emulate what Chris May did in Premier division. Marcus finally lost a game today, to Dielle Saldanha (CAN).

Several nice words spotted this round: CANNAE, UNRIPEST, ACHEnIA, BRUXED. Some other words from Premier division earlier that I noted but forgot to update: CHIVAREE (Michael Hornung (AUS) vs Apirat Choomai (THA) ), DAYTALES (Hubert Wee (SIN) vs Ong Suanne (MAL) ), ABLEGATE (Ganesh (MAL) vs Taewan (INT)). In the last round, Goh Jiang Pern (SIN) laid down FEBRILE one short of the TWS, and Femi Awowade (INT) capitalised with UVEA / AFEBRILE.

Games for both Premier and Open divisions will resume tomorrow morning 830am.

Round 19 / 15 results

Chris May has done it. He won his last game and swept the day, 9-0, piling the pressure on Ganesh, who is still keeping ahead by virtue of spread.

Hubert Wee (SIN) and Albert Hahn (CAN) seem to be enemies made for each other. The two ‘berts first played in a one-day tournament last week in Singapore, in a cracking game with 7 bingos. This round the two played each other again, and they upped the stake; it’s an 8-bingo game now. Albert’s were ANOTHER (98), ESCAPISTS (82), MARVELED (82), and TOUZlED (87); Hubert’s were IGNOBLER (76), AIRLIKE (74), UNIONIzE (64), and ESTRIOL (72). It’s Albert’s revenge, 515-500.

The premier division has ended their schedule for the day, but the open division still has one more game to go before they end the day. The players are still in high spirits though. The Australian WYSC team especially, have shown strong esprit de corps with their uniform T-shirts. Yesterday they were all in green WYSC T-shirts. Today, I see many young Australian players in red Australia T-shirt. That includes the effervescent Paul Richards

Tony Sim (SIN) held the rack CITTYU? and came asking if there was a bingo. He couldn’t find one and settled for CITY. He was chagrined to know that of all things, the bingo available is oUTCITY.

The team tournament got exciting with Malaysia’s marvelous effort to defeat Thailand 4-1. This, coupled with Singapore’s 3-2 win over team International, means that now team Singapore is just 0.5 points behind Thailand.

Andy noticed an interesting pattern during today’s tourney: Nigel won his first four, lost his next three, and won his last two. Andy lost his first four, won his next three, and lost his last two. They have been ghost-playing each other I guess…

Round 18 / 14 results

Cheah Siu Hean came with a sad story from his previous round against Bob Jackman. The letters JINN? was on the board, and Bob made a play hooking D to it. Cheah, immediately challenged DJINNe, recalling the blank as an E. Unfortunately, it actually was an S, and DJINNS is good. Bob won the game by 3 points, with help from the 5 point penalty challenge. The sad thing was, that blank was actually played and designated by Cheah himself …

He had better luck this round, beating Apirat Choomai (THA). A 10-letter word on the board, WINK was front-hooked to TWINK bt ETAERIO (to which Apirat later played 5-overlap TOUGHEN parallel to AERIO). Apirat later extended it to TWINKLING, and Cheah hooked an S to it playing STOOPES for 147 points.

Jocelyn Yeo hung on to her lead earlier by eking out a 1-point win against Ramaraj in the previous round, but this round there was no more escaping. Martin Waterworth (AUS) brought Jocelyn’s winning streak to a halt at 10 wins. Martin is on a 4-win streak himself and is now in the top 5, just below another streaker, Marcus Goh (SIN) who still hasn’t lost a game today. Marcus’s streak stands at 8.

Chris May (AUS) is still running hot with a 10-win streak, and keeping the race with Ganesh exciting at the top. In the team front, four Thai players and three Singapore players are in the top 10. Singapore just beat Thailand 3-2 to further narrow the gap to 2.5 points. Malaysia beat Philippines 3-2 and Australia pulled out a similar score against team International, so Malaysia and Australia are still neck to neck with 0.5 points separating them.

Barry has taken over keying in results for both Premier and Open divisions, so hopefully I have more time to upload a couple of annotated games and roam around, now that Li Wei is no longer around to help me.

Some nice plays that Lim Li Wei spotted for me this round:
- MARRANO, DIAPHONE, and DISJECT by Nigel Richards (MAL)
- SUBAGENT by Chris May (AUS)
- PENTITO by Trevor Halsall (AUS)
- MAHONIAS, SEMUNCIA, and PALADINE by Ganesh (MAL)

Round 17 / 13 results

Two players who are unbeaten today in Premier finally met each other, Chris May (AUS) and Liew Kian Boon (SIN). You can find out in the annotated game section whose winning streak has ended.

Lim Li Wei, a visiting Singapore player who will be taking part in the WYSC, has helped me walk around to have a look at intesting plays. Among his finds are:
- ACULEUS by Dean Saldanha (INT)
- ANIMUSES by Femi Awowade (INT)
- LANEWAYs by Apirat Choomai (THA)
- the extension OLDSQUAW by Kian Boon (SIN)
- in Open division, Yeap Gim Sai (MAL) hooked a V to make VACUITIES.

Nigel Richards (MAL) is facing a rare slump, having lost his last 3 games in a row to Andy Kurnia (SIN), Chris May (AUS), and Dean Saldanha (INT). But then again, he had a 13-win run preceding that, so I’m sure he’ll be fine

At the beginning of this round, Michael Hornung (AUS) was nowhere to be found. His opponent Goh Jiang Pern (SIN) started the clock while Michael Tang tried hard but futilely to locate Michael. Eventually Michael Hornung turned up, and we discovered that he had thought he had a bye, because Michael Tang had announced “Michael you have a bye” when referring to Michael Wong, the opponent of James Gunner in Open division. There are just too many Michael’s in this room

Round 16 / 12 results

The Australians have woken up. That summed up this round of premier, where Australia performed magnificently to trounce Malaysia 5-0. Chris May and Ed Okulicz took down Nigel Richards and Ganesh Asirvatham respectively, and made the team race more interesting. Singapore capitalized by winning 4-1 (Antonio Malonzo beat Cheah Siu Hean for the Philippines sole point), and now has 45.5 points at second place, trailing Thailand’s 48. The game between Ed and Ganesh was a high-scoring piece that will be put up in the annotated games section later.

With both leaders stopped in their track, Chris May (AUS) has now equalled them in wins to make an exciting race at the top.

In contrast, the leader in the Open division Jocelyn Lor (MAL) has pulled away to be two games clear. She beat Toh Weibin (SIN) 455-348 and Tony Sim (SIN) lost to Marcus Goh (SIN) who still remains unbeaten today.

James Gunner (AUS) has had to retire to his room since he is not feeling well after the last round. His opponent for the next round, Michael Wong (MAL) has been given a bye. We hope James will get well soon.

JoBeth is not around so I unfortunately do not have time to go scout for interesting plays this time round. I hope the annotated games will do.

Round 16/12 underway (Round 15/11 result)

I am changing the blog naming from the round going on to the round which has result already in; I think that may be a bit clearer.

Bob Jackman (AUS) reported a 7-bingo game, 4 of which were consecutive. Unfortunately they were by his opponent Panupol Sujjayakorn (THA): GABBIER (92), HOLLAED (78), NUMERAL (71), and NEOTYPES (78). The other bingos in the game are Bob’s GAINABLE (68) and DRAISIN (61) and POUTINE (69) from Panupol.

In another Thai vs Australia game, Trevor Halsall (AUS) laid down the pretty ReCTITIS against Komol Panyasoponlert (THA). Komol challenged it; the word stood. But Komol had an immediate reply with the natural and equally pretty WHARENUI to an I somewhere else on the board. Komoml won the game. Some other nice words on the board were ENDOSARC and EXOGAMY (non bingo).

Cheah Siu Hean (SIN) won big against Henry Yeo (MAL), 625-358, on the back of his nine-timer EXPIATED (203). That game helped team Singapore beat team Malaysia 3-2 to close in on the leaders. However it probably helped team Thailand more, since they won 4-1 against Australia while Malaysia was being held back.

In the Open division, Jocelyn Lor (MAL) maintains her one game lead with a win against fellow Malaysian Tan Jin Chor. Only Tony Sim (SIN) is within one game of her with a sizeable spread.

Making their entrances in the top 10 are Dielle Saldanha (CAN) and Ramaraj Sundraraj (MAL). Dielle is on a 3-win streak, Ramaraj on 4-win streak, but the current longest streak apart from Jocelyn’s is by Marcus Goh (SIN). Marcus and Jocelyn are the only two players who are still unbeaten today. Jocelyn has beaten Marcus yesterday, so they won’t be paired against each other until the repeat round starts.

Round 14 / 10: results up

All results and annotated game for Round 14 Premier and Round 10 Open are posted. Check out the nice 6-tile overlap play in the annotated game between Hubert Wee (SIN) and Dean Saldanha (INT).

Some nice bingos spotted this round: BLINTzE (66) by Robbie Onate (PHI) against Bob Jackman (AUS) – Bob still won the game; PAINtBOX (127, including the challenge) and COINHERE (101) by Cheah Siu Hean (SIN). Four players had 4 bingos: Cheah above, Chris May (AUS) who has ACOEMETI to show, and Nigel (MAL) with his kIERIES and EUCLASE. 

Malaysia and Thailand fought to a standstill at 2.5 each in the last round, allowing Singapore (3-2 against INT) and Australia (4-1 against PHI) to make up some ground. But at the moment it is still more of a fight between Malaysia and Thailand.

Round 14/10 (part 1)

Hubert Wee (SIN) was complaining earlier that all his spread is now useless because of the tie he had with Apirat. He can now be thankful that Henry Yeo (MAL) and Panupol Sujjayakorn (THA) tied their game at 444 apiece; I guess now the quartet will be checking each other’s spreads often.

Michael Hornung (AUS) just beat Odette Rio (PHI), 5xx- 4xx (I don’t have the scores, I’m a bad reporter). Michael stuck Odette with the Q, but it wouldn’t have changed the winner. Both players seemed to agree that the best play on the board was Odette’s HALlOUMI, which drew a challenge from Michael.

A small incident happened in Nigel vs Apirat game. Nigel played ?IERIES, and Apirat played BLOOM parallel to it, forming Ba, LI, OE, OR, and MI. Or so he thought. Except that Nigel stated the blank as “K” for kIERIES instead, which Apirat heard as “A”. Apirat also didn’t see when Nigel pointed at a K on the board when he pronounced the blank. In the end, it was ruled that the blank stays a K, Apirat took back his BLOOM and got another go.

Big scoring game between Toh Weibin (SIN) vs Alex Tan (MAL) in Open division. Three bingos each, but what swung it for Weibin, more than his two 50+ points non-bingo, was HOoKNET* (90) which Alex let go. Final score 51x -47x.

Jocelyn Lor is now 1st in the Open, on the back of her current 6-win streak. She’s the only one on 9 wins, and 3 others on 8. We are beginning to see the Malaysian veterans like Pui Cheng Wui, Tan Jin Chor, and Jocelyn making themselves visible near the top. Quite a good mix of countries in the top 10, with 3 each from Singapore and Malaysia, and 1 each for Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, and USA. Tim Michaels (USA) has in my opinion done commendably well, considering this is his first Collins tournament.

We are breaking for lunch now for 1 hour and will be back for the next game at 2pm local time. The room is unfortunately locked up for security during lunch so we could not complete all the results to post up. I will post a remark again once it’s posted.

In the meantime, if you want to send a message of support, encouragement, kudos, to any of the players, feel free to drop a comment or email through me, and I will do my best to pass it on to them.

Round 13 / 9

Tony Sim lost to Jocelyn Lor (MAL) at table 1, and Chaiwat has returned to the top table to face Tan Jin Chor (MAL) next round. Second-placed is actually Jocelyn, but Chaiwat has played her in an earlier game.

A six-bingo game occurred between Dielle Saldanha and Adele Tan in Open division: Adele’s FANNERS and MARLIEST, and Dielle’s BERRYING, DEPURATE, LICEnTES, and ARENiTE.

There’s a new tournament high game achieved in the open section: Ramaraj Sundraraj (MAL) scored 680 by playing 5 bingos past Pornsatith (THA).

Henry reported that in the previous round he played 3 consecutive 50+ plays against Dean (KAZI 54, OXY 51, QUEER 51) to overturn the 2 bingos Dean played on him. He later on added JEAT 46 to complete the quadrumvirate of power tiles and win the game.

In the Panupol vs Andy Kurnia game I saw both ELATES and UNELATED on the board. I guess they just couldn’t make up their (state of) mind. Also spotted was the natural CYBORGS.

Apirat Choomai (THA) drew Hubert (SIN), which helped the Thais pulled away further in the team standing. Malaysia is now second with 1.5 victories behind. Australia and International team has been in a dead heat for several rounds, now both are at 31.

Round 12 / 8

Spotted in the game between Jakkrit Klaphajone (THA) vs Marlon Prudencio (PHI): ?AYADEER. Do you know what the blank is? Answer below [1]

Tony Sim (SIN) has just ended Chaiwat’s unbeaten run in the Open Division with the help of a nine-timer DISHIESt (149) through the H.

An ongoing game between Panupol and Odetted has produced 6 bingos so far: OCEANAUT, ABELIAN, ELOQUENT, IMPINGE, VAGINUlE, ARTLEsS. I’d be curious about the eventual final score.

I saw WAVELETs in Ong Suanne’s (MAL) match against Albert Hahn (INT). I also saw WAVELET just one round ago on Vannita Balasingham’s (MAL) table.

Vannita just completed her game against Rohaina Tanveer (INT), a new high game at 638 – 287. Vannita had ATONABLE (95), EXODIST (80), TWIRLED (77), AUTEURS (66), DIORITE (87), to Rohaina’s ENGRASP (84).

Trevor Halsall (AUS) found the nice natural UXORIAL (83) against Andy Kurnia (SIN).

Annotated match for previous round (Gerry Carter vs Panupol) has just been uploaded. Many thanks to Chris Stockdale, who has been helping the team with all the annotations so far.
[1] BAYADEER