HIMPRTU!

After I visited the UK Open in Coventry I noticed there was a small local Scrabble tournament coming up so i decided to enter. That was the Sutton Coldfield tournament that took place yesterday at Stonnall Village Hall. And guess what, beginners luck struck bigtime and I won my section. That despite spending the last three weeks carrying round a list of 3-letter words without actually looking at it…

I enjoyed my day (obviously!) and met a lot of nice people, several of them members of the local club, but many also having travelled considerable distances to be there. I didn’t start off too well, losing my first game by 7 points, despite having gained 50 bonus points early on for playing HORNIER.

After that my run of good luck began, with opponents struggling with awful letters. This included David Woolley, the leader, who I was shocked to beat in my penultimate game.

That left me in the lead with only the mercurial Chris Hands to play. After one move each it was 72-74 but the game degenerated from there and I was lucky to finally squeeze out a win. Victory (and £20) was mine!