Round 1:
Forgive us for being a bit late starting - we have had some technical difficulties.
Round 2:
First nice extension of the day - Alastair Richards played RADIATED, Preedee Khongthanara put an E in front
to make it ERADIATED, and finally Alastair netted a triple with GREW/RERADIATED. Our annotated
game features a high-scoring phoney that went unchallenged - remember, always, that only
THIAZOLE can lose its E to make THIAZOL, you can't do it to TRIAZOLE.
Round 3:
Anand Bharadwaj asked for a ruling on an overdraw. His opponent played a five-letter word
and drew six tiles. Anand got to pick two tiles and return one to the bag. This can often
be a tricky decision but on this occasion, not so much: both tiles were As.
Round 4:
The players were ridiculously keen to start the game, champing at the bit well before the post-lunch
start time of 1.30 - and this round was the first instance of that bane of the Tournament Director's work,
having to start a player's clock for being late - two players' in fact, one of whom had a post-prandial
stomach upset. Michael McKenna was the first to finish this round, and did so with a win keeping him
in the lead. But the lagged draw means that not everyone has played their exact peers yet so we shall see...
Round 5:
Suanne tells me she opened a game with CUPFULS as a natural. But she was disappointed, because she had hoped the
L had been a K. I leave the alternative play as an exercise for the reader...
Round 7:
Next door, at the Johor Progressive Round Robin, former WYSC Champion David Eldar scored 702 including a triple
triple of MANRENTS. Karen announced this for the attendees to inspire them, and it certainly worked on Jessica
Pratesi - her first play of her game was MANRENTS, a word she hadn't known before.
Round 8:
My first sighting, though perhaps out of inattention, of that rarer creature, the nine-letter word. It's an extension
of SH to SHRINKING, but I can't discern who played it out of Premkunar and Jen Ho.
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