So you fancy playing Scrabble outside your normal circle of opponents?
In the UK, when a survey was conducted in the early 1990's, 53% of homes owned a Scrabble set. Other research has shown that a home owning a Scrabble set will use it approximately 8 times a year. This means that, in the UK alone, close to 100 million Scrabble games are played every year.
A huge majority of these games are played in social gatherings of friends or family. Very often the same pair or group of people play each other game after game. There are many stories of husbands and wives who play each other every night of the year, one imagines that these games can become very highly charged.
An intrepid few actually get bored with playing the same opponent all the time and join a Scrabble Club. Approximately 500 million people speak English and in the English speaking Scrabble world there are about 1000 Scrabble clubs and 40,000 regular club players, a list of Scrabble contacts for the English Scrabble playing nations appears at the bottom of this article. I'm now going to concentrate on the UK which is the country I know best but the set-ups in most other English speaking countries are similar.
In the UK there are around 330 Scrabble Clubs. They cover the whole country, from the Isle of Wight to the Shetland Isles and from Penzance to Lowestoft. The standard of play varies considerably both within clubs and from club to club. Any individual wandering in for the first time is assured of a warm welcome and unlikely to find themselves the worst in a club, and even less likely to be the best!
The total of 330 clubs means there are about 5,500 regular club players. However only about 25% of these ever graduate to playing in tournaments. There are 2 main types of tournaments - friendly and rated, which is not to say that the atmosphere at rated tournaments is not friendly!
Friendly tournaments are still competitive and are typically arranged by the larger clubs or by hotel groups, those not at hotels tend to be one day events with 3-5 games of Scrabble. Rated events come under the auspices of the Association of British Scrabble Players. There are 60-70 of these tournaments a year and the result of each game is processed by a Ratings Officer using a system originated by the British Chess Federation. The top player in the country will be rated around 200 and tournament beginners will generally be under 120. The tournaments themselves will vary from one day - 5 games (the minimum) to weekend events - typically 12/13 games and even longer events.
Tournaments are split into divisions based on rating and those competing for the first time will generally find themselves placed in a lower division where the expectations are not too high. You shouldn't be dissuaded from playing through undue modesty over your ability, competitive players come in all shapes and sizes - with regards to brain capacity chiefly as well as physical appearance.
The weekend events tend to include accommodation and sometimes even social events in the evening. The atmosphere is serious whilst the games are being played and often lively afterwards.
In most years there is a National Championship, the title - National Championship is controlled by the proprietary company - Mattel and often organised by them. The National Championships are played to a very high standard and the top players have estimated that they know up to 75% of the 143,000 words to be found in the British word source - Official Scrabble Words.
Biennially, in every odd year, there is a World Championship, and these are staged in rotation by the North American owners of the game - Hasbro and the owners everywhere else - Mattel. The last World Championships were held in Melbourne, Australia in November 1999 with Canadian music professor - Joel Wapnick winning the final after 28 hard fought games.
If you enjoy playing Scrabble competitively give it a go, it may change your life. I met my wife at a Scrabble tournament!
- Philip Nelkon
List of Contacts
UK
Scrabble Clubs (UK)
Mattel House, Vanwall Business Park, Vanwall Road, Maidenhead, Berks. SL6 4UB, England
scrabbleuk@mattel.com
Association of British Scrabble Players
12 Northfield Terrace, Edinburgh, Lothian EH8 7PX
amybyrne@nevik34.freeserve.co.uk
OTHERS
Australia
Lesley Mack, P.O. Box 405, Bentleigh 3204, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
lesleymack@hotmail.com
Bahrain
Mr Roy Kietzman, Bahrain Scrabble League, PO Box 10721, Manama, BAHRAIN
Canada
NSA, Williams & Company, Box 700 Front Street Garden, Greenport, NY 11944, USA
info@scrabble-assoc.com
Ghana
C.M.Placca, Scrabble Association of Ghana, P.O.Box 1684, Accra, GHANA
kamer@ghana.com
Guyana
Ulric Harris, Guyana Association of Scrabble Players, c/o 2799 South Ruimveldt Park, Georgetown, GUYANA
India
Mohan Chunkath, T-5/2, Kaveri Salai, Besant Nagar Extension, Chennai 600090, INDIA
mchunkat@md2.vsnl.net.in
Israel
Mr Sam Orbaum, c/o The Jerusalem Post, PO Box 81
Romena, Jerusalem 91000, ISRAEL
orbaum@netvision.net.il
Japan
Ken Nakai, 6-10-1 Honcho, Nakano-Ku, Tokyo, 164-0012 JAPAN
Kenya
Dixon Assesa, KASA, P.O.Box 21908, Nairobi, KENYA
Kuwait
Mrs. Reshma Rahman, Operations Dept, K.A.C., PO Box 394, SAFAT, 13004, KUWAIT
Malaysia
Brother Michael Wong, Malaysian Scrabble Association, Parkroyal Hotel, Jalan Sultan Ismail, 50250 Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
Malta
Mr Mario Seychell, Malta Scrabble Club, 36 Triq G Borg Olivier, Rabat RBT 02, MALTA
jfmicallef@megabyte.net
New Zealand
Glennis Hale, NZASP, 21 Florence Daly Place, Hillsborough, Auckland 4, NEW ZEALAND
Nigeria
Uche Onwumeh, Scrabble Association of Nigeria, PO Box 1430, Yaba, Lagos, NIGERIA
Oman
Louis Fernandes, P.O. Box 1727, Seeb 111, Muscat, OMAN
Pakistan
Nadeem Omar, Pakistan Scrabble Association, Beach Luxury Hotel, Maluvi Tamizzudin Khan Road, Karachi - 0227, PAKISTAN
Philippines
Eduardo Hernandez, Philippine Scrabble League, PO Box 1084, MCC Makati, PHILLIPINES
Saudi Arabia
Abdul Majeed Khan, PO Box 3266, Riyadh 11471, SAUDI ARABIA
Seychelles
Michael Holmes, Seychelles Scrabble Association, c/o PO Box 56, Victoria, Mahe, SEYCHELLES
Singapore
Piang Lam, Block 129, Kim Tian Road,, # 03-139, SINGAPORE 160129
South Africa
Steven Gruzd, SANSPA - The South African National Scrabble® Players' Association, 108 Troon Gardens, Atherstone Road, Illovo, 2196 Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA
steven@cde.org.za
Sri Lanka
Ms Shaila M Amalean, Scrabble League of Sri Lanka, 46a Skelton Road, Columbo 5, SRI LANKA
Thailand
Mr Amnuay Ploysnaghbam, Thailand Scrabble Club, 645/1 Petchburi Road, Payathai, Bangkok 70406, THAILAND
Trinidad
The Secretary, c/o Leslie Charles, Trinidad & Tobago Scrabble Ass., #1 Fourth Street West, Beaulieu Avenue, Trincity, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
UAE
Arvind Abraham, P.O. Box 1817, Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Uganda
Francisco Kyelele, Uganda Scrabble Association, P.O.Box 294, Kampala, UGANDA
USA
NSA, Williams & Company, Box 700 Front Street Garden, Greenport, NY 11944, USA
info@scrabble-assoc.com
Zambia
Paul Kalumba, Zamcell Zambia Limited, Zamcell Hse, Nyerere Rd,
P.O. Box 320001, Woodlands, Lusaka, ZAMBIA
kalumba@consultant.com
