Scrabble 2

Meets twice monthly, 1st and 3rd Fridays at 2.00pm

6th November
We had six players today including Wendy, a new member of Bude U3A, as a reserve. We now have nine members but it’s usually Richard who gives up his seat so Wendy should be OK.

We split into two tables of three and then Mary rang at 2.30pm to say that she was running late as she had been singing at a funeral and was it OK for her to join us now? Of course it was. She joined Ros, Linda and Jen for their second game.

Kate, Wendy and I played together. Kate was handicapped by rack after rack of vowels and Wendy hadn’t used two-letter words before. I told her not to worry as I remember being baffled by Audrey’s skilful use of two-letter words when she helped us to set up Scrabble 2.

At one point we congratulated Kate on making a very good score and didn’t notice that one of the words created was the non-existent ‘chunt’.

The players on the other table had mixed fortunes. Although Ros did well out of ‘goolie’ (trust Ros!) and then she and I scandalised the others by breaking into a chorus of ‘ging gang goolie’. Jen didn’t mind too much as Ros had inadvertently opened up a triple word square.

After the others had left, Kate, Linda, Ros and I played another game which Ros won by virtue of going out with a seven-letter word, scoring 60 points plus 25 gained from the rest of us. We were thrilled for her!

Quotes
‘I don’t have any quotes for this game.’ ‘Good. I’m pleased to hear it.’

20th November
Mary rang at 1.00pm (!) to apologise for being late as she couldn’t find her car keys. You can ask her why she still thinks it’s summer time.
Full house today with two tables of four. Linda, Wendy, Jen and Ros played together. Jen started the first game with a seven-letter word and went on to win the game even though she had missed two goes whilst trying to get her second seven-letter word out. She was also the highest scorer of the afternoon with 210. Paradoxically, Jen came last in their next game with a score of 96.

Mary, Richard, Kate and I played together and for the first time for absolutely ages, I was able to demonstrate that if you have a balanced rack you can amass a good score. Personally, I think that a combination of three vowels and four consonants is a winning combination.

Quotes (although Richard thinks I should concentrate more on the game and not be so distracted by what people say)
‘Kate was nude twice.’
‘How can you be nuder?’
‘I think I’m going to have sex.’
‘What’s the coconut thing?’
‘Ovulate?’ ‘No. Obviate!’
‘I can do sex again.’

4th December
No Jen today. We are on tenterhooks – has her first grandchild arrived? Yes! Thomas, weighing in at 7lbs 6ozs. Congratulations!
Ros, Wendy and I played together and Kate, Linda, Mary and Richard were on the other table. Richard gave up after only one game as he found it impossible to concentrate. Too much girlie chatter in one room?

Linda forfeited a turn to change her tiles as she had too many vowels. She then realised that she had been too hasty and now didn’t have either an I or a U to go with her Q. Oops!

Wendy got off to a cracking start with a seven-letter word scoring 70 points and went on to win the game. She was also the highest scorer of the afternoon with 260 points. It hasn’t taken her long to settle in!

She then said that she wouldn’t be here for the next game as she was going to Campinas in Brazil to attend a wedding. Ros exclaimed that she had also been to a wedding in Campinas! Anybody else?

Linda asked us to remind us to change her Scrabble glasses before she left to drive home. (see earlier reports).

Quotes
‘Ooh, I can have sodomy’ (Scrabble players have no shame nor censors)

18th December
Late start today while I sorted out the money. Apparently 70p is an awkward amount for Scrabble players! I promised to have the appropriate change available in future. Then Kate distributed Emily’s cards and gave us her new address.

As we were feeling festive, we decided to push the tables together and Linda took an 25 extra tiles from the second bag.

A game with five players does take a little longer, especially when we’re all chatting and (perhaps) not giving the game our full concentration. It was agreed that the Xmas lunch at the Falcon was a huge success, while Mary missed writing down three scores, Ros dropped the tiles all over the floor and the mince pies collapsed in the microwave.

Mary left after we had completed played a long, rambling, game which took nearly two hours and the rest of us played a much quicker game which Kate should have won after putting down a seven-letter word scoring 67 points. But I actually won the game as Linda put down YEW just short of a triple word square and enabled me to put down my word and add it to hers to score 50 points and be the highest scorer with 228 points. Linda apologised profusely to Kate but the damage had been done.

Quotes
‘You can’t have a Xmas lunch without parsnips!’
‘Is it still your go Mary?’
‘I’ve played the whole game with the wrong glasses on!’ (Guess who?)
‘I’ve put ‘squits’ so I’m not putting ‘fart’!’

15th January
All eight of us made it today and we started by admiring the photos of baby Thomas (see note above) which Jen just happened to bring with her. Regretfully, the rest of the afternoon didn’t produce anything particularly noteworthy

After our usual random draw, the four most competitive players were on one table. As they tend to play a tight, tactical game, they completed only two games against the other table’s three. Both tables were pretty evenly matched so there was no outstanding winner (or loser for that matter), although Ros was the highest scorer with 206.

Linda did inadvertently help her fellow players (especially me) on one or two occasions by blurting out some very helpful advice and also assisting me with adding up my score. Well, it does get complicated, adding in the extra double and treble scores.

Quotes
‘What a long hour!’
‘It’s another long hour!’
‘No, I put down botty it was Ros that put down anal.’
‘I don’t think anal qualifies is a medical term.’

Sue Evans