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EOSC 2010 Commentary: Round 23

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Go to: Before the Tournament, Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, Round 32, After the Tournament.

Division A

Nigel Richards (MYS) won again and Helen Gipson (Sco) lost again, so for the first time, Nigel has a two-game lead. He had a 478-352 win over Jackie McLeod (Eng), where he bingoed on his third, fourth and fifth turns with SACELLA#, FIGMENTs and AMENTIA. Jackie tried to keep up with GAUNTLET and DEFRAYeD herself, but trailed by 45 after the bingoes were done, and Nigel gradually widened the gap further.

There are now two players five games back from Nigel at 14-9: Harshan Lamabadusuriya (Eng) and Joanne Craig (AUS). It's not impossible for them to overtake Nigel with nine rounds left to play, but I wouldn't bet any money on it.

Division B

I would like to apologize for casting aspersions on the character of Reno Zammit (MLT) and Charles Micallef (MLT), both respected and honorable members of the Maltese Scrabble community. In an earlier photo caption, I had suggested that they spent designated tea breaks on the terrace outside the tournament room daintily sipping tea and taking a moment to smell the potted flowers. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, the reason why there is clearly no one else in the frame is that they were smoking cigarettes, or as they put it, fags, and doing so in a particularly tough way, looking for all the world like members of a biker gang discussing a planned hit or drug deal (although I'm sure they were actually talking about bingoes and Scrabble endgame strategy).

Jayne MacKenzie (Eng) has had her first loss of the day, 278-352 in a rematch with Catalin Caba (ROM). She's still a comfortable four games ahead of Charles Micallef (MLT), who beat Sue Ball (Eng) 431-350. Nicky Huitson (Eng) wins a back-to-back rematch with Annemarie Holland (MLT) and overtakes her in the standings, climbing to third, five games back from Jayne at 15-8.