Scrabbling for world title
2005-11-16 21:22
London - Their wives apparently refer to it as "the s-word" but two Gauteng friends know their "fascination" with the word game, Scrabble, may yet make them world champions.
Former Wits students Dylan Early and Dr Trevor Hovelmeier, 35, want to play and win against 108 other contestants on Sunday at the World Scrabble Championship.
If the South African champions succeed, they will be not only R100 000 richer, but also the world title holders until the next competition in 2007.
The board-game competition has been held every two years since 1991.
Early said on Wednesday: "Scrabble isn't about reading dictionaries. It requires at least three hours of practice a day, including maths and statistics."
Business analyst Early became famous in South Africa a few years ago when, with no previous exposure to competition, he came third in a national championship.
Stand a good chance
General practitioner Hovelmeier said that, although they hoped to win, their vocabulary was not as extensive as that of some of the other contestants.
"Some of them know 30 000 seven-letter words or 38 000 eight-letter words. We'll have to use our skills to win."
World-title holder Panupol Sujjayakorn, 19, of Thailand, believes Early and Hovelmeier stand "a good chance" of winning.
No one has won twice since the competition was first held, "and a big stroke of luck is involved".
Competition organiser Suzanne Martin said Sujjayakorn did not speak much English, but knew the dictionary back to front.
Learning on the run
Like the other contestants, he also can create words with whatever letters are dealt to him.
Hovelmeier said: "For example, in Scrabble you have to know that 'crwth' means a Welsh harp, 'cazique' is an Indian chief and 'aalii' means to be free."
Early said he and Hovelmeier played each other at least once a week, "but, everywhere we go, we learn words.
"Even if I don't have a dictionary at hand, there is always my cellphone with 1 000 pages full of words. That's quite handy if you have to stand in a bank queue."