A Rare Nine

by Graeme Lock Lee

I know it's not much to boast about, but I'm chuffed anyway to be an early 2011 member of the 9-letter bingo club. You see, normally I don't even look for 9-letter bingo opportunities - something I vow to remedy from now on because of the thrill one experiences.

Let me take you through my simple thought processes leading up to this stupendous play.

I felt my good luck was due this particular evening precisely because it was mostly missing in the preceding Janboree tournament. Isn't it always the way that you regain your good luck in non-tournament games where ratings points are not at stake ? Anyway, my third move against Natalie was uNPLAY(E)D which of course was unplayable if she hadn't just offered the E of AVINE to play through. Four moves later I had assembled A?NNST to be able to play iNSTAN(C)E through a floating C of CROW. Then three moves later I held the rack AEODDMT. "Hmm, no 7's or 8's in that" I thought to myself. There were no single floaters to play through so I assembled MOD--ATED on my rack wishing that there was a UL word to play through (Ha, ha). Then I shuffled my rack for DOMATED and noticed that there was an IN to play through and BINGO !!! - the solution came like a crashing wave.

   DOM(IN)ATED

Natalie was able to reply immediately with RE(D)ATING to prove she hadn't been dominated but two moves later I was able to plonk down HAVIORS to complete a 500+ game - the likes of which I hadn't been able to achieve in nine attempts at the weekend Janboree.

I felt like luck was going to continue and indeed it did.

uNPLAY(E)D, iNSTAN(C)E, DOM(IN)ATED and HAVIORS against Natalie.
SILVERn (doesn't take an S), CAMELIA and OUTGIVE(N) against Keith.
DAMPERS and (B)IDArKAS for 113 points against JEAN.
OUTLIES and NITRI(L)ES against Rene for a 1-point win.