I won two out of three last night:
237-331 against Valeria. Dismal low-scoring game, not helped by my perverted desire to block up the board. I’d figured I’d find my way out of the jams but had no luck. We were tied at one time 77-77 yet from then on it was Valeria’s game. Of the premium tiles, I only had JS while she had QSSSXZ??. No bingos by either of us.
514-236 against Brenda. When I directed the Club for 10½ years one part of the job I didn’t like was dealing with players’ requests not to be paired with any particular person. I believed such an attitude was unsportsmanlike, petty, and for the director it made my job harder when attendance was low. With no director in attendance last night I was given the job of pairing the TWL players for the final two rounds. Brenda is one such opponent who has informed me in the past whom she will not play, and she had one such request this evening. I have felt insulted on numerous occasions–to my face no less–when past directors have paired her with me and she has refused. (“I’m not playing him!”) Thus with an already low attendance I gave Brenda a choice: to play a newcomer…or me. She told me she did not want to sit with a newcomer, explaining that Valeria was better at teaching new players. For a former teacher to use that as an excuse was puzzling. Nevertheless we played and I drew the bag on her, playing CoBALTs (92), SWEATER (70) and OESTRIN (71). I also played BAIZA for 78. My rack for my first bingo was ABCLT??, and I could take advantage of two DWS-DWS opportunities if I found a bingo that slotted either an A or a B in third position. It took me a while to find CoBALTs, yet I saw CABLeTs first but chickened out on it. The other DWS-DWS bingos, all of which slotted the B in third spot, were ALBiTiC and CuBiTAL. I wrote down some promising racks during this game, yet was disappointed that I didn’t find ENOPRTY ( = ENTROPY), however I wonder if I would have found it if I bothered to put the rack in alphabetical order. It pops out at you in that tile arrangement. My mind must have been elsewhere in that I missed EERRSTU ( = URETERS). I had two racks that yielded no sevens but each formed one interesting eight: with EFINOPT I could only build through an X to make PONTIFEX, and with EHNOOPT I could only build through a Y to make HONEYPOT. Would I have found either if an X or a Y was available? I don’t think I would have taken the time to look.
441-211 against Noah. I played MARLIEST (63), SAUTOIRS (74) and TRANNIE (73). I was happy that Noah did not go overtime and had more than two minutes left.