Sawatdee Khrap!

And welcome to a new feature for Crossword game fans in Thailand. For each edition of the newsletter and the website I shall be writing in English on a topic related to the greatest game in the world. Hopefully, it will help students learn more English and learn more about Crossword game at the same time. There will also be a competition each time with a prize for the winner.

This week I would like to give a personal review of the 22nd Brands’ King’s Cup that was played at the end of June. Undoubtedly this year was the grandest and most professionally organized of all! The foreign participants were stunned with the high level of planning and attention to detail at what is recognized as the leading Crossword Game event in the world for students (not to forget all the other competitions too). The venue of the Royal Paragon Hall was fabulous and it was great that so many people could be accommodated in both the hall and immediately outside but not be cramped as in some years. The Open division playing area meant the players from overseas were relaxed and felt appreciated. The opening ceremonies were brilliantly coordinated and it was wonderful to see the patronage of the Thai Royal Family once again. Khun Amnuay and his team certainly created the greatest tournament ever!

I had trained very hard for this tournament in two new ways for me. I focused on two areas to improve my chances – physical fitness and subliminal learning. Let me explain. I have been trying my hardest for years to win this championship and though I have achieved many top ten finishes I have yet to enter the final or win. So this year I tried a different approach. From March onwards I decided to lose weight and improve my physical fitness to help with my mental stamina at tournaments. I bought a bicycle and exercised by riding on the roof of my condo. Unfortunately the guard chased me off after a few weeks as some people complained about the noise! Undaunted I began to cycle to and from my school in Don Muang. This was a bit dangerous (a 27km round journey in the traffic) so I bought an exercise bike for my spare bedroom. I did 30 minutes of high aerobic cycling every day and lost 10 kilos in three months and felt great! But it was what I did while I was cycling that made a further difference. In February I realized that while I knew quite a lot of the SOWPODS dictionary I was not sure enough of much of the vocabulary to use it in games. So I decided to record myself speaking the 5000 most high probability 7 and 8 letter bingos and other words such as hooks on threes and fours and fives, JQXZ words and some other likely or interesting vocabulary. The total time on the tapes was four and a half hours. So for hour after hour I listened to myself while I pedaled to fitness. After about a hundred hours of this repetitive listening I got to be really sure of the vocabulary so that in my very first game I was able to play the word AGUACATE (actually a new OSPD word too) with absolute confidence. So rather than just reading the dictionary or lists why not try this yourself – you can make it more fun by testing yourself on the tapes by speaking a jumbled rack, delaying before giving the answer. And don’t forget to keep physically fit and chose the correct diet as this is very important in all sports.

In the tournament I was on table one or two almost the whole way but it was my game against Nigel Richards before lunch on the Sunday that was pivotal. He led by 148 after two moves but I managed to catch up and go ahead near the end of the game. An amazing thing happened at the end. Nigel was thinking long and hard about his final move to win. In the end he played RECTO to beat me by 16 points but immediately after he had shaken my hand the great man got up and checked an item of vocabulary on the computer, something that you will hardly ever see him do. He told me that he was just about to play RECOT, a phony word that would have lost him the game! Now that would have been something – to beat Nigel on a word error from him! But it was not to be and I lost four of the last five games to be 9th. I was very disappointed but felt I had done my very best this year and got to a new level of play.

Now for this edition’s competition: everyone knows that the Crossword Game bag has 100 letters including the blanks and there are 12 Es etcetera. Your job is to come up with a sentence that uses all the letters in the bag (including the blanks if you like but better not to) that has a meaning and makes sense. Here is an example to give you the idea:

ENGLAND ROARED FOR BLUE OR WHITE JULY OF SIXTY ONE. I WAS BORN AS MEGA QUICK CREATIVE TOTTENHAM ZAPPED LEAGUE DIVISION I.

This is about me. I come from England and my football team, Tottenham, who play in blue and white won (zapped) the old first division title just before I was born in July of 1961 with a really quick and creative style of play! You could choose to create a sentence about yourself, your king or country or anything you choose so long as it makes sense. Why not get together with your friends. I will award a prize to the person or persons who come up with

Good Luck and see you next time!

Sawatdee Khrap!