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 !!