The first game had hardly got underway when the old yakimeshi set appeared in front of The Poor Little Cypriot who then got clobbered by Noda a couple of times at the table. Jaime received similar treatment at Noda’s hands but the result was not too serious as the English party finished on -15 each.
However, it was a clear signal that Noda was back in business. He finished above zero in all four games tonight, and top in two of them to come top overall for the evening. Noda advances to second place (again) on the Grand Accumulated Points Chart.
Hide joined in the second game but tonight his impact on the game was quite different from last week’s barnstorming intervention. Tonight it was more a case of Hide “bringing the duck and the onions” for the stew pot (as the quaint Japanese saying goes) –
kamo mo, negi mo…Hide came bottom in all three games that he played and seemed unable to complete a hand or was pipped to the post by one of the other players. Twice in the evening Noda, Jaime and Hide all declared Riichi, and both times it was Jaime who won the hand.
When Hide went out on David’s discard at the beginning of David’s turn as Oya it was for a mere 1,000 points.
David had digested his dinner in good time for the second and Mama’s yakimeshi proved particularly invigorating tonight as he took the second game.
We did Noda’s special tile choosing routing to reallocate seats and the result was that Jaime and Noda changed places, so Hide was stuck in the disaster area. However, although Jaime faired better in Noda’s original seat, Noda took most of his luck with him and added an extra sixty two points to his total in what had been Jaime’s seat.
Jaime was still hoping to break even as last Oya for the evening and had won a couple of hands when David suddenly took the 9-Bamboo off him for a 2 Dragon, Chanta hand for Mangan or 11,000 points including table bonuses, which was enough for David to nick top spot in the game from Noda, and also to consign Jaime to the red on the Grand Accumulated Results Table.
Noda +30, +2, +49, +13 = +94
David -15, +58, -14, +38 = +67
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Jaime -15, -26, +11, -9 = -39
Hide –, -34, -46, -44 = -122
David Hurley
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