Ludus Scrabularum
apud Centrum Studium Mediaevalum Universitatis Torontonensis
apud Centrum Studium Mediaevalum Universitatis Torontonensis
The first Round of the tournament started Wednesday Afternoon with the midweek-bracket game, in which Jonathan Newman bravely volunteered to go up against the Centre's senior Latinist, Professor Emeritus A.G. Rigg.
The basement common room of the Centre for Medieval Studies was packed with 18 competitors and a variety of spectators, all gathered to witness the first round of the 2004 Latin Scrabble tournament. Between the boards, those who were not playing, watched, socialized, practiced their Latin, and even planned strategy.
Friday's games started with a deathmatch between Joan Marie Stelman and Professor David Townsend. Sister Joan is a regular Scrabble heavyweight, known for large scores made with just one or two letters, while Professor Townsend is head of the Latin Committee. These two fought all the way in a remarkably-tight game that was finally decided by just one point.
Elizabeth Archibald, a Friday Scrabble steadfast, went up against relative unknown (I am informed that this is untrue, and that Jess has played a great deal, just not this year) Jess Paehkle in perhaps the most sudprising match of the round, which resulted in a 221-221 tie.
Ariella Elema and Winston Black, two PhD students who have not been seen in the recent Friday circuit returned to show that they are not, indeed, rusty. In the future, Ariella will be more alert for Winston's deviousness, having discovered, too late, his perfidy in telling her that "saga" (f. noun "witch, wise woman") was a Norse, and not a Latin word. Using his mastery of such devious tricks, as well as excellent vocabulary and scrabble skills, he moved into a commanding lead.
First-time Latin Scrabble player Dr. Richard Toporoski was the only member of the Classics department brave enough to answer the call to the tournament. Alone representing the department, his considerable command of Latin could not save him from Maire's better board position.
In a much-anticipated game unfortunately characterized on both sides by remarkably bad tile draws, Morris Tichenor, the hubristic king of Friday Scrabble games, only just managed to sneak in a win past fellow regular, Andrew 'Ted' Reeves.
In a game between two regulars, Andrew Crabtree called for help, but needed none of it in order to beat Tod Post, the self-titled "non-meat filler of Latin Scrabble," who ended up just one more corpse on the pile.
The highest-scoring match of the round saw an excellent duel between tournament-organiser Sean Winslow and the exceedingly sharply-dressed Miles Pattenden. Despite strong scoring by Sean, Miles' astounding three consecutive bingoes netted him a commanding 150 bonus points, which allowed him to comfortably slip into an 89-point lead at game's end. Pattenden says that the victory is only his first on his way to meeting up with Tichenor in the final rounds.
The final game of the round ended when, under time pressure, Alexandra Guerson, from the History department, conceded defeat to Heather Hicks, eliminating the last non-Centre participant from the tournament.
