UVSC Session Report
January 14, 2019 (Session #211)
(authored by BJ)

We were very pleased to have two new attendees this week, Marsha and
Pat.  Both have been playing Scrabble for a long time, though never
tournament style, yet they had no problems adjusting whatsoever.  We
enjoyed their company and hope they are able to continue attending.  We
also had a surprise guest in our old Brattleboro clubmate James; he was
in the area for work and dropped in unannounced, eliciting happy sounds
from us when he walked in the door.

As for interesting things that happened during the games ... I can only
really remember one thing, which seems to have overshadowed and blocked
out everything else in my mind.  In the final game of the night, Iliana
was 116 points behind me with the bag empty.  She found a bingo for 83
points and got 30 additional points for the tiles on my rack.  I lost
ten points for going a little over on time, and so she won the game by
7!  It was an amazing finish, and both Iliana and I were somewhat
shocked.  Two plays earlier I had put down my fourth bingo of the game
and was cruising to victory, or so I thought.  Unfortunately, after that
play I drew CDLNQRV.  There was no possible place for the Q, and few
places for the other tiles either.  I was still unworried, and
overconfident.  I could have blocked up the board and hung on for the
win, but I didn't and Iliana capitalized in dramatic fashion!

Many other unusual and interesting words did get played, such as James's
BIJOUS (a BIJOU is a jewel), Iliana's SYRINXES (a SYRINX is a vocal
organ of a bird), and Ellen's FORENAME (a first name).  Some of our
other bingos were: TERRIERS, EPINAOS (a room in the rear of a Greek
temple), SORRELS (SORREL is a reddish-brown color), FACETING, EVIDENTS#
(an EVIDENT is something which serves as evidence), TRIDENT, VISAGES,
TREAGUES# (a TREAGUE# is a truce), SPORTIER, COAXERS, TINIEST, INDUCTEE,
CANINES, WARMING, SALTIER, and SWINDLED.