LITMIR.BIZ

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I knew I hadn’t been lucky and it felt like a damage-limitation exercise. I felt positive that things would get better.

      After so many high-scoring open games, the next day started with an absolute stinker. You don’t get many blocked boards at the top end of Scrabble, but this was one of them. I had the initiative with a small lead, but it evaporated as I couldn’t capitalize on the openings that my opponent was forced into making. In the end I won 347–277 with my opponent losing forty points in time penalties. I followed with a routine win and defeat. Then I played two time runner-up Pakorn Nemitrmansuk from Thailand.

      I was surprised to be playing Pakorn, because I expected him to be at the top of the field, which means he’d generally be playing other people at the top. It was exciting and tense, but I hadn’t really been in the game. A few spectators crowded round and I nearly played a showy nine-letter word, ITINERANT, but managed to mangle the order of the vowels in my haste to avoid time penalties. Four straight-forward games followed, with me taking three of them, and I finished day two on 9–7 and up to thirty-second place.

      I felt like I was still in with a shot of finishing in the top ten, but it was an outside chance and I’d have needed to win virtually every remaining game. Unfortunately, the next day started with a blowout in my opponent’s favour. I kept plugging away, though, and managing to win one way or another. Meanwhile Pakorn had managed to win an amazing fourteen games in a row. I happened to be his fifth victim.

      Suddenly I’d won six straight games and had made it up to ninth place. With one round to go I was drawn to play Andrew Fisher, a familiar name because he lived in England a number of years ago before emigrating to Australia. If I won I would get my top ten finish. Like the previous few games things seemed to flow my way. I had a good lead, and Andrew’s bigger plays weren’t scoring much whilst I was able to hit straight back.

      I ran out a comfortable winner and watched the other results come in to see where I finished. Nigel Richards, the reigning World Champion, had finished top, Pakorn second. Both were on eighteen wins. I finished on sixteen wins and eight losses but had only moved up a single place to eighth. I was just happy to finish in the top ten though, with so many other big names. It also happened I was the highest finishing European player, which I was quietly proud about. After copious handshakes and a rushed ceremony, things got turned around for the final between Nigel and Pakorn the next day. I now had the opportunity to be on the other side of the showpiece clash, watching with the audience as two players battled it out over a best-of-five contest. I always enjoyed following games and tournaments online. A number of previous tournaments had included annotated games. These were games where helpers had written down racks and moves, which had then been put online and could be played through move by move.

      Video cameras were set up so you could watch everything happen live. It was surprisingly dramatic, even things like tiles being placed one by one on the rack. Cheers as blanks and great letters appeared, groans as vowel after vowel or triplicate after duplicate were revealed. More noisy reactions as big scores went down, confused murmurs as moves we didn’t see or expect got placed on the board. It was a great atmosphere and I loved it.

      I won’t go into too much detail about the first game, because it’s covered in the playthroughs later in the book. So as you can imagine it was a humdinger. To stereotype a little bit, Nigel was the machine. He was Scrabbling perfection; he had his own style and would often baffle people with a move, only for it to then turn out to be the best play. Nigel did everything at a sedate pace. Pakorn was much more erratic. He once famously took seven minutes to decide where to place a word on his first turn. He was a very deep thinker. Frantic and fidgety as he was, he would often go right down to the last second on his clock, playing and picking tiles very quickly.

      The second game was in complete contrast to the first. Pakorn was already 203 points up when Nigel’s aura slipped a little. Richards had played PIG but had also made IR* in the process, an invalid word. Of course Nigel knew it didn’t exist. It was a careless mistake and his just happened to be on the biggest stage. Later in the game Pakorn rubbed it in further by pretending to play DINE onto the bottom left triple word score, before saying it’s not enough points and extending it to PALUDINE (an adjective meaning ‘of the marshes’) to hit two triple word scores for 167 points.

      Another blowout followed, then game four came along. Pakorn, who had lost in two previous finals, led 2–1 and needed one more to take the title. The audience was on his side. The game flowed beautifully. ADVENES, GRIFTERS, GENETRIX, DOYLEY, FREEHOLD, and BOHEMIAN. But the board was getting closed down. Nigel led by fifty-four points and was looking good to force it into a deciding game. But there was still time for one more big move. Pakorn held AABCNOT, there was a floating I to play through, but it was obscured and any move would have to fit under J and O. Fortunately his eight-letter word slotted sweetly, making (J)A and (O)N. BOTAN(I)CA went down for ninety-four points.

      ADVENES, advene, verb, to add over and above

      GRIFTERS, grifter, noun, swindler, one who makes money through deception or fraud

      GENETRIX, noun, mother

      DOYLEY, noun, same as doily or doyly, an ornamental napkin

      FREEHOLD, noun, permanent tenure of land or property

      BOHEMIAN, noun, an unconventional person, especially one involved in arts

      BOTANICA, noun, a shop that sells herbs and magic charms

      Pakorn was now on the brink of becoming World Champion after twice being the bridesmaid. Nigel took a long time to try and find any way of winning. He made the best move, but it was futile. Pakorn only had to play any reasonable valid play. He declared the blank – ‘S as in Singapore’. Pakorn Nemitrmansuk from Thailand was 2009 World Scrabble Champion. He was overcome with emotion in the playing room and then later as he walked through to where all the spectators had been watching. Flashes everywhere, endless cheers and applause. It was amazing. It was not over though. After a lovely day spent in Jurong Bird Park, Zoo, and Night Safari across in Singapore, we had the Causeway Challenge to play in. Just five days and forty-five games of Scrabble to go. I got off to an indifferent start and felt more and more drained as the games ticked by. I was on the verge of another top ten finish and some prize money, but it was always just out of reach. There was still the team aspect of it though. I was part of the second UK side. We’d managed to secure the top spot and received a rather nice gold medal each. We all got up on stage and raised a massive marble and glass trophy aloft. I narrowly avoided putting my back out and dropping the thing. Unfortunately it didn’t quite fit in my hand luggage and we all left it to Lewis to take home.

      After nearly two weeks away I returned home, sneaking my gold medal out now and then on the flight back. I hadn’t been at the Olympics but it still felt pretty important to me, along with the top ten finish in the Worlds. I felt like I’d given a good account of myself in my first real foray on the international stage. In the years that followed I was increasingly involved with the ABSP and WESPA (the World English-Language Scrabble Players Association), the British and World bodies for Scrabble respectively, being part of committee discussion as well as designing and updating websites. I kept up with the playing side too, making the World Scrabble Championships again in 2011. This time it was held in Warsaw, Poland. It was generally around freezing the whole time. I can’t say it was high up on my list of places to visit but it was pleasant enough and quite cheap.

      My first game was a bit of a shocker. I was over 200 points behind and still trailing by well over 100 when in desperation I opened up a nine-timer (a move that links two triple word scores) – the only way I could score enough to win. I placed a T in the fifth position and then watched my opponent put down what I thought was TRUDGE and turned the board around,

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