Celebrate National Scrabble Day On 13th April!

National Scrabble Day recognises the popular game of Scrabble which is played around the world. It coincides with the birthday of Alfred Mosher Butts in 1899; the man who invented the iconic board game.

Since 1899, over 150 million sets have been sold in 121 countries, with 29 different language versions. There is a global network of Scrabble clubs with their own local and national championships. There’s also an international competition calendar, including an annual world championship that takes place in various worldwide locations.

New Zealand has had a club and competitive Scrabble scene since the late 1970s, run by New Zealand Scrabble. There are currently 16 Scrabble clubs and around 340 registered players, of whom about half play tournaments regularly.

To acknowledge National Scrabble Day, NZ Scrabble is hosting a variety of events and a photo competition (see attached poster for competition details).

There are several events taking place on 13 April as well as the New Zealand Masters Scrabble Championship which is being held in Auckland the following weekend. Media are welcome to attend any of the events or the Masters to film, take photographs and talk to players.

Notes:

NATIONAL SCRABBLE DAY EVENTS:

Sunday 13 April:

WHERE: AUCKLAND New Lynn Library AUCKLAND (10.30am to 2.30pm)

WHAT: Scrabble demonstration and promotion

Sunday 13 April

WHERE: WHANGAREI: Whangarei Public Library, Rust Avenue (10-1pm)

WHAT: Scrabble demonstration and promotion

Monday 14 April

WHERE: GOLDEN BAY: Takaka Library (10am -12 noon)

WHAT: Scrabble fun for youth

Friday 18 April – Sunday 20 April

WHERE: AUCKLAND: Mt Albert Bridge Club Wairere Avenue, Mt Albert (9am-5pm)

WHAT: The NZ Masters Scrabble Championship will be held over three days and 23 games. The best players in New Zealand will vie for the Masters title. The current Masters Champion is Howard Warner of Wairarapa, currently ranked #2 in New Zealand. The event will be livestreamed on NZASP - YouTube

SCRABBLE FUN FACTS

The idea of Scrabble began in the USA during the Great Depression of 1929. Out of work architect Alfred Butts decided to create a game that people could enjoy during their free time. An avid puzzler, Butts combined the elements of anagrams and the classic crossword puzzle, and originally called it Lexiko, then Criss-Crosswords.

The word "scrabble" means to "grope frantically”. The word has one anagram playable in Scrabble - “clabbers” meaning “to curdle or turn sour”.

As in chess, competitive Scrabble is played with a clock, generally with 25 minutes per player. Also as in chess, some players play a “blitz” version of the game – attempting to place all 100 tiles in just a single minute each.

In a strange twist, Hasbro owns the rights to Scrabble in the US and Canada, while Mattel owns the rights in the rest of the world (including New Zealand).

New Zealand’s current national Scrabble champion is Howard Warner, who has won the title 13 times.

New Zealand’s youngest ever tournament player was just 8 years old, while our oldest was 88. Currently our youngest registered club member is 11 years old.

The most successful New Zealand national champion is Jeff Grant, commonly referred to as the “Roger Federer of Scrabble”, as he has won the national championships a record 16 times.

The most successful player in world championship history is a New Zealander - Nigel Richards. Nigel has won a record five world titles between 2007 and 2019, and many other accolades along the way. He made headlines last year by winning the Spanish National Championship, despite not speaking Spanish!

In the Polish version of Scrabble, the letter 'Z' is only worth one point.

There is a street sign at 35th Avenue and 81st Street in Jackson Heights, New York that uses stylised scrabble like letters, with their values in Scrabble as a subscript. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/birthplace-of-scrabble-sign

The highest scoring four-letter word without premium squares isn’t QUIZ (22 points), but JAZY (23 points). It means a type of wig.

It’s possible to score 1782 points on a single word. That word is OXYPHENBUTAZONE, and to get the points, it would need to be played across the top of the board, hitting three Triple Word Score squares while making seven crosswords downward.

The highest (theoretical) score for a single move is 2044 points!

© Scoop Media