Seattle SCRABBLE® Club
[North American SCRABBLE® Players Association Club #253, Seattle]

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    The Last Word (Tournament Newsletter)


17 January 2012
NO CLUB Tonight, January 17th

Due to expected SNOW and ICY road conditions, there will be NO CLUB TONIGHT Jan 17.

See you next week!

UPDATE: well, the afternoon/evening snow didn't happen in central Seattle after all. I guess we could have met, if we had only ignored the weather forecast! It better actually snow tomorrow!

3 January 2012
New Word Judge Computer for Club

As most of you know, the old laptop computer (donated by Toby Cozens many years ago) we've used for word judging at club for many years finally bit the dust several weeks ago. Not wanting to go back to manual word judging, Jim Porter set up his notebook computer for us to use at club the next few club sessions, but we were looking for a more permanent solution.

When we brought up the idea of using club money to purchase a new computer for word judging, longtime club members Bob and Jane Jackson volunteered to donate their netbook computer to the club. While you still can't play "NETBOOK", this little computer is powerful and dependable and we expect to use it for many years to come. We really appreciate this thoughtful and useful gift.

             T H A N K   Y O U   B O B !                 T H A N K   Y O U   J A N E !

7 December 2011
Seattle players win in Mexico

Claudia Finn won Division C of the first early bird tournament at the Los Milagros Tournament series held the first week of December in Los Cabos, Mexico. Mark Peltier came in fourth place in the main event at Los Cabos, and won a performance prize. And they both got an extra dose of Vitamin D.

December 2011
Chip Brown in the news

One-time Seattle club member Chip Brown was written up as Geek Wire's "geek of the week" last month (see: Chip Brown of Puzzazz on puzzles, bees and making a clock from scratch). See what Chip works on by checking out the Puzzazz Puzzle of the Day (which we've had a link to at the top of the News page for several years).

Yo Chip! How about dropping in at club for a live game sometime? hint, hint.

6 December 2011
Jacob Culver takes Second Place in his First Tournament

Congratulations to Jacob Culver for taking Second Place in group C of the Lake Oswego Tournament on December 4th.

Jacob had only played online before attending Seattle Club for the first time November 29th. Just five days later he was at his first tournament, where he went 5-1 and got an initial rating of 1422. Way to go Jacob!

14 November 2011
Emerald City Results (reported by Mark Peltier)

The tourney was held Nov 11-13 at the Holiday Inn SeaTac airport. 53 contestants in four divisions played 20 games and vied for 15 top prizes and 15 other prizes. It is a great venue and everyone enjoyed the tournament.

Applause went to Lynn Dreyer for Directing, Diamond Jim Ryan for data entry and Mark Peltier for signups and all three for organizing a well-run event.

Seattle Club prizes went to:

  • Geoff Tongue scored 3rd place in Div 1.
  • Former Seattleite Nigel Peltier got 4th in Div 1.
  • Mark Peltier was 3rd in Div 2.
  • Dave Foerstel 4th in Div 2 (well done Dave- he was seeded 12th).
  • Alice Goodwin and Dan Goodwin and Georgianne Fiorini got high word prizes.

James Leong from Vancouver BC won Div 1 with an 18-2 record. James is on a tear- winning 4 of the 5 tournaments he's entered in 2011! They've all been multi-day tournaments with big fields of expert players. Amazing! Kolton Koehler from Portland won div 2 on spread points with a 13-6 record. Tyler Creviston of Olympia won div 3 at 17-2. Dave Wiegand won the Collins division on spread with a 14-6 performance. Nick Ball won a nice prize for Best Seattle Theme word with SEAGOING.

Full results
Collins

Thanks to Jim Porter for setting up, and thanks to everyone who played.

24 September 2011
Portland-Seattle Challenge Results

Lynn Dreyer won Division C, while Alice Goodwin placed third, and George Bissonnette placed fourth. Alice also won a prize for high game (500).

In Division B, Rob Kearn placed second and Tod Taylor placed fourth. Rob also won a prize for high play (119). Division A was dominated by Portland, but Geoff Tongue got a prize for high loss (437).

Congrats also to Greg Kaufman (who's been attending Tacoma Club for about two years) for winning 3 games in his first tournament!

All in all, it was a very close match, with Portland winning by just ONE game, 70.5 - 69.5. Oh well, there's always next year. Nice work everyone!

NASPA cross-table (with ratings)

5 September 2011
Matthew Nelson places 3rd at Portland

Matthew Nelson placed 3rd in the third division at the annual Portland Labor Weekdend Tournament. Rebecca Slivka also placed 3rd in the top division at the early bird and won a prize for high play (COHESION 167 pts).
(Oh, and former Seattle club member Nigel Peltier placed 2nd in the top division at the main event.)

30 August 2011
Club Bids Farewell to Mike Frentz

Farewell Cake for Mike Frentz Mike Frentz Award Mike Frentz holding Scrabble Statistician Award

It's hard to believe that it has been 10 years since Mike Frentz first came to Seattle Club. Mike started as a freshman at SPU the fall of 2001 and began attending our club almost immediately. He had started playing at clubs in his native Bay Area and competed in tournaments there, and his goal to become an "expert" was achieved less than a year later, when he broke 1700 at his first National's (finishing 17th in division two, with a 236 point rating gain).

Since then, Mike has become an integral member of our club. He passed the director's test in 2007 and helped run several one day tournaments (including the annual Portland-Seattle Challenge) and assisted with multi-day Emerald City Tournament. 2007 was also the year Mike took over the duties of Statistician, entering the club session data every week into our stats database. After four years, he'll be turning over duties to Ken Clark (who did the stats before, way back in the 1990s). Thanks Ken, for taking this on again!

Mike will still be around for a few more weeks, but we decided to surprise him with an informal going away party at club August 30th. We had a delicious cake from Nielsen's Pastries and a presented Mike with a small trophy to thank him for his years of service with the club. We'll miss you Mike!


23 August 2011
Club back at UFM starting August 23rd

The construction isn't totally finished, but our room (the Social Hall) at the University Friends Meeting is open again for us, so we will be holding regular club there again starting Tuesday August 23rd. See you soon!

10 August 2011
Nigel Peltier places 7th at National SCRABBLE Championship

Nigel Peltier and Rafi Stern were the only players from the Seattle club who competed at the National SCRABBLE Championship this year. Nigel was seeded 49th place in the top division, but (except for one game) was never below 12th place in the standings. He ended up finishing in 7th place, with a 20-11 record (+1118), winning $350.

Great job Nigel!

Oh, and congrats to the other Nigel (Nigel Richards) for winning the Nationals, again.

9 August 2011
ScrabbleGuy website debuts

Seattle Club member Bob Sluys has created a website with tips, videos, and more to help folks improve their SCRABBLE® game. Check out www.scrabbleguy.com today!

July-August 2011
Construction at UFM affects club sessions this summer

There will be major construction at the University Friends Meeting this summer that will prevent us from using their Social Hall for our club meeting space for some weeks in July and August. At this point, we know for sure we will be out July 12, and August 2, August 9, and August 16 (we might also be out July 19 and 26, but we won't know that until after July 13th).

Thanks to suggestions from club members, we have alternate space for some of these dates, and will post that information as soon as we have it.

The cabinet that is used to store our club equipment will be moved into the UFM office during the construction to be out of the way, so we will have to remove most of the stuff from the cabinet for storage offsite during that time. Once the cabinet has been cleaned out (June 28th - DONE!), club members will have to bring their own equipment (and score sheets, writing implements) to club sessions until we are back at UFM after construction is complete. We'll still be keeping stats for all these sessions, but we will not be collecting club fees or giving out prize money when we are not at UFM.

For now, here's the plan (remember to bring your own equipment and score sheets!):

Date   |   Location/Notes
June 28   |   UFM : remove stuff from our cabinet; club members take home to store during construction (cabinet will be moved to UFM office for long-term storage)
July 5   |   UFM : club members bring own equipment & score sheets (and from now on until the construction is finished) We actually met at the Burgermaster in University Village since UFM building was locked.
July 12   |   Card Kingdom (Ballard) : 5105 Leary Ave NW (Leary & NW Dock Pl)
July 19   |   Burgermaster at University Village (3040 NE 45th St)
July 26   |   Card Kingdom (Ballard) : 5105 Leary Ave NW (Leary & NW Dock Pl)
Aug 2   |   Nancy Roeder's house
Aug 9   |   Card Kingdom (Ballard) : 5105 Leary Ave NW (Leary & NW Dock Pl)
Aug 16   |   Burgermaster at University Village (3040 NE 45th St)
Aug 23   |   UFM (construction should be finished by then; if not we can meet at Card Kingdom)

Card Kingdom is a huge, beautiful new game store in Ballard (5105 Leary Ave NW, at Leary & NW Dock Pl). They have graciously allowed us to hold our club sessions in their store. Please remember that this is a business and that we are unpaid guests there, so expect to have observers and be asked questions while you are playing. Cafe Mox is a coffee shop that is associated with the store, where we can also play (but you have to buy food if you are going to sit in that section). There is on-street parking and also a parking lot across the street that is available (ask at the counter to make sure you parked in the right lot).

Burgermaster at University Village (3040 NE 45th St) is what it sounds like: a burger joint. There's free parking and they have plenty of tables and are happy to have us there. Remember to buy a little something there (and don't bring in any outside food).

Other locations considered and rejected: Crossroads Bellevue (closes at 9pm), Westlake Center (closes at 8pm).

27 July 2011
Claudia Bishop (1986 - 2011)

Claudia Bishop

Claudia Bishop started coming to club in March of 2011. Claudia was excited to play SCRABBLE and was eager to learn more and improve her game (she scored 449 on July 5th, her highest scoring game). She also became close friends with long-time club members Dinah and Uri Breda.

Sadly, just a few weeks after her 25th birthday, Claudia passed away the morning of July 25th.

We don't have any more details or information, but have heard that there will be a service for her in the Bay Area (Uri has been in contact with her family). If you want to post a remembrance of Claudia on our Memorial Page, please send an email to Rebecca and she will post it.


22 July 2011
Jane and George Bissonnette win at Victoria Tournament

In the Early Bird, Jane Bissonnette won Division 2 and George Bissonnette came in second at the Summer tournament in Victoria on July 22nd. They played each other in the final game and Jane got the win. Congrats to both!

1 July 2011
Rafi Stern wins WGPO Word Cup Early Bird

This summer's Reno tournament is the WGPO Inaugural Word Cup and includes an 8-game "Preamble" (Early Bird) and 35-game Main event.

Rafi Stern won the Early Bird with a 7-1 record and received $500 in prize money. Nigel Peltier finished in fourth place and won $200.

2 July 2011
Scrabble at Erika's

Erika Werdal is hosting a Scrabble party on July 2nd at her house in Blaine. It will start at 2pm and go until whenever. There is plenty of room to set up a tent if you want.

She will be serving burgers (and veggie burgers) and fixings for dinner about 6pm, and there will be snacks and some beverages throughout the day. Folks should bring any alcoholic beverage they may wish to drink, and a snackish thing to share is nice but not necessary.

Please RSVP to whatcomnurse@gmail.com or call Erika at 360 927-2575.

16 June 2011
New RULES CHANGES Effective June 16th

The NASPA Rules Committee has announced changes to the Official Tournament Rules, effective 16 June 2011. Many of the changes are just refinements or rewording, but there are some significant changes, a few of which are highlighted below:

  • Rule IV.B.1. How to Draw Tiles:
    Mix the tiles, if desired. (Note: Total mixing time for the entire draw must not exceed 10 seconds.) Hold the bag so the opening is above eye level and look away from the bag. Do not hold the bag directly between you and your opponent, as your eyes must be visible to your opponent while you are drawing. Never hold tiles in one hand while drawing tiles with the other. Always open the drawing hand before drawing. Place tiles either onto your rack or, preferably, face down on the table and then onto your rack.
  • Disconnected Tiles on the board are now designated an illegal play and cannot be allowed to remain on the board.
  • Revealing your tiles or their point value after the last play of the game is considered acceptance of the play and disallows the player from thereafter holding or challenging that play.

You can view and print the: Official Tournament Rules, Effective 16 June 2011 and Summary of the Changes.

The Code of Conduct has also been updated, mostly to clarify the roles of the Tournament Committe, Club/Director Committee and Advisory Board with respect to investigations and sanctions.

16 May 2011
June 25th Tournament Cancelled!

Director Jane Bissonnette has announced that because of difficulties with the venue, the June 25th One-Day tournament has been cancelled. If you have already paid your entry fee, you should be receiving a refund shortly.

The next scheduled Seattle-area tournament is November 11-13th, at the Seatac Holiday Inn. More details and sign-up information at our Emerald City Tourney Page.

15 May 2011
Matthew Nelson wins Oregon Tile Lite Division Again!

Matthew Nelson won the Lite Division of the Oregon Tile Tournament for the second year in a row. Matthew had a rough start at this year's tournament, losing his first three games, but proceeded to win every game after that and finished two games ahead of his nearest competitor. Way to go Matthew!

Byron Nelson (Matthew's father) won a performance prize in the Lite Division. In the main division, Rafi Stern finished in third place, and also won a prize for high game (588). Mike Frentz got a prize for high play, FLAMINES (187). Nigel Peltier placed fourth in the Early Bird.

Complete results:   Early Bird cross-table   Main Event cross-table   Late Bird (and Main Event Finals) cross-table.

12 May 2011
Update to Collins Word List in 2012

WESPA, the World English-Language SCRABBLE® Players' Association, has announced that the Collins Word List (also known as "CSW" = "Collins Scrabble Words" and "SOWPODS") will be updated effective January 2012. Some news reports have erroneously stated that the word list changes will affect North American tournament play, but that is not true (unless you are playing at one of the few Collins tournaments). Stefan Fatsis has written a short article on Slate.com that explains what's going on in a little more detail.

WESPA has published a handy Initiation Kit [pdf] for the New Collins Scrabble Words that lists all the additions, grouped by word length with definitions and hooks.

7 May 2011
Tacoma Club meets one week early this month

Lynn Dreyer, director of the Tacoma SCRABBLE Club, announced that this month's Tacoma club session will be held May 7th (one week early).

16-17 April 2011
Cascadia Challenge Report by Mark Peltier

Idaho. Scrabble tournament hotbed for the weekend of Apr. 16-17
In odd-numbered years, a Scrabble Tournament is held in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, pitting a team of Western province Canadians against a team of Western state Americans. It's traditionally a first-come first served sign-up and every effort is made to get the teams even in size. The format is 14 games, 8 Saturday, 6 Sunday. Two or three divisions of up to 7 players depending on how many sign-ups there are.

This year, 11 players from each side signed up. Mike Baker of Portland captained the Yanks and Siri Tillekeratne captained the Canucks which were mostly from Calgary. The event is held is the 4-Star Coeur d'Alene Resort, and the Scrabble rate on rooms was a reasonable $109/nite. If you've never been there- it's right on the north shore of beautiful Lake Coeur d'Alene and the Resort is a first-class joint all around, with a spa, pool, fine restaurants, shops, huge lobbies.

Highlights:

Canada beat the U.S. this year 84 gms to 70
Claudia Finn (6-8), Debbie Goldy(7-7) and Mark Peltier (6-8) represented Seattle.
Debbie got high loss in div 2 with 404 pts
Mark got high non-bingo JAKE for 87 pts.
Mike Baker of Portland won div 1.
Zana Anderson of Utah won div 2.
Most outrageous phony saw "FATMOUTH" win in a vote over "PIGNOSE".
High Game score was 611 - Juraj Pivovarov, who also won most bingos with 33.
NASPA cross-table

Well, BIGMOUTH is good, so... why not FATMOUTH, I say. I can't recall who played it, it might have been Debbie Goldy - she got one other envelope of money but I was distracted when they announced what for.

I voted for PIGNOSE: Mike Baker noted that "PIGNOSE" has a PIGEONS anagram. plus two more I just got off anagrammer.

Two years ago I missed Cascadia, but I was there 4 years ago and one of the Calgary ladies played "WEDELNED" against me and no way did I know WEDELN, which is a noun, much less WEDELNED being phony. It won the most outrageous Phony award, and I remember being mildly ashamed. But that was before I learned WEDELN was good. I thought afterwards my opp had transposed letters. It's a great word. WEDELNS is good too, for a nice bingo 7.

Oh- one more trivia: I noticed on the Cascadia trophy that the U.S. has only won one of the 6 tourneys in the last 12 years. The winning team's player names are engraved on small plates fastened to the large round trophy/plaque. Let's get it in 2013. Rah!

~cub reporter Mark Peltier, from notes

12 April 2011
Protiles Promotion at Club

Bob Schoenman says: Come to club April 12th March 22nd with spare tiles to donate and Protiles will pay you $2 for every set of unwanted wooden or plastic tiles for the Tiles for Teachers program. So if you bring 3 sets Protiles will pay your club fee for the night!

Also, at club Protiles will sell sets at 20% off the list price - silk-screened sets will sell for $16 and double injection molded will sell for $22.

And for those who want to donate in the club's name to Earthquake Relief, Protiles will match the amount of the donations.

16 March 2011
Club Fees Donated for Earthquake Relief

At club last night, folks agreed to forego prizes and donate all fees collected at club for the night to support relief efforts in Japan after the earthquate and tsunami. A $78 check has been sent to the American Red Cross in the club's name.

9 March 2011
Survey.......says!   Where are all the scrabblers?

Please take a brief survey about your ideas to improve Seattle Scrabble Club.

The survey is anonymous and applies to newbie, regular, and vanished players alike.

Survey closes April 10 March 23rd, so don't wait too long.   Thanks!
A smiling Jane Bissonnette receives her prize winnings from Miriam Gregory

6 March 2011
Jane Bissonnette wins at Vancouver!

Jane Bissonnette went 11-3 at the March 5-6th Vancouver WGPO tournament to win Division B. She had the win locked in early and was gibsonized for the final round(s).

Congratulations Jane!

Dawn Wisniew placed third in Division D, and a few other Seattle club members (Alice Goodwin, Dan Goodwin, and George Bissonnette) won cash prizes as well.

Nice going guys!

The final results are published on the wgpo website


24 February 2011
Details finalized for this year's Emerald City Tournament: Nov 11-13th

For the second year in a row, we're holding the Emerald City Scrabble Tournament on the Veteran's Day / Remembrance Day weekend (Nov 11-13 this year). This year's tournament will have a slightly different format than previous years, with just three divisions and the option of unlimited play-up. We will once again have an open Collins/CSW division as well (which will be rated by both NASPA and WESPA).

Because of a conflict with a large conference taking place downtown the same time, we have had to look further for a location and found a great deal in Seatac. Our new tournament hotel is the Seatac Holiday Inn, which is conveniently located right next to Seatac airport and 1/2 block from the Sound Transit Light Rail station.

We have secured the special rate of just $79 per night for guest rooms. The hotel has recently been refurbished, with new beds & linens, flat screen TVs, free wi-fi, and 24 pool and fitness room. Parking is free for overnight guests and just $5/day for daily parkers.

Also new this year, we'll be holding a drawing for a free refund of your tournament entry fee. You must pay by August 11th qualify for the drawing.

Complete details on our Emerald City Tournament page.

What are you waiting for?   Sign up now!

29 January 2011
Rafi, Hilary and Adam win at One-Day

Another smoothly run one-day tournament organized and directed by Jane Bissonnette.

Rafi Stern won division A, Adam Henderson won Division D, and Hilary Johnson won division E. Congratulations!

Other Seattle club members in the money: George Bissonnette placed second in Division D and Liam Blodgett placed second in Division E; Dan Goodwin, Midori Howard, Alice Goodwin, and Ellen Lin took 3rd place in their respective divisions.

More detailed results on our January 29 Tournament Results page.

14 January 2011
Nigel Peltier wins Reno Early Bird

Nigel Peltier went undefeated (8-0 +829) to win the top division of the Early Bird at the annual Martin Luther King Jr Tournament in Reno. Way to go Nigel!

Also, check out this amazing game between Kenji Matsumoto and Jerry Lerman which had 11 bingoes. Jerry made only 9 plays, 8 of which were bingoes. Kenji had 3 bingoes himself, including a 3x3, and lost by 221 even though he scored 450. Wow!

Old News

Read archived News and announcements on our Old News page.

Press reports of our Club or Club members

[Note: many of the older articles refer the previous club location and website]

Scrabble in the News

Just some links to articles of interest about SCRABBLE® Pearls Before Swine
webcomic from www.xkcd.com

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