UK Youth Championships by Jessica Pratesi
This is unfortunately my last ever UK Youth Champs because I turn 18 next year :O( But I come off the back of an average 24hr tournament where I beat some not so average players like Lewis and Wayne and Wale. However I was looking forward to playing against youths again. It's hard to understand how much joy you feel playing someone who is closer to your age because most of the people I play are in their 30's/40's/50's/mum :O)
Game 1: vs Caitlin Paget
My first of the day against a newbie. It doesnt matter though. Over the 10 games all of us rated-ers will play all the unrated-ers (apart from Jack playing sister Alice) which is 4 games in total.
Managed 2 bonuses in the first 5 turns here.. BARRIOS and AGENTrY. Awesomely I managed to play a word which I learnt playing one game of dupes on the ISC on Wednesday night. COBZA. The rest of the game didn't seem to match up to the first half ;)
Oh and if there are actually scrabblers bothering to read this report, please don't undermine the scores made by the beginners. It's not their fault that they don't play scrabble to the extent that we do.
PS : Highlight of this game was when Caitlin played WEEL and I looked at it knowing that she'd misspelt WHEEL but it actually is a valid word! Flukey! lol. At least she impressed me with that :D
Me : 604
Caitlin : 117
Game 2: vs Natasha Pratesi
This was my toughest game of the tournament, to my surprise! Strangely enough, I didnt manage to bonus in this game (Tash blocked my VERBALS :O( ) but my highest score was playing VERBAL hooking onto Tash's bonus of rEADIER to make BrEADIER for 46. Nearly died at the end of the game when I realised Tash had the possibility of a bonus. Fortunately she only had one vowel to go with her blank so she couldn't win.
Me : 362
Tash : 296
Game 3: vs Joe Knapper
This was probably the first game which an onlooker might have considered 'tough' for me. In fact that is sort of the opposite reaction (sorry Joe). After Joe changed on his first move this allowed HABITED for 84 to be plonked down by yours truly. A few good scores later and I managed OUTDOES for 76. Admittedly Joe gave me that opening. A few more good scores laters and out come the OLIVETs. Then straight after I knew I'd missed a bonus but at least the turn after that I had LIQuATES for 101. A straight run home to the end for my highest ever tourney score to date against a player who is NOT a beginner.
Me : 626
Joe : 247
Game 4: vs Kiran Pal
Kiran is probably the best out of all the newbies. That doesn't phase me though. With a bit of practise one day he'll become something special. Managed 4 bonuses in this game too (4 is sort of a lucky number for me as I cannot stand a Sudoku grid without it). FININGS, AEOlIAN (aeolian), rOTATES and SALTING. In between I found the beautiful ZOOIER for 50 and GRRRL for 9 :D
My addition still isn't getting much better but I'm winning, even if that's to be predicted.
Me : 601
Kiran : 180
Game 5: the biggy. vs Jack Durand. my biggest rival for this title (part 1)
Bit scared going into this, understandably. Things didn't start off too well when Jack got 22 points ahead of me (I know this is measly but this is scary when you are playing a person who's already gone up 31 points this year!) Then I thought for absolutely ages about a 9 timer with DEELNS? through an A in the 4th position. Trust me to see the harder bonus of the two! (spoiler at end) Anyways things seemed to only go up from there with me stealing ALL the goodies from Jack. Yes thats right ALL the S's, blanks, and the J Q Z X and K. How greedy am I! (rhetorical question. if any of you lot answer that there'll be hell to pay (lol)). 2 back to back bonuses came from this selection. A pair of teeth (APERITIF) and Ooh my yaks (OOMIAkS). Jack also unfortunately created an opening for me to go out with AROUSER for 77 to really rub salt in the wounds.
Me : 544
Jack : 304
Time for day 2.. I needed to beat Jack to have a slight comfortable feeling going into the 2nd day.. all I had to do was beat Joe and Tash and the inevitable newbies then the title would be regained for the first time since this championships started, even though there have technically only been 2 other UKYC. First one won by me, second by Oliver.
Day 2 : Game 1: vs Joe Knapper
A must win game. I knew Jack would catch up on spread in this round too so losing was a no-no. Started off well by having a CIGGY. Good job Paula didn't tell me off as doing that is illegal on a school site! Managed two back-to-back bonuses in moves 3-4 as well, SOCIATES for 61 and my favourite -HOLE word of all (no not that one you dirty minded people :P) ANETHOLE :D Followed by a straight run to the end to win a game that I virtually clinched the championship on.
Me : 438
Joe : 355
Day 2 : Game 2: vs Bethany Paget
Unfortunately Bethany is the lowest scorer of the tourney :O( but she is a trooper and fought bravely to the end and this is a big learning curve for her :D I only got 2 bonuses in this game, LANTERNs and DIESELS. But a comfortable win nonetheless.
Me : 584
Bethany : 99
Day 2 : Game 3: vs Alice Durand
Alice was only playing to make the numbers even because it would have been unfair to have more byes this year. I suppose being the sister to Jack, Alice understands enough to know to challenge all the words I play which look a bit odd to a beginner! She also knows how to dump the Q for 21 and managed 2 scores of 28 too. My only bonus in this game was TENDErS O_o
Me : 468
Alice : 165
Day 2 : Game 4: vs Natasha Pratesi
Tash wanted to beat me so she'd have the chance of 3rd. I told her that I needed to win this game to be virtually home and dry unless Jack gave me an absolute walloping in the final game. Unfortunately for Tash my word knowledge seems to be set to 'impressive/hard' at the moment which meant that i was outscoring her all the way through until the end. My bonuses seem to be running dry today :O I only managed PAInTING in this game.
Me : 473
Tash : 343
Day 2 : Game 5: Final game : the clincher : the overuse of colons : vs Jack Durand (part 2)
Before this game, we worked out that I was 541 spread points ahead of Jack. He needed to beat me by 271 to win the title. I needed to NOT open a 9 timer and I would be fine.
Jack did actually get some goodies in this game. I wasn't being a greedy little madam any more ;) though I did managed 2 bonuses (ISOTONE and LUSTIER) before greedily taking both blanks from the bag to steal control of the game and play with only 5 tiles on my rack. Before I picked both blanks Jack managed to find a 5 point lead for somewhere :O Though my knowledge of 3's hooks was a bit better than Jack's as I knew ARC-O and BEN-I. By the time I managed to find playable bonuses with my blank racks, the board died (must have been my fault again) and I had blocked the board to such an extent that neither of us would make any stupid openings for the other to use. While Jack still blocked my bonuses during this time, he is unaware that this is my favourite style of play (because I'm an evil little madam). The only thing I managed to use these blanks for was to go out with TEAboX.
Me : 423
Jack : 320
Regaining my title is great :D but under these circumstances, the title seemed to have been deemed almost worthless just because there are only a few decent youths (boys AND girls) which seems to turn this tourney into a 2 or 3 horse race. One day I know this title will be worth contending and there will be enough youths to fill our WYSC team and more. But first we need to entice them into our game of words......
QwizicaL
SPOILER:
DEELNS? + A : two playable bonuses CLEANSED and DELAINES (I played delaines)