PSTAR Scrabble Games 2010

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 (Bukit Batok) on 22nd May 2010 from 10am to 5pm. A total of 30 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 Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) team 1.

Game 1: MEWR 1
My first game was against a friendly Malay guy called Samsul. Had pretty good tiles and I led comfortably after I bingoed twice with LOADErS(73) and dRAINED(81). Learnt a new word "COMP" from my opponent. He invited me to challenge the word as he said he was not sure of it too.

Won 455-230. Our team won 3-0.

Next game was against Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) team 1.

Game 2: CAAS 1
My second game was against a petite lady called Karen. I scored well with QAT(31) and JEAN(42). I also bingoed with a ERSSTV? rack while she scored with ZA(34), XI(38) and TREKS(30). There are 5 anagrams with the ERSSTV? rack that begins with "S", two of which are common words.[1]

Won 416-314. Our team won 3-0.

Had free lunch catered for us after our second game. The dishes were not too bad!.

Our third game was against Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) 1.

Game 3: MAS 1
I was paired against Ben who had played in national Scrabble tournaments before. He bingoed twice with RETRACT(78) and OUSTERS(87) while I had one bingo with RETAiNs(68). I had too many vowels in this game and I scored very low points trying to play them off. Lost badly and only reduced a bit of spread difference by my opponent's overtiming by 5 minutes.

Lost 328-458. Our team won 2-1.

Our final game is against Ministry of Education (MOE) 1.

Game 4: MOE 1
I played against Elizabeth who contrasted with Karen from CAAS in terms of size. She looked like she could be a Judo teacher! She had an opening bingo with a EEEPRSW rack[2] while I made many mistakes in this game! I spelled LARVAE as LAVAE* and it was challenged off. I had a DENOR?? rack and I played a phoney REbONDs*(69) which was fortunately not challenged off. I also opened up the triple word score lane late in the game thinking that my opponent may not have the "S" even though there were still two left in the bag. She scored promptly with DISRATE(88) and widened the spread!

Lost 287-499. Our team lost narrowly with 1-2.

In the end, MINDEF 1 came in 4th placing. MOE 1, MOE 2 and NP 1 were the top 3 teams. Had fun seeing so many familiar faces! Hope we could do even better next year!

Quiz answers (highlight to see clearly)

[1] STaRVES, STeRVES, STiVERS, SToVERS, STRiVES
[2] SWEEPER