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 85, Week 02 of 25 – February 24, 2026

Lots were drawn to decide which night of next week would, because of Purim, replace our regular Tuesday session, but it soon transpired that Sunday, March 1, was in fact the only available date; so the club will meet then.

Marilyn’s return after an absence of six weeks following hip surgery was greeted with a round of applause.  Confessing that she hadn’t played much Scrabble in the interim, she rolled up her metaphorical sleeves. Bob, her opponent in the first game, recalled her reentry into the cut and thrust of competition: “First, she played for 18 points. Then another 18, followed by 17, 16, 18…. Having cleared the deck, she then scored a bingo.”

With a rack of NUMZLU plus two blanks and an E on the board, Susan played UNMUZZLE for 96 points. After Steve’s INSECTER was challenged off, he tried INSETTER, which was also challenged. Unluckily for his opponent, it’s good, meaning a person who insets something, for example, a map or picture into a book. Pauline played VERSING, an informal, colloquial verb meaning to compete against – derived, says Google, from a misinterpretation of the Latin “versus.”

Brenda regretted allowing Dahlia to get away with adding an S to AZO [a chemical group], which takes only an N. Lisa similarly avoided a penalty for her phony OUTSCALE. Brenda essayed GAUNTLY, which was challenged and is good. Debbie played DABU, an Indian printing technique from Rajasthan, but actually meant DABO, the traditional Ethiopian bread often served during Shabbat and holidays. Neither word, however, appears in our dictionary.

“It wasn’t the first time I’ve felt like kicking myself, and it probably won’t be the last,” sighed Judy. She was leading 387-304 in her game against DavidS when he bingoed with ARENEID. She wasn’t sure about it and decided against risking a challenge. “What I didn’t realize was that it was a risk-free challenge since the bag was empty!” The result: David won by nine points. The word is a phony; it should be ARANEID, a spider, but there was no other, valid, seven-letter word on David’s rack. “Caught in a web of my own making,” Judy said.

It shouldn’t happen to us (except in Scrabble): If you’re awash with vowels and scarcely a consonant to be seen, you might remember the advanced medical condition known as URAEMIA (also UREMIA) and unburden your rack of four or five vowels in one go. Grumbled one player, not without some justification: “After which you’ll probably pull seven consonants!”

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

WOW: UNMUZZLE (Susan), AIRHEADS (Wendy), YESSING (Elana)

PHOW: RADIOER (Yonatan), SENILER (ElanaS)

High Win, High Loss, High  Triple:

A: 464 (DavidS), 390 (Wendy), 1217 (Dahlia)

B1: 470 (Pamela), 393 (Brenda), 1177 (Judy)

Scores over 500:

100-pt play: 

Attendance: 22