Spoilers for Thursday April 24th 2014 (S70 P73)

[Jordan F]

Another new champion in Ben Clark. Can he get another?

Join James, for real this time, for the recap later.

[szodiac]

Today's challenger should be Scrabble player Neil Green.
Another reappearing contestant from 2003 who failed to stop Stuart Earl in his octochamp run.

Mauro

[Andy Platt]

Very strong start for C2, calling octochamp now

[Tony Atkins]

Nice tactic by Ben for picking 3L, but it was quick tricky to spot the exact solution as it wasn't the standard method...

[Tony Atkins]

Alt second numbers (9x25-(8-1))x4-10

[Tony Atkins]

I too stupidly missed the OMNIBUS and went for jumboes, when JUMBIES would have been fine.

[Andy Platt]

C2 needs to pick up on his numbers otherwise he could be throwing away a potential 40 points a game

[Tony Atkins]

3x75+(5x8) was my way to 265.

[Tony Atkins]

I think there is an 8 in the ROMPERS+UY round?

[Jack Worsley]

Good game. Neil definitely looks like he has a lot of quality on the letters but his numbers let him down. If he can improve there, he'll certainly be a very dangerous opponent.

[Will Jeffcott]

PROSUMER was available in round 12 I think

[Paul Erdunast]

Great game - unlucky on the VIRGATE/VITRAGE - VITRAGE is ok in scrabble - though JUMBOES isn't. Just checked the ABSP site and he seems to be a top level scrabble player. Wouldn't be surprised to see him go far - that is, until an Apterite comes his way and really starts to put pressure on the letters rounds, and picks more difficult numbers rounds. Then we could see more unlucky CSW12 words coming in.

[Gavin Chipper]

C2 needs to pick up on his numbers otherwise he could be throwing away a potential 40 points a game

Yeah, he did nothing to dispel the scrabbler/numbers games stereotype.

[James Robinson]

Join James, for real this time, for the recap later.

Actually, Anthony Endsor will be filling in, since I'm a bit busy, and since there's no show tomorrow, I thought it would be only fair.

TINAMOUS in round 2, EOLITHS in round 5 and OMNIBUS in round 8.

2nd Numbers Alt.: (((25 x 9) - 8 + 1) x 4) - 10 = 862

[Jon Corby]

(((25 x 4) - 8 + 1) x 9) - 10 = 862

No it doesn't.

[James Robinson]

(((25 x 9) - 8 + 1) x 4) - 10 = 862

No it doesn't.

It does now.

[Martin Thompson]

Great game - unlucky on the VIRGATE/VITRAGE - VITRAGE is ok in scrabble - though JUMBOES isn't. Just checked the ABSP site and he seems to be a top level scrabble player. Wouldn't be surprised to see him go far - that is, until an Apterite comes his way and really starts to put pressure on the letters rounds, and picks more difficult numbers rounds. Then we could see more unlucky CSW12 words coming in.

He's actually a lot higher rated than Mark Murray, but Mark's a bit better on the numbers.

Personally this has been an exciting series. I stayed at Neil's house during the weekend of the National Scrabble Championships in Cardiff last September. Didn't know he was planning to enter - though Rachel Riley made an appearance at the tournament - so it must have helped..

[Martin Thompson]

C2 needs to pick up on his numbers otherwise he could be throwing away a potential 40 points a game

Yeah, he did nothing to dispel the scrabbler/numbers games stereotype.

And selecting wrong words. You really have to do your homework on the Oxford dictionary.