Toronto Scrabble Club / March 20, 2024


Now that I have retired I will be visiting the Toronto Scrabble Club more often. Its location in North York and early start time made it impossible for me to get there on time via public transit. I won two out of three:

422-257 against Mad. I played the only bingo, DONAtES (74) and it was my outplay. One of my racks was HMNNOY? which makes no sevens and only one eight: etHNONYM. I did know this word, but it would have been hard to find if the first two letters were the blanks.

363-451 against Mark E. Mark played DRONGOES (70), which I unsuccessfully challenged, thinking that it only took -S as its plural, and DILATES (78). I played vERITaS (76). This was a frustrating game as I could not seem to pull an E. I was overwhelmed with I’s, playing FIXIT followed by LIRI, and Mark was playing EWE and EVE. In the end I drew only two E’s. You can’t win this game if you don’t draw any E’s, simply put. I used one turn to exchange BFV and drew, in order, ??E. I played vERITaS immediately after.

480-362 against Doug B. I played COSTeAN (72) £, ANEURIN (69) and GEEZ (74). Doug played OVERHIT (81) £ and BELtERS (78). You’d think we had played a Collins game. I had numerous bingos within ACNOST? and could have played any of them, including the NWL OCTANeS, but COSTeAN was the better play. Doug held me on it and I hoped he would challenge, but let it go. I was surprised to find out later that it was Collins-only. I recall studying this word when I used to play SOWPODS. Doug did challenge my other bingo, ANEURIN, albeit unsuccessfully. Doug played OVERHIT and I didn’t like it one bit. That should have been a sign for an immediate challenge. Instead, I held him on it for an eternity, finally releasing the hold. I fell into my own trap of not challenging after I keep an opponent on hold for a long period of time. I tell myself over and over that I should always challenge under those circumstances, but didn’t. He then played FRAMES underneath it on the TWS for 51. That’s 132 points for two phonies!

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