Welcome to the Jerusalem Scrabble Club

COME PLAY WITH US … VISITORS ALWAYS WELCOME!

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 Director: Elana Simons, 054 220 6238, elanalibby@gmail.com

 THIS WEEK AT THE CLUB

Season 84, Week 22 of 25 – January 20, 2026

With week 22 of the current season behind us, there are just another three sessions to go until the clock is reset, the slate is wiped clean, and our Scrabble sins are pardoned. The dawn of Season 85 beckons with the promise – or at least the hope – of great words, great scores and improved rankings.

We were happy to make the acquaintance of Bob’s brother Josh, visiting from Detroit. “I’ve been telling him about the club for years,” said Bob, with his trademark broad smile. Indeed, Josh gave every appearance of feeling at home there. “I’m really enjoying it,” he said toward the end of the evening, ”though I haven’t played at this level before… and the people are terrific.” 

After her long sojourn in the States visiting family, it was a pleasure to welcome Debbie back into the Scrabble “family.”

Though much depends on the stage of a game and the relative scores, one of the toughest decisions to make can be whether to risk a bingo you’re not sure of. Judy took a chance with GLAIRING: “I recognized GLAIR as a word, but not much more,” she said, ”and had I known it meant a liquid made from the white of an egg, I wouldn’t have verbified it….” Her opponent was rightly suspicious; but, as it turned out, his challenge revealed the existence of a verbal form meaning “to varnish something with egg white.” BTW, VERBIFY, comic though it looks, is good in our dictionary.

Sometimes you just don’t want to take the risk. DavidS: “I had AECIDIUM [a fungus] on my rack, but I chickened out of playing it. In another game, my leave after playing QUIN was UD and a blank. I saw QUIDNUNC [a gossipmonger] and there was a place for it joined to an open C on the board – but I didn’t believe it. So that’s two crazy bingos I chickened out of in one session!”

Lisa added an S to OBLIQUE, which looked wrong, but the word also describes a muscle. Steve played ISATINE, an organic compound. Brenda played SHEP across the triple and her opponent, knowing that our word list contains many Yiddish terms, squinted at it for a while, but didn’t challenge. That decision likely cost her the game – from which, suffice it to say, she didn’t shep much naches. Note: while SHEP isn’t good in WOW24, both SHLEP and SCHLEP are. So is NACHES.

On second thought: “I had a close game with Wendy,” Elana reported, “but ended up with a final rack of CIUSUR plus a blank. Thinking I was out of luck and the game was Wendy’s, I decided to put down just the word CURES. Then, as I started taking the letters off my rack, I suddenly saw the word CURIOUS – which meant I bingoed out and took the game.” Truly, it ain’t over till it’s over.

If you missed the opportunity to communicate your hilite in person at the club you can email it to judymo@netvision.net.il or WhatsApp it (054-5552355) up until noon the following day. If you wish to mark any occasion by bringing refreshments to the club, please check with Susan or Elana up to a week in advance. 

WWW: Rena, Dahlia, Peta, Steve, Brenda, Pauline

WOW: QUATRAINS (Brenda), ENVELOP (Jonathan)

PHOW: YANKEES (Dahlia), UNITABLE, BORRIDE (DavidS) OVERGIVE (Steve) RETWINED (Susan)

High Win, High Loss, High  Triple:

A: 496 (DavidS), 385 (DavidS), 1348 (DavidS)

B1: 447 (Brenda), 374 (Pamela), 1152 (Brenda)

Scores over 500:

100-pt play: QUATRAINS (104)

Attendance: 24