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Written by HG

Category: News

Published: 24 January 2025

Hits: 25

The UK Open tournament was held in Reading, and East Berks Scrabble Club was one of the nearest clubs. Our members were aware we might be needed for publicity purposes.  How right we were!

Early morning of the first day of the tournament, the organiser, James Burley, had appeared on BBC Radio Berkshire and given East Berks Scrabble Club a little mention. As we checked into the tournament 3 hours later we were told Radio Berkshire were attending and wanted us to do some radio interviews with them. Many of us did, including Richard and Pat – and by mid-afternoon an article about the UK open appeared on the BBC Radio Berkshire website, including a great picture of  Richard.

That evening the radio interviews were broadcast during the drivetime show.

As all of this was happening, BBC Radio Berkshire had discovered thar Graham and Helen met through playing Scrabble. They decided to run a Scrabble ‘love story’ angle to the UK Open.

As Graham and Helen were playing their first few games, Radio Berkshire contacted James for a follow up.  Here is Graham and Helen’s account of  what happened next…

“Can Helen and Graham make a phone interview early Monday ?”

“Actually, change that, can they come into the studio for 840?”

“Can they bring  a scrabble set with them..”

“…and any wedding photos!”

840 Monday morning (when we really wanted a lie in) we were interviewed live by Radio Berkshire.  After our interview, we were re-interviewed at home for more information. An article also appeared on the BBC Radio Berkshire website.

The touchpaper was lit.

The BBC had found a ‘feel good story”. On Tuesday BBC South Today were due to film at the UK Open, before that however they came to our house for an hour – part interviewing, part filming, part playing Scrabble. Our piece was to be edited into the rest of the filming.

We were meeting a few friends in the afternoon -  some had seen our presence on the BBC Berkshire website … “You’re a celebrity”  we were told for the first of many times that week.

We arrived back to two more media enquiries. The first was from SouthWest News Service. Since Helen was originally from Gloucester, this seemed reasonable and we gave an interview ensuring we mentioned Gloucester. We also had an enquiry from a company that provides content to Freeview Channel 7. (A local station available for rolling local adverts/news).

The BBC South Today article aired just before 7pm on Tuesday evening. Within a minute of its broadcast we had a message from an acquaintance … “saw you on the telly” !

Wednesday morning: Isle of Wight player Penny Downer was on BBC Radio Berkshire duty – another great interview.

That day we had a zoom filming piece with Freeview Channel 7, and as we were speaking to them setting up zoom, ITV Meridian (the local regional ITV) phoned to arrange a filming slot.

South West News Service have many outlets, and they printed various articles in various publications including a far better article in the Reading Chronicle  that had appeared as a ‘cut and paste’ article earlier in the week. We know it was sourced from South West News as they mentioned ‘Gloucester’.  

Meanwhile ITV News at Ten were filming all afternoon at the UK Open and produced a great piece which aired that evening.

South West News caught up with us again on Thursday. Did we want to sign an exclusive contract with them and appear in a ‘ladies magazine’ ?  Answer – we’ll think about it, but realistically no.

Friday, back to the hotel for a final photo shoot of the week. This time with ITV Meridian before they did their interview with James, Fiona Titcombe (her second interview of the week) and shots of the room.

We also noticed on Friday,  yahoo!news,  foxnews, msnnews  (and their spin-off sites) showed us too.. we know it was South West News again, as the word ‘Gloucester’ appeared.

BBC Radio Berkshire hadn’t had their fill and interviewed Harshan and produced a summary of his interview, the diversity of ages at tournaments, the Bob Lynn/Linn game and another mention for us.

We later discovered that we appeared in the Sun that week, and the Radio Berkshire interview was replayed as part of Radio 4’s Pick of the Week.

A busy week !!

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Written by HG

Category: News

Published: 20 January 2025

Hits: 42

Fiona was the only East Berks player due to play in the 16 game Final Fling, and she was also a reserve for the main, gruelling, 27 game main event ("The UK Open").

On the morning of the UK Open, a space became unexpected available, so Fiona played in both tournaments. Her report of the two events is here :

I attended the main event (Division B) and Final Fling (Open Division) of the UK Open Tournament.

The main event was held over 3 days, and had 27 games.   I started well, winning 5 of 9 on day 1, but had a terrible day on day 2, only winning 3 of 10 games.  Day 3, everything went my way and I won 7 of the 8 games (one was so close that we had a recount - the result being I won by 4 more points than originally thought!), finishing on a respectable 15 out of 27 games, which, as someone starting towards the bottom of the division, I was delighted with!  I also managed to achieve an average score of over 400 per game (helped by the 9 timer - see below!).  I got one of the ratings prizes (awarded to players who have played above their rating) which was a nice bonus! 

The two day Final Fling did not go well for me, only winning 5 of the 16 games, although two of those wins were against much higher rated players - I think perhaps they become a little complacent when they see a low rating, but always nice to take a scalp or two :) 

Bonuses aplenty, with the highlight being my first tournament 9 timer - cABBA(G)ES for 167 points!  Most of the other bonuses were fairly common words, but I was pleased with SOSATIE (a South African meat dish), HENTAIS (one of the new CSW24 words), STOREYED which I wasn't sure of, and INFANCY and RIBCAGE which used less common letters.  Other words which were challenged by my opponents were PINNATE (a botany leaf thing), MANATEE (a sea-cow) and RENEGUE (probably more commonly spelt RENEGE). I did have a few dud bonuses challenged off too!

Here is Fiona receiving her ratings prize from Tournament Organiser, James Burley,  and the Hotel Manager. (Picture credit : Nicky Huitson).

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Written by HG

Category: News

Published: 14 January 2025

Hits: 46

After a 5 year break, the UK hosted a week-long Scrabble series of tournaments, held in Reading. There would be 67 games spread over 4 tournaments. The first two were an Early-Bird ten game tournament followed by a fourteen Warm-up game tournament. 5 East Berks players played across those two tournaments.

Lots of games, lots of words and here are the thoughts of the East Berks Scrabble players over those two tournaments.

Pat only played in the first 10-game tournament (Division C) and won 5 games. 

She writes :

 I played in the Early Bird tournament, playing 10 games and winning 5. I was pleased to have increased my Scrabble rating by one point. My highest scoring word was PRETZEL which scored 111. In the same game,  I played CAJOLING  for 84, and won that game easily.  My most satisfying bonus word was RELENTED, which was played at the end of the game to secure a win.

Wanda played in Division B for both tournaments, here she is playing Richard in the Early-Bird. 

Wanda won 7 games over the weekend. Her best and more unusual words over both tournaments included FALSETTO, TAIGLES, STRAWEN, AMIRATES, INSANIE and BRUX FOR 84 points!

Richard won Division B with a game to spare, and played in Division A for the second tournament.  During the second tournament, he had a very interesting conclusion to one game…Richard recounts :

On move 2 I bonused with INTHRAL -it only played leaving the I in the triple word lane. My opponent had good letters and laid the nine timer DISCERNS for 176. 
On move 7 I bonused again with LAYOUTS to bring the score close. The scores were still close with 1 tile in the bag with my opponent leading 385 to 366.
There was no reason to play off one tile as it was clear how good the opponents rack was so I played my third bonus of ENCHAINS.

I was then put on hold while my opponent considered whether to challenge or play a bonus himself. With a rack of DEIOOS?  there were no playable bonuses through the floating tiles aside from the N. I fully expected my opponent to lay a bonus through it and win the game but time passed and he went overtime. After going over by 6 minutes 40 sec and incurring 70 points in time penalties only a second nine timer would win as he already trailed 440-385 before penalties.

Just as I was thinking his chances had gone he laid his second 9 timer of the game of OZONISED with the Z as the blank for 131 plus 5 points for my challenge and he won by 452-439. Interestingly had he spent 20 seconds longer he'd have incurred an extra 10 point penalty and lost by 439-437 as I would not have needed to challenge and give him the extra 5 points. 

 My best bonuses of the tournament were PEDANTRY, TRIFOLIA, REDFOOTS, OILPANS, JINGLET, LIBRETTO, SOULDIER, DOWLNES 

Here is that double nine-timer board!

Helen played in A for both tournaments accruing 4 wins in the first, and 6 in the second. Her best words included MAGNETOS, ANTICKED (scoring 109), DIABLES and STORGES. One of the more unusual words played against Helen was OROPESA (a float used in mine-sweeping).

Graham also played in A for both tournaments and had the reverse fortune to Helen. He won 6 in the first tournament, winning a ratings prize in the process, and only 3 in the second, finishing bottom of his division – whoops!

His best words included three back-to-back bonuses UNSEATED, RETUNES and MINORING and in different games UNICORN, DOGFISH and TAGETES.

Here is Graham receiving his rating prize.

Details

Written by HG

Category: News

Published: 22 December 2024

Hits: 94

The club is now closed until Thursday January 2 2025.

East Berks Scrabble Club wishes everyone a peaceful Christmas and prosperous New Year!

When we resume in January we will be using CSW2024.

Please note any words  or word lists on the news section of the website or any other section posted prior to December 31 2024, may have been superseded by this new dictionary.

Happy Scrabbling !