By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
June 9, 2017
I returned to Scrabble tournament play at Durham’s Northgate Mall last Saturday. Despite having had another night of abridged sleep, I was feeling pretty excited about the day ahead of me.
The event started with my facing S—, an older North Carolina player whom I’d beaten in our only two previous meetings. Playing first, he swapped out five tiles, letting me open with LOVE 14. S— then used the O to put down a 70-point bingo, PIMENTOS. I considered challenging but opted not to, which is fortunate; PIMENTO (referring to spice) is valid, and its plural can be spelled with either -S or -ES.
My second play, FAILED/FA/AN/IN/ES, garnered 36 points. But S— answered with a nifty 47-pointer, CROAK/CLOVE/RES/OD, which I challenged because I was unsure of RES. Since that three-letter word is valid, I forfeit my next move. I trailed, 117-50, entering turn 4 — hardly a great start. Read the rest of this entry »
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