UVSC Session Report
January 7, 2019 (Session #210)
(authored by Iliana)

It was wonderful to see our Scrabble stalwarts at the first 2019 meeting
of the Upper Valley Scrabble Club!

Sadly, BJ could only stay for two games, due to what appeared to be a
terrible toothache. He reports that he feels much better now, though,
phew!

We were all delighted that David chose to join us for a surprise visit
before he heads back to college, and he brought a fun word game called
Wordsy which he and I stayed to play late into the night.

I'm fairly sure that BJ used all the luck he was dealt for the day in
his one game with me, wherein he served a royal shellacking in the form
of four fat bingos (thank goodness I challenged FOGLIKE*, his opening
play, off the board), for his final winning score of 565-293. OWIE!

OWIE is one of the newly valid words in the 2018 update to the
Tournament Word List (not valid in Collins.. yet), and it was played in
one of the night's TWL games. OK, also new, was also played a few times,
including by me in a Collins game, and though it should have been
challenged off, I have a vague recollection of making such a whiny fuss
about how it would soon be good in Collins too that my poor,
toothache-y, beleaguered opponent let it stay. Being ahead of the curve
is a *good* thing, right? *ahem*

In my game with Margaret, I started by exchanging two tiles, then she
exchanged one, then I played DECLINE, and then Margaret smacked down
SCREAMS, at which point I lucked into the juicy ZOON alongside her
bingo, to the triple, for 93 points. It was a dramatic start! Later in
this game, Margaret played the very cool ZARF..

For a relatively new player, David has really strong bingo-finding
skills, and although he, like many of us, is drawn to the
serotonin-enhanced pleasure of playing bingos, this tendency is tempered
by his ability to find the points (i.e., good board vision). Early in
our first game, he played SUItABLE, and then quickly capitalized on the
S in the triple lane to play the pretty non-bingo BU(S)YING, to the
triple, for 48. Nice! Despite all my efforts (such as extending his
INWARD to INWARDEST* and not having it challenged off the face of the
planet), David clinched the win with his second bingo CAPTOrS.

In our second game, David found the excellent GELLIES, which looked
insane to me, so I challenged it, but it was good! In both dictionaries!
Damn that Spencer! Just kidding, I love all these obsolete beauties from
the sixteenth century, honestly! I won our second one, with EXTORTED,
the adorable SCAMPING, and the gift of ZILA# for 71, including the
5-point challenge it elicited. Mmm, ZILA#!

I didn't get to play Ellen, as she and Margaret both had to skedaddle
early, but I did notice that she got away with the plausible but wholly
phony UNWHOLE* in her game with David, and he gave no quarter to Ellen
when he pirated the dastardly SEAGOER* by her. All's fair, etc. :-)

Here are all of our bingos from last Monday: ALIUNDE, ARSINES, CAPTORS,
CAREENED, DECLINE, DEFOGGED, DERIVES, DETAINS, EXTORTED, FAINTED,
FOOTIES, GAUNTEST, GELLIES, GENERATE, GRAINIER, REJOINED, RELENTS,
SCAMPING, SCREAMS, SEAGOER*, STOURIER#, SUITABLE, UNSHARED, UNWHOLE*,
VAUNTERS, and WARDENS.

As mentioned above, David and I closed up shop after playing several
rounds of Wordsy, and good times were had. Except for BJ and his
toothache!

Below is the board from a (TWL) game between Iliana and David.