In memoriam

Scrabble friends:

Our club was officially started on May 24, 2005 with three founding members - my wife Martha Mills, her father Arnold Keaton, and myself as director. Arnold instilled in Martha a love for this game, and she in turn instilled it in me. So had it not been for Arnold, our club probably would not exist.

From these humble beginnings, we have met many interesting people, made lots of good friends, and had several successful tournaments. We have passed the love of the game along to numerous new people, encouraged other new clubs in the area, and made contributions to the Scrabble community regionally and nationally. We have seen one of our members and friends go on a whirlwind Scrabble tour. We have ridden the ratings curve (both up and down), we have watched the coming and going of Scrabulous, and we have transitioned our club and members over to NASPA, the new player-run organization.

We truly owe it all to this gentle man.

We lost Arnold on Sunday to pulmonary fibrosis. His passing leaves an empty spot in our club and in our hearts.

Thank you for everything, Arnold. You will be missed.

WVA vs. WPA Smackdown results

Twelve players met in Clarksburg, WV today for the first ever WVA vs. WPA Smackdown. West Virginia was represented by six players and Western Pennsylvania was represented by six other players. Over seven rounds, each team member played everyone from the other team once with a king of the hill final.

Here are the results with cash prizes awarded to the top three finishers. Dollar amounts won follow players' seeds and team designations below - class prizes were awarded to those who didn't finish in the money.

1. 6-1 +547 1051 1083 +32 Aaron McGuffin (#4/WVA): $120
2. 6-1 +183 819 899 +80 Martha Mills (#7/WVA): $70
3. 5-2 +340 1104 1116 +12 M W Schroeder (#2/WPA): $50
4. 5-2 +171 1116 1125 +9 Brad Mills (#1/WVA)
5. 4-3 +60 792 805 +13 Zosima Gingerich (#8/WVA)
6. 3-4 +170 572 590 +18 Rafael Barker (#12/WVA)
7. 3-4 +115 903 888 -15 Tina Totten King (#6/WVA)
8. 3-4 -339 773 775 +2 Joe Larson (#9/WPA)
9. 2-5 -239 1079 1027 -52 Ed Vith (#3/WPA)
10. 2-5 -274 707 698 -9 Sarah Burroughs (#10/WPA)
11. 2-5 -379 594 594 +0 Michelle Gaynord (#11/WPA)
12. 1-6 -355 930 872 -58 Stanley Angrist (#5/WPA)

High loss: Stan Angrist, $10
High win: Brad Mills, $10
Most average finish: Zosima Gingerich, Bananagrams

West Virginia won 27 games while Western Pennsylvania won 15. Joe Larson brought one of his famous Scrabble sculptures as a trophy for the winning team, and it has come home to the house of the winning team's captain to be displayed prominently until next year when we (hopefully) do this again.

My thanks to all the players who participated, and thanks to co-director Terry Schroeder for helping plan the logistics, keeping me sane, and entertaining us with her poetry.