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MOST 2009 Commentary: Round 12

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Go to: 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 12.

Shortly after Round 12 started, I had a gentle wander around the hall and was really surprised by the number and variety of bonuses that already been played. They were not all grouped around the top-rated players but right across the board (sorry!) and here is a sample: FORMATED, GOSLING, DISHIER, SUGARIER, DETRAINS, INVADING, COWERING, ADEQUATE, EVINCED, BOTTLING and ECONOMIC. No doubt the expert players will have identified those words which are high probability and those that are low but for a non-player, like me, they are an impressive set!

Malta is a very Catholic country and an early finish had been arranged this evening to allow a priest to come to the Tournament hotel and provide mass to those players who would like to partake. The organisers readily admit they forgot to arrange a priest until yesterday when it was realised that the arrangement had not been made. After twenty to thirty phone calls later (there are 360 churches for a population of 420,000 - nearly 1 per 1000 or one for every day of the year -that means a lot of priests!), all we had managed to contact were 20-30 answer phones. The only conclusion one can draw is that the priesthood in Malta is exceptionally busy! The upshot is that the only alternative is Mass at 06:45 on Sunday morning at the local church! The non-believers amongst the Tournament are heaving a sigh of relief that they have not got to get out of bed so early.

Philip Nelkon (Eng) and Phil Robertshaw (Eng) were on Table 1. Phil pulled off a decisive win with a 502-331 scoreline.