By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Jan. 4, 2017
In game 5 on Wednesday, I faced off against RB, who had bested me in Monday afternoon’s king-of-the-hill round to win the tournament.
Beginning with AGGLRRS, I made a modest play, GAR 8, which RB — to my surprise — challenged. (A gar is a fish; agar, incidentally, is a product of certain seaweeds.) My second play was KAY 10, but I trailed 19-18 after two turns when RB put down LIRE/KI/YE 19.
I took a substantial lead in turn 5 by playing BLOWSY/GAUNS* 52, going up 105-70 after RB’s AG/AL/GO 16. My draw was lousy — AAONU, giving my AMOORV? — but I was able to play it off in turn 6 with VROOM/MAL* 22. (Vroom, which I later learned is also valid as varoom, is a motor noise; incidentally, both take an -S.)
RB had a lousy rack and traded in four letters with her sixth move, leaving me up, 127-70. I extended the lead in turn 8 when I used a vowel on the board to turn AHMNPU? into PAnHUMAN 80. RB’s response was FID/FA/ID 25, which left me holding a big advantage.
