Scrabble Competition - A Flashback
The bumpy, tedious, six-hour bus ride from Miri to
Sibu would only bring my Scrabble team to a humiliating defeat.
In the preliminary round, my partner and I looked
poised to win the first match, but nerves got the better of us. We took the
first game easily, and many people believed that we could defeat our opponents
in straight sets. With a decent individual scoring range from 15 to 50, I
was the top scorer at 183 points. Disaster struck when my friend accidentally formed
a non-existent word. Capitalizing on the careless move, our opponents
rebounded by successively scoring a 24 and a 36. They took the second game with
a 22-point margin. The loss pulled the match to a rubber game. Despite the
loss, I garnered the highest individual total of 196 points.
In the deciding game, I was unlucky to have drawn
more consonant tiles than vowel tiles. I could arrange just one to two tiles at
a time, swallowing low one-digit scores. In comparison, my partner was doing quite
well. He contributed a lot of high scores and helped us
overtake our opponents by 32 points in the last ten minutes.
Too desperate to score a high of 46 points, I
repeated a similar blunder that my partner had made. The outcome of forming a
non-existent word was costly. My entire score was forfeited and I missed a
turn. This painful error opened the way for our opponents to rake in points. We
finally lost the match with the narrowest of margins: 246 to 251! If I had not
committed the error, we would have defeated them by almost 80 points. I could
not help blaming myself for the defeat. I had come a long way for the
competition, and the loss was really a shame!
Overall: Miri-Bakong 1 Samarahang 6
(We won only a single match.)
Our opponents in the second round were highly experienced
state players. They kept taking turns to hit bonus scores. In any Scrabble
competition, one can score a bonus if he or she can form a word with all seven
tiles. With four bonus scores, our opponents trounced us by an amazing
score line: 396 to 195. I could amass a mere 93! They took the
second game with another large win: 312 to 204. My total was a miserable
75. The match had really taken a toll on my confidence.
Overall: Miri-Bakong 2 Betong 5
My partner and I were reserves in the third round.
We had to do the timekeeping because the organizer was short staffed.
The third round saw a gruelling fight between Miri
and Kapit. After two hours, we went down 3 to 4 to the remote town. My partner and I did not play in this round too.
Having lost all three matches, we had to take
on the Sibu team for the 7th and 8th playoffs (the two bottom-most
positions).
Though both teams were equally matched, Sibu had the home-field
advantage. Their players could return to their homes for a rest before
competing against us at 8 p.m. Because our hotel was very far from the
competition venue, we had to rest and have our dinner in a nearby restaurant. Drained
and giddy, I did not finish my dinner. Too much mental work was exhausting!
Because of some technical problems, the match could
not start until 10 p.m. I had a hard time keeping myself attentive to the
match at the ungodly hour. Apart from overwhelming drowsiness, the
presence of many smokers in the hall made me unable to breathe properly. I kept
wheezing and coughing. My strategy was totally out of synch and my vision was blurred.
Despite my friend’s repeated warning cues, I kept missing the opportunity to
score big. We lost 215 to 240 in the first game. In the second game, I
was able to overcome my sluggishness and reclaim my confidence. If my partner
and I could keep scoring in a consistent range of 13 to 15, we could pull
to a rubber set. However, towards the end of the game, I made the silliest
error of the meet. I missed the opportunity to form a word that
covered a triple-word score square, and thus let go of victory. Our
incredulous opponents shouted and pumped their fists in jubilation. I was
completely dazed and devastated by my own carelessness. Why did
I let victory slip through my fingers the second time?
My team eventually lost 3 to 4 to the home team. I
was the one to blame.
My emotions were very much strained by the
self-blame. On my way out of the hall, I accidentally kicked the door sill
and fell down on my knees. The pain was sharp, and I could hardly get up on my
feet. My face was burning with shame.
The crashing defeat did not dampen my teammates’
spirits. They took it rather gracefully. I was the one who really crumbled.
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