Results of the Feb.24-25, 2007 Panagbenga Flowerfest Scrabble

Final Standing after 18 rounds Straight KOTH

Rank Players Wins Recorded Spread
1 Odette Rio 13 +1044
2 Pakorn Nemitrmansuk 12 +1134
3 Ronald Credo 12 +898
4 Robbie Onate 12 +480
5 Teejay de Jesus 12 -52
6 Leonora Labog 11 +591
7 Renante dela Cerna 11 +444
8 Andronico Aquino Sr. 11 +431
9 Louie Mark de Guzman 11 +291
10 Antonio Malonzo 10 +489
11 Abe Gogoling 10 +455
12 Huub Luyk 10 +260
13 Cirilo Nuesca 10 +119
14 Carlos Acain 10 -59
15 Delio Dimaano 10 -161
16 Larry Serrano 10 -361
17 Mark Monis 9.5 -324
18 Oscar Rivera Jr. 9 +305
19 William Caluza 9 +184
20 Mario Libiran 9 -86
21 Sammy Espiritu 9 -246
22 Margie Lumawan 9 -325
23 Nora Dagoy 9 -453
24 Julio Busaing 8.5 -99
25 Melvin Dalangin 8 +279
26 Malou Flores 8 +106
27 Lydia Pullantes 8 -30
28 Roberto Salayog 8 -263
29 Frederick Bintudan 8 -163
30 Cynthia Garcia 8 -394
31 Mayet Santos 7.5 +92
32 Judy Ambrosius 7.5 -575
33 Ophie Ireberri 7 -307
34 Lowell Liwat 7 -582
35 Reynante Olas 7 -1244
36 Becky Luyk 6.5 -15
37 Eddie Manandeg 6.5 -628
38 John Tamondong 4 -910
39 Jimmy Laking (Withdrawn)

The Story:
Odette Rio of Iloilo City beats Pakorn Nemitrmansuk of Thailand in the final round, 472-301 to cop her 9th consecutive Baguio championship title since Nationals 2004. They actually met nine times of the 18 rounds Straight King-of-the-Hill format in the two-day battle held at the Baguio Country Club (BBC) last weekend. The event coincided with the Flower Festival other known as "Panagbenga" which attracted 39 word wizards from different regions including Pakorn of Thailand.

Pakorn finished at 2nd with 12-6, +1134 win-loss-spread record. Pakorn, a two time WSC Runner-up winner held Odette's ground in round 16, 395-341 and 17, 478-434 to tie her with 12 wins apiece before succumbing in the final round. At board 2, Ronald Credo of Quezon City prevailed over Teejay de Jesus of Laguna, 407-371 for a 3rd place finish with 12 wins and +898 spread dropping the latter to 5th spot with 12 wins and -52 spread. At board 3, Robbie Onate of Los Banos edged Col. Andy Aquino of Lipa City, 377-373 to position himself in the 4th place.

Rounding off the top ten were Leonora Labog 11 +591, Renante dela Cerna 11 +444, Andy Aquino Sr. 11 +431, Louie Mark de Guzman 11 +291 and Antonio Malonzo 10 +489.

Odette recounted her round 12 win over Pakorn, 504-440 with 7 bingos played between them. Despite the 9-timer ANOESTRA by Pakorn, Odette still won the game with 4 natural bingos (VIDEOFIT, GUTTERS, YARROWS and EYESOME). In their other game, a nine letter word was also spotted by Odette to win the game with her last rack as ?ADEENR fitting thru IN. After the awarding, Pakorn was requested to say something about his Baguio experience and he thanked Huub Luyk, the Baguio Benguet Club for Scrabble (BBCS) President, Leonora Labog who invited him and all the players. He described Odette as "Queen of the Hill". He mentioned also that he travelled a lot, he went to USA, Malaysia, Singapore, Bangalore, etc. and now Baguio City. BBCS announced the Camp John Hay Tourney will be held on Sept 01-02, 2007 and Pakorn confirmed to participate provided Odette would play. Meanwhile, Teejay could have won 2nd place had he spotted the bingo with his final rack ?DEINOW thru floating E in the last round. Renante dela Cerna of Cebu City likewise missed RUNKLES to hook S in front of CUDDLE in his middlegame against Col. Andy Aquino and lose the game.

Special prize was awarded to player who could play a "Most Flowery Word" with a high score and Malou Flores had BEGONIA (a tropical herb). Before this, Robbie Onate claimed SILURID as a flowery word, but when Huub checked the definition in the dictionary, it reads: any of a family of catfishes, which drew laughters from the participants. At one time, Abe Gogoling shouted after he played BACKSIGHT in his game, and announced that this is also a flower, to the delight of the players.

High word goes to Delio Dimaano. For the high game, Robbie Onate had 615 and Pakorn had 585 but since no player should win more than one prize, Huub Luyk was next in line with 550 to receive the prize. Top student player was awarded to Frederick Bintudan as Louie Mark de Guzman already had a prize. Abe Gogoling won the top local player award.

Another surprise prize was announced before the 1st round that whoever beats Pakorn first would earn P1,000.00. Odette Rio did it in round 5, 501-383 and Ronald Credo duplicated this feat in round 13, 482-449 but nobody got the prize since both had already received major prizes and no other players defeated Pakorn, so no one got this special prize.

In this particular tourney, BBCS implemented a spread cap with a maximum of 200 points. Huub Luyk referred his idea with Thailand who used a much higher spread cap of 350.

Word Source reference was SOWPODS 2006 (SOWPODS2003+TWL2006). Lexpert was used in the adjudication for accuracy of challenges. Philippines started adopting these lexicons since March 2006.

Other houserules included time forfeit. A player will automatically loses the game when his/her time clock exceeded the 25 minutes time limit. Overtime in digital would be at least -00:01. If the player was ahead at that time, his/her spread would be -50 while opponent would be +50. If the player was behind at that time, the current spread or -50 whichever is higher shall be used. The Malaysian Challenge Rule or 5-point challenge was also adopted. 5 points each for every word challenged that are valid shall be awarded to a player for unsuccessful challenge.

Regards,

RONALD CREDO