PSTAR Scrabble Games 2009

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 26th Sep 2009 from 10am to 5pm. A total of 27 teams took part. MINDEF had one team taking part this year.

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

Our first pairing was against People's Association (PA) team 1.

Game 1: PA 1
My first game was against a girl named Le Yi. Both of us had one bingo each. I had STOURIE(78) while she had REqUIRED(77). I managed to beat her as she went overtime by 3 minutes and made many simple phoneys like IX* and NEZ*.

Won 417-231. Our team won 3-0.

Next game was against Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) team 1.

Game 2: MHA 1
My second game was against a guy from the police force named Cho. Both of us had one bingo each. I had LEAFIEST(62) while he had SPINNER(83). He was leading by 65 points at one point but I managed to turn the tide around by phoneying successfully with FARK* and REVE* while catching his phoneys such as AXER*, ETE* and CUD*. He also went overtime by 10 minutes and this gave me a bigger spread.

Won 444-220. Our team won 3-0.

Had free lunch catered for us after our second game. The dishes were not too bad but the paper plates were much smaller compared to last year! Didn't really feel full after that.

Our third game was against Ministry of Education (MOE) 1.

Game 3: MOE 1
I was paired against Vincent who was a Masters player but he claimed that he was getting rusty at the game. Both of us had one bingo each. I had RELEASER(75) while he had dITCHES(87). My opponent was trailing by 69 points towards the end with ADIMNT? on his rack. He could have won if he managed to bingo across the triple score lane front hooking to an existing AA on the board [1] but he phoneyed with MATINeD* instead and lost. Lucky for me!

Won 384-347. Our team won 3-0.

Our final game is against Land Transport Authority (LTA) 2.

Game 4: LTA 2
I played against Jimmy. He opened with DOZER(39) and scored heavily later with XI(60). He also had two bingos: IsOLATE(68) and MARKETS(88) against my INVERTS(75). Had many uninspired plays and chickened out of a bingo with a DDGINOS rack[2] as I was not sure of the word. Think everything went downhill after I decided to play off DO instead.

Lost 329-474. Our team lost narrowly with 1-2.

In the end, MINDEF 1 came in 4th placing among the top category teams. Had fun seeing so many familiar faces! Hope we could do even better next year!

Quiz answers (highlight to see clearly)

[1] MeDIANT
[2] SODDING