The Club celebrated Mark’s birthday last night (on his actual birthday) and I brought over a tiramisu cake. Mark won all three of his games as a fitting present. I on the other hand won two out of three:
455-338 against Steve. Exciting draw situation to see who would play first. I drew an R, then Steve drew an R. Then I drew an A and Steve drew an A. For our third draw I picked an S, and figured that I would end up playing second, but then Steve drew the X. The game wasn’t going my way at first, as Steve’s first two plays were bingos, leaving me at a deficit 46-135. I played REGENTAL (68) and CAROuSE (73). Steve opened with INTONED (69) then IDIOLEcT (66).
533-253 against Shauna. My bingos: RELATERS (68), TrOUTED (70) * and zEATINS (74). Shauna played UNHINGED (68). I sincerely thought that TrOUTED was acceptable, as TROUTING is, yet I see that TROUT is only a noun and not a verb. I could have easily played TUTOrED in the same spot.
385-439 against John D. I played ATTAINS (72) and the phony UNDERTIE (68), knowing it was no good (neither RETINUED nor REUNITED would fit) but I was behind and felt it was plausible enough to escape a challenge, although he did hold me on it. Besides, the right TWS row was next to the final -E in UNDERTIE with a DLS after it, so if he had placed a D or an S there to make UNDERTIED or UNDERTIES I would have challenged it off. It was my only chance to hope for a win. John played oUTSPEND (61), OVERcOAT (69) and SLIMIER (83).