Commentary on the March 12-13 Danville Tourney

April 17, 2016

Martysaurus

Martysaurus

Charleston Scrabble Club members took home more than half of the money prizes awarded at the annual Danville Scrabble for Literacy event, which features two separate seven game NASPA rated tourneys. Ten club members participated in the event and nine of them won money for finishing in first or second place in their division. (There were four divisions, made up of either six or eight players, each day.) Had the lone Charleston Club attendee who did not take home cash played both days of the event, as most others did, instead of participating in only the first tourney, perhaps 100 % of the Charleston CLUBMATES would have been “in the money” this time around. Nonetheless, the overall performance by Charleston Club players was astounding! Twenty-one other players competed in the event, including seven from Ohio, six from Indiana, four from Missouri, three from Chicago, and one from Tennessee; only six of them (29 %) were fortunate enough to have an “in the money” performance.

I got mine!

Della

In the first tourney, held on Saturday, March 12, Marty Gabriel was unexpectedly needed to play in order for there to be an even number of players, so byes would not be necessary. As the organizer/director for this event, Marty already had a lot of things to attend to, but he was not unhappy to take on the extra duty of playing. And he was also not totally surprised when he lost his first two games to the lowest ranked players in his division, though he was rather dismayed that he did not even average 300 points in the losses! Not to worry. He righted the ship, won his next five games, and finished in first place in Division 1 with a record of 5-2 +439. By the time the smoke cleared, Marty’s scoring average had risen to 421 points per game, befitting a Scrabble expert of his rating.

Tootsie

Tootsie

Becky Albin and Della Lutz each won $90 for winning their respective eight player divisions of the Saturday tourney. Division 3 was extremely competitive; four players finished 4-3 and the other four had records of 3-4! Finishing with two big wins and a 4-3 +145 record, Becky took first place by 19 spread points. Della dominated Division 4 with a big time scoring average of 424 points per game! Her record was 6-1 +725. Tootsie Hamburg won $50 for second place in Div. 4 with a record of 5-2 +305.

It's in my pocket.

Scott H.

John Fultz and Scott Hawkins had amazing performances on Sunday, March 13. Despite being the fifth seed among the six players in Division 1, John was unbeaten and had already clinched first place with a game remaining! He finished with a record of 6-1 + 521 and a scoring average of 425! (As the last seed on Saturday, John had beaten the top three ranked players In Div. 1, perhaps foreshadowing what was yet to come!) Scott had been very disappointed when a restless night of sleep Friday sidelined him for the first tourney. But he was able to reenergize eventually and he showed up and played extremely well on Sunday! Scott won Division 3 with a record of 6-1 +439. His only loss came in his first game by the score of 426-429! Second place money winners on Sunday from the Charleston Club included Daiva Markelis (Div. 2, 4-3 + 81), Chuck Jones (Div. 3, 5-2 +127) and Lisa Lovelace (Div. 4, 5-1-1 +40)

John Fultz 2-28

John

 

Daiva

Daiva

 

Chuck.

Chuck.

 

Lisa

Lisa

 

(We don’t have a photo of Becky. Apologies.)

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