4th Annual WV Scrabble Tournament - round 9

Today is the final day of the tournament and the players are in round 9. We had a few morning announcements, a few show-of-hand votes on our future events, and the revelation of the winners of two of our side contests. Jack Eichenbaum won the Great Gas Giveaway prize of $32.99, which was computed by assuming a 15-gallon tank and this morning's price of $2.199 as reported at the Chevron station a few blocks from the hotel. Jack announced he doesn't even have a car, but since the plan all along was to give the cash equivalent of this prize anyway, it's all good.

Brian Bowman won the Speed Scrabble contest last night after 4 rounds of elimination brackets. Brian will become a NASPA member through December 31, 2010 and added $20 of his own money to get a vanity number (which I shan't reveal at this time).

One final note - Linda Hoggatt does not feel well this morning and has dropped out of the tournament, so there is now a bye in Division B. I've been told there could be a bye in Division C in the last round too, so it looks like the last day is going to be interesting, to say the least.