Phil Robertshaw wins the 2018 Winter Matchplay

Congratulations to division winners Phil Robertshaw, Anne Ashmore, Margaret Staunton and all other prize winners at the Winter Matchplay event.

One of the strongest fields of the year assembled in Division A including defending champion Austin Shin, 2018 BMSC winner Lewis Mackay, and 2018 BMSC runner-up Phil Robertshaw. However, it was Diane Pratesi who set the early pace, the only player unbeaten after the opening four games. Having clawed their way up the rankings, Phil and Austin held the top two spots overnight, both with a 7-2 record but it was Austin who got off to the better start on Sunday, opening up a two game cushion at the top. Fast forward a couple of rounds, and the standings had a whole different look - Lewis had taken the lead, but only on spread and a crucial loss in round 16 put paid to his chances of taking the title.

The final round would therefore see a straight shoot-out between Phil and Austin, their fourth tussle of the weekend, many of which took place like this one on camera. The tournament clincher can be viewed already on the Qwizical Scrabble YouTube channel. with further games to be uploaded in due course. The streaming coverage overall was very well received, and the committee would like to thank Jessica and all helpers and commentators who made this possible, not only at this event but at many others this year. The game itself was always close, and features an extremely tense conclusion, only fitting given what a tight battle it had been throughout the weekend. Ultimately, Phil came out on top this time to take a first ever victory at the Winter Matchplay, and his fifth major title overall. A win in the final round was enough to take Lewis back into 2nd place, with Austin finishing 3rd. Further down the field, 180+ performances from Ahmed Khan and Rick Blakeway saw both rewarded with a four point ratings increase.

In division B, Anne Ashmore dropped just one game on day 1, but was chased hard by Kim Hands - the two would have an extended battle for top honours at the close of day 2. Although the advantage was with Anne, if Kim could win twice in succession, and by decent margins, Anne could be toppled. Kim won the first, but not the second and so Anne rounded out the winner with 14 wins, the highest total of the weekend. Moira Conway won the battle for 3rd place with Ann Golding defying her ranking to finish 4th.

A drawn game in round five made things interesting for a long time in division C, but ultimately proved less relevant as the final round, like in the other divisions was a straight fight between the top two. Margaret Staunton took the victory this time, with Ruth Cawsey 2nd and Mel Maltz completing the top 3. Barbara Morris took the ratings prize.

Among interesting plays spotted on boards were FLUIDRAM - a unit of liquid capacity, UNTENTY - a Scottish adjective meaning careless, and JEREPIGO - a sweet fortified wine, similar to port. One of the most talked about plays though came from Lewis, who certainly wasn't bogged down by his excellent QUAGMIRY for 257(+5) points. For those interested, Phil has also put together a photo album on Facebook of all his boards from this weekend, the photo shown here is from his final round 17 game.