Welcome to the Jerusalem Scrabble Club

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

 

 THIS WEEK AT THE CLUB

Season 79,  Week 05 of 25 – January 24, 2023

Thanks to Josh, who has now updated the stats on the club website from last season; to see them, select Facts from the main menu. Elana reminded members that the club is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and invited suggestions on how to mark this milestone. “Life,” said Carl G. Jung, “really does begin at 40. Up till then, you are just doing research.” If that is so, we can expect some great Scrabble in the decades ahead. Aryeh, keeping the anniversary firmly in mind, scored 40 points three times in his first game alone. 

One definition of the verb “coffeehouse” is “to engage in aimless talk or chitchat.” While it would be harsh to mandate strict silence across the board at all times during play at our club where games are, paradoxically, friendly at the same time as they are competitive – even cutthroat – coffeehousing does go against club rules and tournament play; and on Tuesday it caused one player the kind of heartache only Scrabble players can know. He was just placing GRISTER when his opponent, an excellent player, murmured, “I wouldn’t do that….” This led our would-be intrepid contestant to vacillate, and he removed the ER. Turns out the British English GRISTER is acceptable in NWL18, and another bingo bit the dust.

Nautical maven Aryeh played FORESTAY, the cable that supports the foremast; while Shirley placed UTERUS on a triple, a good way to use up those Q-less U’s on your rack. Elaine scored an impressive 559, and Brenda made her highest score ever – 536. Madeline won her first game scoring 461 points; in the second game, her opponent beat her with the same score.

DavidL reflected that “some things just aren’t meant to be.” In his game against Wendy, down by 40 points, he picked a dream of a final rack: AET?ILS. David: “With eight minutes on the clock, I had to fit a winner over two small hooks; and since I could afford to lose 40 points going over time and still win with a bingo, I spent 13 minutes searching for an – ultimately unplaceable – one.” Turns out there are 45 seven-letter bingos in that rack. 

Scrabble isn’t for the fainthearted. One player confided that she is still recovering from her shock at learning during the recent tournament that JESTINGS and UNQUIETS are both good. “But how can you use unquiets in a sentence?” she was heard asking, plaintively. Predictably, there was no answer.

WWW: DavidS, Dahlia, Pamela, Brenda, Elaine

WOW:  JINGOIST (DavidL), SURVEYOR (Hilda)

PHOW: 

High Win, High Loss, High Triple:

A:   501 (DavidS), 411 (Rena), 1401 (DavidS)

B1: 559 (Elaine), 392 (Nechama), 1392 (Elaine)

100-pt plays: 

Attendance: 32