Welcome to the Jerusalem Scrabble Club

COME PLAY WITH US … VISITORS ALWAYS WELCOME!

*** NEW PLAYERS: CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ***

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

 THIS WEEK AT THE CLUB

Season 83,  Week 12 of 25 – April 22, 2025

Mindful of Memorial Day beginning on Tuesday evening of next week, Elana sent out via WhatsApp a poll allowing members to vote on whether our Scrabble session should instead take place on Sunday or Monday. Those opting for the former won the day and so we will meet on Sunday, April 27. 

Words that end in -ING pose little problem. It’s when they are pluralized that the torture (or, as the Scrabble Fairy has it, the fun) begins. To challenge those plurals, or not? Some of them seem okay, but aren’t. Others look decidedly weird, but are acceptable. Judy lost her game to DavidG by leaving his phony RAKINGS on the board. “For example, he threw the (garden) rakings onto the bonfire,” she said afterwards. “Sounded reasonable to me.” Those paying attention might have discerned a low chuckle emanating from the Scrabble bag.

Lisa got away with CALIOPE, which should have been CALLIOPE, the musical instrument invented in the 1850s and played by forcing steam or compressed air through a series of whistles. Meaning “beautiful-voiced” (from kallos, “beauty,” and ops, “voice”), the instrument was named after Calliope, the most prominent of the Muses, who, in Greek mythology, presided over poetry, song, and the arts and sciences. 

Lisa was less lucky with OVERGAIN, which was challenged off. As they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Roger’s phony JINKY remained on the board. His opponent later commented that she had likely confused it with ZINKY (also ZINCY and ZINCKY).

ElanaS: “I started the game off with three bingos. The first, unchallenged, was a phony, STOWAGED. The second was LAUREATE. On my third turn I pulled out INGROUND, which my opponent challenged; but it was good. The rest of the game I had only mediocre plays – but my opponent had sufficiently lost confidence after my third bingo to enable me to win the game.” The moral bears repeating: Don’t lose heart – it ain’t over till it’s over.

Do you possess what an A player once described as “the killer instinct,” in other words, the drive to win at all costs? Richard related with a rueful smile how he nearly lost his game to a considerably less experienced player after confirming that a certain two-letter word was good and could be safely played. “I figured, well, it was worth only around 11 points… but then my opponent rallied magnificently, and I won by just a single point.” The late and much-missed Alice Jonah was known for her kindheartedness in helping new players along, “and it sometimes ended with them beating me!” she once recalled, appearing to mind not one bit.

Overheard: “You know you need a break from Scrabble when you wake up at 3 am after dreaming of the outplay you should have made in the last game!”

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: Dahlia, Steve, Rena, DavidG

WOW:  LIGATURE, EVENTFUL (DavidS ), APNOEAS (Rena)

PHOW: WHITNEY (Richard), TOESIES (Elana)

High Win, High Loss, High Triple:

A: 500 (DavidS), 407 (Chani),  1384 (Dahlia)

B1: 490 (May), 398 (Yonatan), 1232 (May)

Scores over 500: 500 DavidS

100-pt play:

Attendance: 31