Author: Rob Askew

El Prez blitzes SmartAss

There were only 5 of us at the September meet at Illawong.  Gill– still coming to grips with being a new mum, missed one of her faves, Genelle was still rambling over the gentle green hills of England, and Jordan was a bit overwhelmed with work commitments.  The reduced attendance was the main factor in making the game of SmartAss unusually quick – so much so that we were able to fit in three games before starting Pass The Pigs.  The first two of those games were won convincingly by none other than El Prez, proving he was the Smartest Ass of the night.  He garnered the main game victory, and the 100 points have very handily pushed him two steps up the ladder, overtaking Gill and Jordan who are now tied at the Spoon position.  El Trez came 2nd in both games, and the 75 points have increased his cometition lead by 60 points.  Mark‘s 25 points for 3rd place in Ass Have pushed him up to be tied with Genelle at 4th on the ladder.  In Pass The Pigs Our host Louise had a gutsy win and Tara came 3rd after an unpromising start. Those points have pushed Louise to overtake Tara, but by only the slimmest of margins, just 5 points.  Excluding absentees, there were no WHP victims.  Thanks Louise for the lovely cups of tea or coffee in those attractive mugs.

Tara wins Sherlock

On a cold night at Macquarie Park there were just six of us to battle it out – Wayne was absent due to theatrical rehearsals, and Gill is occupied with her new baby.  Our host Genelle was packed and ready to depart on her epic holiday, part of which involves walking about 300km across England!  There were two main changes of position after this meet – Tara has overtaken Louise to sit only 25 points behind the lead, and Genelle has overtaken Mark, but only by 25 points. Jordan has caught up and tied with Gill.

Sherlock Holmes was a fairly close game with only 23 and 31 points separating the placegetters. Tara took the lead early by taking a punt on Rob harbouring a villain and making an arrest, only to discover to her delight he was sheltering two of them.  She came unstuck in the last round with the worst score of the game so far – 110 points, but was far enough ahead to win anyway.  Louise, although liking this game, still has trouble holding in her head all the info about what each card does and finds herself reading the rules almost continuously. She was going to pick it for a second consecutive month (she’s the next host) in order to familiarise herself with it more effectively, but this won’t happen because it has now already been played twice in 2018.  Jordan although new to the game picked it up quite well and came 3rd – well done.

The backup – still unsure if it’s pronounced “Digit” or “Dig it” – was challenging, there was lots of hard thinking going on.  When time was up it was apparent that there was a 3-way tie for first place!  Unable to figure out how to arrange a digit-off to break the tie, mainly because there’s a distinct advantage to having first turn, we resorted to drawing numbered tiles from another game – that’s how all the backup placings were determined.  The only WHP tonight was Mark who played consistently through both games, but luck eluded him.  He showed off his new Lexus on the way out, very nice, practically drives itself, so although he WHP, at least he WH in great comfort.

Smart Ass and Fun with the Bomb

We gathered at Tara‘s for this meet and met her new family addition Luka, a little cutie. Congrats to the Spence crowd from all of us.  Gill was absent as she has just delivered her bundle of joy, Lincoln, born on July 4 – Congrats to the Wilsons!

Smart Ass was anyone’s game at the end – Louise sped off and beat everyone to the end zone, but was caught up by Rob after he spent the first 3/4 of the game loitering around the first quadrant. It could have gone either way, but Rob made it to the donkey’s bottom first.  Louise soon followed, then it was a hard fought battle for third place with Genelle taking the 25 points. Poor El Prez never made it past the first quarter of the track due to the luck of the dice making him repeatedly land on “kick ass” (move backwards 3).

Pass the Bomb was a laugh a minute from the beginnning, and was won in fine style by Mark who didn’t take a single blast. He credits some of his success to sitting downstream from El Prez who amassed an impressive collection of bomb blasts by having his words rejected, querying the decisions, and having the bomb go off in mid discussion. Louise was plagued by mental blocks – she claimed she was too tired. Second and third placings were determined by a tie breaker bomb-off betwen Tara and Genelle.

Jordan, who turned up straight from work looking very dapper, unfortunately WHP, as did Thomas senior.  So now Rob has regained the top spot, but only by 35 points, easily within reach of being overtaken again by Louise or Tara.  We’ll see.

This news item comes to you from the pencil of El Presidente himself – your editor being out of the country for the June meet.