Recapping the 5th annual Hood River Open
This past weekend, 20 players descended on Panorama Lodge for the fifth annual Hood River Open. Some things have remained constant, like the spectacular mountain views, charming log cabin, and warm outdoor fire pit. Other elements have changed over the years, including the composition of the field (we had six first-time players this year), the evolution of the snack table (more hummus and fruit and special goodies), and the location of the microwave (it’s no longer on the porch!).
Friday’s adventures began with local Portland player Peter Armstrong living up to his surname by extracting a stuck Costco cart full of groceries from a parking lot grate. Once we all got to Hood River, we enjoyed a tasty local dinner at Pfriem Family Brewers. At the lodge, the usual welcome banner greeted players with an ever-longer string of photos from past tournaments.
The weekend’s dessert menu began with fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie brownie bites. Several players brought goodies to share - everything from moon pies, gummy candies, mochi, cookies, and fancy chocolate to duck prosciutto and gourmet bagels. Christopher Grubb brought a spiraling anagram puzzle poster. (Check out his website at anagrams.site for more!)
Randi Goldberg donated the most popular treat of all - an adult mystery gift bag. We awarded this special treat to the player who played the best 9-letter word, as judged by input from players and director discretion. The competition for this prize was fierce, as the players played a whopping fifteen 9-letter words during the tournament. Notably, Dave Wiegand as Dr. Bing played four of them and Alec Sjöholm played three. In the end, Cecilia Le took home this highly coveted prize with her play of INSURANCE for 90 points.
The first two days of the tournament held few surprises, with Dr. Bing and Conrad Bassett-Bouchard in the lead round after round. Toward the end, though, Rob Robinsky - fresh off his Crescent City Cup victory - started to sneak past Dr. Bing in the standings. We played a full round robin and the tournament came down to the last game, with Conrad playing a final showdown against Rob. In the end, Rob won the game and the tournament to become the fifth Hood River champion, with a record of 16-4, +590. Conrad finished in second place (15-5, +662), Dr. Bing in third place (14-6, +1110), and Kate Fukawa-Connelly in fourth place (13-7, +582). We were particularly thrilled to see Kate do so well after a break from tournament play. She’s the first woman to ever cash at Hood River! Chris Tallman clinched the class prize with his record of 9-11, +194. The somewhat silly prize given to the player with the record closest to even went to Christopher Grubb, with a 10-10, -28 record.
Our winners all took home personalized wood-burned plaques. Every player received a hand-carved wood keepsake depicting the lodge on one side and their first initial on the other. After a short awards ceremony and group photo on the outdoor patio, we went into town for a pizza lunch at Double Mountain. Half the group then went home while the other half stayed a fourth night at the lodge.
Hood River historically has had very few director calls given how seasoned the players are. One unusual call occurred when a player reached into a pocket for a hanky and was surprised to find a stray O tile resting within the hanky. The player claimed to have no knowledge of how the tile ended up there, and as supporting evidence noted that they would never want to squirrel away an O tile. We agreed.
Scrabble wasn’t the only tournament in the lodge this weekend. A subset of players enjoyed a mini chess tournament. Perhaps next year we’ll take up a suggestion we heard to give a prize to the person who plays the most different games during the weekend. In addition to chess and Scrabble, there were games of anagrams, Wingspan, Codenames, Fry Your Brain, So Clover, Settlers of Catan, and Cards Against Humanity.
Logistically, this was the most difficult house tournament we’ve run yet. We had several late drop-outs and additions, which meant we had to rerun pairings and reprint scorecards right before traveling to Hood River. (Each year, we create special scorecards for the players. To know why they’re special, you’ll just have to come to the next Hood River!) We offer special thanks to Becky Dyer for all her help with the scorecards, and to Rob and Gunther Jacobi for jumping in last minute to fill in for dropouts and keep the event even at 20 players.
This style of tournament is a lot of work, and we simply can’t run these events without help from everyone. Thanks to all the players who drove carpools and ferried players to and from the airport, washed dishes, brought treats to share, took out the trash, cleaned up the kitchen, did emergency grocery runs, set up tables, and otherwise made this weekend’s tournament possible. We’re relieved to have pulled off another successful Hood River, and look forward to hosting the beach version of this event only three months from now on the Oregon Coast. In the meantime, check out the results and photo gallery from this year’s Hood River.
