UVSC Session Report
January 29, 2018 (Session #165)
(authored by BJ)

On Monday afternoon I was gearing up for the usual small group of
Scrabblers, when Mike F. from down Brattleboro way contacted me to say
he'd like to join us and to surprise Iliana. Great! Always good to have
another player! When he arrived, though, out came James and Mark as
well! Quite a surprise indeed! But our good luck didn't end there, as
both Johanna and Amit came later for a couple of games too! The stars
were apparently in alignment! Many good games of Scrabble were had, and
the best news out of it is that all involved would like to make this
kind of thing happen again. Just imagine how great it would be if we
could coordinate all of our out-of-town attendees (eg Jeffrey, Tim, and
Don) as well as our part-time locals on the same night as a visit from
Brattleboro folks -- that would be quite an event!

On the boards there were many excellent words and fun plays, some high
games and some upsets. I'm sure there are several interesting plays I'm
not even aware of, but one that comes to mind was when James, looking to
get rid of tiles toward the end of the game against Ellen, found a way
to get rid of four of them by playing between the words LO and ER that
were already on the board, making (LO)NELI(ER). James also had a
9-letter bingo, getting INTIMATED attached to an existing ED! Johanna
got down the new (relatively) plural bingo EROTICAS, Margaret found a
nice 46-point play of QUIRE, and Iliana pulled MURRAIN out of the deep
recesses of her memory. Mark earned some bonus points when his TRILBIED
was challenged (in a CSW game), Ellen found the nice IOLITES, and Amit
put down the slightly odd-sounding (to my ear) UNWISER. Of my plays, I
was perhaps most happy with finding DANCIEST at a critical time near the
end of a game, though I admit I wasn't sure it was valid in TWL (it
is). Mike took a well-educated guess at playing LORDOTIC, which is valid
and means, as he guessed, "pertaining to lordosis".

The rest of the bingo pile: ARAISED#, NOILIER#, AIRTHED, NONUSER,
OUTLIES, THERETO, DERANGE, CAUDATE, REAPPEAR, DAINTIER, APTNESS,
LEISTER, TURGIDER#, ELATERIN, CUISINE, ENCLOSE, TORSION, TRAINED,
TANSIES, INFECTED, THRONES, GENDERS, WITNESS, YEAREND, UNBEATEN,
TRAVAIL, MURRAIN, UNSHADED, FALCONS, EASTING, LEASING, AURATES#,
NEIGHED, IRISATE#, ENGAGED, TEMPERA, ELAPSING, ENTERING, POURABLE,
WESTERED, LUTEINS, NOMADIC, SULLYING, LATRIAS, ARSENATE, VARIATES,
AIRSOME, LOUNGED, INOSITE, REMOUNT, ZOONITES#, BANTERS, PAINTERS,
TOLERANT, PINNATE, STEADILY, FILMIEST, ELUSIVE, GRANDEST, POLICIES,
UNERRING.