 | Florence C-L I'm assuming not, but worth checking... Does Y count as a vowel or a consonant, or both? |
 | Dave Kempshall Y is a consonant :) |
Notes from the organizer: Three rounds down and we have an unsurprising sort of leaderboard with defending champion Tom C (434) and all-time great Zohaib R (442) sitting at the top.
Zohaib and Martin T posted a new record score for Start At The End with 142 usurping Florence’s previous best of 140. That helped Martin (408) sit 3rd with Harry FL (406) in 4th. Past winners Florence CL (405) and Matthew T (400) are the only other players over 400.
Tournament specialists, Richard Decker and Mike Lee, follow closely behind.
All to play for and three new rounds to get your teeth into.
Full leaderboard - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GbMgZiPM3Sf8HcUqhsfy3L4Fz4AQ_BTb/edit?gid=818273497#gid=818273497&range=A1:O1
For the first time this year we move away from Touch and onto a Goat Attack. The aim of Round 4 is to alternate vowels and consonants in your words.
Every word you declare should follow a sequence of VCVCV… or CVCV… Declaring a word that doesn’t follow this format means that word will be discounted from your game score and a 10 point penalty given. Equally, declaring a word of 3 or fewer letters will suffer the same fate.
A 5 point bonus is on offer for anyone successfully declaring exactly 10 valid and qualifying words beginning with a vowel, and 10 with a consonant.
A second 5 point bonus is on offer for anyone declaring a valid palindrome following the vowel / consonant sequence (which would naturally be of 5, 7 or 9 or letters).
Here’s an example game:
1. UNIT
2. EMIT
3. FAVELA
4. GAMETE
5. LOT (Only 3 letters, no score and 10 point penalty)
6. TOTALISE
7. RELATIVE
8. RADAR (5 point palindrome bonus)
9. BASIC
10. LEVEL (No bonus for palindrome as already gained for RADAR)
11. IRIS
12. ORAL
13. OVER
14. OVEN
15. DEFINED
16. RECOVER
17. ONLY (Doesn’t follow VCVC format, no score and 10 point penalty)
18. ORES
19. IVES
20. ANAL
Game score: 78 (includes +5 point palindrome bonus, while I did declare 10 starting with vowel and 10 with consonant, no bonus is given as 2 words were invalid).
Our all-time record holder for Alternate Reality is Dave Robjohns with a score of 133 in 2024.
Good luck!
Runs from: 9 – 15 November 2026. Format: Goat Attack. Matches: One-off. Level scores: Tie-breakers played. Approved.
Matches: 54. Completed: 2.
Fixtures: 54. Played: 2. Unplayed: 52.
Fixtures: 54. Played: 2. Unplayed: 52.
Key. Green: winner. Red: loser.
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