Every Tuesday, at 10am, about six keen players meet in the lower room at Oatley RSL Club for 4 or 5 social games. But on Tuesday 15th July, things heated up a bit. As well as the Oatley regulars, a total of 26 players, including 14 YASPA youth players, 3 players from interstate as well as parents, grandparents, siblings and supporters. This was the 17th tournament of the OITOO* format, and YASPA’s first supported tournament. The young players ranged in age from 6 to 16 and were divided into 3 age categories for the purpose of trophies - but all players, including the adults, were in the same “division” - meaning that any player could play any other player. The rationale behind this approach is to allow the children to be matched with experienced players, and to also give the older players a chance to verse children, and to pass on their tips, and in some cases, pass on some ratings points. Thanks to the AJSC, we welcomed three new young players to the open tournament scene, Ryan, Rose and Karam. It was also great to see Sam who flew in from Canberra, supported by his grandmother. Karen Richards, the CASPA Australian Youth Coach, who ran a WYSC coaching session the day before, also played. In Round 1, Josie Mally set a high bar with a 99 point high word. Josie looked strong to win the high word prize going into the final round. Then there was flurry of high word activity with Brendan cracking the 100 mark, but not to be outdone, Kelvin reported scoring 113 for a nicely placed QUATRES. The tournament concluded with a rather irregular Mystery Words announcement - done with a live phone link to ASPA NSW committee member Chris O who made the words up on the spot, including one word that was a phoney. The other 3 were fine (TORNADOS, WINDOWS and FOLIO), but no one played these words, so the prize jackpots. Some acknowledgements: Thanks to Oatley RSL for the venue, Oatley Scrabble Club for allowing us to take over for a day, ASPA ACT and Karen for bringing clocks, YASPA committee members, Tisa Ng, Danny Evers and Aaron Korn for assistance on the day, and thanks to everyone who pitched in to allow us to run the 6 game tournament efficiently within the planned timeframe.