Amazing!

Marj Miller produced the initial results, for the Recreation Division of the Decathon tournament, on Ozscrabble as follows:

     W        M                                                   Old Chg New

1    9       +670     Gillian Renwick             974 +56 1030

2    8       +303     Elize Plaganyi                803 +67 870

3    7       +320     Norma Engel                  911 +24 935

4    6       +362     Lina Camilleri                802 +20 822

5    6       +95       Gayle Cameron               810 +10 820

6    6       -11         Carole Eden                    874 +12 886

7    6       -92       Brian Rowe                      (589)    (731)

8    5       +105    Angie Winkler                 565 +35 600

9    5       +79      Eileen Mills                      768 +8 776

10   5      - 49      Mohammed Hegazi        943 -24 919

11   5      -115      Ann Goodwin                   792 -9 783

12   5      -134     Gianna Devcic                 906 -17 889

13   4      +290    Irlande Alfred                  971 -58 913

14   4      +67      Marisa Nuccitelli              770 -27 743

15   3.5   -257     Judith Westwood             762 -29 733

16   3      -444     Mary Mackie                    594 -12 582

17  2.5   -402     Balada Catanchin             632 -31 601

18  0      -787     *Trudy Kennedy              ( 500)

It shows Mohammed winning 5 games. But Mohammed himself claims that he won only 4 games. So, he emails Marj Miller and Martin Waterworth asking them to correct the results. Marj Miller passes the problem on to Carol Johnsen.

On further investigation, it transpires that a loss of Mohammed to Lina Camilleri was mis-recorded as a win for him. So an amendment of the results, declared on Ozscrabble, became necessary.

The problem was: If a proper amendment of the results were to be made, Lina Camilleri would come third. It contradicts what was announced at the presentation, when Norma Engel was publicly declared third and awarded the grand prize of ten bucks. It would also distort the image of the TD, being the infallible Carol Johnsen. So, how could we solve the problem?

Easy … Piece o’cake …Rig the results. Change Mohammed from 5 wins to 4, which is a correct change. Keep Lina on 6 wins rather than 7, which is wrong because she won an extra game against Mohammed. Elevate Eileen Mills from 5 wins to 6, which is ridiculous because she is not involved in the single error of mis-recording the game between Mohammed and Lina. But changing the results of Eileen would trigger a chain reaction. More changes have to be made. How did the ingenious CJ get over this hurdle is beyond my cognitive skill!

The final declared results were:

1	Gillian Renwick	9	670	974	+5	1030
2	Elize Plaganyi	8	303	803	+6	870
3	Norma Engel	7	320	911	+2	935
4	Lina Camilleri	6	362	802	+2	822
5	Eileen Mills	6	109	768	+2	796
6	Gayle Cameron	6	95	810	+1	820
7	Carole Eden	6	-11	874	+1	886
8	Brian Rowe	6	-92	589	)	731
9	Angie Winkler	5	105	565	+3	600
10	Ann Goodwin	5	-115	792	-	783
11	Gianna Devcic	5	-134	906	-1	889
12	Irlande Alfred	4	290	971	-5	913
13	Marisa Nuccitelli	4	67	770	-2	743
14	Mohammed Hegazi	4	-79	943	-4	899
15	Judith Westwood	3.5	-257	762	-2	733
16	Mary Mackie	3	-444	594	-1	583
17	Balada Catanchin	2.5	-402	632	-3	601
18	Trudy Kennedy	0	-787			500

This anecdote reminds me of a TD in NSW. He changed a win for me to a loss on purpose. It was a game about lunchtime. I did not take much notice of my wins count as the tournament progressed, but I discovered the mistake a couple of days later. I was told that it was too late to correct the error, and that the onus was on me to alert the TD on the day. There was strong corroborating evidence that the guy’s mistake was not exactly an innocent error. So I emailed a third party in NSW telling them that their TD ‘was more fit for the job of a second-hand car salesman, since he would be capable of selling more lemons than all the greengrocers in Sydney.’ I have never been to any tournaments in NSW since.