The bi-monthly magazine of the ASSOCIATION OF BRITISH SCRABBLE PLAYERS

No 106 February 2006

Deadline for next issue 13th March

Collins Update There is an important announcement regarding the status of the adoption of the Collins Dictionary on page6by the ABSP Dictionary Committee.

The world is not enough! As promised last time, this issue contains a report of the World Scrabble Championship which took place in November in London. We didn'tget a lot of photos sent to us though, but we have included one in a new feature entitled - The Big Picture!

Fantasy Scrabble is back! Now before you get your hopes up, this is not choosing which players you would like to see posing Caldendar Girl-esque, but a competition to see if you can guess who is going to begood at playing Scrabble this year. Check out pages 22 and 23 for rules and details of how to enter.

The end of an era There seems to be have been a lot obituaries feature in TLW recently and we have two more this issue I am sad to say. Catherine Schwarz, responsible for getting us the first Official Scrabble Words and Lists published by Chambers sadly died in December. We also bid farewell to Vernon Draper, a regular on the tournament scene until ill health took its toll. On a brighter note, two of our Scrabblers are celebrating births see page 38 to find out who!

Catherine Schwartz adjudicates at the NSC in 2000

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark of j.W.Spear & Sons Ltd., Maidenhead SL6 4UB ISSUE CONTENTS

Committee Corner 1 Ratings 16 2005 ABSP Awards 2 Fantasy Scrabble 22 Worlds & Masters Qualification .. 3 Edgeways 24 ABSP Titles Update 4 Across the Board 30 Obituary - Catherine Schwarz .... 5 Scrabble Baby Boom! 38 Collins Update 6 The Big Picture 39 Durham Remembered (well sort of!) 8 Forthcoming Events 40 Tournament Reports 9 Edgeways Answers ibc World Scrabble Championship 12 Calendar of Events obc

Throughout this publication, comments by the Editor do not represent the views ofthe ABSP Committee. Any statements by the Committee are clearly marked as such. All other contributions to The Last Word represent only the views ofthe contributor.

THE LAST WORD TEAM The Last Words Team welcomes contributions from readers to their respective areas, either as letters, articles or suggestions. Contact information:

General Editors Games and Strategies: Words and Puzzles: Phil Appleby, David Sutton Ben Wilson Thorns Cottage, 46 West Chiltern, (odd- numbered issues) Mount Pleasant Lane, Woodcote, Lymington, Reading, Berks Wayne Kelly Hants SO41 8LS RG8 OSG (even-numbered issues) [email protected] David.) .Sutton® ukgaleway. net

Editorial Contact: Forthcoming events: Elisabeth lardine Paul Cartman, 6 Wentworth Avenue 9 Chapel Terrace, Bourenmouth BH5 2ED Stafford ST16 3AH 01202 419 708 01785 211851 elisabeth.jardine©virgin.net paul.cartmanWbtinternet.com

14 Dale View Rd Nottingham NG3 7AJ tilefish 0115 841 5179 www.tilefish.co.uk all tfattn ScrutMUe tteecU, Up

Amy Byrne Goody Bag Winners! Darryl Francis was first out of the hat and so also receives "a special bonus"! Marjorie Garrett Angela Evans Graham Wakefield Jean Rappitt Austin Shin Priscilla Munday Peter Gall Margaret Irons Joanne Hiley Margaret Coleman Pat Wheeler Dorothy Edwards Denise Saxton Christabel Jackson Lewis Mackay Etta Alexander Bob Lynn Leonora Hutton Janice Bease 2005 ABSP AWARDS

This information supplied courtesy of John Crayson, ABSP ratings officer

Highest Rated Player 2005

Harshan Lamabadusuriya(Exp) is the highest rated player (201) at the end of 2005 with at least 30 rated games in 2005. Adam Logan's rating is higher, but he played only 26 games in 2005, 4 short of the minimum needed. Harshan will receive the trophy at a mutually convenient time.

Most improved player 2005

The following fulfilled the criteria on being ABSP members, an end-2004 Rating based on a total of atleast 30 games, and 30 games in 2005. The Committee has vettedthe awardees and removed any player who is a fluctuator as opposed to an improver. Congratulations to Jason Goddard who, witha superb rise of +36, receives the ABSP Most Improved Player shield. All those who achieved an improvement of 20 or more rating points will get free 2006 membership.

A is end-2005 rating: B is improvement: C is membership number: D is total games at 31/12/2004 (min 30): E is games played in 2005 (min 30) A B C D E 128 +36 1305 Jason Goddard 31 104 151 +29 1279 Ben Wilson 37 83 162 +25 1057 Mike Whiteoak 100+ 154 134 +25 1273 Peter Winnick 39 99 133 +23 1136 Ted Lewis 100+ 177 85 +23 1253 Philip Turner 80 83 112 +20 1304 Linda Moir 61 91

These three players also improved by at least 20 points, but didnot meet the criteria: 132 +24 1198Maurice McParland ... too few (16) games end 2004 154 +24 1369 Ben Tarlow ... too few (16) games end 2004 108 +21 Bronagh Kenny.. nonmember

The Terry Hollington Award This award is made ad hoc at the discretion of the Committee and is awarded to any relative newcomer to tournament Scrabble who as has contributed significantly to the ABSP in any way worthy of recognition, in memory of Terry Hollington, who established the ABSP rating system and encouraged new players. At the January Committee meeting there was unanimous support for making the award to David Sutton who has not only made his mark asa respected player but also untiringly provides word-based articles online , in TLW, and now the ABSP website, and has also offered to help with the Collins Initiation Booklet. David - a big thank-you on behalf of the Committee and the ABSP membership. Allan Simmons, Chairman Most games played in 2005 (all shown are ABSP members)

259 Maureen Rayson ; 256 David Shenkin ; 245 )anet Phillips ; 235 Amy Byrne ; 231 Peter Thomas ; 227 Ruby Flood ; 226 Wayne Kelly ; 223 Nuala O'Rourke ; 220 Viv Beckmann

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS & MASTERS QUALIFICATION

ABSP MASTERS QUALIFICATION The ABSP Masters is an invitational tournament for the 16 highest rated ABSP members as of March 31st. It generally follows a round-robin format. Should all 16 players not be available/willing to play, the invitation is extended to players next in line on the March 31st ratings. To qualify a player must have played at least 30 rated games during the 12 months up to and including March 31 st of the qualifying year, and be a member of the ABSP at the time of qualification.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFICATION The World Scrabble Championships (WSO have been held every other year since 1991 and have been organised by Hasbro or Mattel on an alternating basis hitherto. The number of English places allocated as at 2005 is ten, with two of those places being assigned to the winners ofthe previous two Mattel National Scrabble Championships. (Scotland and Wales have their own allocated places and methods of qualification for those places.) Beyond 2005, Mattel have given their two places to the ABSP who have agreed to allocate them as follows: The winner of the BMSC in the year of the WSC The highest rated player on the Rating List at the end of the year preceding the WSC who has not already qualified and who hasplayed sufficient games. In both casesthe players must meet the residency requirements for England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland. The additional eight places for the English contingent are made up ofthetop eight players in the ABSP ratings providing they meet the qualification criteria.

The qualification criteria are: The players must be domiciled in England for the whole of the qualifying year and the preceding year. Players who may have claim to represent more than one nation must confirm to the ABSP at the start of the qualifying year whether they wish to be considered for the English team or not should they meet the relevant criteria. Players musthave played 60 rated games during the qualifying year of which 30 must have been played in the second six months of that year. The qualifying year is that prior to the year of the World Championship event. - JANUARY 2006 I This time last year I nominated four contenders for Grandmaster status. Two of them, Harshan Lamabadusuriya and Neil Scott, have made it. Harshan needed a 190 and put in a superb 200 to give him three 190+ ratings in a five year period. Neil needed a 184 and made it easily with a 192 to give him a five year average of 185+. Congratulations to both and particularly to Neil who has been close many times in the past but has finally done it. We now have 25 UK Grandmasters, four of whom arecurrently resident in Scotland. As I predicted, there are no new Experts this year, so Harshan and Neil's elevation to Grandmaster reduces the total of UK Experts to 29. I have mentioned before that there was once discussion as to whether or not a third higher tier of title was necessary. Though the decision was that it was not, I keep a record for my own amusement of those who would have achieved it. Paul Allen's name can now be added to that truly elite band. On a personal note, I am also delighted to say that if I had not been a GM already, I would have become one this year. Next year throws up a wholebunch of contenders for awards. The only likely candidate for Grandmaster status is Stewart Holden, who needs a 180, but we have six potential Experts waiting in line. In descending order of the target required, they are: Craig Beevers (180), Jared Robinson (176), Austin Shin (175), Barry Grossman (170), Wayne Kelly (168) and Ed Martin (165). Indeed, if Ed feels like aiming high, a 215 would make him a Grandmaster. Good luck to all contenders. As always, please bear in mind that we now count the unweighted rating for all games played in the year for titles purposes and players must play at least 30 games in the year to have a rating registered for that year. If you think I have overlooked your claim for an ABSP title, please let me know. Pete Finley (ABSP Titles Registrar)

OBITUARY - VERNON DRAPER - SHEFFIELD PSALTER SC

I am sorry to have to tell you of the death of my husband, Vernon on 27th November 2005. He had been in deteriorating health since a stroke amd diagnosis of Parkinson's in 1999 and for the last year was in a nursing home. Those of you who remember Vernon from the days when we regularly attended weekend events and the club team competition wilt recall how much he enjoyed his Scrabble, his keenness in competition and his sportsmanship whether winning or losing. Scrabble gave Vernon a huge amount of pleasure. He loved words, anagrams, puzzles and quizzes, andwas happy to play Scrabble anytime, anywhere. He relished participating in the events and especially enjoyed the friendships he made (we both made) through them. My best wishes to you all in what I hope is an ever-growing Scrabble world. Elizabeth Draper OBITUARY - CATHERINE SCHWARTZ January 8,1933 - December 22, 2005 Scottish lexicographer and authority on Scrabble Catherine Schwarz was introduced to lexicography at an early age. Her father was Tom Collocott, an editor at the venerable Scottish publishing firm of Chambers, who went on to become managing director. She later remembered correcting her copy of the Chambers School Dictionary at the age of 10: "I wrote inside my copy: 'Fudge, page 130 — also a confectionery', because the definition was simply 'nonsense'." After graduating with an MA from Edinburgh University in 1953, she joined Chambers asa junior editor. Chambers in those days had a living link to the early 20th century in the shape of the formidable Miss Agnes MacDonald, who had begun as an assistant to the legendary William and Liddell Geddie brothers who themselves began at Chambers in 1914. But for a handful of Miss MacDonalds, publishing in the mid-1950s was still largely a gentleman's business. Schwarz remembered with some satisfaction the male staff returning with sore heads after a golf tournament against Constable's. She met her future husband, Peter Schwarz, through a joint love of early music. She played cello and piano, and sang Dowland lute songs, accompanied by him on the clavichord. They married in 1957 and she worked freelance until 1977, when she returned to Chambers as a lexicographer. She worked on four editions of the Chambers dictionary, and was managing editor of it when she retired in 1993. By then, she had thrown herself enthusiastically into the often fraught world of Scrabble competition. Chambers was the approved Scrabble dictionary, and she took up the demanding role of adjudicator at national Scrabble competitions and championships, becoming in the process one of the leading Scrabble word judges. She was joint adjudicator at the World Scrabble Championship in London in 1991. Her chief contribution to the Scrabble movement was to liaise in the initial production and revisions of Official Scrabble Words and Official Scrabble Lists, the last of which contained more than 400 lists, arcane to all but Scrabble enthusiasts. Her role in building the relationship between Chambers and the world of Scrabble was recently recognised in a Scrabble puzzle in The Daily Telegraph of November 26, which featured her name. The compiler, Allan Simmons, presented her with a handsome, framed collage of the puzzle, thanking her for "everything you've done for the Scrabble movement". "Hands-on" publishers are not invariably appreciative of those who pick up the reins after them, yet Schwarz's successors at Chambers remember her fondly. One senior lexicographer remembered meeting her with "some trepidation", but "in fact she never meddled or expressed disapproval and was always happy to answer queries and contribute as a consultant, usually with a twinkle in her eye". Another colleague remembered her as " sharp-minded, kind and witty". Schwarz, who was also an elder of the Church of Scotland, was found in the autumn to have a brain tumour. She is survived by her husband, Peter, and by their three daughters.

Article taken from The Times, Jan 13 2006 COLLINS OFFICIAL SCRABBLE DICTIONARY ABSP COMMITTEE UPDATE • FEBRUARY 2006 At the January meeting, the ABSP Committee was provided with a detailed report and recommendation from Darryl Francis, chair ofthe WESPA Dictionary Committee*. The key points of the report were: Collins had provided copies of their Official Scrabble Dictionary (COSD) to the Dictionary Committee (DC) in mid-November 2005. The DC had not been given opportunity to check the final list of words prior to publication. Initial examination revealed a variety of errortypes: words omitted, words incorrectly included, incorrect parts-of-speech, incorrect definitions, typos and incorrect page headers. A meeting was held on 24 November with Collins, Mattel and Allan Simmons / Darryl Francis present, to discuss the way forward. Actions were agreed which Collins would undertake, in order to provide additional evidence to the DC that there were not significant volumes of errors in COSD. Collins initially undertook to deliver various error reports by mid-December. A check point conference call on December 21 reviewed the error reports that had been delivered at that point (some remained outstanding). This revealed: Over 100 words from existing Scrabble vocabulary had been omitted from COSD (in addition to the previously agreed deletions). This was at odds with an earlier check against Lexpert in August which had revealed no unintentional deletions. Of the 100+ omissions, over 70 of them were for words beginning with P. About 30 words which had appeared in CED6 hadbeen dropped from CED7, and yet these words had been mis-included in COSD. The DC had been advised that no words would be dropped between CED6 and CED7. Various CED7 words and new parts-of-speech had been omitted from COSD; this includes both "head-words" and inflected forms. The remaining error report (to confirm inclusionof plurals of words with a variety of common endings, eg -ANCY, -ANCIES) was last expected by January 6thbut the DC has had no further news on this report. It was agreed that the essential omissions that have caused COSD to fail the agreed signoff criteria would be included as an appendix in a reprint. The likely timescale for the reprint with appendix was early 2006, though no definite commitment was given by Collins. The DC felt that this was an approach that might be acceptable (with some modifications, eg to ensure internal consistency within COSD), providing that the reprint+appendix is available in a timely fashion, and that the reprint+appendix contents are fully and accurately reflected in Collins Official Scrabble Words (the list version due June 2006) and the adjudication software source. Outside of the 24 November meeting the DC has noted that in COSD a number of definitions and part-of-speech labels are either wrong, poorly researched or inaccurate. These will NOT be corrected in a reprint. Although this is extremely disappointing for the DC, and will reflect badly on Collins, there is little that can be done to address this problem. The current recommendation of the Dictionary Committee is that: (a) the existing COSD (without corrections appendix) does not meet the criteria agreed at the ACM and so should NOT be adopted for use by the ABSP (b) the ABSP should await the reprinted COSD (with corrections appendix) before considering its use for adoption by the ABSP, and (c) the Dictionary Committee should make a further recommendation to the ABSP Committee regarding acceptance (or otherwise) once the reprinted COSD with appendix is available for examination. (Darryl Francis, Chair, WESPA Dictionary Committee - 6 January 2006) The Committee agreed to adopt the recommendation above and so no decision will be made on whether and when to adopt COSD until the DC has signed off a reprint. Work on any initiation booklet and adjudication tool is postponed until a definitive correct word list is available. The status will be reviewed at the March meeting. (Allan Simmons, ABSP Chairman -15 January 2006) * The ABSP Dictionary Committee has henceforth been superseded by the WESPA (World English language Scrabble Players Association) Dictionary Committee, albeit with the same members and Darryl Francis remaining as chair.

EXAMPLES OF ERRORS

A full list of errors is maintained online at www.wespa.org/dictionary/

MISSING WORDS ACCIDENTOLOGIES; BUNDIED BUNDYING; CANAPES; JONGS; OUS; PINKIER PINKIEST; PODAL; PRATTS PRATTED PRATTING; TAPUED TAPUING; TEXTED TEXTING; ZZZ ZZZS. MISINCLUSIONS 2-9 (not in CED7 or other agreed sources) ADULTESE ADULTESES; BEASTOID BEASTOIDS; CHOMA CHOMAS; FLEEIN; PILOTI; POHS,PUHS, PSSTS. MISINCLUSIONS 10-15 (too long) MAGNIFICENTNESSES; MANNERLESSNESSES; METALLOGRAPHISTS DEFINITIONS and PART-OF-SPEECH EUOUAE EVOVAE defined as EUOI FE, FEDS both defined as FEE instead of specific definitions IO defined as a moth (capitalised) insteadof a cry INKJET should be adj only MAE defined as in Mae West instead of'more' PETTI defined as PETTICOAT instead of pi of PETTO Ql > CHI (defined as Greek letter) instead of same as Kl TENURING is not a noun

Darryl adds the following details of further progress between 15 January and 7 February Work continued on the identification of further mis-inclusions in and omissions from COSD, but these had reduced to a small trickle by early February. The Dictionary Committee has agreed with Collins to progress to a reprint of COSD, with omissions being detailed in an appendix, and essential deletions being made from the main body of COSD. A cutoff date of 7 February was agreed - agreed corrections notified to Collins by this date will be in the reprint. Collins began work on the production activities for the reprint after 7 February. The DC is awaiting a final schedulefrom Collins indicating when the reprint will be available. Durham Remembered (well sort ofl) by Barry Grossman At last summer's BMSC, we had the unprecedented situation ofa round being delayed by popular demand because everyone wanted to see the end of the Ashes Test match. Cricket being cricket, not only was the match not finished by the time we did start, it wasn't even finished by the time we finished, but it set me thinking. It reminded me of the very first ABSP tournament (or APSP, as it was then - the Association of Premier Scrabble players, soon changed as it was felt to sound too elitist) in Durham in 1987.

Back then, a lovely guy called Gino Corr, a long-haired, hard-drinking, smoking, gambling Scotsman who had spent most of his working life on the oil rigs - just your stereotypical Scrabble player, really - had requested a round be delayed so we could watch the Grand National. He was refused. But it started me trying to remember some other aspects of that tournament, and how things have changed in the intervening 19 years. Relative newcomers to the tournament scene might be interested in a few of the differences.

To start with, we played what everybody thought was a real marathon session - nine rounds over two days. Nowadays eleven rounds is the minimum and twelve increasingly common. The Nomads squeeze in 18 rounds in two days. Mind you, we did lose a bit of time because we needed a half-hour session at the start to explain to everyone how chess clocks worked, most of us never having used one before (no digital Samlimers in those far-off days).

Having mastered the chess clock and its falling flag, we started to play. Of course, this being the first rated tournament, nobody had a rating. The organisers divided everyone into five groups based on whatever information they had - a strongest group down to a weakest group. But you weren't confined to your own division as you are today - in the first five rounds, you played one person from each group, so some games would have been between an expert and a real just-for-funner or newcomer. Everyone just mucked in together in one big division. After five rounds, the next two rounds were worked out on the Swiss system we use now, but both based on the table after the fifth round, so the 7th round was worked out before the 6th was played. After 7 rounds, the same thing happened, two roundsbeing worked out at a time. This being before the days of having a computer to work out fixtures, there was only time to do so during a meal break,not between every round.

Starts and replies were a bit on the primitive side, too. Everybody had to carry a card around with them, and mark down an S when they started and an R when they replied, in an ever-lengthening string. Before eachgame, you compared your cardwith that of your opponent, and the first move went to whoever had had fewer starts up tothatpoint. If both had started the same number of times, you drew for it. This system resurfaced in the occasional non-computerised tournament until quite recently.

Bringing your own tile-trackers was still far, far in the future. Youhad to start the game with only a blank piece of paper in front of you. If you wanted to write out a tile-tracking sheet, you had to do it while your opponent was playing or on your own time.

But some things haven't changed much. Pete and Laura Finley organised that Durham tournament, as they still do. Everyone complained about the bad tiles they were picking. And I lost my opening game - my first-ever rated game - by 2 points, having led most of the way through, the sort of thing I am distressingly likely to do to this day. That was against Eryl Barker, who is also still on the scene. It says a lot about the game and its players thai so many who took part in that inaugural occasion are still around. What I can't quite recollect is who won, but I bet it was someone who, even in 2006, is a major mover and shaker - Nyman, Nelkon, Sugar, Appleby, someone like that. Anyone remember? (Even the ABSP website doesn't seem to hold the key to this one! - Ed.) Organisers are encouraged to send a list of prize winners and a tournament report to the TLW editor as soon aspossible after the event.

12th November Report from Adrian Noller (Results appeared last issue minus the report) In bright sunshine Luton rattled off their (in my estimate) 11th successive tournament, held for a change in mid-November. Would we have had bright sunshine in June, I wonder. Thank you everybody for being in on time, especially Norma Galley, who had 100 minutes notice to gather herself and roar up from London. We met the ABSP's punctuality requirement by being a mere 90 seconds past the 10.15 advertised start time. Enough of numbers for the moment. The venue, a much more modern school, met with acknowledged approval, although of course the furnishings of a gymnasium did not contribute to a hushed playing area. Partly to avoid the twenty-minute hiatus after the final session, we abandoned the raffle this year, this time inviting trie attendees to drop money into Pasque Hospice collecting boxes that were placed in populated areas. On picking them up for onwards delivery, I was disappointed at the weight of each box. But then fivers don't weigh much, do they.

Luton A Luton B Chris Keeley 5 274 David Shenkin 6 504

George Cruner 5 179 Sharon Landau 5 240 Kevin Synnott 5 120 Paul Ashworth 5 77 Mike Whiteoak - Ratings Prize Philip Aldous - Ratings Prize

Luton C Billericay C lason Coddard 6 458 Adrian Noller 5 413 Stephen Wintle 5 145 Angela Burke 5 267 Peter Bailey 4 439 lessica Pratesi 5 147

|eya Kannan - Ratings Prize Anne Corpe - Ratings Prize

The bare final tables you will see above, but for me it is pleasing to see fresh names on the leader boards (who would want a Chelsea-Arsenal-Man U situation). Chris Keeley from the LSL and Kevin Synott of the Southend SC came good in the A group. Sharon Landau did well enough to come second in the B's.In group C Jason Goddard enjoyed top spot, Steve Wintle started a comeback, and the story of the day suggests bigcongratulations to Peter Bailey, who had asked to be promoted to this group,with a start rating of 100, and scored four wins with a 439 spread. D group gives us another fairy tale, with Jessica Pratesi equallingthe leaders' wins to come in third on spread. And she is yet to enjoy her 10th birthday; a lot more success to come. Contributing to a day of smooth running were the 'professionals', Steve Perry and Jessica's Dad, without whom, etc, etc... Finally, a big thanks to non-player David Wilson, who didso much to take the weight off my shoulders. All I had to do was to accept your applications and shuffle them around a bit to meet divisional requirements and late cancellations; other Organisers will know of the load that David so competently took on.

Manchester Open j 3rd December (6 games) Report by Paul Richards When I had the idea of running of my first Scrabble tournament, December seemed such a long way away but as it drew closer the recurring nightmare of three Sale SC members, myself and more biscuits than we could eat seemed to grow more frequent. Fortunately a very welcome 50 players turned up in Sale eventually for the first of hopefully many Manchester Opens. Linda Moir set the early pace in Division C winning her first four games but was beaten by John Harrison in round 5 to leave them both plus Denise Saxton on 4 wins going into the last round. With Linda losing, John beat Denise in the last round by 25 to give him the Division C win. In Division B, Frank Forster led after round 2 due to a win by 419 over Peter Ashurst. He then faced Andrew Goodwin in the next round, which Andrew won and then just carried on winning, finishing the day with a perfect 6 out of 6. An honourable mention should go to Paul Burton in his first tournament who finished with 5 wins and a provisional rating of 160. The winner's performance in Division A was the most impressive of the day, leading the division after all six games and finishing one and a half games ahead of second place. I'm sure modesty will prevent the editor from printing his own name. (WAYNE KELLY!!!!!! - Ahem - Ed.) However it is a truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession ofa Scrabble tournament must be in want of Players A and B. This time they were passengers of Player C whose car broke down on the M62 about an hour away from the venue. A& B were both in Division A and their opponents expressed a preference for game rather than a 75 point winand a sit out. There is little guidance on the correct procedure for dealing with this situation so pragmatism came into force and they were manually paired, with Players A and B getting half a win each. This enabled the tournament to be started on time and minimised the number of sit-outs. I'm sure there are a number of other views on thecorrect procedure. I must thank the members of Sale SC for all their help on the day, particularly Anne, Dave, Kate and Noel, and Mary Gracie for dropping out when we were odd. Hopefully we will be bigger and better in 2006!

10 Manchester A Manchester B

Wayne Kelly 6 653 Andrew Goodwin 6 670

Joyce Cansfield 4.5 341 Paul Burton 5 136

Karl Khoshnaw 4 378 Frank Forstcr 4 507

Phil Robertshaw 4 331 Kate Boulinot 4 40 Alison Sadler- Ratings Prize Pat Wheeler- Ratings Prize

Manchester C

John Harrison 5 333

Stewart Houten 4 366

Linda Moir 4 256

Denise Saxton 4 154

Kathy Suddick - Ratings Prize Swansea

3rd December (5 games)

Swansea A 1 SwanseaB David Wiliams 5 200 lean Wiliams 4 372

Chris Oavison 4 375 Myra Copleston 4 340

Sue Bowman 4 210 Len Edwards 4 224

Stoke Roohford 10-11 December (12 games)

Stoke Rochford A

(ackie McLeod 9 916

Wayne Kelly 9 665

Barry Grossman 9 466

Stoke Rochford B

David Shenkin 10 419

Peter Ashurst 9 432

Maureen Rayson 8 644

Stoke Rochford C

Christina Pace 9.5 464

Syd Berger 9 575

Mary Morgan 8 506

11 21st January 2006 (6 games) Report from Ian Burn The Barn in Purley on Thames - a fine 18th century building - was again the venue for the 6th West Berks Scrabble Tournament. The day started with most of the 96 participants being at the venue in good time, the one exception arriving just seconds beforethey were removed from the draw. The moral to this story is that if you are running late, then please give theorganiser a call! In the A division, the lead changed hands at almost every round before Di Dennis took the lead after the fifth round and held on to it, taking the title with an unblemished record of 6 wins out of 6. In the B division, it was a similar story with )anet Bonham takingthe lead after the fourth round and holding on with another unblemished 6 out of 6 record. The C division was not quite so clear cut, with Nicola Staunton finally winning on SOS, she having the same spread as JudyYoung. This division was somewhat remarkable in as mush asthere were 4 marriedcouples in a division of 32, some25%. As part of this tournament, a trophy was given to theplayer from one of the three Berkshire clubs who performed best on the day, irrespective of division. The winner of this trophy was David Sutton, a member of the West Berks club. Both this trophy and the trophy for the overall winner of the tournament are perpetual trophies kindly sponsored by Fujitsu Services. Proceeds from all aspects of the tournament enabled the Club to make a donation of £610.87 to the Thames Valley And Chilterns Air Ambulance Trust. They were represented by Ms Jo Hunt, who kindly presented the trophies.

West Berks A West Berks B

Di Dennis 6 507 lanet Bonham 6 237

David Sutton 5 592 Martin Taylor 5 391

Bob Lynn 5 302 Jill Harrison 5 251 Evelyn Wallace - Ratings Prize Judy Monger - Ratings Prize

West Berks C

Nicola Staunton 5 381 (SOS 18)

Judy Young 5 381 (SOS 17)

Tricia Cooper 5 313 Adrian Noller • Ratings Prize

THE WORLD SCRABBLE CHAMPIONSHIP 2005 November 16th - 20th 2005 - London Report from Philip Nelkon Unfortunately the World Championships only comes around once every 2 years. There's a gruelling amount of preparation but once the Opening Reception starts it's the most fun I can have in my job.

12 There are 2 magical things about the World Championships :- 1) The tournament transcends all barriers - colour,creed, gender, religion, age are all irrelevant. A really friendly atmosphere pervades, created by players who are thrilled to be competing at the pinnacle event of the game that they love. 2) The standard of play is awesome. There are no easy games. No opponents that can't give you a good hiding if they getthe run of the letters. This time also I was really pleased that we had a good website where those that weren't lucky enough to be there could atleast follow and analyse the action as it happened. This was due to John Chew from Canada who put in a tremendous amount of hard work and createda great site. Also, I couldn't have managed without Tournament Director - Wilma Vialle and a host ofother back room staff too numerous to mention. The recent 8th WSC in London was exhausting but the players made it all worthwhile. I had a great time and we got some really good publicity for Scrabble all around the world.

102 players from 39 countries converged on the Marriott Hotel, Regents Park, N.W.London for the 8th staging of the World Scrabble Championships. Mattel had agreed to stagethese Championships, late 2004 after Hasbro had withdrawn. One of the tournament favourites - Adam Logan (Canada) led the way after day 1 having won his first 8 games, Gancsh Asirvatham (Malaysia) lay in 2nd place with 1995 Champion David Boys (Canada) - 3rd. On Day 2, due to operational difficulties, the players were asked to play a gruelling 9 games and after initially taking over the lead from Adam, Ganesh dropped back through losing his last 4 games. Adam led with13 wins but Naween Fernando (Australia), Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (Thailand) and Peter Armstrong (USA) were also on 13 wins and 3 more players followed them just 1 game behind. It was anybody's Championship. Midway through day 3 - Saturday , Adam held a slender lead but he continued to win game after game securing his place in the Final after Round 22, with still 2 games to go. Australia looked odds on to provide the other player with Naween, Paul Geary and Andrew Fisher all in the top5 and 16 year old David Eldar mounting a tremendous surge (he was eventually to finish 11th a tremendous achievement, only once bettered at the WSC by a player under 18). By the time the last round started Pakorn and Gareth Williams (Wales) were also in the hunt andhad been drawn to play each other on Table 1. On Table 2 Ganeshand Naween could also still reach the Final if Pakorn faltered against Gareth. The Williams/Nemitrmansuk was a close encounter with neither player establishing a winning lead. At the end withboth players very short of time it emerged that Pakorn had won by just 3 points, securing his place in the Final for a 2nd successive Championships. Gareth finished 5ththe highest placed player from the Home Nations and the only one in the top 10. A crowd of over 200 players, spectators and media representatives gathered on Sunday for the final which was shown on close circuit in the auditorium whilst the players were closeted many hundred yards away on another floor of the building. Pakorn seemed to have Game Onewon buta fantastic play of TWISTIER for 140 points spanning 2 triple words stole it for Adam on the very last move of the game.

13 In Came 2, Adam led from the start finally winning 520-316. So, breaking for lunch, Pakorn seemingly had an impossible task. However, the 1993 final was won from 2-0 down by Mark Nyman and David Wiegand recently took the US Championships in the same manner so the cognoscenti still expected the game to go to the final wire. In Game 3, Adam bonused on moves 2 & 3 with AURATES and RECOINED but late on BIRSLED (meaning 'scorched') actually put Pakorn 15 points ahead. Unfortunately it enabled a play of HORNED for 50 points from Adam which gave him the game and the Championships. He was a very deserving winner taking 23 out of 27 games and averaging over 450 points per game throughout the Championships against the world's best players. The main purpose for Mattel in holding such an event is publicity and we were well pleased with the results with several TV news reports and over 250 separate print articles including 6 in UK National newpapers. The Observer supplement, published in December carried a long article on the Championships by well known journalist - Lynn Barber.

Rank Name Home Wins Spread 1 Adam Logan Canada 20 1613 I'.ikom Nemitrmansuk Thailand 18 678 3 Naween Fernando Australia 17 741 4 Ganesh Asirvatham Malaysia 16 690 5 Garelh Williams Wales 16 664 (> Paul Cleary Australia 16 643 7 David Boys Canada 16 612 H Dave Wiegand United Stales 16 599 ') Lukeman Owolabi Nigeria 15 832 10 Siu Mean Cheah Singapore 15 776 II David Eldar Australia 15 672 12 Haul Allan Scotland 15 591 13 Dean Saldanha Canada 15 414 14 |ohn O'Laughlin United Stales 15 367 15 Michael Arthur Qu.io Ghana 14.5 725 l(. I'anupo! Sujjayakorn Thailand 14.5 422 17 Harshan Lamabadusuriya England 14 1209 18 Howard Warner New Zealand 14 894 19 Joel Sherman United Stales 14 847

20 TerryKirk England 14 770 724 21 Andrew Fisher Australia 14 The Winner ■ 22 Chrys Placca Ghana 14 437 Ad.imLogan 23 Oscar T. Rivera Philippines 14 254 24 Edward Martin England 14 210 25 Tim Adamson United Slates 14 166 26 Akshay Bhandarkar India 14 127 27 Manop Phiphatboonserm Thailand 14 ■553 28 Peter Armstrong United Slates 14 -815 29 Helen Gipson England 13 736 30 Sieve Polatnick United States 13 492 31 Nick Ball England 13 407 32 Albert Hahn Canada 13 405 33 Joel Wapnick Canada 13 395 34 |ohn Luehkcmann Uniled Slates 13 392 15 Theresa Camilleri Malta 13 349 36 Femi Awowade England 13 332 37 Keiichiro Hirai Japan 13 330 Careih Williams 38 Lisa Odom Uniled States 13 272 (Wales) - the highest 39 |ojo Delia Malta 13 260 placet! UK player 40 Yawo Takyi Ananga Ghana 13 183

14 Rank Name Home Wins Spread 41 Phil Appleby England 13 167 42 Gerald Carter Thailand 12.5 249 43 Brett Smithcr.im England 12.5 117 44 Andrew Davis England 12 808 45 Russell Byers England 12 469 46 Joey M.illick United Stales 12 361 47 Nigel Richards New Zealand 12 294 48 John Edward Tabasa Philippines 12 289 49 Jerry Lerman United Stales 12 246 50 Ron Hoekslra Canada 12 200 51 Mark Kenas United States 12 196 52 Mark Nyman England 12 193 Helen Gipson - Still the 53 David Poder United States 60 12 top woman player 54 Jiang Pern Goh Singapore 12 -159 55 Rogelio Talosig New Zealand 12 -376 56 Asad ul-Haq Qatar 12 -386 57 Patrick Lilunya Kenya 12 -452 58 Zev Kaufman Canada 12 •507 59 Jeff Grant New Zealand 11.5 -553 60 lason Katz-Brown United States 11 663 61 |im Kramer United States 11 318 62 Peter Finley England 11 257 63 Leslie Charles Trinidad and Tobago 11 179 64 Olatunde Oduwole Nigeria 11 136 65 Leonardo Capuno United Arab Emirales 11 132 66 Karl Khoshnaw Kurdistan-Iraq 11 -9 67 Ralph Lobo Oman 11 -27 Harshan 68 Andy Kurnia Singapore II -48 Lamabadusuhya ■ 69 Randy Hersom United States 11 -367 Noi for England No 17 70 Sherwin Rodrigues India 11 -487 71 Paul Yandisha Kalumha Zambia II ■667 in the world 72 Dylan Early South Africa 11 ■813 73 Anthony Ikolo Nigeria 11 -981 74 Kien Hung Yeo Malaysia 10.5 95 75 Allan Simmons Scotland 10 416 76 Abdul Jabbar Pakistan 10 221 77 Navapadol Sayavesa Thailand 10 48 78 Peter Sinton New Zealand 10 -208 79 Shaila Amalean Sri Lanka 10 -518 80 Lakshan Wanniarachchi Sri Lanka 10 -532 81 Evan Cohen Israel 10 -615 82 Cecil Fernandes Prabhu Oman 10 ■623 83 Rashid Ateeq Khan Pakistan 10 -625 84 Samuel Tanee Fomum Cameroon 10 -665 Brendan McDonnell 85 Neil Green Wales 10 ■698 86 Anand Buddhdev Netherlands 10 -1399 - The Only Emerald 87 Trevor Mark Hovelmeier South Africa 9.5 581 88 Matayo Bwire Kenya 9 65 89 Paloma Raychbart Israel 9 -398 90 Brendan McDonnell Ireland 9 -556 91 Ben Filio Bahrain 9 -806 92 Samilha Amarasinghe Sri Lanka 9 -900 93 Herve Bohbot France 9 -901 94 Chris Nlege Uganda 9 -1115 95 Adeeb Ahmad Bahrain 9 -1187 96 Mateusz Zbikowski Poland 9 -1652 97 Rohaina Tanvecr Kuwait 8.5 -1061 98 Ferdy Anthonius Indonesia 8 -402 99 Mushtak Esmail Tanzania 8 -791 100 Dan Laurenliu Sandu Romania 6 -1413 ABSP Memlwr Theresa 101 Kunihiko Kurocla Japan 6 -1844 Camilleri - does well 102 Marten Bjnrkm.in Sweden 5 -1806 for Malta

15 Ratings at

(CM) Grand Master (Exp) Expert 14-2-2006 ABSP membership number for members at 31-1-2006 At least 30 games is shown before name and at least 1 since 14-2-2004 211 Adam Logan 172 0006 Darryl Francis(Exp) 201 0745 Harshan 172 0224 Gary Polhill(Exp) Lamabadusuriya(GM) 171 Fidelis Olotu 198 Andrew Davis(GM) 171 0101 Robert RichlandlExp) 198 0147 Helen Cipson(GM) 171 0021 Evan Simpson(GM) 161 Ed Garrett-Jones 198 Brett Smitheram(GM) 170 0888 Chris Keeley 161 Mark Goodwin 195 0015 Phil Appleby(GM) 170 0172 Daniel Simonis 161 1129 Lee Hartley 195 0007 Allan Simmons(GM) 170 0017 Mike Willis!Exp) 161 |ohn Howell 194 0751 Paul Allan(GM) 169 0019 David Brook 161 0135 David Meadows 194 0338 David Webb(GM) 169 Paul Chadwick 161 Paul Nind 193 Andrew Perry(GM) 169 0025 Richard Evans(Exp) 161 Dave Nunn 192 0621 Andrew Cook(CM) 169 0079 Chris Finlay 161 1363 Stephen Pearce 192 0750 Shanker Menon 169 Brendan McDonnell 161 )in_Chor Tan 192 0482 Neil Scott(GM) 169 0012 Ruth Morgan- 160 1116 Paul Bassett 191 0652 Nick Ball(Exp) Thomas(Exp) 160 Shane O'Neill 191 0846 Austin Shin 168 0343 Amy Byrne 160 Malcolm Quirie 189 1000 Stewart Holden(Exp) 168 Catherine Costello 160 Margaret Rogers 187 Mark Nyman(GM) 168 0734 Nick Dcller 160 0226 Alan Sinclair 187 0005 Brian Sugar(CM) 168 0202 Penny Downer(Exp) 159 0463 Helen Harding 186 0002 Pete Finley(GM) 168 0408 Nuala O'Rourke 159 1228 Mark Lane 186 0072 John Grayson(GM) 168 Alastair Richards 159 Timothy Lawrence 186 0777 Adam Philpotts 168 1102 Paul(Salc) Richards 159 0984 Roy Miller 185 0041 Gareth WilliamslGM) 167 0213 Neil Rowley 159 Abraham Sosseh 184 0880 Femi AwowadelExp) 167 0555 Raymond Talc 159 0966 David White 184 0014 Di Dennis(GM) 166 Peter Igweke 159 Ricky Zinger 184 0158 Ed Martin 166 0165 Cecil Muscat 158 0241 Bob Berry 183 0038 Jackie McLeod(Exp) 166 0115 Diane Pratesi(Exp) 158 Alan Ceorgeson 182 0530 George Gruner(Exp) 166 0162 Alec Webb(Exp) 158 0055 Helen Grayson(Exp) 182 1163 David Sutton 165 1427 Mikki Nicholson 158 Neil Green 181 0823 Wayne Kelly 165 0795 Chris Quartermaine 158 0093 Ruth Maclnerney 180 1355 Craig Beevers 165 Dianne Ward 158 1006 Ross Mackenzie 180 0368 Chris Hawkins(Exp) 164 Chris Davison 158 0235 Martin Reed 180 0004 Philip Nelkon(GM) 164 0059 Simon Gillam(Exp) 158 Karen Richards 180 0362 Gary Oliver 164 Mark Hollingsworth 158 0008 Graeme Thomas 179 Omar.Malleh Jah 164 Elisabeth Jardine 158 0116 Martin Thompson 178 0045 Barry Grossman 164 0479 Andrew 158 0657 Frances Ure 177 0060 Terry Kirk(GM) Roughton(Exp) 157 0789 Alan Bailey 177 0764 Lewis Mackay(Exp) 164 0088 Sandie Simonis(Exp) 157 0978 Andy Becher 177 0049 Bob Violett(Exp) 164 0229 Graham Wakefield 157 0081 Joyce CansfieldlExp) 176 Theresa Camilleri 163 0103 Danny Bekhor 157 0793 Joanne Hiley 176 0292 Wilma Warwick 163 Chris Cummins 157 0020 Janet Phillips 175 Adekoyejo 163 0999 Kay McColgan Adegbesan 163 1170 Paloma Raychbart 157 0719 Kate Surtees 175 0058 Russell Byers(GM) 163 0123 Noel TumertExp) 157 1057 Mike Whiteoak 175 0478 Elie Dangoor(Exp) 162 1016 John Ashmore 156 0534 Caroline Atkins 175 0814 jared Robinson 162 |Ojo Delia 156 0914 Vincent Boyle 175 Chris Vicary 162 0199 Graham Harding 156 0124 Ivy Dixon-Baird 174 0281 Steve Perry 162 Karl Khoshnaw(Exp) 156 Billy Don 173 1368 Phil Robertshaw 162 Christine McKenzie 156 0836 Chris Fenwick

16 156 0573 Gary Fox 149 Loz Crouch 143 0335 Robert Johnston 156 0084 Pauline lohnson 149 1051 Elizabeth Hull 143 0655 Mary Jones 156 0609 Bob Lynn 149 0537 Carol Malkin 143 0120 Kale McNulty 156 Les Nyman 149 Matthew Pinner 143 Kay Powick 156 0760 S.inmi Odclana 149 0272 Ivan Swallow 143 0161 Margaret Pritchctt 155 0449 Alan Childs 148 Cathy Anderson 143 Joyce Squire 155 Ralph Gibbs 148 Tolani Ayo-Awojobi 143 Lesley Watson 155 Brian (ones 148 1120 Anand Buddhdev 143 Mandy Wcatherill 155 0086 Frankic Mairey 148 0469 Tony Davis 142 0066 Sue Bowman 155 0986 Robert Pells 148 0631 Alison Sadler 142 Graham Buckingham 155 Angela Swain 148 Rachelle Winer 142 0092 Priscilla Encamacion 155 0018 Karen Willis 147 0096 Diana Beasley 142 1115 Nick Jenkins 154 0069 Moira Conway 147 0838 Theresa Cole 142 0035 Lois McLeod 154 1211 Ian Coventry 147 1203 Greg Kelly 142 Huw Morgan 154 0732 Wanda Dc Poitiers 147 0077 Joy Lloyd 142 0422 Carol Stanley 154 Christina French 147 0632 Carol Smith 142 0589 Anne Steward 154 0688 Lorraine Gordon 147 0470 Norman Smith 142 0099 Josef Thompson 154 1428 Martin Harrison 147 Fran Thompson 142 0587 Maria Thomson 154 Chryslal Rose 147 Pam Titheradgc 142 Judy Wcarn 154 1032 Kevin Synnott 147 Amy Willcox 141 0427 Pelcr Ashurst 154 1369 Ben Tarlow 146 Paul Howard 141 0920 Eleanor Dobson 153 1440 Tim Charlton 146 0919 Peler Thomas 141 Peler Hunt 153 0003 Laura Finley 146 0489 Tom Wilson 141 0997 Phil Kelly 153 0331 Davina Galloway 145 Oluycmi Adesiyan 141 Wendy Lindridgc 153 Thomas Mcnsah 145 0399 Louise Brundell 141 1270 Len Moir 153 0268 Donna Slanton 145 Alan Buckle)' 141 0804 Mary Oram 153 0876 Evelyn Wallace 145 0395 Pat Colling 141 0707 Gwynfor Owen 152 0574 Simon Carter 145 0544 Marjory Flight 140 0922 Barbara Allen 152 1243 Doj Graham 145 Heather Frankland 140 0080 Mary Allen 152 0837 Peter Liggelt 145 0507 Kathryn Henry 140 John lialloch 152 1389 P.iul(Tranmere) 145 1067 Gavin Holmes 140 1412 Melanie Beaumont Thomson 145 Karl Kwialkowski 140 0565 Ann Coleman 152 Malcolm Wcatn 145 Martin Leverton 140 Patricia Fcnn 151 0228 Adriennc Bergcr 145 David Longtey 140 AlastairIvcs 151 0822 Jill Bright 145 0067 Danny McMullan 140 Terry Jones 151 Alan Cathcral! 145 1097 Ronnie Reid 140 Pinaach Kolte 151 0024 Angela Evans 145 Alec Robertson 140 Bryn Packer 151 0488 Marion Keatings 145 1206 SarahWilks 140 0829 Kim Phipps 151 Graham Maker 145 0636 David Williams 140 1131 Russell Smith 151 10t9 Lynne Murphy 144 0369 Brian Bull 140 1287 Stuart Solomons 151 0480 Anne Ramsay 144 Moby Cook 140 0790 Margaret Staunton 151 1279 Ben Wilson 144 1322 Frank Forster 139 0252 Steve Balmcnt 150 0870 lean Bromley 144 lain Harley 139 0330 Viv Beckmann 150 0254 tan Bum 144 1408 Racl Hayman 139 0511 Samantha Beckwith 150 0852 Maureen 144 Tim Hebbes 139 1005 Verity Cross Chamberlain 144 0713 Trish lohnson 139 0933 Ann Golding 150 1145 Peter Darby 144 Eileen Meghen 139 SheilaHinctt 150 0242 Sheila Green 144 0576 Carole Rison 139 0297 Nurma Howarth 150 0100 David Lawton 144 Kenneth Ross 139 0523 Kate Leckic 150 0154 Mike O'Rourke 144 0177 Henry Watton 139 0690 Maureen Reynolds 150 0476 David Shcnkin 143 1046 Paul Ashworih 139 Lesley Trotter 150 0810 Linda Vickcrs 143 Tony Beam 139 1003 Slieena Wilson 149 Eddy Breed 143 0089 Margaret Bright 138 Liz Allen 149 1197 Christian Brown 143 1282 Barbara Goodban 138 0738 Margaret Armstrong 149 0835 Maurice Brown 143 Debbie Holloway 138 0163 Wonne Eade

17 138 0967 Gerard Fox 133 0608 Sandra Hoffland 128 0767 Kalhy Bullcn 138 Alan Guy 133 1110 Pamela Kikumu 128 0107 Joan Caws 138 1125 Andrew Hart 133 1025 Marion Kirk 128 Val Couzens 138 Annette Tinning 133 Carole Thomas 128 0442 Agnes Gunn 137 0635 Philip Aldous 132 0943 Carol Arthurton 128 0347 Kathleen Higgins 137 0157 EilecnlLSL) Anderson 132 Nick Baker 128 0858 May Macdonald 137 0856 Minu Anderson 132 Kate Barralt 128 0320 Fay Madeley 137 Gillian Ashworth 132 Mick Beasley 128 Janet Southworth 137 lean Bridge 132 1305 Jason Goddard 128 1294 Christine Slrawbridge 137 |oe Caniana 132 0923 Teresa Hill 128 Evan Terrell 137 1242 John Garcia 132 0802 Patricia Pay 127 0390 Betty Balding 137 Helen Mitchell 132 Mauro Pratesi 127 0419 Michael Baxcndalc 137 0028 Loma Rapley 132 |o Ramjane 127 Linda Bird 137 0215 lean Rappitt 132 0895 David Reading 127 1020 Derek Bower 137 0016 Maureen Rayson 132 Becky Samuel 127 lean Carter 137 Brian Watson 132 0291 Sylvia Swaney 127 0748 Jean Crowder 137 0637 Val Wright 131 0110 Liz Barber 127 0475 lill Fisher 136 1375 Michael Chapped 131 0924 Linda Barrett 127 Nola Marrow 136 Chris Downer 131 0238 Margaret Burdon 127 1066 Barbara Morris 136 1423 Calum Edwards 131 Jean Dymock 127 Julie Nelkon 136 Helen loncs 131 Richard Moody 127 Mary Shaw 136 1136 Ted Lewis 131 0904 George Newman 127 0029 Marlcne Skinner 136 Brcnda Margercson 131 0932 (ill Parker 127 1457 Amanda Sodhy 136 0547 Tess McCarthy 131 0443 Ann Pitblado 127 Sheila Wall 136 1198 Maurice McParland 131 0995 Carol Sienkiewicz 126 Harry Beckett 135 1301 Richard lilakeway 131 0960 Mary Siggers 126 0543 Winnie Buik 135 0406 Moya Dcwar 131 0775 Pat Wheeler 126 1182 David Carrod 135 Alasdair Dowling 130 Eryl Barker 126 Sylvia Carroll 135 0729 Kalhy Greaves 130 Barbara Ocin 126 Jean Gallachcr 135 0715 Barbara Mill 130 Pam Fairless 126 0641 Norma Galley 135 0263 Sheila lolliffe 130 1238 Juliet Green 126 1331 Carol Grant 135 0401 Sharon Landau 130 0032 Ron Hendra 126 0736 Molly Lane 135 1320 Rita Todd 130 Linda Hillard 126 0911 Marie Perry 135 1273 Peter Winnick 130 0886 Ruth Marsden 126 0452 Peter Sime 134 1179 land Adams 130 Roger Ordish 126 0152 Marjoric Smith 134 0557 Janice Bcasc 130 0938 Helen Polhill 126 GillCTaunton) 134 0899 lake Berliner 130 Malcolm Roberts Thompson 134 1210 Graham Bonham 130 Wojtek Usakiewicz 125 Noel Barnes 134 0223 lime Edwards 130 1053 Stephen Wintle 125 0257 Syd Burger 134 0975 Jill Harrison 129 Sheila(Perth) 125 0603 Linda Bradford 134 1192 Pal Hcffcrnan Anderson 125 0915 Shirley Chidwick 134 Jim Lyes 129 0166 Beryl Brown 125 0755 Carmen Dolan 134 0204 Michael Partner 129 Garry Clark 125 0298 Mavis Harding 134 Gerry Pearce 129 0668 Ccridwen Oavies 125 Miri Purse 134 Barbara Shammas 129 Chris Dossctt 125 Brenda Rodwcll 134 lenny Woodroffe 129 0402 Sally Fiszman 125 Margaret Williams 133 Brenda Baxter 129 0341 Mike Holland 124 Gail Allen 133 1092 Heather Bumct 129 Medina Hull 124 Alistair Baker 133 1217 Carolyn Emery 129 1007 Margaret Irons 124 0539 Lynn Giles 133 Phyllis Fernandez 129 0136 Jan Turner 124 0776 Peter Hall 133 1035 Andy Gray 129 0864 Margaret White 124 0381 Michael Harley 133 Rhoda Gray 129 Richard Woodward 124 0572 Val Hoskings 133 Maureen Greening- 129 Margaret Yeadon 124 Gertie Roberts Steer 128 0512 Etta Alexander 124 Julie Tatc 133 Paul Heasman 128 Janet Braund 124 1189 Martin Taylor

18 123 0735 Hilary Birdsall 119 0246 Wendy Tiley 114 Philippa Crosland- 123 0682 Janet Bonham 119 Teena Walls Taylor 123 Pal Broderick 119 1339 Carole Whealley 114 Noel Foulkes 123 1265 Joy Fox 118 Shirley Angell 114 Kathy Gibbons 123 Malcolm! Luton) 118 Linda Beard 114 1225 Lena Glass Graham 118 Mary Brown 114 Paul Moorefield I 123 0737 Margaret Harkness 114 0782 Richard Pajak 118 0106 Ian Caws 123 Sheila Jeffery 114 1159 Vivienne Plewes 118 1458 June Faulkner 123 Angie Jones 114 0477 Malcolm Shaw 118 Simon Francis 123 1050 Yvonne McKeon 114 0169 Sue Thompson 118 0759 John Harrison 123 Marc Mcakin 114 Cyndy Walker-Firth 118 Miriam Moss 123 1149 |im Wilkic 114 0645 June Wilson 118 0184 Celia Osborn 122 Kale Boutinot 113 1063 Irene Atkinson 118 0052 Martin Summers 122 Jennifer Clifford 113 Jean Bakewell 118 0826 Elizabeth Terry 122 Eileen Douglas 113 Margaret Bigg 118 Rosemary Wood 122 1212 Marjorie Gillott 113 Marlene Diskin 117 1373 Stany Arnold 122 lane Lowndes 113 Margaret Herbert

117 ^#\Sl^l#l^Bobbie L'^lBennett• ■ I^K 122 0625 John Mitchell 113 Janet Milford 117 0982 Rnn Rurknpll 122 0236 Hazel Parker 113 0211 Philippa Morris 11711/ Marie English 122 0385 Ken Quarshie 113 James Mutton 117 0753 Janet Hamilton 122 0036 Dot Taylor 113 0952 Jean Owen 11711 / UOUgPimm HillLJill 122 0248 jean(Cardiff) Williams 113 Norman Partridge 117 1146 Leonora Hutton 121 Maureen Austin 113 Gwen Roberts 117 1181 Sue Ison 121 0849 John Ball 113 Jo Tebbutt 117 0414 JillI'll lones1 121 Sue Ball 113 Jan Vokes-Taylor 117 0752 PeterKelly 121 1310 |im Blackler 112 0579 Sheila Booth-Millard H7it? Joan Price 121 |ill Burgess 112 0725 Paul Cartman 117 Helen Rees 121 0948 EileenFoster 112 Eunice Conibear 117 0972 Denise Saxton 121 Shirley Heal 112 Helen Cowie 117 Doris Street 121 Maureen Underdown 112 Marjorie Gardner 117 1169 Yvonne Templeton 121 1175 Rosalind Wilson 112 1304 Linda Moir 116 Nora Bain 121 0356 Pamela Windsor 112 Willie Scott 116 June Clark 120 Elizabeth Allen 112 Kathleen Ward 116 0992 Geoff Cooper 120 0518 Eileen Basham 112 1271 Claudia Wiseman 116 1424 Len Edwards 120 0305 Doreen Blake 112 0436 Irene Woolley 120 Heather Cruickshank 116 1183 Priscilla Munday 112 Judy Young 116 Rose Spencer 120 0405 Peter Ernesl 111 1449 Mary Brodbin 120 Joyce Gershon 115 Wasinee Beech 111 Martin Byrne 120 0868 Christine Gillespie 115 0709 Betty Benton 111 0527 Dorothy Churcher 120 1413 Geoff Goodwin 115 0156 Dorothy Dean 111 1207 Hannah Corbett 120 Sluart May 115 0128 Vera Flood 111 Joan Ellis 120 Angela Mort 115 Lorna Franks 111 0640 Daphne Fletcher 120 1089 Vivienrte Newman 115 David French 111 0934 loyce Jarvis 120 1365 Christina Pace 115 0718 Pat Friend 111 0798 Peter Lindeck 120 David Steel 115 1199 Richard Hitchcock 111 Mary Morgan 119 Georgina Cook 115 Joan Lawrence 111 DennisNelson 119 Joseph Doku 115 0626 Martha Mitchell 111 Edith Tempest 119 Ann Fiddler 115 0357 Jean Shaw 110 Beryl Browner 119 1257 Mary Hopwood 115 0634 Edith Smith 110 Jean Buckley 119 0772 David Hoyle 115 Lee Walker 110 Bridget Busk 119 1113 Christabel Jackson 115 Isla Wilkic 110 Irene Catherall 119 layanthi Kannan 114 Doreen Acton 110 0894 Owen Clarke 119 0833 Judy Monger 114 Anne Backlcy 110 |ill Dyer 119 Mark Redhead 114 0327 Jessie Brown 110 Wi If Gibbons 119 Sonia Temple 114 John Brown 110 1261 Jo Holland

19 110 Barbara Kent 104 0384 Mabel Choularton 100 Rose Lawson 110 1034 Barbara Lukcy 104 Jane Comer 100 Rcnee Painc no loanRoes 104 Rona Falconer 100 0378 Susan Richardson 110 Stuart Ross 104 Helga Farrow 100 Heather Stevens 109 Don Beavis 104 1276 Evelyn Wansbrough 100 1383 Sarah-Jane Taylor 109 Marie Davic 103 Carmen Borg 100 Elisabeth Williams 109 0513 Florence Davics 103 Bcverlcy Burgess 99 1038 lacquie Aldous 109 1027 Margaret Ftrmslon 103 Lcn Choules 99 0951 Bill Anderson 109 1077 Marian Hamer 103 1262 Cinny Dixon 99 1049 Ken Bird 109 Robin McDougall 103 0683 Mavis Ernest 99 1081 Anna Blakcy 109 Joy Reason 103 0415 Marjoric Garten 99 1248 Margaret Coleman 109 1071 Barbara Solomon 103 Marjorie Hislop 99 1119 Anne Darby 109 Sheila Tutt 103 0374 |oy Hodge 99 Douglas Emmott 109 Jane Weston 103 1112 Peter Johnson 99 loan Everitl 108 0761 Mary Adams 103 Margaret Keeper 99 0799 Cindy Hollycr 108 Eilecn(Reading) 103 Isabelle McLean 99 1134 Dorothy Kemlicz Anderson 103 0692 Margaret Seabrook 99 Esmc Morris 108 1222 Bronagh Kenny 103 0851 Sheila Smith 99 1315 Tanya Robson 108 Dorothy Pearson 103 0564 Jean Stevens 99 Moreen Shilliloc 108 Shirley Scoberg 103 1398 Jill Warren 99 1085 Betty Simmonds 108 Isobcl Smith 103 0935 Ian Whytc 99 0485 Ann Toft 108 Monica Stockwell 102 Pat Burgess 99 Alice Tozeland 107 0474 Eileen Bradshaw 102 0877 Shirley Cave 98 Alex Bcckmann 107 Paula Dochcrty 102 1034 Elsie Edwards 98 Les Coslin 107 1064 June lohnstone 102 0791 Rosemary Jordan 98 Cecilia Cotton 107 0486 Marjorie lefley 102 Margaret Macdonald 98 lean Fothergill 107 0927 Audrey Medhurst 102 Marina Mchla 98 Fay Goble 107 Dorecn Morris 102 David Paine 98 Patrice McCarry 107 Sheila Szzvanowski 102 Jessica Pratcsi 98 Mollie Moran 107 0947 Jessie Tollick 102 0083 Pat Rockley 98 Anne Richards 107 0376 Claire Violett 102 losic Rogers 98 1171 Susan Thorne 106 0771 Sylvia Baldock 102 1118 Remie Sal.iz.ir 97 Steve Davie 106 0827 Ann Clark 102 Amy Vye 97 Gerry Glecson 106 Tricia Cooper 102 0671 Chris Wide 97 1218 Terry Masterson 106 0928 Iris Cornish 101 0953 Peter Bailey 97 0976 Adrian Noilcr 106 June Lindridgc 101 1263 Barbara Barker 97 Susan Paton 106 Ann McDonnell 101 Gilly Batten 97 Connie Riach 106 0970 Sheila Miller 101 Philip Bowdcn 97 Su Williams 106 Mary Orr 101 0726 Christine Cartman 97 Henry Woodward 106 1009 lenny Sakamoto 101 Hilda Hudspelh 96 1259 Sheila(Romford) 106 Helen Sandier 101 Pete Ison Anderson 106 0451 Vera Sime 101 Hilbrc Jenkins 96 0758 Kathy Carson 106 Pamela Sparkes 101 Mary Keevy 96 1073 Jenny Harris 106 0917 Nicola Staunlon 101 Sandy McLcod 96 jean Jacobs 105 Madelainc Baker 101 Christine Pullcn 96 Sheila Johnston 105 Maureen Barlow 101 0946 Sheila Reeve 96 1237 Dorn Osbornc 103 1002 Margaret Boyd 101 Beryl Shoesmith 96 0900 Amabel Winter 105 Eve Dwyer 101 Jacqui While 95 Peter Dittert 105 Barbara Etheridge 100 Helen Aley 95 Alan Everitt 105 lean Mainwaring 100 0526 Keith Churchcr 95 Jan Gibson 105 1080 Margaret Mitchell 100 Reg Dcndy 95 Lionel Howard 105 Mark Murray 100 Joyce Frost 95 Christine Watkins 105 Hepzi Rodrigues 100 1052 BarbaraHaggelt 95 Anne Wilkins 105 Fuad Shammas 100 Paul Harding 94 1168 Brian Beaumont 105 Marjorie Struggles 100 Olive Holroyd 94 Prue Buckingham

20 94 0941 Audrey Harvey 87 Josephine Croasdale 78 Winnie Haston 94 1105 Lyndon Johnson 87 1306 Margaret Emmoit 78 Muriel Mortimer 94 1219 lean Masterson 87 Joan Garlick 78 Peter Muni 94 Beryl Trace 87 Marcia Hall 77 0541 Pamela Brown 94 Sonja Wyld 87 Evelyn Mankelow 77 Helen lankowski 93 0359 Vcra Allen 87 Nicholas Robertson 77 Iris Semus 93 Judy Beales 87 1253 Philip Turner 76 1316 Veronica Baker 93 Chris Chapman 87 1441 lean(Ryde) Williams 76 Maris Bradley 93 0410 Myra Copleston 86 Peter Basham 76 Teresa Haycock 93 1200 Caroline Elliott 86 Bernard Bruno 76 Edna Lindeck 93 loan lohns 86 Jo Calvert-Mindell 76 Margaret Regan 93 Doreen Searlcs 86 1453 Anne Corpe 76 1234 Jean Ross 93 0818 Rose Wall 85 Maggie Fleming 76 George Sinclair 93 1076 Marianne Ward 85 1407 |an Hudson 76 1069 Olive Smith 92 1235 Rita Barton 85 Zoe Marlowe 76 Jane Thomas 92 Peter Bealos 85 Barbara Pinto 76 1252 Ruth Turner 92 Ruth Binding 85 Maria Raffaelli 75 Mary Harris 92 1008 Yvonne Coodridge 85 Roy Smith 75 1324 Margaret Jaggs 92 Rosemarie Howis 84 Chris Baker 75 Elizabeth Mustard 92 Barbara McLaren 84 1104 Hazel Brannan 75 1135 Sylvia Oatcs 92 Peggy Moore 84 Florence Conncll 75 1086 Margaret Webb 92 1030 Derek Neath 84 Mary Craddock 74 Ann Grcgson 92 1297 Graham Pace 84 0290 May Gray 74 1290 Mary Kennedy 92 Les Searlc 84 1162 Betty Hallett 74 0153 Mary Lindsay 92 1174 Peter Trembath 84 Audrey Jackson 74 Patrick Teaguc 92 1332 Sheila Wyatt 84 lacqueline King 74 Millie Ward 91 1289 Kerry Constant 84 June Loveit 73 Nancy Yorkston 91 0783 Barrie Hall 84 Olive Matthew 72 0031 Norah Thompson 91 1176 Gordon Lamb 84 1068 Lionel Millmorc 71 Marie Cross 91 Anne Lavvton 84 Jill Russell 71 0998 lean Hendrick 91 0778 Gwen Linfoot 83 Anna Churchouse 71 1377 Maria Mosclcy 91 0132 Lorna Llewellyn 83 1147 Brenda Lock 71 Margaret Scott 91 0859 John Macdonald 83 0583 Joan Murphy 70 Dorccn Throssell 91 Vivian Mifsud 83 Betty Nichols 70 Alec West 91 Michael Murray 83 1399 Carol Russell 69 Marcia Davit's 91 Mary Ralfs 83 Kalpana Thakker 69 lulie Recs 91 Winifred Stitt 82 1229 Eileen Hunter 68 Jessie Chisnolm 91 Richard Tempest 82 1267 Margot Montgomery 68 Alan Fothergill 90 0563 Fred Burford 82 Rita Robinson 68 1334 Catherine McMillan 90 1001 lean Greenland 82 Helen Thompson 68 Carl Szzvanowski 90 Iris Grovcr 82 Monica Urquhart 67 1028 Peggy Lavender 90 0828 Moira Metcalf 82 Reg Wiseman 66 Betty Meazey 90 1137 Bcrozc Mody 81 Alice Bennell 62 1284 Margaret Hallin 89 0030 Ruby Flood 81 loyce Caruth 61 Maureen Knox 89 Agnes Gray 81 Sylvia Colledge 60 Helen Tcgg 89 loan Hughes 80 Brenda Burden 59 Barbara Yeaman 89 Mandy Isaac 80 Dorothy Henry 56 0949 Barbara Horlock 89 Christine Nicholson 80 Eileen Johnson 89 0253 Peter Shuttlewood 80 Sheila Slanton 88 1039 Dorothy Edwards 79 0908 Ted Anderson 88 1148 Renee Gilbert 79 Doreen Coleman 88 Monica Marden 79 Frank Goodier 88 Kitty Reid 79 Keith Woodruff 88 Rena Waddell 78 1143 Lelty Burrcll 88 Rod Winficld 78 Ena Harding

21 After a year's absence, the Fantasy Scrabble League is back! It is under new management but is based on the tried and tested formula of theold system organised by Andrew Davis. However, it has been expanded to shift the focus slightly to those climbing the ranks, and not just those already at the top.

THE RULES The top 30 players as at 31 December 2005 have been broken down into three groups - A, B and C and valued accordingly between 50p and 10p. Everybody else is in category D and worth 5p. You must pick at least one player from each group, but can choose as many as you like from each providing your team is worth no more than £1.30. (Given the fact that Adam Logan is miles ahead of the field, and will probably not play any more games in this country, he will be ineligible for Fantasy Scrabble purposes.) In addition to this, you must choose 2 players in category E (who must have had a full rating as at 31 Dec 2005) who you think will improve during the year. They will cost lOp each. Therefore cost of entry is £1.50.

SCORING Players in groups A to D will score points based on their position in the ratings list as at 31 Dec 2006. The player rated top (ignoring Adam Logan) will receive 30 points, the player in second place will earn 29, and so on down to the player in 30th place who will receive 1 point. Ties will share the relevant points. Also players will receive points if they win any major competitions (in the highest Division at each event) through the year based on the following sliding scale.

BMSC & MASTERS 10 points EASTER MATCHPLAY & NSC 8 points DURHAM, SUMMER MATCHPLAY & WINTER MATCHPLAY 5 points

Players chosen in group E will receive points based on the number of points they have improved their rating over the year. This does mean, of course, that your two choices may actually lose you points if their rating goes down! Check the ratings on page 16 to see standings at time of going topress. For up to date ratings check out www.absp.org.uk and browse the ratings pages. You can also see the 31 December 2005 ratings and compare them to the current position.

(Note - players in Group E will not receive points for being in the top 30 or winning major tournaments so it is possible to pick a player in E that you have in one of the other sections.)

22 GROUPA GROUP B 201 Harshan Um'suriya(Exp) SOp 192 Andrew Cook(GM) 30p 200 Helen Gipson(CM) SOp 192 Shanker Menon 30p 198 Brett SmilheramfCM) 45p 192 Neil ScotKExp) 30p 196 Andrew Davis(CM) 45p 192 Austin Shin 30p 196 Wale Fashina * 45p 191 Nick Ball(Exp) 25p 195 Phil Appleby(CM) 40p 189 Stewart Holden(Exp) 25p 195 Allan Simmons(CM) 40p 187 Mark Nyman(GM) 25p 194 Paul Allan(CM) 35p 187 Brian SugariGM) 25p 194 David Webb(CM) 35p 186 Pete Finley(GM) 20p 193 Andrew Peny(GM) 35p 186 John Grayson(GM) 20p

GROUP C GROUP D 185 Gareth Williams(CM) 15p Any player not listed above is worth 183 Wayne Kelly 15p 5p (Not Adam Logan though!) 183 Ed Martin 15p 182 Di Dennis(GM) 15p 182 Gary Oliver ISp 181 Femi Awowade(Exp) lOp GROUP E 181 Terry Kirk(GM) lOp Choose any two players that you think 181 Philip Nelkon(GM) lOp will improve their rating the most over 180 Craig Beevers lOp the course of the year. 180 David Sutton lOp

•Nole- Although Wale Fashina didn't have a full rating as at 31/12/05, to not give him a value in the list would be asking for trouble!

TO ENTER Send your choices, plus £1.50 entry fee, to Wayne Kelly, 17 Cossack Avenue, Orford, Warrington, VVA2 9PB. Cheques should be made payable to Wayne Kelly. Alternatively you can email your selection to me at [email protected] and pass the cash on when you next see me. Remember you must choose at least one player from each group A to D andtwo players in section E. Please indicate which group each player is in, their full name and value. If possible please give their rating/club, in case of players with namesakes! Also include your name, address, phone number and email address if you have one, in case there are any problems with your selection or, of course, if you win! The closing date for entries is 31st March 2006 and you must have paid before Durham- April 8th (or if you are attending Durham on the first day of the event to me in person.) The winner will receive 50% of the total takings and there will be second and third prizes given with a 30% - 20% split.

Good luck everybody!

23 : " Compiled by David Sutton ' (Puzzle solutions on inside back cover)^ ^

Throughout Edgeways, words not in OSWI are marked by an asterisk *

The Five-Minute Anagram Challenge

Below are four sets of anagrams, presented in ascending order of/ difficulty based partly on the likely familiarity of the words and partly on the nature of their 'pattern'. Each anagram has a unique solution. It is suggested that full marks in set A corresponds to an ABSP rating of around 1 25; in set B to 150; in set C to 175; and in set D to 200, though of course people differ in their vocabularies and anagramming skills so any such categorisation can only be loose and intuitive. Give yourself five minutes for the chosen set. Of course, by all means try the harder sets, but don't be discouraged if the going gets tough!

A. HARGNITS AINOORT OUTRINE OUTRIGE ESTONED

EARWISE LOGATED WERRALT PITTLER DESABLE

B. EELPINT DIGRESE MEINERS TIMIREE COMELET

CONGOLE SUM00RA PROVOTE ROMIHOLE OLDIGRAM

C. COULIER ARIZING GODEYES SPOATED COUSIER

OPALIDE SECMAZE FORSCALE SODAFOES ACDELSWW

D. HORSEBUD UPNAMES NUNCIAL SYULINE HYRINOS

MEELADY GROUBED HERNIER BEANWEAN OVERTALT

Meet My Twin Quite rightly, we spend most of our study time on the sevens and eights, but it is a good idea not to neglect the sixes entirely, since every so often knowledge of anobscure six can prove crucial in, say, reaching a triple, or dumping six-sevenths of an unpromising rack. Here, then, are twenty fairly obscure sixes which have better known twins: can you find them?

AROINT MURENA FLOATS CHENET ENTERA

ETHNOS RORTER GROUTY REALIA APTOTE

I0DISM ESSIVE GALERE TEWING POLEYN

PERKIN BASNET LALDIE PIRAYA MOYLED

24 Author! Author! I recently discovered the work of Alexander McCall Smith, in 11 particular the series about the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, i set in Botswana. I recommend them wholeheartedly. It is true that if you want traditional sleuthing of the Sherlock Holmes kind, or violent criminality, you will be disappointed: the actual detection in the books plays a relatively minor role and consists mainly of a large lady going round finding things i1 out by the simple expedient of asking people questions. But if you want humane wisdom and gentle humour, McCall Smith is your man. The language is very clear, but there are Alexander a number of words relating to the African setting which 1 McCall Smith Scrabble players willfind worth noting. 1

BILTONG sun-dried lean meat. BOOMSLANG a venomous tree snake. 3 DAGGA an African plant smoked asa narcotic. •fti DUIKER a small S. African antelope. Also DUYKER. GECKO a kind of lizard. PI. GECKOS or GECKOES. HAMMERKOP a bird of the heron family. 1I KAROSS a S. African garment of animal skins. KGOTLA an assembly of tribal elders in Botswana; the place of such an assembly. KOPJE a low hill. Also KOPPIE. MEALIE an ear of maize.Also MEALY. MOPANI a small S. African tree, with rough bark and racemes of I small green flowers. Aparently the tree is home to small worms which when dried are esteemed as a great delicacy. Also MOPANE. 1 MUTI traditional medicine, esp. associated with witchcraft or witch doctors. In 1 the books this is a very sinister matter. 1 PULA the standard monetary unit of Botswana, = 100 THEBE. I RONDAVEL in S Africa, a round hut, usu with a grass roof; a more sophisticated building of similar shape, used eg as a guest house. SKELLUM a ne'er-do-well; a scamp, rascal. Also SKELUM and SCHELLUM. 1 STOEP a platform along the front, and sometimes the sides, of a house. 1 THEBE see PULA. i TICKEY a small coin, originally a silver threepenny bit. AlsoTICKY. 1 TOKOLOSHE yes, there is a guest appearance by Stewart Holden's alter ego, the well-known hairy malevolent dwarflike creature with supernatural powers! i TSOTSI a member of a black African street gang, a young hooligan or thug. VELDSCHOEN a shoe made of rawhide. Also VELDSKOEN, VELSKOEN.

1^ jp-^j

25 m Anagrid:

HORIZONTAL CLUES: VERTICAL CLUES

1. - a . SUGARETU 2. NARKQAID - UMTIER b. THEGENIE

3. - c. HUMSZATI

4. RHOICS - BRAWLADE d. DISGENNI

5. - e. SHIRDOZI 6. INERGIAE - MASS IP f. SCRABIAS

7. - g- OAGMENTS 8. GASHANAIRINGMAT h. BEDHARMA

9. - i . ASSYLUMS 10. GLYNIDGIL - MEREC j ■ TAGWITAG 11. - k. DECWHITE 12. USTOUTH - WINCOGS 1. DESALIVA

13. - m. DEMITIES

14. DEECH - UNRESMERB n. LINQUELM

15. - o. GGETLEGS

26 Blank Racks

One from Ross - add a blank to each of the nine racks below to make a total of twenty-six 8-letter words, with the blank as a different letter each time.

(3©(9(9(3©©

■DimrNifoirpifsirYi

[UlI)IDCQ(D(rJ1uJ ©©©©©a© El© ©LEI III Sly*

An intermediate solution is provided onpage xx, showing the letter required in each case butnotthe actual word(s).

You can puta Y on THAT?!

Continuing our look at words which take a possibly surprising -Y hook. Here are some beginning with D to G.

DECO DEED DELL DEMOCR DIDDLE DURO

EATER EGGER EMBUS FAGGOT FAINT FAKE

FAKER FARMER FELL FEND FERRET FIDDLE

FIST FIXIT FLATTER FLAUNT FLAVOUR FLAW

FLOAT FLOURISH FLUNK FOLKS FOOTS FORGETTER

FOUGHT FULLER FUND FURROW GADGET GAMES

GASP GENT GHOST GLAD GOSSIP GRAPE

GRIPE GROUP GRUFF

Multipack Monsters The EULACHON, otherwise known as the North Pacific candlefish, is a small fish found off the west coast of Canada, remarkable for being so oily that it can be dried and used asa candle. It has the following variant spellings:

EULACHAN EULACHON

OOLACHAN OOLAKAN

OULAKAN OULACHON

ULICON ULICHON I came across a reference to the EULACHON in Delia Kew & P.E.Goddard's Indian Art and Culture of the Northwest Coast - "after boiling, the fish are pressed to force out the remaining oil. Formerly, the women accomplished this by squeezing the still hot fish against their naked breasts". -1 do find these little titbits of information so useful in helping to fix a word firmly in the mind...

27 Cryptogram

23 24 11 25 11 10 23 21 15 15 23 16 7 21 24 19 1 26 23 18 15 8 1 19 11 14 13 25 14 24 12 26

24 ~2 ~24 ■ ~7 ■ 13 15 12 24

24 23

21 15 19 15 2 19

16 19 24 11 14 16

24 24 11 ■ ~14 16 17 24 23

9 ~I5 19 ~7 "Ti

16 23 11 23 7 12 16

~8 11 Ti

u 24 23 10 | 24 2 ii ■i ■ 16 ~23 ~7 16 16 2 24 18 15 22 24 23 24 19 11 16 14 I 21 16 8 7 14 16 22 1 7 11 16 15 8 11 23

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

z

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

28 Curio Corner

There are special words used in medicine to denote fevers that recur after a particular number of days: these are adjectives that can all be used as nouns. They are: TERTIAN (a fever) with paroxysms every other day i.e. on the third day, reckoning both first and last days. (Latin tertianus, of the third]. QUARTAN (a fever) with paroxysms every third day i.e. on the fourth day. ILatin quartanus, of the fourth). QUINTAN (a fever) with paroxysms every fourth day i.e. on the fifth day. ILatin quintanus, of the fifth]. SEXTAN (a fever) with paroxysms every fifth day i.e. on the sixth day. [Latin sextanus, of the sixth]. OCTAN (a fever) with paroxysms every seventh day i.e. on theeighth day. [Latin octanus, of the eighth]. You will observe that there is no word for a fever occurring every sixth day, i.e. on the seventh day, which one would assume to be SEPTAN*. Curious: I wonder if the lack comes from some old idea about fevers observing the Sabbath. A fever that occurs every day is termed QUOTIDIAN; this also can be used as a noun so QUOTIDIAN can take an -S hook.

I am indebted to Pamela Windsor for sending a selection of entertaining anagrams that show what can be done by those with an irreverent bent of mind and far too much time on their hands! My favourite has to be PRESIDENT CLINTON OF THE USA, which can be neatly rearranged into TO COPULATE HE FINDS INTERNS. Other neat arrangements are: ELECTION RESULTS LIES - LET'S RECOUNT GEORGEBUSH HE BUGS GORE ASTRONOMER MOON STARER THE MORSE CODE HERE COME DOTS MOTHER-IN-LAW WOMAN HITLER PRESBYTERIAN BEST IN PRAYER

Below is the intermediate solution to the Blank Racks puzzle showing which letters go with which racks The full list of words made i s with t he rest of the Edgeways answers on the inside back cover

A AB D E NX f JO D E N O P S Y + A H O ACE JN RR f I Y E E G I N R U + L M P Q S T ACE MN 0 0 f FR E G N O 0 T U + X AD E I 0 S H f V W E 0 0 R R V w + A S V YY ZZ f Z B C D E G K N

29 The last two editions of "Across the Board" have featured annotated games, but very little else. Asa result I've accumulated somethingofa backlog of material. So for this issue of TLW I've decided to omit the annotated game and catch up on the backlog. There's lots of good stuff, including details of an astonishing game that was played on the Internet Scrabble Club (ISC) by two of the UK's top players. But first, let's see what a selection of expert players thought about an interesting late-game position that came up in a practice game prior to the World Scrabble Championship... Ask the Experts This was the position:

d e f Unseen: AEEEOB D DDLLNNRY

Score:

You 343

Opponent 380

Opponent's last move: HAWSER at j14a for 50

What would you play to give you the best chance of winning the game? Let's see what a selection of UK experts think... Pete Finley: Giving this no more time than I would in a face to face game, hereare my thoughts. 1) I can't see a bonus through the C, which appears to be the only bonus line. That doesn't necessarily mean there isn't one. 2) With four Es on my rack and three in the bag, playing Es has to be a high priority. 3) I'd like to create another bonus line if possible, so that if one is taken I have a shot at something else. 4) The three possible moves that leap to mind are: ENE at J15a for 17, leaving EEI?, VEE at F4a for 7, leaving EEIN?, and change EEE, leaving EIN?

30 Changing is futile if the C is blocked. VEE is the move that creates another line, and if the H1 d triple is taken it will leave other floaters. VEE seems a bit feeble though. The gap is not enormous so I might well go for ENE and hope to win it on the endgame through the flexibility of having the blank. A totally non-confident vote for ENE, with VEE as a second choice. Andy Davis: If I was in front, I'd play DIENE at h15a. However, given the deficit and the fact that the blank is on the rack, I'd play NIECE a2 to create a fork of bonus positions. I like taking this sort of "attacking risk" when the situation calls for it. Allan Simmons: I don't necessarily need a bonus to win and it's not necessary to make another bonus open in addition to the useful C at D2. Anyway, playing say VEE at F4 to open another bonus lane actually makes it easier for the opponent to block the new lane plus the C. My view is that it's difficult for the opponent to block the floating C at D2 without offering either a bonus lane on thetop TWS line, down column B, so they might well leave it alone. My strategy would be to resolve the rack imbalance and score what I can elsewhere on theboard, and I quite like DIENE at HI 5a for 20. This keeps a non-bonus win alive score-wise, takes out a scoring place for the unseen Y, and leaves a rack compatible with likely pickups to restore balance. Harshan Lamabadusuriya: Given the limited scoring opportunities on this board, the balanced unseen tile pool and the nature of this rack, I would guess that very few games would be won from this position without the aid of a bonus. NIECE (A2a) creates three separate bonus lines, keeps EE?, and leaves three in the bag. I cannot see an alternative that comes close. Ed Martin: No bonuses. Highest score with blank is 20, so no point burning it. Opponent can probably maintain lead of 27 should we not bonus - unseen is a 5/10 balance of vowels and consonants - more or lessideal. Also tiles with which he can score - B, several Ds, Y, and nothing nasty. So, I don't like our chances without a bonus. We could make some openings with words starting with C at e2 or V at f4, but these are easily blocked. The best method of getting a bonus will be to utilise the C at d2 to make two openings - a word such as NIECE (2a) or NICE (2b) will allow 8-letter words through the N or I, and a 7-letter word at 1e. It will be hard to block both spots. Opponent can playa word parallel to NIECE taking out the floaters and meaning we will have to hook to a 2 letter word at 2e rather than just an E - hut this will not close the opening. NIECE or NICE? Overwhelmingly NIECE: it gives another floater should opponent choose to block at 2e; leavesa more balanced rack (EE? Instead of EEE?); only leaves 4 letters in the bag - so if opponent takes the triple from 2e, he will empty the bag. If we have got lucky with a bonus, we will catch him with a full rack and win. Of course, opponent may play a bonus and we lose anyway, but my call is that we have to go for broke here because otherwise we are likely to be outscored. Conclusion: So, three votes for NIECE at a2a, one for DIENE at hi 5a, and one for ENE at j15a. Other moves suggested were VEE at f4a, NICE at b2a, and change EEE. A move that wasn't mentioned, but I thought I'd throw into the mix, was EE at k15a. So what does computer analysis using the Maven program tell us about this situation? A straight simulation suggests that DIENE is best, marginally ahead of NIECE. But a more significant measure at this stage ofthe game is which move wins the highest percentage of games.

31 Here are the results: EE at k15a wins 50.5% of all games

NIECE at a2a wins 47.4% DIENE at h15a wins 46.7%

ENE at j15a wins 46.1% Change EEE wins 40.5% VEE at f4a wins 39.2% NICE at b2a wins 19.2% It's difficult to know whether these results are distorted because Maven doesn't playthe best moves towards the end of the game, but I found it odd that moves that don't create openings seem to fare as well as those that do. My conclusion is that although the C at d2 representsthe only possible bonus spot on the board, it's actually very difficult to block. Any moves through the C are likely to create better openings along row 1. Only if our opponent has the tiles for a move such as DOC can he block effectively. In the game itself, DIENE was played, followed by DECAY at a2a for 38. A pickup of EDNR gave a winning outplay of NEEDiER at f2a.

Record Breakers? Below are details ofthree remarkable games that, to my knowledge, equal or break existing Scrabble records. Unless you know differently, of course!

Who Needs Bonuses? Between Christmas and New Year, we flew up to Scotland to spend a few days with Allan and Cilli Simmons. We had a thoroughly enjoyable time, eating well and drinking a little more than we should have done,while Gilli and Allan's daughters entertained their little cousin Emma. The Scrabble board appeared only on the final morning, but it featured what I suspect was a record-breaking two-move sequence from Allan. As we approached the end of the game this was the situation, with Allan to play

a b C e g h k I m n 0 ■ft I Hi! B^ P: A K _ r- ; yj ■ D 3 d J|; I? A an w J 1 4 AIT i 0 E I 5 N| I i ji L U 6 MB 1 H E Y T u Xi 7 NT i B M 1 NlT 1 E Rl 1 8 G U c OlVlE D D J P 9 R i wUIL i iu- 10 V 1 NIC aHI ~ p c> A 11 TiWil R L i E R fl 12 F A NG si i m F L 0 E Allan 13 A T |i m 0 Y — 14 M E ■ iill 15 ED 0. r M u

32 Allan played SQUEGS at i14a for 88, and picked EINORZ to accompany his remaining O. I played KA at old, and Allan played ZORINO at d15a for 77-165 points in two moves, neither of which was a bonus or a nine-timer. Has anyone ever achieved anything to compare with this? Do let me know!

Whatever Happened to High-Score Scrabble? For those of you who remember when the objective of Scrabble was simply to score as many points as possible, regardless of who won an individual game, you'll be familiar with gameswhere the aggregate score exceeded 1100, or even, in exceptional circumstances, 1200. Of course those days are long gone - aren't they? Perhaps not. Take a look at this extraordinary game between Harshan Lamabadusuriya and Andy Cook, which took place on the Internet Scrabble Club in December. Here are the racks and moves: Andy Harshan

FGIJOSW |OW Hia 26 26 ABENNPY PENNY H9a 21 21

BFCIISU FIBS L8a 51 97 AAABOTV TAVA H7a 20 41 EGHIIOU HUI FlOa 20 117 ABNOTU? gUNBOATS Old 86 127

EECCIOS CEO D11a 13 130 ADEQRSV QAT M7a 47 174 OEECIIS CIED C12a 27 157 DENRSTY DAB N6d 17 191

CEEIISU chElU - 0 1S7 ENORSTY YO |10a 28 219

CDEIIRS CREO H11a 37 194 EEINRST StENTER F13a 67 286

CEIIIST ERIC L12d 18 212 AADELMR ALDERMAN H3a 74 360

IIIPSTV VIA Hid 18 230 EQORXZ EXORCIZE H15a 284 644

IIOPSTU PIU A13a 16 246 AAEEFST FARE Lid 22 666 AHIMOST OH 114a 37 283 AEIRSTT SLATTER FSa 72 738

AIK1MST SLENTERS F13a 16 299 CINORWt WINCOVeR Cla 65 803

AIKIMTU KALUMPIT A8d 221 500 NO

+2 502 -2 801

When Andy played SLENTERS he was hoping for a U or blank for KALUMPIT, and duly got what he was hoping for - some people have all the luck! This was the final board position:

a h c d c i 8 h l I k I m n 0 kl 1 w 1 G 0 V R F 3 2 1 1 m A 1 u 3 if 1 A L D E R M A N 4 11 1 1 P E B 5 If S L A T T E R 0 £ 6 m H D 7 rm IP T A V A Q A T 8 Kl I Kfflf J 0 W F 1 B S 9 A it $ P E N N Y PI 1 _ 10 L 1 H U 1 Y 0 1 11 U G E 0 C R ED 12 M G 1 E D if E 13 Pi 1 IL S L E N T E R S 14 1 m ■ 0 H 1 m . 15 T| IS r X o R C 1 z E

33 Bonus Bonanza And the third in this record-breaking,or inthis case record-equaling sequence, is a recent club game in which Russell Byers was playing Ivy Dixon-Baird. Here arethe first eight moves for each player:

Ivy Russell WON G8a 12 12 CDEEPT? DEPEiNCT 13d 67 67 HERNIA H4a 26 38 ACEENRU ENACTURE ElOa 64 131 AFT K5a 23 61 AABINRT RABATINE E3d 70 201 FEZ H6a 35 96 EOONRSf EROSION M7d 77 278 Ql D8d 44 140 EEGIKNT KITENGE C9d 98 376 Change 0 140 AEMOSTU NOTAEUMS C13a 64 440 JOY L12d 46 186 ADEEHSU HUE M3a 24 464 GREY Old 36 222 ADE1ILS LIAISED HI 5a 92 556

Sadly, there wereno further bonus plays from Russell. But his six successive bonuses, and his seven in the game, equal the existing records. This was the completed board:

a h c d c f e h i k 1 m n a 1 ijw SIDIO M G 2 U Glf R i to H E 4 § E A I H E RIN 1 A Y 5 A B 0 P A F Tt 6 ■r T A X F E Z n u tI o j§ ] E| ; Q i W O N V R i _L^ 9 I IK 1 N m C O 10 Hi E NlA C T u R E s|H II H fi 12 Ji IE i 11 J o m U N 0 T A E u M s O N 14 1G |a L L p y( m 15 B R E ViE LIA IIS ElDUl

WHIZZ? SWIZZ! Back in August I received a letter from Jacqueline Hanson, who joined the ABSP last year. She mentioned playing games against the Scrabble 2005 computer program, and sent me photographs of two rather unusual situations that had occurred in games against the computer. In one, Scrabble 2005 had played WHIZZ for 99 points on a triple-word. Notice anything odd about this? Right! I have often heard people complain about the computer "cheating"against them. In the case of Scrabble 2005 this seems to be a legitimate complaint - it manufactures duplicate Z's, worth the full 10 points, but only for itself! Have any other people encountered "cheating" computer programs? Unfortunately that doesn't just mean comingup with words we don't know; if that were the case, computers would cheat almost every game!

34 Breaking the stranglehold

In an ISC game against South Africa's Trevor Hovelmeier, Austin Shin was faced with the following unpalatable position. What would you do in Austin's situation? See page 38 to see his choice.

abcdcfKhijklmno E. lIo TJt~ Id AID Score:Austin 365 1 F our Trevor 391 i [IF nMo Ba B_ Trevor: ELNTUW Q ilFr sH? m R 1 B L E T IJJE CM A 1 A ■Mr OR E 1 D E S A X A E M ■1 M A Y 01 S K 1 P 0 N E 1 W 1 G H ■ 1 ■ Z 1 T E H A N M C L 0 S E T p Y E G G N TIA ■ I

Moves to be proud of

Here are some more excellent plays made by ABSP members. See page 38 for the moves played. 1. Played by Mike Willis, Winter Matchplay, November 2005

3 b c d C h 1 k i m n 0 olu llPlO 1 F E X ■ N D ES 1 T E : 1 If N El | ~ML Score: Mike 364 4 it L G E L il s Opponent 303 5 U M 1 6 B L 0 0 D K A M 1 7 ■ s 1 E R R A N E s$ 8 D U 0 Is A 1 A S 1 9 H 0 A T 1 N Jc H 10 M 1 T R 1 N G flo E 11 M I 1 is" A EiFlGloTTk 12 in y V 1 |ii: 1 1 Mike 13 ESS W x N 14 I Lj. I IS ■ i ■ ■

35 2. Played by Phil Robertshaw, Manchester Open, December 2005

a b c d e f e h J k i m n 0 1 i . ■ j V K SlQlU i T E Score: Phil 183 • M 1 V R I 11 Opponent 125 5 li I W E A T 6 m M G II 7 rk it w AB A 8 1 1 p 0 x 1 li R 1 z 9 i D 1 N E 1 0 10 L 1 E u 1) O|R M S II T 1 D ||I E 12 m 11 1 iw {§ 13 a ||i 1 14 I 1 IS 1 15 i JJ m n flic la

3. Played by Ben Wilson, ISC game, November 2005

abc

w

Score: Ben 303 Opponent 285

B M HO inn i inium?i N m Ben

U N

W M I K

N For all the latest information pvu R a i Wisit the Association website at i< ' 4 f i www.absp^org.uk i ittf

36 4. Played by Paul Thomson, Club game, December 2005

a b c d e f g h I j k l m n 0 1 E. A|R]I|N|G| __| vl 1 4 E I ■■'V. 5 fr Score: Paul 253

6 MM Opponent 153

7

j 0 ION 1 c Ik A D IS 9 AIZO 1 i 10 ^ .''■ P E II lM E R F ^gTTTT1o|r|r|rIi 12 M 0 P Y \..T> E A "I I'^'l 13 Paul si at B 14 M

IS I '::S:

5. Played by Pauline Johnson, Sheffield, July 2005

dcfghijklmno

Score: Pauline 279 Opponent 367

Pauline

If you come up with anything to rival these moments of brilliance, do send me details. I need the board position, your rack, the score, and details of when and where the game took place. My address is given on the inside front cover.

37 SCRABBLE BABY BOOM! Two of the country's top Scrabblers have been experiencing fatherhood over the last couple of months. Mark Nyman and, his wife, are celebrating the birth of their second child, Kizzy Pamela Nyman. Kizzy was born on January 17th 2006 at 11.30am. She weighed in at 5lb and 3oz. Mark already has one son, Max.

Celebrating their first child, however, are Stewart Holden and, his wife, Julie. Jasper Edward Holden was born at 5.09amon Saturday 16th December. Jasper was a very healthy 7lb 13oz and labour only took 3 hours from contraction to birth! Stewart has very kindly provided us with a photo or two.

Solutions to Across the Board Breaking thestranglehold Austin passed. And when Trevor played UR at n9a,Austin passed again. Trevor then played REI at m7a for 3, extending his lead to 396-365. However Austin had his plan all worked out. He played his blank at c10, making sTAG for 4 points, and setting up ROJI at b7d for 16. Holding LNTW, Trevor was powerless to do anything about it. The final score was 392-389 in Austin's favour. Note that if Austin had played sTAG immediately, a move such as LUTE at b7d would give Trevor victory. Moves to be proud of: 1. Mike played ECOSTATE at e4d for 40. 2. Phil played COURTLIKE at d5d for 82. 3. Ben played DISUNITIES at ala for 80. 4. Paul played MIRRORING at eld for 80. 5. Pauline played KA at L3a for 12. Why, I hear you ask? The answer is that she'd spotted the possibility of AMUSEMENT at old as a potential winning move, if she picked one of the two unseen E's. Of course it could be blocked, but how many players would spot the danger? Her opponent didn't, and when Pauline duly picked up her E she was delighted to see him play NOWY at k13a. AMUSEMENT gave her a win by8 points.

38 THE BIG PICTURE

The editorial team are hoping to make this a regular feature - a picture that tells a thousand words. This issue's picture is taken from the World Scrabble Championship and features both Adam Logan and his beaten opponent, Pakorn Nemitrmansuk.

Adam Logan receives a hug from Kristen Chew while runner up Pakorn cannot conceal his disappointment at the 3-0 scoreline'.

If you fancy yourselfas the next David Bailey or you find something worth snapping, drop us line and you never know - you could be in the next BIG Picture!

39 ^

Compiled by Paul Cartman

Each tournament approved for rating will get a listing including: date, number of games and contact details. For one day tournaments, furtherdetails will be given as regards pricing, start times etc, to allow members to utilise the generic entry form. Note that some organisers have indicated that rated tournaments will occur on particular dates, hut that full details arenot yet available. These tournaments are included for completeness and once details are known, they will be published as appropriate.

This symbol denotes that the tournament organiser has let it be known that the venue is disabled friendly. The absence of a symbol does not mean that disabled access is not possible, and in these circumstances the prospective entrant should check with the organisers

Note to Entrants These rules apply to all tournaments The entry cost of all rated tournaments includes the ratings levy • Positions are determined on win and spread unless otherwise stated • Smoking is not permitted in the playing area(s) • You will normally be placed in a division equivalent to your rating or ability. You may request to enter a higher division but the Tournament Organiser reserves the right to reject your request. • Entries are at the sole discretion of the Tournament Organiser. t You must always include a SAE with your entry for application. • Please arrive on time

Leicester (6 games) Tea/Coffee available on arrival and after the Saturday 25th February fourth game. Contact Marjorie Smith Entry costs: £10.50 for ABSP member S 01162 551176 £12.50 for non-ABSP member Venue The Church of the Blessed Deduct 50p if bringing a timer Sacrament, Gooding Avenue, you are prepared to lend. Leicester Cheques payable to Leicester West End Registration 9:30 Scrabble Club MP event and sent to First game 10:15 Departure 17:30 Marjorie Smith, 9 Brazil Street, Leicester, 3 Divisional tournament LE2 7JA

40 4 Divisions New Maiden (6 games) Entry costs: £12.00 for ABSP member Saturday 25th February £14.00 for non-ABSP member Contact Shirley Cave Deduct 50p if bringing a timer 8 020 85408469 which you are willing to lend Venue Christ Church Centre, Coombe Tea, Coffee and biscuits will be provided Road, New Maiden , KT34RE Cheques payable to S I Cave, 14 Linden Registration 9.15 Gate, 9 Church Walk, Raynes Park, First game 10:00 Departure 17.45 London, SW20 9DL

Striodon (6 garnet) First game 10:20 Sunday 5th March 5/6 divisional tournament. Contact Steve Perry Tea/Coffee available throughout the S 01367-244757 day.packed lunch included in entry fee Emergency No on day Entry costs: £13.00 for ABSPmember 8 07969-294062 £14.00 for non-ABSP member Venue Nationwide Building Society Deduct 50p if bringing a timer Head Office, Swindon, which you are willing to lend Wiltshire Cheques payable to Highworth Scrabble Charity event, proceeds towards Macmillan Club Tournament a/c and sent to: Cancer Relief Steve Perry, 29 Elm Road, Faringdon, Registration Before 10:00 Oxfordshire, SN7 7EJ

Grantham (6 games) 2/3 divisional tournament. Sunday 12th March Tea/Coffee available all day. Contact Hazel Packham Entry costs: £12.00 for ABSP member 8 01476-410161 £14.00 for non-ABSP member Venue Great Gonerby Social Club, Cheques payable to Grantham Scrabble Great Gonerby, Grantham Club, C/o Hazel Packham, 34 Orchard Registration 09.00 Close, Gonerby Hill Foot, Grantham, Lines, First game 09.30 Departure 18.00 NG31 8HD

Ramada Jarvis, Biogley Contact Viv Beckmann 17th-20th March 8 0191-273-1705

East Sussex (6 games) /-;—, 2/3 divisional tournament. Saturday 18th March 2006 Tea/Coffee available at points during the Contact Ed Breed day but lunch is not provided. 8 01424 219334 Entry costs: £12.00 for ABSPmember Venue Hailsham Community Hall, £14.00 for non-ABSP member Vicarage Lane, Hailsham, Deduct 5Op if bringing a timer BN27 2AE Cheques payable to East Sussex Scrabble Registration 09:00 Entries not accepted Tournament and sent to Ed Breed, 19 after 09.45 Magdalen Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Departure 17.45 Sussex. TN40 1 SB

41 Peterborough (6 games) 2/3 divisional tournament depending on 5 Point Penalty Challenge Event (Rated) entries Saturday 18th March Entry costs: £12.50 for ABSP member Contact Chris Hawkins £14.50 for non-ABSP member S 01733-223202 Deduct 5Op if bringing a timer Emergency Number you are prepared to lend. S 07879-885158 If entering this and Peterborough event on Venue Millfield Community Centre, 18th February, deduct £6 from entry fee 439 Lincoln Road, Cheques payable to Peterborough Scrabble Peterborough, PE1 2PE Club, 39 Peterborough Road, Eye, Registration 9:30 Peterborough, PE6 7YA First game 10:00 Departure 17:45

Southampton (6 games) 4 Divisional tournament A-D Sunday 19th March Tea and coffee will be available during Contact Alan Bailey some breaks and before start 9 023 92384360 Entry costs: £12.50 for ABSPmember Venue Hedge End Village Hall (close £14.50 for non-ABSP member to M27) n.b. NEW VENUE Deduct 50p if bringing a timer Emergency noon day you are prepared to lend. 9 07763 894738 Cheques payable to Southampton Scrabble Registration 09:05 - 09.45 Club, C/o Alan Bailey, 84 East Lodge Park, First game 10:00 Departure 17:50 Farlington, Portsmouth, P06 1AQ Billerieay (6 games) Tea/Coffee available on arrival and between Saturday 8th April games Contact Evelyn Wallace Entry costs: £12.50 for ABSP member 9 01702 302569 £14.50 for non-ABSP member Venue Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Deduct 50p if bringing a timer Church, 21Laindon Road, you are prepared to lend. Billaricay, CM12 9LL Cheques payable to Billericay Scrabble Registration 9.15 Club, C/o Evelyn Wallace, 2 Shakespeare First game 10:00 Departure 17:45 Avenue, Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex SSO 0ST 4 divisional tournament. blue books and yellow books

Blue books are the original and Yellow scorebooks are cleverly designed most popular A5 wirobound to aid players who wish to keep a record scorebook. 100 scoresheets per of their racks and analyse their game at a book on lOOgsm paper. later time. 50 x 2-leaf scoresheets per book Alphabetic tile tracking grids. with vowel/consonant tracking grids. £2.50 each, p+p 50p per book £2.50 each, p+p £1 per book (300gms)

These books can only be obtained From Alec Webb or Yvonne Eade. On sale at many events throughout the year or available by post From: Alec Webb, 17 St Margaret's Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR32 4HS. Email [email protected] for more details.

42 Durham Event (10 games) Contact Laura Finley Sat. 8th - Sun 9th April S 0191-565-4079

Exeter ISCA Event (6 games) Exeter Easter Event (19 games) Friday 14th-Saturday 15th April Friday 14th-Saturday 15th April Contact Ronnie Reid 9 01256 354604

Lothian (5 games) First game 11.00 Departure 17:15 Saturday 15th April Refreshments provided all day as well as Contact Alan Sinclair hot soup at lunchtime S 0131 6697316 Entry costs: £8.00 for ABSP member Venue Liberton Kirk Halls, £10.00 for non-ABSP member 30 Kirkgate, Edinburgh Cheques payable to Alan Sinclair, 19 Registration 10.15 Duddingston Avenue, Edinburgh, EH 15 IS]

Newcastle (5 games) Refreshments available most of the day, Saturday 22nd April food facility expected to be open at the Contact Michael Murray venue fi 0191 2412521 Entry costs: £10.50 for ABSP member Emergency No on day £12.50 for non-ABSP member S 0191267 4242 Deduct 50p if bringing a timer Venue West Denton Community which you are willing to lend Association, Hillhead Road, Cheques payable to Newcastle Scrabble Newcastle-upon-Tyne Club, and sent to: Registration 10.00 Rona Falconer, 18 Nuns Moor Crescent, First game 10:30Departure 17.30 Fenham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE4 9BE 2/3 Divisional depending on entries Closing Date for entries 8th April

Best Western, Berkeley, Worthing Contact Viv Beckmann 28th April - 2nd May 0191-273-1705

Tea/Coffee available at points during the Havering Evergreen Round Robin (6 games) day but lunch is not provided. Saturday 29th April Entry costs: £12.50 for ABSP member Contact Cindy Hollyer £14.50 for non-ABSP member 01277-822050 Deduct 50p if bringing a timer Venue St John's Hall, Church Road, which you are willing to lend Mountnessing, Brentwood, Cheques payable to Havering Scrabble Essex, CM15 0TH Club and sent to Cindy Hollyer, 78 Peartree Registration 09:30 Lane, Doddinghurst, Brentwood, Essex, First game 10:00 Departure 18:00 CM15 0RH

Scottish Open (12 games) Contact Marion Keating 29th - 30th April 01592 265524

43 Registration 09:30 Bournemouth Round Robin(6 games) First game 10:10 Departure 17.30 Sunday 7th May Tea/Coffee available throughout the day Contact Ruth Marsden Entry costs: £12.50 for ABSP member S 01202 707148 £14.50 for non-ABSP member Venue Rooper Hall, 5 Victoria Park Cheques payable to Bournemouth Scrabble Road, Moordown, Tournament and sent to: Bournemouth Ruth Marsden, 27 Spencer Road, Canford Emergency on day only Cliffs, Poole, BH13 7ET 07720 949 825 Closing date for entries 1st May

Bourne (6 games) Tea/Coffee available on all day Sunday 7th May Entry costs: £ 12.00 for ABSP member Contact Betty Benton £14.00 for non ABSP member 9 01778 425234 Deduct 50p if bringing a timer Venue Bourne Corn Exchange Cheques payable to Bourne and District Registration 09.15 Scrabble Club and sent to: First game 10:00 Departure 18.00 Betty Benton, Walnut Farm, Twenty, 2/3 divisional tournament of up to 96 Bourne, Lines, PE10 0BH players Closing Date for entries 22nd April 2006

Lothersdale Hotel, Moreeambe Contact Viv Beckmann 12th- 15th May 0191-273-1705

Newport (6 games) Entry costs: £12.00 for ABSP member Saturday 13th May £14.00 for non-ABSP member Contact Terry Jones Deduct 50p if bringing a timer ® 01633-775313 which you are willing to lend Venue Cwmbran Stadium, Cwmbran, Lunch will be provided, as will both tea Gwent and coffee at intervals during the day Registration 09:30 Cheques payable to Newport Scrabble Club First game 10:15 and sent to Terry Jones, 5 Arlington Close, 3 divisional tournament Newport, South Wales, NP20 6QF

Mapperley (Invitational) Contact Maurice Brown Saturday 13th May 0115 9746031

Warrington (6 games) 3 Divisional tournament Saturday 20th May Tea Coffee and biscuits available during the Contact Wayne Kelly day - no lunch provided. 01925 483530 (home) Entry costs: £14.00 for ABSP member 07791 772795 (mobile) £16.00 for non-ABSP member Venue Appleton Parish Hall, Dudlow Deduct 50p if bringing a timer Green Road, Appleton, which you are willing to lend Warrington, WA4 5EQ Cheques payable to Wayne Kelly, Registration 09.15 17 Cossack Avenue, Orford, Warrington, First game 10.00 WA2 9PB

44 Divisions according to entries Brighton & Hove (6 games) Tea/Coffee available at points during the Sunday 21st May day but lunch is not provided. Contact Jim Lyes Entry costs: £12.50 for ABSPmember '« 01273 813006 £14.50 for non-ABSP member Venue Southwich Community Centre, Deduct 50p if bringing a timer Southwick, City of Brighton & which you are willing to lend Hove, West Sussex, BN42 4TE Cheques payable to Brighton & Hove Registration 09:30 Scrabble Club, Jim Lyes, 4 Delves Close, First game 10:15 Departure 17.45 Ringmer, Lewes, BN8 5JW

Bristol - NSC/NSCT Regional (6 games) Contact Phil Nelkon Sunday 21st May ■8 01628 500283

Stoke Roebford (19 games) Contact Christina French 27th - 29th May ,s 07736-606092

Southgate - NSC/NSCT Regioilal (6 games) Contact Phil Nelkon

Saturday 3rd June m 01628 500283

Melton Mowbray (6 games) Tea/Coffee available on arrival and after Sunday 4th June game 4. Food will not be provided Contact Maureen Rayson Entry costs: £11.00 for ABSP member & 01664 563330 £13.00 for non-ABSP member Venue Council Offices, Nottingham Deduct 50p if bringing a timer Road, Melton Mowbray, Leics. Cheques payable to Melton Mowbray Charity event in support of the Mayor's Scrabble Club, and sent to Maureen appeal Rayson, 57 Highfield Avenue, Melton Registration 10:00 First game 10:30 Mowbray, Leics. LE13 0NQ 3 divisional tournament. Closing date for entries 21st May 2006

Shipley - NSC/NSCT Reg ional (6 games) Contact Phil Nelkon Sunday 11th June ■e 01628 500283

Cairo Hotel, Harrogate Contact Viv Beckmann 16th - 19th June S 0191-273-1705

Peterborough -NSC/NSCT Regional (6 games) Contact Phil Nelkon Saturday 17th June

Southampton -NSC/NSCT Regional (6 games) Contact Phil Nelkon Sunday 18th June 01628 500283

45 2/3 divisional tournament depending on Peterlea Matehplay (6 garnet) entries Sunday 18th June Entry costs: £11.00 for ABSP member Contact Samantha Beckwith £13.00 for non-ABSP member 8 0191-586-6436 Deduct 50p if bringing a timer Venue The White House Community which you are willing to lend Centre, Eden Lane, Peterlee, Closing date for entries 29th May 2006 Co Durham Cheques payable to Samantha Beckwith, Registration 09.45 91 Hatfield Place, Peterlee, Co. Durham, First game 10:15 Departure 17:45 SR8 5SU

Perth -NSC/NSCT Regional (6 garnet) Contact Phil Nelkon Saturday 24th June 01628 500283

YvonneJukes Shield (Invitational) Venue Rooper Hall, Victoria Road, Sunday 25thJune Winton, Bournemouth, BH9 2RB Registration 9.50 Open to clubs in the South of England. First game 10.30 Departure 17.30 Round Robin team event, 5 members Tea and Coffee provided to a team. Entry costs £10.00 for ABSP members Contact Maureen Chamberlain £12.00 for non-ABSP members 8 01202 488191 Cheques payable to Bournemouth Scrabble Emergency number on day Club Charity Account, C/o Maureen S 07759 103898 Chamberlain, 9 Hanover Lea, Highview Close, Christchurch, BH23 2RHSR8 5SU

Summer Matehplay Contact Amy Byrne 1st-2ndjuly 8 0131 661 3869

Saxon (14-16 games) Contact Jim Lyes 12th-13th July 8 01273 813006

Germanica (14-16 games) Contact Jim Lyes 15th-16th July 8 01273 813006

4 Divisions New Maiden (6 games) Entry costs: £12.00 for ABSP member Saturday 15th July £14.00 for non-ABSP member Contact Shirley Cave Deduct 50p if bringing a timer 8 020 8540 8469 which you are willing to lend Venue Christ Church Centre, Coombe Tea, Coffee and biscuits will be provided Road, New Maiden , KT3 4RE Cheques payable to S I Cave, 14Linden Registration 9.15 Gate, 9 Church Walk, Raynes Park, First game 10:00 Departure 17.45 London, SW20 9DL

Clifton Hotel, Penrith Contact Viv Beckmann 21st-24th July 0191-273-1705

46 Nottingham Nomads (16 games) Contact Clive Spate Saturday 5th-Sunday 6th August 0115-920-0208

BMSC Details to be announced 25th - 28th August

Tea/Coffee available at points during the Havering Autumn Tournament (6 games) day but lunch is not provided. Sunday 9th September Entry costs: £12.50 for ABSPmember Contact Cindy Hollyer £14.50 for non-ABSP member 8 01277-822050 Deduct 50p if bringing a timer Venue Kelvedon Hatch Village Hall, which you are willing to lend Kelvedon Hatch, Brentwood, Cheques payable to Havering Scrabble Essex Club and sent to: Registration 09:15 Cindy Hollyer, 78 Peartree Lane, First game 10:00 Departure18:00 Doddinghurst, Brentwood, Essex, CM15

Birmingham - NSC/NSCT Contact Phil Nelkon 9th- 10th September 01628 500283

3 divisional tournament. Norwich (6 games) Tea/Coffee and homemade cakes provided Sunday 17th September (but not lunch) Contact Carol Smith Entry costs: £10.00 for ABSP member 8 01603 898791 £12.00 for non-ABSP member Venue Hethersett Village Hall, No further discounts Hethersett, Norwich, Norfolk Cheques payable to Carol Smith, Registration 09.30 31 Christine Road, Spixworth, Norwich, First game 10:15 Departure 18.00 NR10 3PH

Lotbersdale Hotel, Moreeambe Contact Viv Beckmann 15th - 18th September 8 0191-273-1705

Bradford - NSCT Final Contact Phil Nelkon 23rd September '8 01628 500283

Bournemouth (6 games) First game 10:10 Departure 17.30 Sunday 1 st October f 3/4 Divisional tournament Contact Ruth Marsden Tea/Coffee available throughout the day 8 01202 707148 Entry costs: £12.50 for ABSP member Venue Rooper Hall, 5 Victoria Park £14.50 for non-ABSP member Road, Moordown, Cheques payable to Bournemouth Scrabble Bournemouth Tournament and sent to: Emergency on day only Ruth Marsden, 27 Spencer Road, Canford 07720 949 825 Cliffs, Poole, BH13 7ET Registration 09:30 Closing date for entries 24th September

47 Cardiff Weekend Contact Mary Allen 7th- 8th October 0191-273-1705

Vectis Itle-of-Wight 6th - 7th October Contact Noel Turner Main Event S 01983 614426 7th - 8th October

Registration 09:50 Salisbury (6 games) First game 10:30 Departure 18.00 Sunday 15th October Round Robin Contact Bob Lynn Tea, coffee, biscuits and cake available « 01722-325623 between games. Lunch is not provided Emergency Number Entry costs: £13.00 for ABSP member S 0771-818-9630 £14.00 for non-ABSP member Venue Winterbourne Glebe Hall Cheques payable to Robert Lynn Scrabble Winterbourne Dauntsey, Account, and addressed to Robert Lynn, Salisbury 4 George Street, Salisbury,.SP2 7BA

Varnfield(Stafford SC) Contact Paul Cartman 14th - 15th October S 01785 211851

Hotel de Normandie, Jersey Contact Viv Beckmann 14th - 21st October S 0191-273-1705

Cairn Hotel, Harrogate Contact Viv Beckmann 17th - 20th November S 0191-273-1705

48 Answers to Edgeways

The 5-Minute Anagram Test

A. TRASHING ORATION ROUTINE GOUTIER DENOTES WEARIES GLOATED TRAWLER TRIPLET BEADLES

B. PENLITE SEDGIER ERMINES EMERITI TELECOM COLOGNE AMOROUS OVERTOP HEIRLOOM MARIGOLD

C. URCEOLI ZINGARI GEODESY PODESTA SCOURIE OEDIPAL ECZEMAS ALFRESCO SEAFOODS DEWCLAWS

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Meet My Twin

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Blank Racks

+A DYSPNOEA +J BANJAXED +S SEIGNEUR +B OVERBROW +K OVERWORK +T GENITURE +C OVERCROW +L REGULINE +U BANDEAUX +D OVERWORD +M MERINGUE +V WAIVODES +E OVERWORE +N OVERWORN +W WAIWODES +F MOONFACE +O POYSONED +X OXTONGUE +G OVERGROW +P PUREEING +Y JERRYCAN +H SYPHONED +Q QUEERING +Z ZYZZYVAS (of +1 JERRICAN +R COENAMOR course!) A quick reference to forthcoming competitions (fuller list and detailsinside)

Dale Tournament (No of games) Contact Telephone

Mar 5th Swindon (6) Steve Perry 01367 244757 Mar 5th NE v NW (6) invitation only Mar 12th Grantham (6) Hazel Packham 01476410161 Mar 17th-2Oth H-B Holidays - Bingley Viv Beckmann 0191 273 1705 Mar 18th East Sussex (6) Ed Breed 01424 219334 Mar 18th Peterborough 5PP (6) Chris Hawkins 01733 223202 Mar 19th Southampton (6) Alan Bailey 023 9238 4360 Apr 8th Billericay (6) Evelyn Wallace 01702 302569 Apr 8th-9th Durham (11) Laura Finley 0191 5654079 Apr 14th Exeter - ISCA Matchplay (6) Ronnie Reid 01256 354604 Apr 15th-17th Exeter Matchplay (19) Ronnie Reid 01256 354604 Apr 1 5th Lothian (5) Alan Sinclair 0131 669 7316 Apr 22 nd Newcastle (5) Michael Murray 0191 2412521 Apr 28th-May 2nd H-B Holidays - Worthing Viv Beckmann 0191 273 1705 Apr 29th Havering Evergreens (6) Cindy Hollyer 01277 822050 Apr 29th-3Oth Scottish Open (12) Marion Keatings 01592 265524 Apr 30th BEST - Round One (7) Evan Simpson 024 7632 0198 May 7th Bourne (6) Betty Benton 01778 425234 May 7th Bournemouth (6) Ruth Marsden 01202 707148 May 12th-15th H-B Holidays - Morecambe Viv Beckmann 0191 2731705 May 13th Mappcrley Invitational Tournament invitation only May 20th Warrington (6) Wayne Kelly 01925 483530

May 21st NSC(T) Bristol (6) Philip Nelkon 01628 500283 May 21st Brighton & Hove (6) JimLyes 01273 813006 May 27th-29th Stoke Rochford (19) Christina French 01708 701578 |un3rd NSC(T) Southgate (6) Philip Nelkon 01628 500283 lun 4th Melton Movvbray (6) Maureen Rayson 01664 563330 lun 4th BEST - Round Two (7) Evan Simpson 024 7632 0198 Jun 11th NSC(T) Shipley (6) Philip Nelkon 01628 500283 lun 16th-19th H-B Holidays - Harrogate Viv Beckmann 0191 273 1705 lun 17th NSC(T) Peterborough (6) Philip Nelkon 01628 500283 |un 18th Peterlee (6) Samantha Beckwith 0191 586 6436 lun 18th NSC(T) Southampton (6) Philip Nelkon 01628 500283 lun 24th NSC(T) Perth (6) Philip Nelkon 01628 500283 lun 25lh Yvonne Dukes Shield (5) Maureen Chamberlain 01202 488191 Jul 1st-2ncl Summer Matchplay (11) Amy Byrne 0131 661 3869 |ul 2nd BEST - Round Three Evan Simpson 024 7632 0198

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