Happy New Year, Scrabble players!
Donald Sauter
letter "words" over and over? Here's a New Year's Resolution for you
- Scrabble II!
Here are the highlights from the four (4) Scrabble games played today,
Wednesday, December 30, 2009, at the Dover Scrabble Club (Delaware).
We had a nice session to end up the season and the year. We averaged
30.9 Points Per Turn as a group. We had an 11-letter word,
REINVESTING. In one game I had 300 points after the first three
turns. All right, so I only scored 16 points in the rest of the
game. (It was a foursome, and I only got two more turns.) Biggest
regret was, on the very last play of the last game, being too chicken
to slip my single remaining letter, an A, in to form NOTIONAL and
ARE.
Tile oddities: One game had 14O, 12T, and 5Y. Another game had 2J,
3X, and 2Z, not to mention 6G and 10T. Another game had 5F, 5G, and
11N, but no J, X, or Z. Every game is fresh and different!
Scrabble II is the purest form of Scrabble played anywhere. A few
small, natural rule fixes keep players gunning for l---o---n---g
words. It pulls the rug out from under those ridiculous, tired, old,
connect-the-dot, baby-word plays that have become identified with
Scrabble over the last few decades. It restores Scrabble as a test of
anagram skills. (How novel!)
Scrabble II does not allow phony words. In our club, we use a
conventional dictionary, the American Heritage. Scrabble II is more
intelligent, challenging, and sophisticated than modern American
tournament-style Scrabble in every way. Heck, over 40% of the oddball
plays on championship boards wouldn't even be allowed in our club.
See:
www.donaldsauter.com/scrabble-ii.htm
ALL I'M ASKING FOR . . .
1. Give it a try!
2. Give it a try and report back!
3. A quality Scrabble II program placed prominently on the internet.
I'll pay reasonable programming costs!
4. A dear, old benefactor to bankroll a Scrabble II tournament with
the largest ever cash prizes for a Scrabble tournament, which would
still amount to chicken feed!
5. Too stuck in your ways to try it? Send me photos or screen shots
of a batch of your best tournament-style, baby-word Scrabble games and
I'll make you famous with a web page like the one above for the
National Scrabble Champions!
6. If nothing else, think of me hooting "Bravo!" over your shoulder
every time you haul out one of tournament Scrabble's tired, old, baby-
word plays.
Here's what we played today in 4 games:
*** 11-letter Words ***
REINVESTING
*** 8-letter Words ***
ABORTION
ADAPTING
BEAUTIES
FURTHERS
OUTDATES
RELAPSER
UNMOLDED
*** 7-letter Words ***
AWAITED
BEQUEST (Note: not QI)
FOOTMAN
JAILERS
ORBITER
PORCINE
PUTTING
RITZIER
STAVING
TOILING
*** 6-letter Words ***
AVENGE
BATTER
BENDED
BRIBED
DANDER
ERMINE
GOOFED
KNOTTY
LAZIER
LETHAL
MATRON
MORALE
NOTION
ONIONS
PULSED
RATTED
TANGOS
TRUNKS
UNEASE
WASHER
WAXERS
*** 5-letter Words ***
AGAIN
BREWS
CHURN
DINGO
ENTRY
EXILE
FELON
FIFTY
FLOOD
FULLY
GAVEL
GUAVA
GULPS
HURRY
INDEX
JIFFY
JOWLY
MILER
MYTHS
PECAN
PROXY
QUOTA (Note: not QI)
QUOTA (Note: not QI)
RATER
SIRED
STAGE
TONED
TONIC
VINYL
WAFER
*** Selected 4-letter Words ***
AHOY
AMEN
AQUA (Note: not QI)
FRET
LADY
LAMP
MOOT
OVAL
SHAM
SHOP
TAXI
WARM
ZANY
*** Just these 3-letter Words ***
COZ EAR ERE FIX FLY HOD JET TAM
*** Just these 2-letter Words ***
AD AG AN AR AS AT AW BI BY DO ED EF EH EL FA ME NO OH ON RE TA UT WE
You, too, can set your Scrabble board ablaze with REAL WORDS found in
a REAL DICTIONARY, and used by REAL PEOPLE:
www.donaldsauter.com/scrabble.htm
Donald Sauter
