PSTAR Scrabble Games 2008

The PSTAR Scrabble games is an annual event for organisations in the civil service to take part in a friendly game of Scrabble. It was held at the Civil Service Club on 6th Sep 2008 from 10am to 5pm. A total of 38 teams took part. MINDEF had two teams taking part this year.

Here's my match report, with quizzes marked with [number] and the answers given at the end of the report.

Chew Chuah helped to draw our first pairings for MINDEF 1 and it was against the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) team 1. MINDEF 2 played against the all girls team from CPF 2. I saw that Peng Kee was really happy with his draw!

Game 1: MEWR 1
Had a bye as my opponent could not make it on time. Played a friendly game with Linda from Ngee Ann Polytechnic instead. My luck was pretty good! I bingoed with TEARIES*(74) and AILERON(73). What are the 2 anagrams for AEEIRST ?[1] I also guessed correctly the "C" front hook for OFF and scored with CHAIN(59) by hitting the triple word cell. Linda could only bingo with BARTENDED(75). If only this was an actual game where it really mattered!

Our team won the match by 3-0.

Next game was against IRAS 2.

Game 2: IRAS 2
I played against Chris who was from the same reservist camp as me! It was a closed board with no bingos from either of us. I scored big when he opened up the triple word score lane with WaRNS(40) and JET(39) by capitalising on the double letter score. Was lucky to be able to play my Z late in the game with ZETA(23). If not, the score line could have gone the other way round.

Won 310-280. Our team won convincingly with 3-0.

Had free lunch catered for us after our second game and it was delicious!

Our third game was against CPF 1. Hmm, I remembered our third game at last year's PSTAR games was against them too!

Game 3: CPF 1
I played against Chee Keong, the same player whom I played last year. JP and CC had a switch of opponent from last year. Missed my opponent's opening phoney HINE*. He bingoed with SWaYERS(88) and scored big with sEZ(64) and OX(38). My only big scores were OATH(44) across the triple word lane and PEAK(35). Maybe I should have blocked when my opponent played OVER with the O hovering underneath the triple letter cell. Didn't realise he had the Z!

Lost 324-403. Our team won with 2-1.

After 3 rounds, MINDEF 1 was placed in the top category that consisted of the top 6 teams: HDB 1, HDB 2, LTA 1, MINDEF 1, MOE 1 and NP 1.

Our final game is against HDB 2.

Game 4: HDB 2
I played against David. Our scores were neck-in-neck after both of us scored one bingo each. I had SoRRIES*(74) while he had InTRUDE(68). What are the 2 anagrams for EIORRSS ?[2] I was leading slightly towards the end until he scored with JOBS(37) to pull ahead.

Lost 375-391. Our team lost narrowly with 1-2.

In the end, MINDEF 1 came in 4th placing among the top category teams. We beat MOE 1 and HDB 1 who both lost 1-2 in terms of spread. LTA 1 came in 1st, NP 1 came in 2nd and HDB 2 came in 3rd. MINDEF 2 had a pretty good showing too with 2 wins and 2 losses! Had fun seeing so many familiar faces! Hope we could do even better next year!

Quiz answers (highlight to see clearly)

[1] AERIEST, SERIATE
[2] ORRISES, ROSIERS