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 2 of 25 – August 19, 2025

The phrase “beautiful word” conjures up players who will sometimes consciously forgo a higher score just in order to play a great word. The person who most comes to mind in this connection is the late “grande dame” of the Scrabble club, Sara Schachter, whose appreciation of a lovely word was boundless. Without knowing all the words that were played on Tuesday, Hilites awards this week’s prize to Lisa for her first play of the game, the bingo SYCAMORE, in which she used her blank as the Y – ticking the boxes for both beautiful and high-scoring word.

What is the procedure to follow if, when you’re picking letters, another letter falls out of the bag or, for example, gets caught on your sleeve? If you haven’t seen the letter, it can go straight back in the bag. If you have seen it, so as not to have an unfair advantage you must show it to your opponent, after which you may return it to the bag.

Longtime player Joel Elkins, who lives in California but remains loyal to the club despite his very high rating – he’s just been playing in the US Nationals – writes: “I enjoy reading your Hilites each week. The standard notation for phonies is *, as in OURIES*.  That way someone doesn’t mistakenly add it to their Scrabble lexicon. Likewise, if it’s only good in Collins [dictionary], you would add #.” This seems like sound practice, and Hilites will attempt to adopt it.

The phonies COOTY*, BOTTE*# and REDOSING* all made it through unchallenged on Tuesday. COOTIE (a real or imagined germ) is good, and so is BOT, short for robot, and BOTT, the larva of a botfly. May’s phony BURPIER* was also accepted, to her relief. In case you think BURPEE is the person burping or being burped at, it’s a type of exercise. Having both the Z and a blank, Richard played DRIZZLE.

Elana: “I had RETAIN plus a T on my rack so I knew I had bingo options, but I could see only NATTIER, which I couldn’t put down. Had I worked harder to improve my word knowledge I would have known that TERTIAN was also an option, and that it fit – and I would have won my game by more than the two points that I did!” The word describes symptoms of a disease occurring every other day. 

Could this be the ultimate definition of despair? Overheard: “All my opponents drew amazing racks and played bingo after bingo, and I lost three games….”

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 up to a week in advance. 

WWW: Rita, Elana

WOW: EUGENICS (Dahlia), ENVELOPE (Hilda)

PHOW: REDOSING (Elana), BURPIER (May)

High Win, High Loss, High Triple:

A: 545 (Dahlia), 429 (Wendy),  1507 (Dahlia)

B1: 448 (Judy), 419 (Susan), 1182 (Judy)

Scores over 500: 545 (Dahlia), 504 (Steve)

100-pt play: FOISTED 102 (Elana)

Attendance: 17