28-29 May 2011, Subang Jaya, Kuala Lumpur
Commentary by Cheong Yi Wei

This year’s Junior Scrabble National Finals had a pleasant surprise awaiting all
participants who qualified through their respective state circuits — we were reimbursed
RM100 each, courtesy of CIMB!
It was held in CADC, Complex 3C, Subang Jaya on the 28th and 29th of May 2011. 84
eager scrabblers flocked in with high spirits, chatting heartily and some had even started to
pit their scrabble skills against each other. The atmosphere was one of warm camaraderie,
but within us, we were all excited and raring to begin the 1st of 15 games.
The crossword battle thus began. Better seasoned players mercilessly trounced their
opponents in the first 2 games, gaining superior spreads. Arvinran Rajendran and Choo Zi
Wei garnered margins of over 600 and 500 respectively to lead the pack. Then in the 3rd
game the excitement escalated. I was drawn to play William Kang, top seed in the
tournament and a WSC (World Scrabble Championship) representative from our country. We
were generally neck-to-neck until I played EFTSOON followed by DEBONAI(R), which he
retaliated with QUILT scoring 73 points. I managed to maintain the lead with several solid
moves, but towards the end my tile-tracking was wrong and it was a huge error because
William nearly, but not quite, had an opportunity to play a last-minute high-scoring bingo. It
was a crucial and delightful win for me.
During the lunch break, Gabriel Martin appeared with a delicious chocolate ice-cream cake for our Tournament Director, Mr. K Sundraraj as all of us wished him happy birthday. Games then resumed once more. I was unbeaten by the end of the first day, but my opponents had not allowed me a smooth ride at all. Arvinran scored well in the first few moves, and it would have been a nail-biting match had he not attempted 3 phonies which cost him the game. Looi Yih Feng played a couple of non-gos as well to give me a rather easy win. Note: STAIRED means having stairs, not ascending a flight of stairs, so STAIRING sounds valid but is not acceptable. He realized that he missed INTARSI(A) in this game but luckily for him, it was one of the many bingoes which allowed him to beat his opponent in the very next game! Jagan Narayanan and Vinnith Ramamurti put up tough resistance with stylish moves, the latter nearly getting the better of me if not for my final bingo MODISTE. I
then proceeded to win my last match against Ignatius Wong and, fatigued but elated,
retired to the heavenly embrace of my bed in our hotel.
Sunday 29th of May – The 84 of us arrived hoping to make the best out of the last 7
games, and the frontrunners no doubt eager to tarnish my winning streak. Choo Zi Wei did
not manage to do so, but the last 6 games were KOTH with repeat and anything could
happen during this period. Jagan had a rather huge lead over me midway through our game,
but he allowed me to narrow the gap and finally edged him 410 to 388. Though I was now
ahead of second-placed Vinnith by 2 games, I could not afford to let my guard down.
Much to my horror and to my contenders’ delight, Vinnith pulled off 2 consecutive
wins against me, gaining margins of +84 each. He made some impressive plays and certainly
more bingoes than I did as I struggled with tricky racks the entire time. The race for the title
was opened once again.
My next game was also against Vinnith and I moaned silently at my tough luck as he
played AUSTERE followed by BISTROS soon after. It was not until the last few turns that I
finally got INFANTE and prevented what would have been a disastrous 3-game losing streak.
My 14th game was to be a face-off against Jagan and it was a nerve-wrecking match full of
high-scoring moves. I started the game by drawing 8 tiles instead of 7, which turned out to
be a blessing in disguise because Jagan threw an A and left me with two more A’s. I placed
WAREZ, and SANTE(R)IA was the reply. My next rack was AGHIIKO and I was considering
whether I should try HAIKI(N)G or HOIKI(N)G both for a huge score of 60. I guessed that
Jagan would be more likely to challenge HOIKING because HOIK sounded like an
exclamation, but honestly I had no idea what HAIK was either. It turned out he knew
HOIKING was a valid word and therefore assumed HAIKING was valid too. It was a major
mistake which cost him the pivotal match, and onlookers were aghast at seeing the phony
sprawled across the board unchallenged. He proceeded to garner great scores with
DO(M)INEES and ENSURES in reply to my REC(L)AIMS but again I emerged victorious with a
slim margin.
Final game of the tournament and I was pitted against Vinnith for the 5th time. Though I was one game ahead of him, he had a higher spread and it was a winner-takes-all situation. He started off with a series of fantastic moves which never scored below 30 while I struggled with poor tiles …. again. In the middle of the game I had QOGES?? trailing by around 100 points, and somehow I knew that this was the move that would either make or break it. There was a tremendous urge to change the Q and bingo the next turn but this would give him ample time to pull away. I decided to play Qi with a blank for 31 points. Vinnith’s jaw dropped at this and he let out a gasp. Surely he knew that I had the other blank and would raise his level of caution. Fortunately for me I found a GORGEOUS bingo to arrive neck-to-neck with him. Two plays later he opened a spot for me to place LOONIES(T)
which dashed his chances of catching up. I was stunned and extremely relieved at the outcome even as I was heartily congratulated.
Vinnith’s sterling performance earned him the 1st runners-up placing; William recovered well to clinch 3rd place. Jagan slipped from the top 3 positions to settle at 4th position while a very determined Ignatius took 5th place.
After such an exhausting weekend which kept my head swimming due to the pressure, my appetite finally returned and I could enjoy a relaxing dinnertime with my fellow scrabblers. Once again, MSA has done a splendid job in organizing this tournament, kudos especially to Mr. K. Sundraraj, Mdm. Chitra and Gabriel Martin. We would like to extend our thanks to CIMB as they have so kindly sponsored the event. Last but not least to all participants, your very presence and enthusiasm has made this championship a success, and we hope to see all of you again in the years to come! ^^

(champion), Ignatius, Arvinran, Lim Mao Fong, Vinnith (1 st runner-up), Chang Ching Yet, Arunan,
Looi Yih Feng, and the representative for Complex 3C.