Mark and I are back from an eight-day trip to Halifax, the primary purpose of which was to see Carroll Baker on her final concert tour. She played at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium on Monday night. While we were down east Mark and I played sixteen games and he won five of them, including three in a row:
01 I opened with INARMED (76) and also played TITTERED (60, through the I, so I held three T’s), COUPONs (75), MALTASES (72) plus a nicely stacked ZAMIA (90), around the M, where the Z landed on the DLS and the second A on the DWS like this:
___ZAMIA
HOAXING
My final bingo rack was AAELSST and with nowhere to play a 7LW I looked for 8LW and easily found MALTASES. Nevertheless, I still shuffled my tiles around and discovered that they formed SEASALT. That is not a word, but I missed the valid 7LW, ATLASES. I should have found that. Now I will know that if I arrange my tiles to form SEASALT, they anagram to ATLASES. Mark played CRISpERS (70). 545-337
02 I played PINOLeS (78), PEARLITE (74) and ANTIgENE (68) and Mark played DEVOTION (74). Mark’s final rack in this game was BBIMOSX, which I immediately recognized anagrams to MOXBIBS. This is not a word but the term was invented by Joel Wapnick in his book The Champion’s Strategy for Winning at Scrabble to refer to a phony that is so outrageous that it would likely draw a challenge. When I realized what Mark’s final rack was, I had a tough time keeping a straight face during the endgame. 424-368
03 I played HEMIOLA (76) and DULlING (73) while Mark played RESIDES (83) and WIRIESt (80). 368-385
04 I played ARIETTE (63) and ASSOiLED (74) and Mark got a bingo score of 80 for QUICHE. 404-345
05 My first bingo was the phony OUTBORNE (60)*, but I also got down the legit WOLFING (87), ARnATTO (68) and OVERPASs (84). Mark played sALUTERS (59, through my s in OVERPASs) and got 60 for HEXED. 510-341
06 While going second my first move was ATABRINe (80) and I also played READIES (72). In spite of my two bingos I struggled in this game, even going overtime by ten points. Mark beat me by nearly a hundred points even though he scored no bingos. 327-420
07 I played COULDEST (77) and STAGERS (71) and Mark played RUMINaTE (70) and AIRIeST (76). 438-414
08 Some interesting bingos in this game. My first one wasn’t anything special, SCURRIeD (76) but then I got down ACEQUIaS (69) and ended the game with DYSPNEA (109). By coincidence, I played DYSPNEA during our eighth game in Scotland. In this game I made a note that after I made a fishy play using AIL I ended up drawing AAA. 515-292
09 I played ADAPTOR (74), REEDITS (71), BLIGhTS (87) and MERITFUL (73)*. My final bingo seemed plausible and I risked it. I know that I would have been disappointed had it been acceptable and I chickened out of playing it. 525-258
10 I played TOASTING (63) and Mark played QUIcHES (86) and got 58 for JuBES. 321-408
11 My bingo was PIGLETS (64) and Mark played REPUtING (70) and rESTATE (68). 345-384
12 I played TIpSIER (81) and Mark played TODDLER (66). 339-384
Three wins in a row for Mark. In one of these games I held the rack ABDRSUZ. I held little hope that Mark would open the board with a blank z to enable me to play BUZzARDS, the only available 8LW.
13 I played UNWaXeS (93)* and SAINTED (71). I am surprised to discover that there is no steal for NSUWX, no matter how many blanks you add. 354-342
14 I played FILTERER (65), MISTOoK (75) and STaNING (89) and Mark got 53 for EX. The only 7LW in my second bingo rack was MISTOoK, yet the 8LW possibilities were full of weirdies. I did not see them all, but I did not miss the possibility of making KAMOTIQS, with the blank being either an a or a q. I could also have made COMATIKS, KAMOTIKS, KOMATIKS, SHKOTZIM, SMOKIEST or TOKENISM. 499-283
15 I played EMERiES (76), DUALLIST (65)* and got high scores for ZORI (54) and QUINCE (51). Mark played GAMBlES (71). 475-310
16 While going second my first move was REFRAMED (78). I also played IDOLATER (70) and ANTIPOrN (67). Mark played SALOONs (68). 446-336