30 April 2011, Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar, Johor Bahru
By Lim Mao Fong
I arrived at the venue, which was my own school pretty early in the morning and
honestly did not expect a big turnout at the circuit . I had overlooked the possibility of
players from other states coming, many of which I had met at the ASCI in Kuala Lumpur.
This year’s turnout was definitely better than last year’s with many new players from
schools around Johor Bahru . All of us should owe part of this increase to Harendraraj ,
formerly of Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar , who defaulted to SMK Sultan Ismail , where he
formed yet another coven of scrabble players . Also present were players from SMK
Aminuddin Baki and SMK Taman Molek . Not forgetting our youngest participant, Pang
Rickson, of SK Impian Emas, who is only 10! (No prizes for guessing who he’s related
to) . Favourites to win were of course Pang Xynna , champion of the Melaka
JC ,Sharsindra and Benjamin Choo, of Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar. (Yes, I was not in the
picture!)
The first game went according to custom , that was where the heavyweights pummelled
the newbies and weaker players for vulgarly high spreads. The problem with most of the
weaker players is intimidation . They just don’t dare to challenge anything, even phony
bingos which they have never and will never come across anywhere. My first game was
against Rudy Tan of SMK Aminuddin Baki . Phony-free spread of 284.
While the players with spreads of 300- 400 ++ played among themselves (Sharsindra ,
Xynna , Harendraraj) , I was up against Arunan Sethu of SMK Sg. Pelek (the TermMights) . Arunan took the lead with RANGERS and BOONIES , with me playing
desperate catch-up . Just when I thought I had finally bridged the gap with ZETA , for 81
points , he struck back with APPLYING (2 blanks!) , which ended the frustrating match,
in which I lost by a spread of 34.
The top five players had unbeaten records and I went on to play Priyanka Sethu , of ,
yes , SMK Sg. Pelek and YES, Arunan ‘s sister. Fearing the worst, I went on to play one
of my luckiest and best games of my life ( apologies , I’m not really a very good player
so yes, that wass quite a big thing for me) , in which I played my first ever nine-timer ,
WALLINGS , for 158 points right after she opened up the triple word area with COAL . I
went on to play ATTENDER and OVEREAT (by chance) and won the game by 308 with
a score of 609 ( my personal best, nothing compared to the likes of Jen Ho , William and
the rest) .Meanwhile , Harendraraj was up against Pang Xynna (if I’m not mistaken) and
lost , having overlooked a bingo (Open D, FEAUNT? ).
My fourth round was against Kuhan Anandan of SMK Sultan Ismail and again luck
was on my side. I managed to play LOCKERS , followed by a phony bingo which I
wasn’t sure of and he did not challenge , OUTRISEN (ROUTINES!!) . Scored big with
OPAQUE , with a leave of R. (Yes , OPAQUER is a word) and won with a spread of 197.
During the fifth round, Pang Xynna was up against Benjamin Choo , while Sharsindra
was playing against Harendraraj . I played against Arun Maniam , from SMK Sg. Pelek ,
a Form1 student with a lot of potential . We had one bingo each , STAINER for him and
KERNELS for me. Managed to win by 154. Benjamin successfully defeated Xynna while
Sharsindra and Harendraraj emerged from their game laughing with Sharsindra being the
victor.
Round 6 for me was against Benjamin , while Xynna played against Sharsindra. The
top 5 all had 5 wins , with my spread being the highest. Managed to play PUDGIER
while Ben played UNDATES , which was challenged off and later replayed as
UNSTEADY , which really caught me off guard . Later in the game I played INTRUDE .
Benjamin replied with DORKIER . I was lucky to get REGIONS during the last few
turns and I won by a spread of 197.
Sharsindra managed to win Xynna by a small spread and we thought that I would be
playing against Sharsindra . Much to his unnecessary relief, I played against
Shiideshwar, who also had 6 wins . It seemed that my luck was really running out as I
was struggling to catch up after he played STEERING . I caught up 3 turns later and
stayed in the lead until he played SLOWING. Fortunately , I managed to catch up and
win by 17 points ! I was really relieved after this game.
Sharsindra beat Benjamin, which reduced his spread , pushing him out of the top 5.
Xynna managed to beat her opponent , replenishing her spread and bringing her up to 4th
place. Harendraraj made a comeback at 3rd place and Sharsindra clinched his desired spot
in the top 5 at 2nd place. Some of the top 15 had already qualified in earlier JC’s ,
however the other players out of the top 15 did not get a chance to qualify . Interestingly ,
despite a number of non – Johor players , the top five were born and bred in Johor Bahru ,
thus proving the namesake of the CIMB JOHOR Junior Scrabble Circuit. Cheers!