One Score and One stalwart souls stormed Summit County Saturday, seeking SCRABBLE success.  The NEOSCRABBLE Spring Fling is in the books, and the 21 competitors enjoyed a day of good food, good friends, and good SCRABBLE.

One player needed to withdraw due to illness, which resulted in a change of the divisions and pairings to two divisions with a combination of swiss and king of the hill.

In Division A, Dan Stock battled his way to victory.  Building to a 2-0 record and sizeable spread after two games, Stock tied with Eileen Popich in his third game to put himself half a game off of the pace.  Two rounds later, with a 3 1/2 - 1 1/2 record, Stock controlled his fate going into the final swiss and king of the hill rounds, and impressively won each game by over 100 points, sealing his position as first-place finisher.

Second place went to Jeff Clark.  The top seed coming in after an impressive finish in Michigan last week, Clark stayed competitive throughout the day, building his win/loss record to 4-1 through 5 rounds.  But, Clark was unable to hold off Stock's challenge in the penultimate round.  Clark's win-loss record allowed him to hold onto the 2nd place spot, despite a negative cum of -28.

George Viebranz finished the day in third place.  Viebranz fought several pitched battles throughout the day, with 3 games ending with single digit point spread, including 2 of his 3 losses for the day.  Perhaps the most heartbreaking for Viebranz was his round 6th match against Connie Breitbeil, in which a tie score at the end of play became a 2 point loss for Viebranz after a recount.  Viebranz and Breitbeil were paired again in the king of the hill round, and Viebranz won that game impressively, 529-299.  The 230 points of spread was a tournament record for Division A, and only 6 points off the pace of Linda Hoggatt's 535-364 tournament high game victory over Jeff Clark.

In Division B, 2nd seed Diane Joseph went undefeated to secure first place with a record of 7 - 0, +464.  After a narrow 4 point victory in her first game, against Linda Robinson, Joseph held off her other challengers with larger spreads.  Her only other narrow finish for the day was a 17 point victory over top seed Tim Smith.

Christopher Walleck finished the day in 2nd place with a commanding final game.  Losing only to the 1st and 3rd place finishers, Diane Joseph and Pat Hardwick, Walleck was 4 - 2, +271 and in third place coming into his final game, against first-time tournament player Dennis Tomlinson, from Columbus.  Walleck posted an impressive 504-240 victory in that game, garnering +264 additional spread points to finish the day at 5 - 2, +535 and set the tournament record for spread points in a game.

Third-place finisher Pat Hardwick also played impressively, losing only in her two games against the undefeated Diane Joseph.  Hardwick held a record of 5 - 1, +375 going into the final game, and was close to having a lock on 2nd place, with an outside shot at winning the division if she could achieve a sizable win over Joseph.  But, her last round loss, coupled with Walleck's impressive showing, pushed her down to the third place slot.

Four special prizes were awarded.  Tina Totten King won both "tournament words" competitions for the word with the most letters in SPRING and in FLING, playing SHELVING for 89 points in her round 4 game against Joyce Stock.  Her play beat out several other, lower scoring plays which also had 4 of the letters in one or both words.  Mary Kay Quinn won the low-probability, natural 7 letter bingo contest, playing HEARTHS in a game against none other than Joyce Stock.  And Jeff Clark won for the lowest probability, natural 8 letter bingo, playing WITCHING in his round 2 game against Connie Breitbeil.

The following door prizes were awarded:
Walter Konicki - Mike Baron's SCRABBLE Word Book
Tina Totten King - Locally made SCRABBLE art
Mary Kay Quinn - OSPD-3 Franklin Dictionary
Linda Robinson - Travel SCRABBLE
Connie Breitbeil - $10 gift certificate to Angie's Pizza (donated by Walter Konicki)

Final Standings

Division A
5.5- 1.5 +446 STOCK, DANIEL - $200
5.0- 2.0 -28 CLARK, JEFF - $120
4.0- 3.0 +295 VIEBRANZ, GEORGE - $60
4.0- 3.0 +127 HOGGATT, LINDA
4.0- 3.0 +88 ZEIGLER, PETE
3.0- 4.0 +149 POPICH, EILEEN
3.0- 4.0 -207 BREITBEIL, CONNIE
3.0- 4.0 -344 LEE, FRANK
2.5- 4.5 -34 SMITH, KAREN
1.0- 6.0 -492 KONICKI, WALTER

Division B
7.0- 0.0 +464 JOSEPH, DIANE - $200
5.0- 2.0 +535 WALLECK, CHRISTOPHER - $120
5.0- 2.0 +223 HARDWICK, PAT - $60
4.0- 3.0 +49 SMITH, TIM
4.0- 3.0 +44 HUBER, CECILIA
3.0- 4.0 +135 ROBINSON, LINDA
3.0- 4.0 -4 REIBEN, JOSEPH
3.0- 4.0 -165 STOCK, JOYCE
3.0- 4.0 -224 TOMLINSON, DENNIS
3.0- 4.0 -315 KING, TINA TOTTEN
2.0- 5.0 -392 QUINN, MARY KAY

"SPRING" Word - SHELVING (89 pts.) - Tina Totten King - $20
"FLING" Word - SHELVING (89 pts.) - Tina Totten King - $20
Low Probability 7-letter natural, valid bingo - HEARTHS - Mary Kay Quinn - $20
Low Probability 8-letter natural, valid bingo - WITCHING - Jeff Clark - $20
 

Additional pairings, standings and ratings information can be found on at This Link to the tsh Event Directory, provided courtesy of John Chew's tsh program.