2008 - A Retrospective (Part 2)

Following Warrington, next up was the NSC(T) Northern Regional qualifier, held in Shipley. I'd managed to go 6-0 in the same event last year; however, it was seven games this time round. I won my first two games easily enough, despite mindlessly losing three turns in the process (especially bad was playing TROJANS* - eek!) I then got trounced by Wayne Kelly - one of those games that was unwinnable, although overlooking SEITANS near the end to reduce the spread was pretty poor. Another two lost turns in my next game nearly cost me, but bonuses of TEENDI(N)G and LeV(O)DOPA, plus some nice sixes (WITTOL and FRIGOT), were enough to clinch it. A nice score of 530 saw me to a comfortable win in the next round, helped by the nine PA(RE)NTAGE. I played READOR(N)S as a 4x too quickly in game six, missing a lovely placement for DROSERA, which would have netted 90+. My other bonus of FISTULAR kept me in it, but ultimately I lost to Craig Beevers, going over time in the process (a rare event for me!) I needed to win my final game to qualify, and managed to do so by 10 points against Ross MacKenzie - the nice NUCLe(I)D(E)S being my only bonus. I was thus through to the NSC semis, to be held in Birmingham in mid-September. My team narrowly missed out on qualification for the NSCT final, despite all three of our members doing well enough to qualify for the NSC semis! A spread differential of a mere 50 points shows how close it was.

My next event was the ABSP Masters - an invitational event for the top 16 players in the country, held in Staffordshire at the end of June. In practice, a few of the top 16 choose not to come for various reasons, so the field usually comprises of a select few from the top 25 or so. My early 2008 performances had taken me to a rating of 203, so I was seeded #1 for this event. Naturally, of course, I proceeded to lose my first three games to Wayne Kelly, Harshan Lambadasuriya and Stewart Holden. I was in good company - the #2 seed, Brett Smitherham, had done likewise. How often will you see the top two seeds propping up the table of any event? I was thus in real danger of failing to improve on my only other appearance in the Masters - a woeful 5-10 -300 odd in 2005. However, I then won my next four games, which included my best find of the day in BErGYLT against Martin Harrison - a Masters debutant who was doing exceedingly well (he would finish 3rd). I lost my final game of the day to Phil Appleby, largely due to missing both of the bonuses in my first rack of EELMRW? and playing the phony APHALI(A)N*. Sunday dawned well - I racked up 500s in both of the first two games against Phil Robertshaw and Brett Smitherham; though the latter caused me a bit of a scare when he came back strongly from an early 200+ deficit. I narrowly beat Paul Gallen, another Masters debutant, by one point in round 11, thanks to a well-spotted FUSt(I)ANS and Paul's phony of
EPITHE(T)A*. However, I then came unstuck against Mikki Nicholson, another Masters debutant doing very well (he finished 2nd). I did at least manage to get a nickel from him by extending ERUV to ERUVIN in the endgame :) Round 13 was definitely unlucky for me; a horrible game against Jared Robinson saw me losing by over 150. I did not help my cause by playing the phony RERAISER*. I managed to get back on track with a comfortable win against Ed Martin (529-333), thanks to a hat-trick of (D)ELEtION, INFaU(N)AL and UNSHA(P)ED. My final game against Craig Beavers saw me triumph by 460-448 - the only time in the game that I was in the lead! I was only able to win due to my final play of HEBONAS for 99, which Craig could not block - he had seven consonants and picked the second blank as the last tile from the bag! My overall record of 9-6 +203 was enough for fourth place, one off the money. Bizarrely, it was sufficient to gain me a ratings point.

Next up was the inaugural Carlisle weekend tournament. My rating of 204 was a new personal best for me; this of course meant that I lost my first two games! My loss of 355-425 against Darryl Francis was the first time in a good while that I'd failed to play at least one bonus in a tournament game. Gareth Williams then proceeded to beat me 547-355, meaning that I was dead last after two games for the second tournament in a row! I then rallied somewhat, winning my next three games - (B)LUNGeRS probably being my best bonus in this mini-streak - before losing the last two of the day. I conceded my second 500+ of the day against Ross MacKenzie - a well spotted CHOENIX on move one being his best word - before Jason Carney extracted a measure of revenge for the BEST R2 match by sneaking a 15 point win. It was most definitely a day to forget... . Sunday went much better - a 6-1 record for the day propelled me to a 9-6 record and £20 for third place, but it wasn't enough to stop my rating plummeting by 4 points to 200. I missed a 9x with AACEET? + H in fifth place - can you spot it? I did manage to play COLETIT(S), DeWPO(I)nT and OOTH(E)CaE in other games, however. My final play of the tournament was the nice clearout of
V(A)UDoUX (the bonus version would not fit!)

More to follow soon, with a bit of luck...