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Lexington Scrabble® Club 2006-2007 Season

This reports on the season which ran from September, 2006 through August, 2007.

The Lexington, Massachusetts Scrabble® Club #108 has been running continuously since it was started by Edie Berman and Muriel Sands in January, 1980. We meet nearly every Thursday night of the year in a comfy basement meeting room of the First Parish Church, situated on Lexington Green behind the Lexington Minuteman Statue. Judy Horn has been directing this club for about 23 years. Ellen Miller serves as associate director. Mike Wolfberg joined the club within its first month of existence, and he took on the role of club statistician within the first year. The club has operated with its own rating system, designed primarily by Alan Frank, since early 1981. Ratings are based on the percentage of points each of the players scores in each game. The club web site includes a detailed description of this system.

This is a report of the highlights of this club's Sep-06 through Aug-07 season. In this season, individuals played 7504 games, and so there were 3752 games in all. The average score in all of these games was 386. These numbers were 6058, 3029, and 380 for the previous season. Two seasons ago the club average was 11 points less. It is likely the new words in the OWL2 contributed to the increases in the average.

Of the 7504 individual games, 7112 were played by an "active player". We define an active player as someone who played at least 20 games in the season. The average score of the active players was 385 for the season. These numbers were 5602 and 380 for the previous season.

Average attendance thoughout the season was 30.2, and with 51 sessions. These statistics indicate that each player plays on the average of almost 5 games per session. We realize this is higher than in many other clubs, and so some of this club's achievements in one season should be understood in this context. The average attendance in the previous season was 26.

169 different players have attended the club in the past 2 years. During the 2006-2007 season there were 55 active players, namely those who played at least 20 games, and here are the top 27, ordered by decreasing club average rating (not shown here, but these are in the other table below) :

 John O'Laughlin      - averaged 448, won 28 of 41 games 
 Jere Mead            -          423      18    27
 Rod MacNeil          -          428     154   206
 Jesse Day            -          439      48    62
 Aaron Bader          -          438      28    38
 Merrill Kaitz        -          417      21    34
 Richard Buck         -          429     151   205
 Cecilia Le           -          409     116   186
 Steven Saul          -          411     130   191
 Mike Wolfberg        -          419     213   304, scoring 127,518 points
 Jamie Ryan           -          427     255   381, scoring 162,744 points
 Seth Lipkin          -          426      74   103
 Joel Horn            -          416     164   244, scoring 101,587 points
 Arnie Horowitz       -          387      18    29
 Bruce Adams          -          403     134   200
 Ben Harrison         -          416     212   321, scoring 133,510 points
 Carl Durdan          -          401      54    92
 Mark Fidler          -          391     110   190
 Elaine Patterson     -          373      22    43
 Kate Fukawa-Connelly -          406      81   132
 Jake Bergmann        -          403      55    95
 Brad Whitmarsh       -          402     162   295, scoring 118,693 points
 Ben Greenwood        -          394      10    22
 Joev Dubach          -          385      40    71
 Barbara Revkin       -          405      60    95
 Bob Becker           -          391     109   221
 Judy Horn            -          398     142   252, scoring 119,085 points

Also of note:

 Trx. Kt. played 390 games and scored 132,044 points.

These high-rated players attended our club during the season, but failed to
play the  minimum of twenty games to qualify to be considered as active:
Ian Weinstein, Joey Mallick, John Van Pelt, Alyssa Faria, Elana Lehrer,
Steve Root, Brendan Sullivan, Kurt Davies, Rich Reiben, James Leong,
Samantha Southard.


Season Average Ratings of the Top 50 Players who Played at Least 20 Games
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

   1795.54    John O'Laughlin             1684.74    Bob Becker
   1785.34    Jere Mead                   1683.79    Judy Horn
   1784.67    Rod MacNeil                 1682.12    Leigh Bernstein
   1783.44    Jesse Day                   1680.11    Thomas Stumpf
   1776.56    Aaron Bader                 1677.60    Chris Sinacola
   1775.98    Merrill Kaitz               1677.15    Tim Wilkinson
   1754.59    Richard Buck                1659.70    Larry Katz
   1750.13    Cecilia Le                  1656.98    Diana Spiller
   1747.87    Steven Saul                 1652.98    John Cheras
   1742.14    Mike Wolfberg               1647.34    Ellen Miller
   1740.64    Jamie Ryan                  1629.67    Linda Giovinazzo
   1737.61    Seth Lipkin                 1627.43    Marshall Finn
   1736.03    Joel Horn                   1605.47    Tim Lutts
   1732.32    Arnie Horowitz              1598.03    Judy Cole
   1730.16    Bruce Adams                 1595.67    Michael Cresta
   1728.03    Ben Harrison                1598.03    Judy Cole
   1721.29    Carl Durdan                 1574.83    Betsey Wood
   1716.01    Mark Fidler                 1572.24    Trx. Kt.
   1711.40    Elaine Patterson            1566.34    Rob Wilstein
   1709.47    Kate Fukawa-Connelly        1547.09    Catherine Day
   1709.07    Jake Bergmann               1535.57    Hilda Siegel
   1699.32    Brad Whitmarsh              1531.08    Kirby Gordon
   1693.05    Ben Greenwood               1526.52    Wayne Yorra
   1690.99    Joev Dubach                 1505.03    Norma Marshall
   1689.99    Barbara Revkin              1434.74    Crystal Lyons

There are many notable achievements this season:

Club Web Site

The club's web site continues to be at http://wolfberg.net/scrabble/lexington, and it is also reachable using the shorter http://LSC.wolfberg.net. You can also click on the "Clubs" box at http://ScrabbleClub.com to get there.

NSA ratings

We usually have about 6-10 players in the top 100 rated tournament players in North America, based on the National Scrabble® Association (NSA) ratings. Our club roster lists NSA ratings of active players; these are updated a few times each year.

ISC Players

Several of our club members are active at the web-based Internet Scrabble® Club. Our club roster includes ISC handles for many of these folks.

Challenges and Postmortems

The club has continued to use the WHAT program on one or two laptop computers available to all players at the club. Players tend to handle their own challenges using the program, and they often check on racks, etc. after a game is completed to see what was possible. Since WHAT can provide definitions, this is an efficient method of doing postmortems.

High Games

The highest game score in a club session during this season was 830 by Michael Cresta. This game broke both club records and records in North American Scrabble®. The losing score by Wayne Yorra was 490, and so their total was 1320.

The runner-up high game score last season was a 737 by Mike Wolfberg. Other over-600 games: Brad Whitmarsh 652, Jesse Day 644, Joel Horn 621,612,609, Mike Wolfberg 616, Rod MacNeil 614, Jamie Ryan 612,609.

Most Games

Trx. Kt. played the most games during the season, with 390 games, which is higher than her last season's number. Two seasons ago she played 406 games, which broke the record for the most games in a season. Jamie Ryan played 381 games during the season.

Most Wins

With 255 wins, Jamie had the most wins, and this broke the previous club record set by Jamie at 222 two seasons ago. Mike Wolfberg had 213 wins, and Ben Harrison had just one less.

Most Points

With a total of 162,744 points, Jamie Ryan scored the most points in this season, breaking his record of 138,892 set two seasons ago. Ben Harrison scored 133,510 points, and Trx. Kt. scored 132,044 points.

Highest Percentage Above Average

In order to qualify for the highest percentage above average accolade, you must have already played at least 20 games in the season, and Michael Cresta's high game was not eligible. The highest such game which did count was Mike Wolfberg's 737, and that was 76.1% above his average. The runner-up was Aron Klopper with a 62.2% game.

For the first time in club history, the high-above-average score was achieved by a losing score, and this was by Wayne Yorra when he lost with a 490 to Michael Cresta's 830. As stated above, Michael had not played enough games in the season to be eligible for the accolade.

We have tracked this statistic only since the 1997-1998 season, and the club record is 80.6%.

Many Bingos by One Player

Joel Horn played a 6-bingo game and also a 5-bingo game during the season. Joel and Diana Spiller played a total of 8 in a game they played together. Joel played 5 of these bingos and lost.

High Losing Score

The highest loss during this season was Wayne Yorra's 490 (to Michael Cresta's 830). This was the second highest losing score in this club's history. The highest losing score for the club was 500, set two seasons ago.

High Number of High-Rated Players

During this season, we started to notice high numbers of players with a club rating of at least 1700, and there were 28 such players on 26-Jul-07.

High Bingo

Michael Cresta scored 365 points for QUIXOTRY. In the same game, he scored 239 for FLATFISH. His 365-pointer is now the club record, and the other bingo is the club's fourth highest bingo score to date.

High Non-Bingo

Mike Wolfberg scored the second-highest non-bingo in club history with a 106-point play. Bruce Adams played a 103-point non-bingo. Arnie Horowitz made a 102-point non-bingo; he holds the club record with a 109-point non-bingo played in 2001.

Low Win

In a game which went to completion between two of our experienced players, the score was 279-262. The lowest win in this club's history was in a game terminated early when there were six consecutive plays scoring zero.

Many Wins Above 500

On 21-Jun-07, with 35 players in attendance, there were 18 games in which the winner exceeded 500, breaking the club previous club of 14 such games (also first seen in this season). About one month later there was a session with 16 such games.

Many Losses in the 400's

This statistic used to be just 8, but that was exceeded several times during this season. The highest number of high losses was 12 when club attendance was only 27. In other sessions in the season there were 11, 10, 9, and 9 high losses.

High Total

The new club record was set with a high total of 1320 when Michael Cresta defeated Wayne Yorra 830-490. A new runner-up record was also set this season with a 1077 point total when Mike Wolfberg defeated Jamie Ryan 737-340. Other high totals in this season are 1033, 1021, 1001, and 1000. These are all among the top 8 such games in club history.

Many High Totals

On 22-Mar-07, when attendance was 33, there were 7 games in which the total exceeded 900. About one month earlier, there were 5 such games. We believe these both to be records.

High Session Attendance

The highest attendance during this season was 40 players. The average attendance was 30, up 4 from the previous season. The club's record attendance is 44 set three seasons ago.

An Unusual Happening

On 9-Nov-06, In a game between Elaine Patterson and Hilda Siegel, part of the board looked like:

        G
        A
Y       B
A       B
H   D A Y
O M E N
O M E N
      U
      A
      L
Is seemed most unusual to see the same word just above itself. Hilda played ANNUAL, Elaine played DEE, Hilda played MM, Elaine played YAHOO.

This Club at the 2007 Players Championship

About twenty of our regular club players attended the 2007 Players Championship in Dayton, OH in August, 2007. In Divison A: Aaron Bader placed 23rd, John O'Laughlin was 26th, and Rod MacNeil was 30th. Ben Harrison won Division B. Mike Wolfberg placed 3rd in Division C.

More Details

Further details for many of the club records mentioned above can be found on this club's statistics page.


back to the top of this page This page, maintained by Mike Wolfberg, was last updated on December 14, 2012.