HEARTWARMING SYDNEY
An appreciative look back at the Sydney Masters from Japan's current national champion, Keiichiro "KC" Hirai
 | KC's games - Keiichiro details his 18 games at the Masters |
| All Square - Playthrough of Keiichiro's amazing Round 3 draw
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January 24 - I visited Chatswood Scrabble Club, 15 minutes north of the city center. Around 13 players were there, and they welcomed me. Some international players like Mark Nyman, Russell Byers have played there before. I loved the atmosphere - a clean place and a convenient location.
Bob Jackman defeated me by 2 points. I won next against Louise. I lost the next two games against Joanne
Craig (who kindly spoke to me slowly throughout my days in Sydney. Generally, with all players whom I talked to, I have to admit that I could not understand the fast spoken language in the local accent. But I tried. I felt a little ashamed because my office work includes translation.) and Robin. Finally I was glad/lucky to beat Paul Cleary there.
January 25 - Paul Cleary kindly set up seven practice games with me. The first game was a draw, then I lost five consecutive games, but managed to win the last one. I was overwhelmed by his bingo skills and scrabble strategies. I learned some good strategies regarding Q-stuck, "Hold" technique and the usefulness of Consogram word lists. I thank him very much. I have no doubt about Paul's participation and great performance at the 2001 World Championship.
January 26 - I went shopping in Sydney. Dymocks, the bookseller, had some scrabble books/dictionaries. Among them, OSL#3 is one of the best scrabble reference. I met Wilma Vialle, Paul, Joanne and Rod Talbot (I heard he plans to join the UK Championship this summer.) who were setting up equipment, scrabble sets, etc. at the venue on Friday evening, I thank them and John Holgate and others for organizing the event. I thank Bob (& Gary) for arranging some scrabble books and ASPA membership enrolment for me.
January 27 - It was nice to see some of the players from the sowpods mailing lists. Trevor Halsall said that I am notorious for putting right words and false words in the Contest mails. (Sorry about that! But I'll be doing it again.) I had seen Naween at the 1999 WSC but not spoken to him there, so it was very nice to meet him again.
In the evening after games, I joined around twenty players (many from Sydney area) for dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant. Wilma Vialle, popular tournament director (directed 11 tournaments including WSC 1999) and also a great scrabbler, talked to me about many interesting things. For example, there are about 20 tourneys in New South Wales (results of which can be found on Bob's homepage http://www.ozemail.com.au/~rjackman/), where around 70% (or more) of the players are women. But looking at the top 20-rated players, 65% are men.
On January 28 - after the prize ceremony, about half of the participants chatted over a few drinks at a bar near the hotel lobby. Then I joined Naween, Harry Malcolm, Chile and Angie for dinner. Harry, a math teacher, is an enthusiastic scrabbler who has created his own word-studying PC program which he showed to me.
One general comment about the tournament, I thought the "challenge" procedure was good/interesting. Evan Simpson wrote in his report of 1999 Sydney Masters Tourney,
"The challenging player normally took the slip up to the front desk, where the 'Look' program was in use. This program prints the challenged words and the result of the challenge on a slip of paper and eliminates any handwriting problems that may have resulted in illegibility."
I think that this routine can deter frivolous challenges, too, because taking the slip to the front desk and bringing the result back is some work.
Many of the players were very friendly and interested in Japanese language, culture (Kyoto, Tokyo, bullet trains), Japan's scrabble situation, etc. More and more Australians are studying the Japanese language. Several players also liked my purplish-transparent chess clock which I bought at Chess Discount Sales store in Sydney.
I'd love to join the tourney again in a few years time. Thank you very much for everything.
Best regards,
KC Hirai
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