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    Scrabble

    Got my arse kicked in Scrabble tonight. Mrs Thistle reckons she's no good at it and then puts down all 7 letters on two triple word squares to rack up 140 points in just one move.

    Any other scrabblers on here?

    #2
    Only occasionally. When my Mum still had all her marbles she was an utterly ruthless Scrabbler. On her local WI team and had their "approved" list of two-letter words such as "zo". Was disappointed with a sub-300 score and hated losing, even to her sons, husband, daughter-in-law or grandson.

    We have the game and I would play more but Mrs. S says I spoil it by cramming lots of letters into one or two areas, where she likes it open. But the crammed bits are where the points can be found.

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      #3
      TLMG and I play occasionally, but I get annoyed when she wins. Which is always.

      I often play Wordfeud on my phone with randoms. Passes the time.

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        #4
        I play it often with the wife who is obsessed by it - she is playing the online version, Words with friends, as we speak. I always lose to her, not least as I am always looking for interesting words whereas she knows how to play the game properly and puts down 'It' in a certain position to get 54 points or whatever. Brilliant game though.

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          #5
          So, basically, we are all saying that it is a female-dominated game.

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            #6
            Not in my experience, but YMMV

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              #7
              We dug the board game out after Xmas, and me & the missus have been having an occasional head-to-head since. Much to her chagrin, I’m six-nil up currently.

              I also got the scrabble app on my ipad last year, but rarely play it against the computer as I’m always left exasperated by it putting down words/combinations I can’t believe exist or should be allowed. I beat it in advanced level, but usually lose badly versus expert level.

              But it has tutored me in those niggly 2 letter “words” it allows, and general better gamesmanship. Hence the current 6-0 whipping of the wife. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

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                #8
                If you print out a list of allowable two letter words and allow people to look at it during the game, then it would become more of a game of skill, rather than a test of who had remembered the most little words.

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                  #9
                  Mum at least let us share the Sacred WI Approved List during the game.

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                    #10
                    We have a booklet which lists all the 2 letter words with our set. We're pretty closely matched chez Hipster. I tend to spend the whole game trying to put 7 letter words down while Mrs H has a much better eye for multi-word opportunities. In a single go the other night she managed to make 5 words of at least 3 letters which in my experience is some kind of record.

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                      #11
                      We have a Scrabble dictionary and play "open book" so you can look stuff up. It's helpful to check out combinations of letters you think might be words. No help if you're stuck with 5 vowels, an X and a G.
                      Last edited by Patrick Thistle; 24-03-2018, 00:43.

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                        #12
                        I play very occasionally with OTF Chess's Alex, who is a very decent player in English and a pretty good one in Spanish. I have an English friend here who got into Spanish Scrabble a couple of years ago (after giving up booze and moving to a really boring town) and in October last year finished in the top 30 at the Spanish language Scrabble World Cup. He's not particularly good at it in English (he says; I've never played him at it in either language).

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                          #13
                          Used to play a bit with Mrs D before the kids arrived. We played with a list of 2 letter words visible and our natural competitiveness dragged us to what seemed like a decent standard at the time (typically sharing 700+points) but without a clock on it I suspect it may have dragged on a bit.

                          I’d actually avoid playing Scrabble these days because I play quite a bit of Countdown online (apterous.org) and the dictionaries are somewhat different. Scrabble enthusiasts can use a Scrabble dictionary on apterous incidentally, which is pretty cool (and it also supports French, German, Spanish and a dozen other languages).

                          Since the site launched about 10 years ago practically every series finalist on the show has been an ‘apterite’ and every outstanding player in the last decade has been a regular on the site.

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                            We have a Scrabble dictionary and play "open book" so you can look stuff up. It's helpful to check out combinations of letters you think might be words. No help if you're stuck with 5 vowels, an X and a G.
                            That used to drive my dad barmy when my parents played with friends who used "open book".

                            (In family games it was "dictionary to be used in the event of a challenge only".)

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                              #15
                              Anyone else remember that frisson of excitement the first time you played all seven letters as a youngster?

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                                #16
                                Originally posted by Bordeaux Education View Post
                                So, basically, we are all saying that it is a female-dominated game.
                                No Woman has ever been winner or runner-up in the (English) World Scrabble Championships. The only player to win it more than once, Nigel Richards, infamously also won the French World championships in 2015. Richards doesn't speak French. That he was able to do that, and also the elite game is male-dominated, seems to be because at that level it's not about language but memorisation and maths. And also monomania, which is a male speciality. Richards is a maths graduate, IIRC. An interesting read on that world, and Richards' place within it, is here.

                                Anyway, the reason for reviving this thread wasn't to talk scrabble, but Rubik's Cube. The GOAT of that, Feliks Zemdegs, took the world record back a couple of days ago. His solve time? 4.221 seconds.

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