Go to: Commentary Games Players Standings Photos

Back to 2006 Dallas Open Live Coverage

2006 Dallas Open Commentary: Round 11

[ ]

Go to: Before the Tournament, Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, After the Tournament.

Round 11

Perhaps the most excitment of the tournament so far (after Marlon Hill (Baltimore, MD; 1842) sprawling out on the carpet), was table 3's Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR; 1959) and Joey Mallick (Cape Elizabeth, ME; 1963) discovering they had a defective board. It was noticed only after the first move the game on a custom board put out by Jan Mills (Georgetown ON; 1735), one she's been using since October at events near and far. The board, beautifully crafted by Gene Tyszka, was MISSING a premium square! Sure enough, a blue double-letter score square was simply not there. Jan about fell over in disbelief that this was her board, one she had used MANY times and that she had never noticed this glaring problem. We all pointed at it and got a good laugh, but the defective board was quickly replaced by Bryan Pepper, wearing his ever-competent tournament director's cap.

At board 1 at a game in progress, Sal Piro (New York, NY; 1835) and Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL; 1950) are tied at 160-160. Sal played SERRANO on his third turn to take an early lead, but Brian caught up using the X for OX and the Z for ZINCATE (not a bingo). On his ninth turn, Sal made an even flashier bingo (?AEHILS to an R) to take a 258-208 lead. In the end, as he's done the whole tournament long, Brian pulled out the win. He smiled shyly as he walked away from the game and mumbled something about being lucky. Maybe it is just me, but I think it takes a lot more than luck to go undefeated in such a strong field!

Robert Gillis (Owens X Roads, AL; 1526) comes up to tell me about a good play he made last round. He set himself up for it, too. He got down SOAPBOX/JEUX for 122 points. He still lost the game, but style points galore!

At a long-abandoned board 2, I peek at scattered bits of paperwork to discover that it was a Darrell Day (Richardson, TX; 1881) vs. Travis Chaney (Van Buren, AR; 1708) game and it was Travis' third loss in a row this morning, 297-461. The thing that is so crazy is that Darrell saw me sitting and sped up to the table at a brisk pace and said, "Did you see the great plays that Travis made?! I couldn't believe it!" Now, this guy just won by a bunch of points (too busy to do the math, forgive me), and he is telling me how great Travis played! I love people like that! Travis' plays were, indeed remarkable. Darrell boldly hung a B out into the triple lane, looking over the tracked tiles, thinking to himself, "Just see what you can do with that, Travis." And, Travis came back with PEEBEENS! On the very next play, Travis played USQUEBAE. Darrell said, "I've never seen that on a board before and I don't think I ever will again." It was probably the winner who played the pedestrian bingos TrIPODS and RINGLET (just joshing you, Darrell).

It was a 399-357 win for Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR; 1959) at table 3 vs. Joey Mallick (Cape Elizabeth, ME; 1963) this round, but Dave says the endscore doesn't quite explain the story. At one point, Dave was up by 175, thinking he was going to cruise into the win, but Joey had other ideas and brought the scores much closer than Dave had desired. On the board I see Joey's GoATISH for 87 and Dave's LUSTrAL for 81 and DIRECTER for 67. Other fun words: INUTILE and ROADEOS.

At table 4, Aaron Bader (Massachusetts, MA; 1657) defeated Michael Early (Fort Worth, TX; 1819), 474-309. Tiles are up, the players are gone, so I'm moving on.

Table 5 is a tense matchup between Jan Mills (Georgetown ON; 1735) and Mark Kenas (Madison, WI; 1803). Mark had an early bingo-bango-bongo with ADORING for 69, OUTREACH for 64, and ORGaNIZE for 84. I see Jan's BESTRIDE for 72. The game was in progress and I moved away, but I learned later on from Jan that the bag toward the end game was quite consonant heavy. They both kept playing off consonants, hoping to get a good balance to take the lead. In the end, it was Mark who got it, an outbingo of PEANUTS for the win.

Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC; 1819) defeated Chris Lennon (Lake Oswego, OR; 1935) this round, 391-305. I see Dean's HIMATiOn for 86 and TUNiCATE for 61 and SNARFED for 78 by Chris. As it often turns out, the game's outcome amounted just as much to what was missed as what was played. Both players missed that MENDING on the bottom triple lane, one short of the triple word score square, took an S. Had this clicked in, the game might well have ended quite differently.

Buzz around the room was about the play of SCHNOZZ. I wander over to a completed board between John OLaughlin (Hartland, WI; 1860) and Robert Quigley (New Haven, CT; 1256). Just as I learn that Robert won, 424-399, the normally low-key John erupts in a string of non-word exclamations as he tosses two tiles toward the bottom corner of the board. He wasn't exclaiming about what he could of played, exactly, but about what he could have fished for had he thought about it. He could have played SCHNOZZLES to the triple. As it is, he had to settle for the cute extension of COCK to COCKATIEL to the triple (not a bingo, but fun style points as everyone who saw the board exclaimed COCKATIEL! Neat!).

Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON; 1869) tells me that she made a result slip error that gave her a loss (that was actually a win). She said, "My boys will wonder how mom suddenly has two more wins!" Her two sons, Reese and Oliver are home in Toronto watching her progress on this web site. How wonderful! Typical Robin, she said, "Oh did anyone tell you about Steve's play?" She had just played Steve Oliger (Holtwood, PA; 1712). They have a bit of history between them as at the last Nationals, Robin played SIX bingos against him in a game. So, as they started this game, he asked, tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek, how many bingos she thought she'd get this time around. She said she thought two, and she was right! Steve's pretty play waws PAINTABLE from PA.

Brian just keeps on keeping on, he is literally the best!