Quixotic Scrabbler seeks others for word play.Byline: Jack Moran The Register-Guard Phyllis Kesner of Eugene swears she's not a competitive person, but that doesn't mean she'll shy away from Verb 1. shy away from - avoid having to deal with some unpleasant task; "I shy away from this task" avoid - stay clear from; keep away from; keep out of the way of someone or something; "Her former friends now avoid her" a good game of Scrabble Scrabble Game in which two to four players compete in forming words with lettered wooden tiles on a 225-square board. Words spelled out by letters on the tiles interlock like words in a crossword puzzle. Words are scored by adding up the point values of their letters. . Actually, that's exactly what she's seeking. Kesner is working to form the Eugene Scrabble Society, a group she's hoping will include a couple dozen people who share her love of the classic crossword game. A retiree who moved to Eugene last year, Kesner says she just wants to make some new friends and have a good time with it all. Eugene has no Scrabble club, so Kesner saw her opening. "I'm not one of those people who knows all the `Q' words or anything like that," she said. "I've always allowed people to look up their words in the dictionary before they play. "Really, I'm not that competitive. I just enjoy playing Scrabble." At this point, Kesner's doing all she can to get the word out about the still-forming Scrabble club. She's placed notices in the Senior News publication, the Jefferson Westside Neighbors newsletter and at a few other Eugene spots. The group's first gathering earlier this month drew just four people, but Kesner said others have expressed interest in joining. "I'm hoping my phone rings off the wall," she said. The Scrabble group's next meeting is set for 7 p.m. Feb. 13, at the McNail-Riley House at the corner of West 13th Avenue and Jefferson Street. While Kesner promises a low-key Scrabble experience with the Eugene club, more than 200 "official" groups across the country take their game quite seriously. "We've got people who have been playing every week here for years," said R.A. Fontes, an organizer of official National Scrabble Association The National Scrabble Association was created in 1978 by Selchow & Righter, then the makers of Scrabble, to promote their game. It coordinates local clubs and Scrabble tournaments in North America, including the United States Scrabble Open. The current director is John D. Williams. clubs in Portland and Lake Oswego Lake Os·we·go A city of northwest Oregon, a residential suburb of Portland. Population: 35,800. . "I'd say it's pretty competitive." A Portland club The Portland Club is a London card-playing game club, the recognized authority on the games of whist and bridge. It is reputedly the oldest bridge club in the world. Founded some time before 1815 as the Stratford Club, it was given its present name in 1825. member, David Wiegand David Wiegand is a top American Scrabble expert who won the National Scrabble Championship in 2005 and placed second in the same event in 1994. He also finished eighth (of 102 competitors) in the World Scrabble Championship in 2005. , took home $25,000 last August when he won the National Scrabble Championship tournament in Reno, Nev. On his way to the title, Wiegand spelled out obscure words including "keets" (a guinea fowl guinea fowl (gĭn`ē), common name for any of the seven species of gallinaceous birds of the family Numididae, native to Africa and Madagascar. ) and "aulic" (pertaining per·tain intr.v. per·tained, per·tain·ing, per·tains 1. To have reference; relate: evidence that pertains to the accident. 2. to a royal court), the NSA NSA abbr. National Security Agency Noun 1. NSA - the United States cryptologic organization that coordinates and directs highly specialized activities to protect United States information systems and to produce foreign says. Formal groups such as the ones in Portland and Lake Oswego don't play the informal type of Scrabble familiar to most. Instead, they use timers and only play words included in an official player's dictionary," Fontes said. An official Scrabble club met regularly in Eugene during the 1990s until its organizer passed away and interest waned. A former member of that group, Jill Hubbard, said that while the club wasn't quite as serious as Fontes' group, it was somewhat intimidating for new players who weren't familiar with the rigorous style of play. Hubbard figures plenty of local residents will check it out. "Most people that were serious about it at one time probably still are," Hubbard said. "But I know there are a lot of Scrabble players in town that weren't involved (with the official group). "I wish her luck," Hubbard said. Kesner's low-key approach doesn't mean she isn't proud of her Scrabble skills, however. She didn't hesitate one bit when asked about the highest-scoring play she ever made. "My crowning achievement was the time I got `equinox' on a triple-word score," she said. "That was great." Kesner can be contacted at 684-4495. HISTORY OF SCRABBLE Alfred Mosher Butts Alfred Mosher Butts (April 13, 1899 - April 4, 1993) was a U.S. architect and the inventor of the board game Scrabble in 1938. In the early 1930s, unemployed architect Alfred Mosher Butts set out to design a board game. , an out-of-work architect from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., invented Scrabble in the 1930s. He first called the game Lexiko, then Criss Cross Words before settling on Scrabble, a real word that means "to grope frantically." To decide on the game's letter distribution, Butts studied the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times and calculated the frequency of letters used on the front page. The game was trademarked in 1948 and today is found in one of every three U.S. homes. - Source: National Scrabble Association |
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