Andrew Kay: Small Words

The joy of playing Scrabble

Having volunteered to take part in a clinical trial a few weeks back I received a call from the specialist conducting the study and invited in to meet him and to do some tests.
As I kid I lived in fear of tests, in class I could more than keep up, not a prodigy but not a dunderhead either. In later years I came to believe that there was a massive difference between remembering stuff and learning something, the latter being far more useful.

I know some of you will think me wrong, rating the memorising of times tables and the like as the greatest learning experiences in life – I just happen to disagree.
I turned up at the given time and discovered that the tests were actully quite good fun. Simple challenges for the brain that I seemed to be able to deal with fairly easily.
To be honest this was due to the majority of the tests being word based, and as you may have noticed I have little trouble dealing with words – in fact the hardest things to do is to get me to shut up, verbally or on paper.
Anyway, I did okay, or if I dare say it, rather better than okay, especially when it came to verbally creating lists of words starting with given letters. I romped through that and the doctor looked particularly impressed.
It’s nothing to do with me being particularly bright, nothing to do with me having an immense vocabulary either – neither of these. No, I put it down to one very simple thing that I have been doing since I was about seven years old – and that is playing Scrabble.

I have played Scrabble with my mum since childhood and we play everyday to this very day. Back in the 1960s we played on a conventional board, then after a few years we converted to playing on a Travel Scrabble board, far easier than a board with loose tiles, especially when you have a cat with an inquisitive mind, or mischievous nature.
After leaving home at 18 our Scrabble fun was restriced to holidays, but it never stopped and we loved it as much as we had when I was growing up.
Mum has always been a formidable player with a terrific vocabulary but also with something essential to playing the game and winning. That is tactics, an aggressive approach to the game. A friend once agreed to play but after a few turns dropped out declaring that the way we played was horrible. By horrible they meant that we used tactics, knowledge of small but high scoring words, often obscure and sometimes words that we knew were acceptable even though we had no idea what they meant.
Scrabble is a very clever game but make no mistake, if you want to win then forget about trying to show off your intellectual skills or the scope of your vocabulary, it simply does not work like that. You can often score higher with two letter words than with something high-brow. Blocking is essential too, using up better positions on the board to stop your opponents getting in there. It’s an aggressive game when played well, make no mistake.

Mum is as aggressive as me and we now play every day online. Having bought an iPad she is a demon and if I am slow at taking my turn she can get rather cross. I do not mind a bit. Scrabble is a lifelong bond but it is also a lifeline. Having suffered a clutch of strokes the game keeps her mind busy, challenges her hand eye coordination and keeps her entertained too. We love it, we laugh about it and boast about our scores.
Not only does she play online with me but she now plays online with my friends, all of whom are impressed by the game-skills of this feisty lady who at eighty-something can kill them dead on the game board.
As for me, when anyone asks me about my love of words I say that Scrabble paved the way. I must go now, Mum is electronically nudging me to play my turn.