With Mark visiting his friend Ken in New Mexico, I was on my own for getting to the Scrabble Club. I did not want to cycle since it was snowy and wet. I dislike riding in the snow far more than in the rain so I decided to walk there. At a brisk pace I arrived in 32 minutes. Jean drove me home.
I had a dismal performance at the start of the new year, winning only one, to take my record to 28-5:
408-434 against John D. I was behind the entire game until my very last play. John went first and opened with VIsITOR (76) and then the next two bingos were each of our final plays. I was drawing poorly all game, having only picked one premium tile, the X, so far.
Early in the game I set up a spot along the left TWS by playing OPEN, holding a C. I hoped to play a bingo along the TWS, also making COPEN. In one of my racks I shuffled my tiles around and from ACDGORT I found DOGCART. I thought the word looked ridiculous and didn’t give it a second thought. When I checked the word list after the game I was surprised to find out that it was acceptable. My goodness! Had I played it, scoring 95, the word would have ended one spot above the lower left TWS. I wonder what John would have done. Challenged it? Accepted it? Slotted an S underneath it (I don’t know if he had one at that time) and played a word–even a short word–to score big? And then what would I have done in response? Challenged DOGCARTS? Interesting scenarios to say the least. When John made a move, blocking the left TWS row for any bingos, I played CROON / COPEN (33). I would later draw the other C…
I decided to set up a play, slotting OC around an R to make ORC. I held the last T which would land on the DLS on the left TWS row. I couldn’t have picked two better replacement tiles, as I chose S? My new rack was GIIPST? and I saw SPITInG (which, by the way, is the only 7LW). I had two places for it: the more lucrative along the left TWS row, hooking the T to make TORC; as well as a perfect double-hooking opportunity on the other side of the board, placing the S onto the end of AGATE and the G onto the end of YA, forming two words, AGATES and YAG. John saw my obvious TORC setup and blocked it–or tried to–by playing ARE, where the R landed under my O and his E under my R. The placement looked like this:
_ORC
ARE
I saw a triple-triple opportunity, provided a word fit with a T above the A and to the left of ORC. It didn’t take me too long to find PIGTAIlS, for 156. That was the only 8LW with those letters, and fortunately it fit as a triple-triple (and not just as a single TWS). The score before PIGTAIlS was 349-252 and my score rose to 408. John however was able to play out with MEANIES (73), taking him to 422 and then he got twelve points off my rack.
465-265 against Nicole. I played DARNEST (90), AGONISE (68) and COCAInE (75). The theme for tonight was snow or snowmen, and I submitted COCAINE, as snow is a street name for the drug. I wonder if it will win the theme prize.
265-428 against Peter H. Peter played the game’s only bingos, both of which came late: the flashy DEEJaYS (93) and RADIATOR (80). I was slightly ahead before DEEJaYS but the double-bingo wallop did me in.