Results after game 18
ASIAPAC 16-20 SEPT98 -- MASTERS
Rank Player Wins Mar
--------------------------------
1 Bob Jackman :aus 13 886
2 Gerald Carter :tha 13 647
3 Odette Rio :ph 13 548
4 Nigel Richards :nz 12 752
5 Virgilio Morales :ph12 618
6 Kendall Boyd :nz 12 358
7 Nashad Najmu.. :lka 12 101
8 Naween Fernando :lka11 695
9 Howard Warner :nz 11 532
10 Harshan Lamab...:lka11 401
11 Raja Fuadin :mal 11 204
12 Peter Sinton :nz 11 112
13 Idrus Ismail :mal 11 -96
14 Wajid Iqbal :pak 10« 444
15 Tony Sim :sin 10 502
16 Cheah Siu Hean :sin 10 426
17 Suresh Cinn... :lka 10 403
18 Charnwit Sukh.. :tha10 313
19 Arun Methaset :tha 10 248
20 Oscar Rivera :phi 10 163
21 Pui Cheng Wui :sin 10 9
22 Tengku Asri :mal 10 -51
23 Mohan Chunkath :ind 10 -142
24 Tony Malonzo :phi 10 -183
25 Ronald Credo :phi 9 264
26 Azmil Aziz :mal 9 195
27 Mario Miranda :ph 9 53
28 Leonard Wong :mal 9 17
29 Mike Sigley :nz 9 12
30 Michael Tang :sin 9 -10
31 Kong Chock Heng :mal 9 -24
32 Maida Manaog :phi 9 -93
33 Thong Liew Kee :sin 9 -94
34 Lakshan Wanni.. :lka 9 -317
35 Mohd Ali Ismail :mal 9 -421
36 Amnuay Ploy :tha 8« 333
37 Butch Maniego :phi 8 211
38 Sandy Tsen :mal 8 34
39 Patrick Carter :nz 8 -20
40 TC Tan :mal 8 -89
41 Ricky Purnomo :ind 8 -180
42 Alex Tan :mal 8 -198
43 Ong Yeam Chin :mal 8 -474
44 Nadeem Omar :pak 8 -601
45 A Ganesh :mal 7 55
46 Ador Ruiz :phi 7 29
47 John Holgate :aus 7 -17
48 Quek Sim Ho :sin 7 -85
49 Manop Phiphat.. :tha 7 -156
50 Gerardo Onate :phi 7 -299
51 Ismail Kassim :sin 7 -518
52 Philip Tan :sin 7 -940
53 Leon Rethual :mal 6 -505
54 John Lam :mal 6 -530
55 Joe Muhd :sin 6 -593
56 Sal Costanzo :aus 6 -729
57 Zina Costanzo :aus 5 -1060
58 Ken Nakai :jap 2 -1140
HIGH GAME: Suresh Cinn... :lka 603
HIGH WORD: Patrick Carter 167
"DOORMATS"
Gerry Carter is the inaugural Asia-Pacific Champion
The concept of an Asia-Pacific Championship in Kuala Lumpur was first touted at the 1995 WSC in London. Ian Anderson from Mattel Australia took up the running and nearly pulled it off for 1996, as a lead up event to the inaugural Trans-Tasman challenge. I thought the idea had died a natural death until news of the inaugural 1998 Asia-Pacific first became public, only two months before the scheduled dates.
Nevertheless, no fewer than 10 countries rallied together to get their best players to the event. New Zealand took their 6 from the top of the ratings minus Jeff Grant who was honeymooning on Norfolk Island, and Mattel support and local fund-raising was quickly forthcoming. Malaysia and the Philippines staged qualifying events to select their 15 and 10 players respectively. Singapore, Thailand and Sri Lanka were well represented and individuals attended from Indonesia, India, Pakistan, and Japan.
Of the countries with good allocations, it was only Australia who could not get it's act together. Initially we were given four places, and I suggested that players get invited off the ratings list. Queensland agreed, Victoria opted for a wait and see who wants to go approach and the other States did not reply. The National Co-ordinator thought selecting players who had not been overseas before was the way to go. In the end, nothing was decided so it was first in best dressed. Luckily John Holgate and I got our names down early, then Sal and Zina Costanzo from Melbourne came on board. Barbara Berlin was keen to come, but by the time we were given an increased allocation of 6, the uncertainty of everything had caused her to drop out.
So it was the Holgate-Jackman pairing of Manila 1997 fame that set out from Sydney International airport to sample the delights of Kuala Lumpur and do battle with the other top players in the region. There were no disasters at the airport, no out of date passports, and everything proceeded smoothly - for a change. On the plane, I opened up a brand new Milton Bradley travel scrabble that I had acquired at the 1993 New York World Championships. Nearing the end of game 1 I found AQUATONES around an ON for 90 odd points. John reeled back in horror saying I couldn't do that, and when I asked him why, he said there were already four Us on the board. Sure enough the kind people at MB had put another U in the set just in case we lost one.
We had not expected to make it to the Wednesday evening cocktail party, but because everything was running so smoothly, we were able to get to the Kuala Lumpur Park Royal just in time to meet the Mattel Malaysia girls just departing the venue. They told us of the whereabouts of Ian Anderson and Phillip Nelkon, that being of course, a bar. Delaney's Bar in fact, so without further ado we headed down there after dumping our luggage. Three large Irish Kilkenny beers was the ideal sleeping tablet for a big day of Scrabble ahead.
At this point I would like to sing the praises of the Kuala Lumpur Park Royal Hotel. Readers of this posting, wherever you are in the world, tell your friends to stay there if ever in KL. Apart from being a magnificent establishment, they are incredibly supportive of Malaysian Scrabble. They accommodate tournaments free of charge and even contribute tournament prizemoney. Ironically, when I last visited Kuala Lumpur in 1977, I stayed at the Park Royal, but it was then known as the Hotel Regent of Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur by the way is known as the garden city of lights. There are lights draped over all the trees in the city area, and everything in the city area looks modern and attractive and the traffic flows. Kuala Lumpur also boasts the tallest building in the world.
The tournament was kicked off by Phillip Nelkon on the Thursday. My first game was against Peter Sinton of New Zealand, and my opening three scores were 14. Was this an omen? I just managed to reach 300, not getting a bingo and lost the game convincingly. The next game I opened with a bingo, thus releasing the brakes. I won the last five games on Day 1 to finish in third place overall.
That evening John and I had planned to go out to the Commonwealth games. Haji Majid, a local Malaysian scrabble identity intervened, and offered to have his son Adi drive us out there. This seemed like a good idea at the time - one doesn't decline friendship and offers like that. It was the night of the mens 1500 metres, and time was ticking down to starting time. So we changed our plans, and decided on a restaurant as the best place to both have a meal and watch the swimming. Adi took us to a club in the Petranos oil building oft frequented by employees of the legal firm he worked in. The entrance to the actual dining area was best declined as labyrinthine, and I could not see any evidence of any other patrons. There seemed to be two staff members to each one of us. Nevertheless, we enjoyed some interesting conversation on the development of Scrabble in Malaysia, didn't get to see the swim at all, and enjoyed a hearty meal in very friendly company.
My first game on Day 2 was a big win over one of the early leaders Mohd Idrus Ismail catapulting me to outright lead over Patrick Carter. However consecutive losses to Harshan from Sri Lanka, the other early leader, and Patrick Carter shunted me backwards to the extent I was lying sixth at the end of Day 2. The beautiful Odette Rio from the Philippines was one game clear of the pack, and two ahead of me.
In order to compensate for not getting to the games at all the previous night, we decided for sure to go out this night. This time it was Emy Yap, the energetic and gregarious Malaysian Ratings and membership officer, who extended the hand of hospitality. She kindly offered to drive John, Phillip and myself to the station, pick up a feer beers on the way, and get us into the main stadium. This all happened smoothly, and we witnessed the mens and womens 400 metres final, and the last two events of the mens decathlon, whilst sipping the local brew. The curious thing was that there was no food to be had in the vicinity of the main stadium, plenty of Milo though. So Emy hopped on her mobile and phoned an order of steaks all round to her husband, Ryan, who was waiting for her at their local haunt, the Goodfellas Scottish Hotel in the suburb of Ampang.
When we got there we were again showered with friendship and more beers. We eventually had the steaks at 11.30 pm, and finally left the hotel well after 1 am. It was quite a late night considering the important days scrabbling ahead, for me anyway. Poor John was out of it, having been dealt some bad blows by the tile Gods on the first two days.
Odette lost or first game on Day 3, and the gap at the top closed up. But it was now King of the Hill from now on so anything could happen. I played Nigel Richards for the first time in the first KOH round and won the game, but Odette had beaten Kendall Boyd to get the outright lead back again.
KOH game 2 was the last before lunch. I played Odette for the first time and won, to take over the lead. There were now four players on 11 wins, and a group on 10 including Kendall Boyd, Nigel Richards and Peter Sinton from New Zealand.
Somebody spiked my lunch and I went down to Gerry Carter in the first game after the break. Odette and Kendall both won their games, which meant that I now had to face Kendall for the second time in the tournament in the second last round. I turned the tables on him for a big win, while Gerry kept up his winning run and accounted for Odette.
So, it was all down to the final KOH round to see who would get in the final. No one player of the four in contention was assured of a spot. I was to play Odette and Gerry was to play another Philippino, Virgilio Morales who had stayed with the leaders all the way. Odette's and my game finished first, and my narrow win assured me of a place in the finals. I couldn't believe it. I had never in my wildest dreams thought I would make the final in such a classy and competitive field as this. The other game was also extremely close, with Gerry pipping out Virgilio right at the end. So the stage was set. I play Gerry in the best of five games on Sunday, while the rest of the players can sit back and watch it all on closed-circuit TV.
By this time, John Holgate and appointed himself as my manager. He steered me clear of Emy Ryan and Ian Anderson and so we taxied into town to find a restaurant we had been recommended called Modesto's. The cab fare was 3 ringgit, about $1.40 Aus. We were sat down and promptly attended to by about six different waiters. We ordered a glass of red wine for 16 ringgit ($7 Aus) but when it came out it was only half full. I asked them to fill it, and they said fine, that would be another 16 ringgit! So I said to forget it. The meals were great, and less than the cost of half a glass of red. On the way back to the hotel, the taxi driver informed us that was Modesto's was renowned for high class prostitutes. Come to think of it, there had been some nice looking girls in there!
The best of five games on Sunday was all that was left to decide the Asia-Pacific Championships. We were closed into a soundproof room with a muliplicity of cameras and equipment, and sat down to do battle.
Gerry drew the start in the first game, and got off to a flying start. I found REINDEER at the end to fall over the line, but more importantly get an early lead. But Gerry won the next two games, so he had the lead in the crucial first game after lunch. PUTTIES came my way from nowhere mid-game, and when I drew the two blanks in the resulting pickup, I was pretty sure the game would go to me. And it did.
And so we went to Game 5 of the playoff, and again Gerry drew the start and started strongly. I managed to wear him down, and when the blank came my way I put down SALLIED to go to an 80 point lead. There were 9 tiles left in the bag and Gerry had just changed. I wasn't expecting a good pickup, but I wasn't expecting QCGNNTL either. Just one vowel would have won me the tournament, but they were left in the bag.
My brain had fritzed. I may well have been in shock. I was unable to reason that I could use an extra five minutes of overtime to check my tile tracking and work out a possible winning play if I needed to. I had tracked Gerry as having a T instead of an R and felt sure he could not bingo. So I slapped down the Q thinking I had it won. So when he played out with AIRLI?E to win by 3 points, I went back into shock. Defeat had been snapped from the jaws of victory.
Throughout the final five games, I thought I had played reasonably well. We had both some horror racks, but mine had seemed to come early, leaving me to chase big leads and fall over the line in games 1 and 4. Gerry played well too and was a worthy winner. There is no doubt that his throwing the Q back in the bag won him the final game, and the tournament.
To wrap up this runners up report, I must give a big rap for Spears and Mattel Malaysia. They organised a tournament that was equal to any World Championship I have attended. Phillip Nelkon did a tremendous job as tournament director, while Ian Anderson was on hand the whole time to ensure everything ran smoothly. From the players point of view, the concept and format was a resounding success, and I for one look forward to the opportunity of being able to participate in another Asia-Pacific Championship.
Congratulations to Bob Jackman on his great result at the First Asia Pacific in Kuala Lumpur.
He and Gerry Carter gave us an exciting final which was video relayed WSC-style to the other contestants. Philip Nelkon did a splendid job as DOP and his commentary on the final was litotic yet entertaining and insightful (more like Charlie Southwell than Gyles Brandreth).
Bob has given you a blow by blow account so I'll sketch a few highlights (and...er..lowlights).
This time I travelled light - just a carryon with no laptop. Memories of last year's Philippines intermezzo were still on my mind. There were no cyclones or tsunamis - only a few incipient riots on Merdeka Square which were gathering speed as we left for the airport.
The standard of play at the Asia-Pacific was way up on last year's Philippines International.
The Malaysians, in particular Idrus, Ganesh and Aziz, surprised me with their skills. I played Idrus in round one. His playing DOMINIE and my not playing TURKIS decided the outcome. My game with Ganesh was a 6-bingo 486/482 cliffhanger after I scored 140 for SHEETIER in the mid-game
Ganesh responded with OUTEDGES (which he'd just spotted in someone else's game) LICENCE and QUOIF (54) to lose in a bobbing endgame.
Another 6-bingo slugfest was against Singapore's Tony Sim.
I grafted MACERATE and TUNEABLE out of drecky racks but still lost.
The lowlight was my own pathetic result (7/18). I don't think I played too badly but I may have been overscrabbled and overtravelled after the marathon in Chicago.
Soaking my synapses with whiskey at the Commonwealth Games and imbibing the odd glass of Anchor beer at Delaney's Irish pub might not have been the ideal preparation.
I lost several close games with unfortunate pickups. My last game (against Sandy Tsen of Malaysia) kinda typified my tournament. My nice nine-timer around a B (holding AAADEST) was blocked then I finally bongoed with AGRESTAL only to draw a solitary unplayable V - Sandy pegged out tile by tile for a narrow win.
The Sri Lankans will be a force to be reckoned with at the next Worlds. Naween has now returned home from the Gulf and the other Ceylonese cubs are yapping at his heels (and Missaka wasn't even playing).
I played Nashad on the second day and he opened with ALEYIN(G)# commenting later that NAILE(R)Y would have alowed the S-hook!
The Kiwi presence was felt.
Jeff Grant was missing - honeymooning on Norfolk Island (after choosing the palindromic 8/9/98 for his wedding day).
The Christchurch 'Tiger' - Nigel Richards - recorded an excellent fourth and clearly is a future WSC title contender. No 493 average this time but in his first up international it was a sign of things to come. Kendall Boyd (sixth) continued his good Washington form while Patrick Carter, after winning 7/8 on Day One, dropped 10 in a row. The NZers also played unofficial test matches against Singapore and Sri Lanka for good measure during the evenings.
And obviously the world has not seen the best of the Filipino players at the WSC - Virgilio Morales and Odette Rio are a classy pair who came close to making the final.
Some interesting moves I noticed were: ARMORIAL (Nigel Richards), Odette Rio's SUMPITAN - extending SUMP to a TWS, TRICHOME, UNGYVED, BODRAGS and SINICAL .
The final playoff between Gerry and Bob was not error-free. Bob could have nearly sown up the title in game two by playing RETINUES on a double-double instead of UREDINE which opened a triple row. And there were some odd positional moves. But given the pressure of the occasion the standard was world class. Brilliancies were Bob's spotting PIOYE from a TWS in game four which turned the match around and finding the eight around an O holding ?IILLMD * (alas blocked by Gerry). Gerry's penultimate move - dumping the F with two tiles in the bag (I and E) and not playing LEAFI(E)R - would have lost if Bob had got his tracking right.
(Bob - maybe you can post the game on the SOWPODS list so the previous sentence will make some sense?)
The most memorable moment? Hard to choose between
watching that exciting fifth game of the final and those decisive last moves (reminiscent of the final game between Morris and Cappelletto at the WSC in 1991); or
observing Philip Nelkon swig whisky from a mini-bottle while performing the 'Proms wave' as the band played Land of Hope and Glory at the Commonwealth Games - something you won't see every day (though millions caught it on TV apparently...)
The funniest incident of the meet?
Overhearing Bob Jackman trying to flog a Redwood to one of the glamorous Filipino players:
Him: "Do you want a soft one or a hard one?"
Her:" A hard one, please."
Hm, shades of Monica and Bill.
All in all an exciting event which added another item to the international calendar and brought together a bunch of enthusiastic and talented players who represent the future of the game in the Asia Pacific.
A big pat on the back for Philip Nelkon and Ian Anderson from Mattel for making it all happen and for the Malaysian players for being such excellent hosts.
Selamat Tidur
Koala <..>
* LIMULOID