By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
April 22, 2018
I returned to competitive Scrabble play at Northgate Mall on a mid-April Sunday.
My first game was against my most frequent opponent, J—, whom I’d faced 17 times in official competition. We exchanged some hefty early blows: J—, playing second, put down HEXAD/EH/DE for 40 points with his first move. My reply was the phony BIBLET*/BA/ID 47, which put me ahead, 69-40, midway through the second turn.
J— tried to leapfrog me with his second move, SUlFURS/EHS*. It made for a 69-point bingo, but I correctly recalled that EH did not take any “back hooks” and challenged the play off the board.
J— actually jumped ahead, 144-111, at the conclusion of turn 4 when he played RETURNEd for 68 points. But I had a few nice plays in my pocket: KA/KEN for 33, thanks to the five-point K on a triple-letter-score bonus, and ZAG 39, which utilized the triple-word-score bonus in the board’s top-right corner.
