tell me about it

So my last ever inter-hall Scrabble has ended and I still haven’t managed to go unbeaten.  I don’t think anyone realizes how much this really irks me.  That five-point loss is going to haunt me forever.

I wish I had something to show for my four years of inter-hall Scrabble, but all I do have is the silver medal from my first year which I personally wasn’t really responsible for.  In some way I don’t know why I feel like I’ve let my first-year team down; they’d sort of entrusted the future of the team into my hands and I don’t have much to show for it.  Sigh.  All I can say is that I’m so, so darn glad I found Eddie in my second year, and that we had enthusiastic people like Yansen and Kenny and the girls who trained hard for this. 

Hey, in such a difficult grouping with Hall 6, 7, and 9, for us to come in a respectable second place in Group B is really not bad at all.  And if we had had Kenny around on the second day, we might have had more of a fighting chance against Hall 13, and my desperate kamikaze ‘Plan C’ seating tactics would have worked out better.

Seems like there’s some sort of curse our hall faces; every year without fail we lose our last match 4-1.  In my first year we lost the finals 4-1 to Hall 7.  I remember Mark telling me that he hated winning his own board but losing the round, and this year that feeling slid between my ribs like a thin-bladed knife.  I’d thrown everything I had at Plan C and I’d really hoped it might work.

But I suppose if you asked me?  I feel better knowing it was Hall 13 we lost to, because I know for a fact their team is stronger than mine.  Plus, I feel better losing to the hall that eventually won the entire tournament, rather than one that goes home with the silver; and also the fact that it’s N*’s hall.  I’d have felt awful if some other team had won.

At least we got into semis this year so that we’re seeded again for next year’s tournament and won’t face Hall 13 in the same group.  That’s my consolation.

Well kudos to Eddie kor for a well-tournament (better than last year anyway) and here’s to me maybe coming back next year as chief ump, hoho.

Bingos for this tournament - my score sheets are back in my own room so I’m not sure what my stats are, but I did bingo at least once every game with natural DACOITS my favorite bingo (in the first game, too), and BONECUTS my only phoney bingo (because I couldn’t find a place to get SUBTONE down), in the only game where I managed three bingos (RIVeTING and BATTENs).