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RAYMOND
ISLAND SCRABBLE CLUB
Raymond
Island scrabble club
was started 2001 at the private home of
Sylvia
Galloway, and is now a
Tuesday pastime for some interested islanders. Also people from
Lakes Entrance and
Bairnsdale travel for a
weekly gathering and shared pleasure of the game.
The Scrabble players
Association is a well known organisation and hundreds of clubs operate
throughout Australia, and indeed the world. Many tournaments and
championships are held at many levels world wide.
As scrabble is not for a
specific age or gender group, people as
young as 6 yrs to 100 yrs play, as well as people with disabilities
such as deafness, or mobility difficulties, also special tiles have
been manufactured for the blind.
Because of the common
interest many friendships have been formed over the years, and when a
tournament is held whether it be on Raymond Island or Melbourne, there
is a warm welcome and a greeting of old friends and past opponents.
Junior scrabble groups are
springing up all over the place and recently a World Youth Scrabble
Championship was held in Malaysia and won by a 16 yr old Australian.
I have also taught
scrabble in schools where participants at junior level are encouraged
to use the dictionary and mental numeracy skills.
Here on
Raymond Island, yearly two day tournaments have been held on Labour
Day weekend at the Community Hall, and keen participants have
travelled from Melbourne, Geelong, Sydney, Queensland and last year
one from Tasmania.
Players are placed in
appropriate sections according to their rating, which
is recorded by computer at every event .
Because of an official
newsletter sent to every member of the Australian Scrabble
players assoc. (ASPA) travellers can
readily see all the Australian clubs listed in the State in which they
are visiting. It has been pleasing to our little club that two
visitors, one from Queensland and a young lad from Essendon here with
friends contacted me and played scrabble on our club day. I
too , when visiting Perth was invited to
join their club day and then was collected to play in the WA
tournament.
Word lists are constantly
being revised and we have recently been issued with new word lists
which to say the least is very challenging when confronted by words
such as:ZEP -(long sandwich), DEG – (to
water (a plant) , APO – a type of protein…and many more.
Anyone
wishing to join our friendly group of
scrabblers on a Tuesday 10.am to 3.0 pm.
( BYO lunch and gold coin donation for
coffee, tea & biscuits), would be made extremely welcome.
My phone
number : 5156 7443
Address: 6 Fifth
Parade, Raymond Island. |
