South Australia is willing and able

The Australian Masters and State Challenge Trophy has been going since 2005, and this is the first time it is being hosted in South Australia. There has been a real boom in Scrabble in South Australia in recent years, due to considerable targeted marketing by some of the young turks especially. Facebook contacts and a thriving Pub Scrabble scene have been key aspects of this, and it is bringing in new recruits very successfully.

In parallel with this, and probably correlated, South Australian players are now better represented at the upper levels. The Australian Masters and State Challenge Trophy events are highly selective, and this year South Australia have four players in the Masters section (and of course three in the State Challenge section).

South Australia is delighted to be hosting this special event, and it should prove to be a great time for all taking part as well as the wider Scrabble community who will follow the progress on this website.

History

Year	MASTERS	STATE
	WINNER	State	Individual
2005	Trevor Halsall	SA	Carmel Dodd (SA)
2006	Bob Jackman	WA	Edie Mueller(WA)
2007	Naween Fernando	VIC	Tony Hunt (NSW)
2008	David Eldar	QLD	Harry Malcolm (VIC)
2009	Andrew Fisher	QLD	Chris Hall (WA)
2010	Peter Kougi	NSW	Michael McKenna (NSW)

The format

Australia's top 20 players are selected over a 12 month qualifying period, and then additionally a there are teams of three players representing each of the participating states and territories. You can see how the selection worked at this page.

The top 20 play a round robin of 19 rounds, and simultaneously the 21 players in the State Challenge play a modified round robin which has each player playing the 18 players from the opposing teams.

The competitors

MASTERS
	Chris May	2040
	Andrew Fisher	2036
	Naween Fernando	2000
	Peter Kougi	1953
	Edward Okulicz	1950
	Alastair Richards	1923
	Trevor Halsall	1891
	Richard Jeremy	1853
	Michael McKenna	1850
	Joanne Craig	1848
	Bob Jackman	1796
	Russell Honeybun	1781
	Daniel Piechnick	1768
	Michael Cameron	1747
	Carmel Dodd	1735
	Rod Talbot	1721
	Esther Perrins	1720
	Anne Drew	1712
	Karen Richards	1706
	Simon Walton	1642

STATES
	QLD Ryan Anderson	1772
	QLD Helen Maurus	1689
	QLD Roberta Tait	1617
	NSW Tony Hunt	1733
	NSW Graeme Lock Lee	1595
	NSW Mark Smith	1574
	WA Glenys Lawrie	1654
	WA Sally Martin	1630
	WA Edie Mueller	1618
	VIC Anand Bharadwaj	1704
	VIC Marj Miller	1627
	VIC Norma Fisher	1557
	TAS Dianne Brumby	1641
	TAS Khen Meerding	1552
	TAS Martin Rose	1543
	SA Adam Kretschmer	1570
	SA Michael Vnuk	1565
	SA Jane Taylor	1520
	ACT John Spaan	1624
	ACT John Hamilton	1520
	ACT Caroline Scowcroft	1382

Annotated games at crosstables.com
1	Andrew Fisher	Naween Fernando	Game 9380
2	Chris May	Trevor Halsall	Game 9407
3	Michael McKenna	Rod Talbot	Game 9388
4	Alastair Richards	Bob Jackman	Game 9381
5	Daniel Piechnick	Michael Cameron	Game 9382
6	Chris May	Simon Walton	Game 9397
6	Andrew Fisher	Rod Talbot	Game 9385
9	Peter Kougi	Richard Jeremy	Game 9398
10	Anne Drew	Trevor Halsall	Game 9400
11	Chris May	Michael Cameron	Game 9401
12	Daniel Piechnick	Edward Okulicz	Game 9402
12	Andrew Fisher	Michael Cameron	Game 9404
13	Michael Cameron	Russell Honeybun	Game 9403
13	Daniel Piechnick	Naween Fernando	Game 9406
14	Chris May	Joanne Craig	Game 9425
14	Anne Drew	Simon Walton	Game 9405
15	Esther Perrins	Naween Fernando	Game 9423
16	Naween Fernando	Richard Jeremy	Game 9422
16	Edward Okulicz	Rod Talbot	Game 9424
18	Chris May	Edward Okulicz	Game 9426
19	Chris May	Naween Fernando	Game 9435
2	Anand Bharadwaj	Martin Rose	Game 9379
3	John Hamilton	Sally Martin	Game 9384
4	Adam Kretschmer	Mark Smith	Game 9390
6	Caroline Scowcroft	Norma Fisher	Game 9386
7	Helen Maurus	Tony Hunt	Game 9389
8	Dianne Brumby	Marj Miller	Game 9387
17	Helen Maurus	Marj Miller	Game 9427
18	Anand Bharadwaj	Graeme Lock Lee	Game 9428

---

ACT: Caroline, John H, John S	VIC: Marj, Anand, Norma	QLD: Ryan, Helen, Roberta
NSW: Graham, Tony, Superman	TAS: Khen, Dianne, Martin	SA: Jane, Adam, Michael
WA: Sally, Glenys, Edie

Welcome

Simon Walton welcomed contestants to the first time that the Masters and State Challenge Trophy have been held in South Australia. He pointed out that we have 16 of the top 20 players here and 5 out of the last 6 Masters winners. Wilma Vialle is directing and Barry Harridge is providing web coverage. Some of the games will be annotated. The venue is adjacent to the parklands on the southern edge of Adelaide's main rectangle, at the premises of Deaf Can Do. A tapestry in the foyer shows sign language gestures. I particularly like the sign for "Good".

Round 1

Daniel Piechnick eagerly asked "Can I start his clock?" because Chris May had not arrived. His face fell however as Chris walked in that very instant. So we have the full complement of players ready as ever. Alastair Richards is well known as a speedy player, and his slip was the first to arrive. His score of 598 against his poor mum included a score of 90 for (N)EBULIZE(D), using N and D on the board already, with the blank as L.

Round 3

Adam Kretschmer was delighted to set a personal best game score of 621 in his game against Martin Rose.

Food glorious food

We have been very well looked after with lovely food being provided by two busy ladies in the kitchen. Thanks also to Carmel Dodd who shopped wisely and well.

Round 6

Rod Talbot had been on the unlucky end of several games with heavy tiles left on his rack. But the tide turned for him in the game against Andrew Fisher when Andrew suffered the same fate.

Round 7

Michael McKenna got a triple triple for 150 but it was not good enough to prevail against Chris May, 525:452. The State Challenge Trophy at this stage is a five-way tie, separated only on spread.

	ACT	QLD	VIC	NSW	TAS	SA	WA
Wins	11	11	11	11	11	9	6
Spread	+212	+206	+204	+174	-325	+2	-473

Round 10

Last round of the day. Norma Fisher's game was nearly over and she was well behind, 279 to Tony Hunt's 413. But then Norma went out with PROLINES for 83, leaving Tony Hunt with egg on his face and JZYYCD on his rack. The arithmetic is left to you, dear reader.

Annotated games

Much thanks to the helpers who have been sitting quietly behind players, noting their racks and plays so that you can follow the games through at your computer. Joyce Browett, Helen Jones, Trevor Tao, Tony Miller and Francoise Finlayson have been doing a great job, and Anand's mum, Lalitha, and Barry Harridge have been transferring these to crosstables.com after Quackling.

Dinner

And so to dinner at Fasta Pasta. Trevor Halsall doesn't qualify for the Fasta part (his scoresheet is always last to arrive), but we might let him in anyway.

Start of day two

A bad start to the day. Karen Richards slipped and fell on the way to the tournament this morning. In accordance with the rule specified by CASPA after a similar incident last year, if she is absent for more than one game all her games before and after the accident are nullified for tournament placing purposes. The games that she played yesterday will however still be rated. Here is Karen's scorecard, but otherwise she has been deleted from the tables of results. Karen was taken to hospital for observation, but the good news is that she emerged not too badly hurt. Her spectacles were badly scratched but she was well enough to walk from the hospital to the venue, after missing two games. She was bruised and bloodied and her glasses were badly scratched. Unfortunately for her, the CASPA ruling means that she is not allowed to play any of her remaining games, despite being willing and able.
There was a church service in the building this morning, but we weren't disturbed by the sound. It was conducted in complete silence in sign language.
It is Edward's birthday today, so we all sang "Happy Birthday".

The winners

Edward got a great birthday present, the title of 2011 Australian Masters Champion.

	QLD	VIC	ACT	NSW	TAS	SA	WA
Wins	33	32	32	29	23	20	20
Spread	+1519	+738	+307	+543	-1015	-960	-1132

Queensland won the State Challenge Trophy, with John Spaan from ACT being the highest placed individual in the states event.