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Back to 2010 King's Cup Live Coverage

2010 King's Cup Commentary: Final Round 2

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Go to: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Final Round 1, Final Round 2.

After about a ten-minute break, the players reconvene. It's Pakorn's turn to start, and if he loses this game, David will start the last.

Pakorn Nemitrmansuk's (THA) first rack is EGIOORU and he dithers for five minutes between playing or trading, settling eventually on keeping EIR. David Eldar (AUS) has AGINNTT on his rack and no bingoes, so he trades NT.

Pakorn's fish didn't work too well; he has DEEIQRT, and of course plays QI. David bingoes OVATING# beneath it and is ahead 79-22 for a second or two, until Pakorn gets down ERADIATE through the A. David spends a few minutes with CGLSTWZ before settling on CLEW (18) rather than the more obvious CAZ (34).

Pakorn has EEEFNOO and plays FOE (11), David replies from AGMNSTZ with the beautiful ZAMANG# (40). Pakorn spends a while considering FOE parallel to FOE, making EFF, OO#, EE#, just to be cute, but plays it under ZA- instead. David is sitting with DIIRSTU on his rack and balances it with FRUIT (24).

Pakorn makes MOPANE#/FOE-N# (33) keeping U. David plays WUD (28) keeping DIST. The score is 189-173 in David's favour. This game is getting mired in garbage racks.

Pakorn's next rack, for example - BEEJOUY - what can you do with that? If you're Pakorn, you can score 42 points for FRUIT-Y/YEBO at 12a, keeping JEU. David has DINPRST and makes PRINTS/ZAMANG-S# for 46 and is ahead now by 20.

Pakorn plays JIVE through the I in PRINTS keeping ENRU, giving David a place to play BODIKIN# hooking JIVE-D for 94 and a 329-241 lead. It's not looking good for Pakorn.

Pakorn has CEINRUX though, which he balances by playing XU for 52. David's post-bingo draw is AEELOST, which turns into 10i OLEATES (64) and 393-293 for him, and David is sitting pretty.

Pakorn has CEINRST. Have you been reading carefully? In the time that it took you to read this sentence, Pakorn slaps down CISTERNS o8 (149) to take a 442-392 lead and David deflates. He has AAAEGLL with ADEHHIORRSUY?? unseen. How many blanks did Pakorn just draw? There's a 16% chance he drew none. Does David feel lucky? No. After several minutes, he half-heartedly plays GALATEAL*, which comes off the board. He offers his hand to Pakorn, acknowledging the inevitability of defeat, and they spend a couple of minutes bantering before returning to the game.

Pakorn has in fact drawn both blanks and DEHRY, with any number of bingoes to play. He settles on HYdRiDE (97), because he's sure it's good. David replies with m9 AT (3), because he jokes he likes the word HAT and wants to set it up.

Pakorn obliges with BODIKINS#/SOH#/HAT keeping AIRU. David plays HATAL*, a hypothetical adjectival form of HAT. It comes right off the board.

Pakorn brings the game to and end with KAURI, he has successfully defended his title with an explosive 590-396 finish, will collect US$10,000 for his efforts, and his name will be engraved on the trophy again. David will collect THB 120,000 (about US$3,700).

Congratulations to both, and thanks to Amnuay and the staff for successfully producing the amazing game in the entire world of crossword games.