Sydney Winter Masters - 25th & 26th July 1998

Report by Bob Jackman

The Sydney Winter Masters is one of the prestige events on the Australian Scrabble calendar, having been born in the modest converted garage of Sydney Master Ivor Zetler in 1993 when it catered for a select group of around 20 top-rated players from around the country. In 1996, the converted garage had been outgrown and the event moved to the historic Clontarf Cottage in Balmain. That too was outgrown within two years, to the extent that the event was again moved this year to the magnificent Revesby Workers Club, already the scene of many a Scrabble battle.

Forty-one hardy souls, including 7 Victorians and excluding one who pulled out at the last minute gathered at the venue to contest the twenty game, two day event. Could Paul Cleary win his third Winter Masters in a row? Would John Holgate bounce back from his disastrous Mount Beauty High Country tournament result? Would a Victorian player triumph? Would Esther Perrins hold her number two spot in the Australian ratings? Would an up-and-coming player snatch victory?

As it turned out, the answer to all these questions was no. I was fortunate enough to establish an early lead and hold it for the entire tournament to run out a comfortable winner. In fact the fifteen consecutive games I won before going down to Sue Kyatt from south of the border may have been some kind of record. Overseas players may like to comment - I remember this being discussed on cgp at one stage.

The last three games of this event were King of the Hill, and given the relative standings going into game 18, John Holgate needed to win all three games to win the event. Unfortunately for him, John narrowly lost the first of the three with a losing score of 435 to my 444 to clinch victory for me. A postmortem by John may show that he could have one this game with wiser use of his Y in the end game.

Now John had to win the second KOH game to guarantee second place. Fortune was not with him again despite his opening bingo of NUTTIER, and the later impressive QUERCINE around a floating E in the triple-word file. While he struggled with AALII and BOOBOOK I scored well with OEDEMATA, STERNAL, JASY and ENFROSEN to establish an unassailabe lead.

The final KOH game saw John and I playing our third consecutive game. John had to win this game to get second now, and hope that Paul Cleary either lost to Alistair Kane, or won by a small margin to hold the second place he had held for most of the tournament. As it turned out, John did win the final game, albeit in the last move with the fitting REPLETE, but Paul thrashed Alistair by over 200 points to jump to second place by virtue of spread and relegate John to third.

Some of the memorable moments of the tournament for me were:

  1. Getting spreads of 236, 252 then 1 in the first three games
  2. Opening with HOAGIES against Derek McKenzie when I had had the word twice in the previous week without being able to play it.
  3. Playing OVOLO in two consecutive games
  4. Beating Alistair Kane on the last move with DIIMRV? around a floating S
  5. Beating Joan Rosenthal on the last move with AEMNTU? onto L as last letter
  6. Having BOOBOOK played against me by John Holgate. Now there's dreck.
Some of the other tournament highlights were:
  1. Seeing Jan Serisier ecstatic about scoring STOCKING as a triple-triple for 189 against Dianne Davis, only to have the move disqualified because of prior accidental tile movement on the board invalidating the play.
  2. Seeing Joanne Craig score her tournament high of 593 points, only to be overshadowed by her partner Paul Cleary who had a high game 611
  3. Seeing John Barker surge to the lead in the Great Ratings Race, a private struggle between Mssrs. Barker, Talbot, McKenzie, Lock Lee and Joanne Craig.
  4. Cristine Small gaining 155 ratings points in her first major Masters competition. This a name we will see more of.
Special thanks go to Jeff Spring for organising this year's Winter Masters and to his wife Dawn for directing the tournament in a most efficient manner, and of course all those opponents who helped make this year's event a memorable one for me.

Results after game 20
WINTER MASTERS SYD 98 -- MASTERS

Rank Player            Wins  Mar
--------------------------------
  1 Bob Jackman         18  1390
  2 Paul Cleary         15  1508
  3 John Holgate        15  1383
  4 Esther Perrins      13   673
  5 Joan Rosenthal      12   716
  6 Alistair Kane       12   626
  7 Sue Kyatt           12   264
  8 Jean Mcgiffen       12   223
  9 John Barker         12   156
 10 Gwen Lampre         11   574
 11 Derek Mckenzie      11   367
 12 Kris Logan          11    87
 13 Peter Shaw          11    48
 14 Dianne Davis        11   -33
 15 Gloria Gallagher    11  -105
 16 Rod Talbot          11  -458
 17 Liz Jackman         11  -461
 18 Ivor Zetler         10   182
 19 Joanne Craig        10   181
 20 Cheryl Michler      10    12
 21 Cristine Small      10   -18
 22 Graeme Lock Lee     10  -197
 23 Rene Chelton        10  -247
 24 Ros Gibbons         10  -255
 25 Dulcie Lyall        10  -351
 26 Nicole Findlay      10  -431
 27 Hanne Marks          9    54
 28 Jan Serisier         9   -13
 29 Sue Gergelifi        9   -72
 30 Jean Noonan          9  -388
 31 Alison Rae           9  -492
 32 Judy Hay             9  -532
 33 Pat Kennedy          9  -571
 34 Barry Harridge       8   -95
 35 Audrey Newman        8  -362
 36 Betty Foreman        8  -372
 37 Ruby Kotwall         8  -677
 38 Ethel Collins        7  -184
 39 Jeff Spring          7  -523
 40 Jeff Chelton         6  -464
 41 Jenny Templeton      6 -1123
 42 A Bye                0   -20
HIGH GAME: Paul Cleary       611
HIGH WORD: John Holgate      140
            "ANTIDOTE"

Stats for Tournament : WINTER MASTERS SYD 98

+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| state     Name           | National  | State   |   Wins    | Rating Points |
|                          | Old  New  | Old New | Exp  Act  | Old Change New|
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
+Section: *MASTERS                     +         +           +               +
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| NSW Bob Jackman          |    1    1 |   1   1 | 15.1 18.0 | 1967 +47 2014 |
| NSW Paul Cleary          |    3    2 |   3   2 | 14.1 15.0 | 1908 +14 1922 |
| NSW John Holgate         |    5    3 |   4   3 | 12.9 15.0 | 1887 +34 1921 |
| NSW Esther Perrins       |    2    4 |   2   4 | 14.9 13.0 | 1951 -30 1921 |
| VIC Alistair Kane        |   10   11 |   5   5 | 13.7 12.0 | 1846 -25 1821 |
| NSW John Barker          |   41   28 |  13   9 |  9.9 12.0 | 1694 +42 1736 |
| NSW Jean McGiffen        |   30   24 |  10   7 | 10.8 12.0 | 1728 +24 1752 |
| NSW Joan Rosenthal       |    7   10 |   5   5 | 14.2 12.0 | 1859 -33 1826 |
| VIC Sue Kyatt            |   26   23 |  15  14 | 11.1 12.0 | 1738 +20 1758 |
| NSW Derek McKenzie       |   34   31 |  11  11 | 10.5 11.0 | 1717 +12 1729 |
| VIC Gwen Lampre          |   16   20 |   9  12 | 13.0 11.0 | 1807 -29 1778 |
| NSW Peter Shaw           |   38   38 |  12  12 | 11.3 11.0 | 1704  -4 1700 |
| NSW Kris Logan           |   84   78 |  26  23 | 10.8 11.0 | 1592  +8 1600 |
| NSW Rod Talbot           |   56   48 |  17  15 |  9.9 11.0 | 1640 +24 1664 |
| VIC Dianne Davis         |   50   74 |  28  41 | 13.7 11.0 | 1659 -53 1606 |
| NSW Gloria Gallagher     |  112   82 |  32  25 |  8.2 11.0 | 1532 +57 1589 |
| NSW Liz Jackman          |  166  134 |  43  35 |  8.7 11.0 | 1445 +45 1490 |
| NSW Joanne Craig         |   22   51 |   7  17 | 15.2 10.0 | 1762 -102
1660 |
| NSW Ivor Zetler          |   71   47 |  21  14 |  7.3 10.0 | 1610 +57 1667 |
| NSW Cristine Small       |  236  163 |  54  41 |  3.3 10.0 | 1294 +155
1449 |
| NSW Rene Chelton         |   89   62 |  27  18 |  7.5 10.0 | 1579 +50 1629 |
| VIC Nicole Findlay       |   85   91 |  47  50 | 10.9 10.0 | 1588 -16 1572 |
| NSW Cheryl Michler       |  193  151 |  47  38 |  5.6 10.0 | 1378 +90 1468 |
| NSW Graeme Lock Lee      |   52   96 |  16  27 | 14.5 10.0 | 1659 -91 1568 |
| NSW Dulcie Lyall         |  128  118 |  36  33 |  9.4 10.0 | 1502 +13 1515 |
| NSW Ros Gibbons          |  226  179 |  53  46 |  5.6 10.0 | 1319 +87 1406 |
| NSW Hanne Marks          |  271  224 |  65  54 |  4.4  9.0 | 1237 +92 1329 |
| NSW Jan Serisier         |  220  190 |  51  49 |  6.0  9.0 | 1328 +59 1387 |
| NSW Sue Gergelifi        |   72   98 |  22  28 | 11.3  9.0 | 1610 -44 1566 |
| VIC Pat Kennedy          |  232  183 |  99  91 |  4.2  9.0 | 1304 +97 1401 |
| NSW Alison Rae :act      |  204  186 |  49  48 |  7.3  9.0 | 1359 +36 1395 |
| NSW Jean Noonan          |  110  132 |  30  34 | 11.2  9.0 | 1537 -43 1494 |
| NSW Judy Hay             |  150  152 |  39  39 |  9.2  9.0 | 1470  -4 1466 |
| VIC Barry Harridge       |   70  119 |  39  62 | 13.2  8.0 | 1615 -102
1513 |
| NSW Betty Foreman        |   90  135 |  28  36 | 12.6  8.0 | 1579 -89 1490 |
| NSW Ruby Kotwall         |  137  170 |  37  45 | 11.2  8.0 | 1490 -64 1426 |
| NSW Audrey Newman        |  157  167 |  41  44 |  9.0  8.0 | 1461 -20 1441 |
| NSW Jeff Spring          |  174  180 |  45  47 |  7.5  7.0 | 1413 -11 1402 |
| NSW Ethel Collins        |  167  198 |  44  51 | 10.0  7.0 | 1438 -58 1380 |
| NSW Jeff Chelton         |   82  166 |  24  43 | 13.8  6.0 | 1597 -156
1441 |
| NSW Jenny Templeton      |  241  242 |  57  58 |  6.0  6.0 | 1284     1284 |
+-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------+