Hello Scrabble Lovers! The Saint Lucia Scrabble Association in collaboration with In Time Education Television (owned by Michael Walker), presents the Fourth Edition of the National Scrabble Tourney at the Orchid Farm, Union on September 30 from 9:45 am to 4:45 pm. Scrabble is played in more than 121 countries worldwide and in 29 languages. The game is played by two to four players on a square (or nearly square) board, with a 15×15 grid of cells (individually known as “squares”), each of which accommodates a single letter tile. In official club and tournament games, play is always between two players (or, occasionally, between two teams each of which collaborates on a single rack). The English scrabble contains 100 tiles, 98 of which are marked with a letter and a point value ranging from one to 10. There are 42 vowels and 56 consonants and two blanks. The object of the game is to score more points than one’s opponents. The key skills are knowing which words are acceptable or unacceptable (according to the Official Tournament Reference 2012) and being able to find them from a jumbled set of letters. The number of points of each lettered tile is based on the letter’s frequency in Standard English writing; commonly used letters such as E or O are worth one point, while less common letters score higher, with Q and Z each worth 10 points. The game also has two blank tiles that are unmarked and carry no point value. The blank tiles can be used as substitutes for any letter; once laid on the board, however, the choice is fixed. The board is marked with “premium” squares, which multiply the number of points awarded: dark red “triple-word” squares, pink “double-word” squares, dark blue “triple-letter” squares, and light blue “double-letter” squares. The center square (H8) is often marked with a star or logo, and counts as a double-word square. This distribution of letters has not changed since Alfred Butts invented the game in 1938. The Saint Lucia Scrabble Association is a non-profit association that solely dedicates and engages in the fostering of increasing vocabularies; Improving spellings; Improving mathematical skills; Improving word knowledge; Developing mental adroitness; Encourages strategy and problem-solving, all through playing the game of scrabble in schools. “Playing scrabble is like playing Cricket. You can play a maximum in cricket that is, playing a six. You can also play a maximum in scrabble, when you play all seven tiles. The most important thing for a spin bowler in cricket is to know if the pitch will twist and turn. In scrabble, you read the board and you read your opponent’s mind.” The following quotation is attributed to President and Founder of the St Lucia Scrabble Association, Sydney Dele Enebeli. For more information visit the association website at www.stluciascrabbleassociation.org
