A dog is for Life but so is Scrabble

Yes, we've heard the slogan a million times but it's so true, a dog is for life, not just for Christmas.

If you are thinking of getting a puppy for Christmas, think really hard - yes they are lovely and cute when they jump out of the box but it's a lifelong committment, you need to treat your new puppy as a member of the family, if you can't well don't get one.

If you are thinking of rescuing a dog wait until the new year and go to your local pound or SPCA.  The contact details in Wexford are as follows:

Wexford County Council (Dog Warden & Dog Pound) - HERE
WSPCA - HERE

And on Facebook
North Wexford SPCA - HERE
WSPCA - HERE

If the new puppy is happening and if you haven't chosen a Vet yet, I couldn't speak highly enough of O'Shea & Bramley Veterinary Hospital in Distillery Road (just past Tesco's).  They also do a huge amount of work for the WSPCA.  You can find there website - HERE and of course they are also on Facebook - HERE

So, I've combined my love of Scrabble and Dogs and compiled the following list of allowed words in Scrabble.  You are free to print it out and share it.  Get the message out...

Live Long and Prosper

John the Captain Ryan

Are you attending your first Scrabble Tournament? If so, read on

What to expect at your first tournament...

The most important thing is to try and enjoy yourself and meet new friends. We are a friendly bunch of nerds and you will always be welcomed with a smile (and probably some sort of comment like “I cannot get any decent letters, how about you?”). That being said, your first event can be a bit of a shock.

I've done a few really popular blogs for Scrabble beginners, check out the list HERE.

If you have never played Scrabble with a clock, try and get a practice game before the tournament starts. If you are arriving only a few minutes before the event is due to start, when you register ask the person at the desk to get someone to show you how it works. You will probably struggle during your first few games, but don’t worry you will get the hang of it and most opponents will remind you about it. Ideally, if you are local to where the tournament is happening or staying the night before, make your way down to the bar and you WILL find some Scrabble players about, explain you are new and they will help you out. Remember I said we were a friendly bunch, yes some of us will – SHOCK HORROR – be in the bar having a laugh. So do join us.

You might find the day tiring. YES, REALLY. Be prepared, it’s a long day. Ever play 6-8 games of Scrabble in a day?. And even though you might do that on a computer or tablet, it’s different playing in real time, there’s a lot going on. So, to help, make sure to take a break between games, even though it’s tempting to just sit and wait for your next game, get up, wander around, maybe go outside. Also, if you’ve ever had trouble with your back it’s really important to get up for that walk, sitting in the one position for many hours can get painful. Lots of people bring a cushion. If you had a bad game and made some mistakes don’t worry too much, shake yourself off prepare for the next game.

So, generally, how does it work? Well sometimes there are a few groups, other times all players are in one group. We use a computer program to determine which player plays whom. The program matches players by their performance. It also tracks who has already played whom and will engineer pairings to avoid playing the same people. (this is called repeat pairings). This is normally turned off for the last 2-3 games. Normally the first 3 games are random and then after this, players have “found” their place and performance pairings start. But, you needn’t worry about any of this. The moral of the story is that there will be a sheet of paper put up on the wall detailing who you will be playing and who goes first (the computer gives all players an equal number of starts during the event also)

There are only two things to consider. Whether you win or lose and by how many points (spread). These are then accumulated over the whole event. For example...

Game 1 – WIN by 73 points....................1/0/+73

Game 2 – LOSE by 124 points.................1/1/-51

Game 3 - WIN by 3 points.......................2/1/-48 

Therefore your cumulative result is 2 wins, 1 loss and a spread of -48 points

In game 4 you will be paired with another player who has a similar cumulative result as you.

The governing body for Scrabble in Ireland is WESPA. Full rules are HERE

Order of play

There is a lot going on during the game but keep this order of play in mind. This might seem a bit pedantic but it makes things easier and you get into a routine. It also helps when it comes time to challenge a word. You can do one of 2 things, play a word or exchange.

1.       Play your word

2.       Announce Score

3.       Press clock

4.       Record Score

5.       Draw replacement tiles (always have 7 tiles on your rack)

6.       Tile track if desired

Or

1.       Check to ensure there are at least 7 tiles in the bag

2.       Declare you are going to exchange and how many tiles you are going to exchange.

3.       Place the tiles you are going to exchange to one side (NOT in bag)

4.       Hit clock to indicate end of turn.

5.       Draw replacement tiles and place face down

6.       Return other tiles to bag

    

Tile Draw

Tile drawing etiquette. It is customary to draw your tiles in a manner that makes it very clear you are not cheating. Whatever you do, don’t have the tile bag below eye level as your opponent “might” think you are looking in the bag at the tiles.

1.       Hold the bag above the board, above eye level

2.       Draw tiles one at a time placing them in plain view on the table

3.       Count how many tiles you are taking

4.       Try not to overdraw*. (*see below)

5.       Only place all drawn tiles on the rack when you are happy you have pulled the correct amount.

Overdraw.

It happens at every tournament that someone overdraws. YES, every event, so don’t feel bad. If you are not sure what to do, stop the clock and ask the TD about the ruling. In fact if you are not sure of anything, ask your opponent or ask the TD. Don’t be afraid to ask, it’s the only way to learn.

(This is where point 5 of tile drawing comes in useful.)

(WESPA Rules V3)

What to do when your opponent plays a word you don’t know.

If you have never played in an event, don’t be surprised to see some players scoring 400 and even 500 points against you. Remember they are playing for decades and know lots of really crazy words like ATONIES. But, if you don’t know a word; challenge it. This is how we do it...

1.       Wait until opponent presses timer. This indicates the end of their turn. If they forget to hit the clock, as soon as they reach INSIDE the tile bag remind them to press the clock.

2.       Announce you intention to challenge the word CLEARLY and stop the clock.

3.       Declare which word(s) you are challenging. Some players chose to write down the words on a slip of paper.

4.       Both players cover the tiles on their rack (or turn them over) and proceed to check the word.

5.       The challenger types in the word on the device

6.       The other players hits button to check.

7.       If the word is ok, no harm, no foul. Play continues

8.       If the word is wrong it is removed from the board and player loses turn.

9.       Restart the clock

If you type the word in incorrectly on the device or when you return to the board & realise you spelled the word wrong (e.g. you checked TRAELED but the word on the board was TRAILED) you can recheck the word.

Other things to note

During the game when a blank is played, declare what the blank is CLEARLY and make a note on the result sheet. Later in the game this might be important if both players think it was something else

At the end of the game, both players agree the score and fill in the result sheet

Once the scoresheet is filled out & signed hand it up

When the game is over, leave the playing room if you want to talk

Here is an example of a completed scoresheet; 

The first blank was a Q and the second an X.

John (player no 23) beat Mary (player no 21).

John scored 350 and Mary scored 325.

The spread was 25 points.

Both players signed the sheet indicating they agree with the result.

Well peeps, that’s it. I hope I haven’t scared you off and we will see you at a tourney soon.

Live Long and Prosper and may the tile faires be with you.

John The Captain Ryan

Summary of Scrabble Blogs

I’ve really enjoyed blogging about Scrabble, here is what I’ve covered so far.

To start with here are the basic rules which I published on 1^st December 2017 

Then here are some alternative rules and variations published on 18^th December 2017 which will help new comers and families especially with playing quicker games.

Here’s some information on why Scrabble is great for literacy skills (30^th November 2017). if you are a teacher or a staff member in a library, Scrabble is a great game to aid literacy skills. 

On the previous blog there is a list of clubs in Ireland, if there is not a club near you check here for details on starting a club. You can also email me for information on starting a club on j.j.ryan2014@gmail.com. (7th December 2017)

And finally, a dog is for life and so is Scrabble so here is an awesome list of words allowed in Scrabble that are breeds of dog that I of course published before Christmas on 4^th December 2017 

In the New Year, I started thinking about new comers to the game so published a blog on allowed 2 letter words on 4^th January 2018 

Then I explained hooks and gave a nice list of hooks to print out on 10^th January 2018, hint - it's nothing to do with fishing.

And then in the final trilogy of blogs for new players I spoke about rack balance here on 22^nd January 2018.

Lastly on 31^st January 2018 I blogged about never giving up when things look back and demonstrated a recent game at a tournament.

All the word lists I’ve made up are free to print and share, please credit me and/or quote a link to my blog www.johnthecaptainryan.blogspot.ie

Enjoy.

John The Captain Ryan

Never give up, never surrender. Making a Scrabble comeback...

We’ve all experienced it, a crap night at club, a run of bad luck at a tournament, your opponent getting EVERYTHING. It’s so frustrating but you have to keep trying, just remember you WILL pull better tiles at some stage in the future and the board will be nice and open.

(From the movie Galaxy Quest, 1999, Dreamworks)

I was at the bottom of a really tough field of players at the Northern Ireland Scrabble Championships last weekend. (Huge thanks to Stewart Holden for organising a great tournament). On Saturday it was a day of GIRL POWER, 7 out of 8 losses all against women.  Sunday wasn’t going much better until I came up against Liam Donnelly. After 8 moves, I had changed once and although I had an early bonus of CHARGES the score was 347 points to 196.

Before I made my 9^th move, I took stock of the unseen tiles, realised most of the clunky tiles were gone and there were some nice letters left that should lead to some bonus likely combinations so I changed for the second time. The board looked like this:

Liam changed also and both of our luck completely reversed. Liam’s 10^th, 11^th & 12^th moves scored 12 points altogether as his 12^th move of LYED on the top left hand corner was challenged off and my next 3 moves scored 197 points. My final rack was:

I had loads of time left on my clock so tile tracked to see what Liam had. (I prefer to tile track at the end to ensure I get it correct). His rack was:

Liam didn’t have many options and I saw a nice 2-move winning end strategy. I spotted AXEL/KOALA and with the remaining tiles found ADORN. Final score sheet looked like this:

And the final board shaped up like this:

It was nice to get a win and also to see it’s always worth not giving up and to keep trying. Scrabble is a fascinating game and even though things might not be going your way, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Fini

John The Captain Ryan

Wikipedia - What is it all about (Thing 15)

Are Wikipedia's weaknesses an opportunity for Information Professionals?

As information professionals we constantly advise researchers and students to steer clear of Wikipedia because of the perceived weaknesses in accuracy and lack of citations. Yet, paradoxically most of us use Wikipedia as a starting point for any research project. So, it could be argued that information professionals can be part of the solution rather than continuing to propagate the negative opinions about Wikipedia.

At first glance this seems like a great idea, we the information professionals are placed in the fantastic position of having accurate information at our finger tips so we can actually help fix the problems of Wikipedia. But hang-on, we don't work for Wikipedia, why should we? The lines are starting to get blurred here a little. Wikipedia get their staff to devise a project and promote it to information professionals to help fix the inaccuracies and lack of citations on their website.  Here's a crazy idea, why doesn't Wikipedia employ us instead. Wow! Instead of devising the #1lib1ref project they instead should identify those areas that need attention and employ some information professionals to tackle the discrepancies.

In theory the 1lib1ref project is interesting but unless pages can be fixed/added-to as quickly as they are created Wiki will be always fighting a losing battle. However, I gave it a go. I used the citationhunt.org website to identify some pages that needed citations. I looked at the suggested how-to-videos on making changes to a Wiki page, signed up to Wiki (JohnTheCaptainRyan) and got updating.

My first was a page about Alfred Butts (creator of Scrabble) and I added a citation on how he came-up with the letter distribution. My source was from the Hasbro website (who own Scrabble). Here is how my update appears (red circle and no. 5 in the reference)...

I then looked for a page from Wexford that needed updating and came to the Ballyedmond page. It previously had census details for 2011 with no citation. I added the 2016 census figures and a citation as follows:

Finally, I remembered our Thing 7 (creating an exhibition) and correctly assumed that the Wiki for Tintern Abbey and it's foundation may need some updating:

After a few attempts I figured out how to update the citations but I wouldn't mind attending a workshop to learn more about Wikipedia. My first attempt still has a field highlighted in red for the URL so I'm going to keep playing about until I get it right.

The 1lib1reg team also ask you to put #1lib1ref into the Wikipedia Edit Summary field but I couldn't find that field anywhere.

That's my Thing 15 complete.

Enjoy

John The Captain Ryan

The Perfect Rack Balance

Rack balance has nothing to do with having a properly fitted bra...

We should all aim for having a good balance in both life and Scrabble. In Scrabble this means have a good balance of vowels and consonants on your rack and avoiding duplicates. Using the example below, what should you get rid of?

To start with, B’s & V’s can be clunky. (*clunky – a term used to describe a rack of tiles that don’t work well together, eg IIIIBDK). Also having doubles should be avoided so try to get rid of I. Maybe there is an E open on the board to play VIBE.  This leaves you:

On the one hand you are thinking...I can get rid of the V and I but look what you have left. 3 consonants and 1 vowel because of your obsession with keeping the ING. You will be pulling 3 tiles out of the bag. You have an equal chance of pulling 2 vowels/1consonant or 2consonants/1vowel (if there is an equal distribution of vowels and consonants left in the bag)

What happens if you pull IDF. Now your rack is

Not a lot different really. If you still want to keep the ING you are left to play LID or FID and after pulling 3 tiles you probably won’t end with much of a different rack, truth be told.

Rack balance and tile turnover (turnover covered in next blog) work hand in hand. Being aware of one helps the other.

Instead you should play more tiles and get rid of as many as possible. This helps you get a better rack balance and a combination of letters more likely to bring about a 7 letter word. On the first move say you missed LIVING but noticed BLING. Playing BLING has many advantages:

1. Get rid of ING.
2. Good tile turnover.
3. Balance of 1vowel/1consonant left.
4. Could open the board nicely

(When you get more seriously into strategy, rack leaves, open v closing the board etc these opinions might not apply but this blog is aimed at helping newbies get started)

Another really important thing to remember is that only 1/5 of ING words take an S on the end.  So if you don’t know you don’t even have a 50/50 chance of guessing correctly. So just don’t do it. Don’t hold onto ING and don’t chance putting and S on the end if you’re not sure.

To get back to our example. Your rack leave is IV. With an equal distribution of vowels & consonants left in the bag, probability suggests you will pull 2 of each and the last will be either. Nice.

This is where having an idea of what has been played already helps. More practiced players will keep track of the tiles as the game is played but this takes a lot of time and for a newbie the return isn’t worth the effort. BUT it is worth having an overall broad awareness of what’s been played. Definitely keep track of the 10 biggies.

A couple of times during the game have a quick scan around the board of how many consonants & vowels have been played. The breakdown is 56/42 (2 x blanks). It will only take 30 seconds to run your eye back and forth over the board (methodically) and count how many vowels have been played.

If you are half way through the game and 34/42 vowels have been played, the chances of pulling vowels from the bag are less likely and this will affect your rack balance. Similarly, if most of the E’s have been played, hold onto the one you have.  Other scenarios to help your rack balance are:

a. 20 tiles left in bag. 1 x blank, 1 x S & the Z are unseen so could be in the bag. In this scenario don’t be afraid to play a long word, you have a good chance in pulling some nice tiles.

b. 20 tiles left in bag. Q, 4 x O’s, V and W are unseen. You’ve also noted both blanks and the 4 U’s have been played and are blocked up. Unless you have an I on your rack to play QI be wary about pulling lots of tiles from the bag. You could end up with QOOOOVW. What the hell do you do except play VOW and hope for the best.

c. 10 tiles left in bag. You only have 2 vowels on your rack and most of what’s in the bag are consonants. Whatever you do, don’t use both vowels! Play the clunky consonants and hope for the best.

Here is a list of some great vowel heavy (loads of vowels) or consonant heavy (loads of consonants) words allowed in CSW15. Playing these will help your rack balance.

(right click, open image in new tab/window and print)

Finally to summarise rack balance...

1. Aim to have a balance of 3 vowels and 3 consonants on your rack;

2. Learn some of the handy words from the list above &

3. Have some awareness of what has been played to inform your decision of what tiles to play which will in turn affect your tile balance after you replenish tiles.

Check out my other blogs for beginner Scrabblers The Two's & Hooks 

Fini

John The Captain Ryan

PS. If you really want to be schooled on strategy give this THESIS a read.

Hooked on Scrabble!

So you are hooked with Scrabble, fantastic. Well it’s great to learn some new words to bamboozle your opponents and gain a small advantage in Scrabble so now that you are hooked, let’s learn some hooks.

I’ve already blogged about the 2 letter words here, next learn a few handy hooks. Firstly, what is a hook? No, it’s not what you use to catch a fish, in Scrabble it’s adding a letter to an existing word on the board to play your new word. In the example below, move 1 was DOG and move 2 was SHARD.  The S is the hook making DOGS.  There are 3 advantages about this type of move;

1. You do not have to create a word using a letter already on the board (either D, O or G)

2. You score more (DOGS=6 SHARD=19 TOTAL=25).  You could play SHARD using the D of DOG but you get a much smaller score.

3. You open the board nicely (although this can be a disadvantage too)

A great advantage of knowing an unusual (UNUSUAL – lovely 7 letter word with 3 U’s) hook is that you can keep building hooks like the example below...

                                                                                                             

WEX = 26                                           

WEXE = 14 
BEER = 12
TOTAL = 26                               

WEXES = 15

RE = 2

SEXY = 28

TOTAL = 45

My Awesome Hooks List

The word like JAMBOKS is fantastic.  Learn that one word and you have actually learnt 6 words.  It’s called a word pyramid, if you look closer you will find you can remove a letter from the end and it’s still an allowed word all the way to JA.

What other word pyramids can you find? Please comment them below.

Enjoy learning and let me know how you get on.

John the Captain Ryan.  

How playing darts can help numeracy skills

As a child, my mother realised I was having difficulty rote learning, the corner stone of the Irish education system but equally recognised my love of games and competition. So for as long as I remember, my Mam played Scrabble and my Dad played darts with me. 

Way to go ‘Rents, I ended up learning and having fun, not even knowing I was learning.  If you are stuck for a stocking filler, you can't go wrong buying a dart board (magnetic and velcro ones are available for children). Playing darts covers the most important elements of numeracy; addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. In fact if you don’t have these skills the rest of maths may as well be written in ancient Aramaic. 

AND, I know we have smartphones and calculators but we still need basic numeracy skills to get by in everyday life and work.  Anyway, here’s how darts teaches numeracy skills...

The circular board is numbered in segments 1-20, there are 2 inner circles, the larger worth 25 and the centre 50 points (The Bullseye or Bull).  There are striped bands (alternating red/green below) in each numbers segment denoting a doubling or tripling of that score.

(picture from www.Darts501.com)

So, if you look at the number 7 segment going from the outside towards the middle...

1^st band = 7 doubled = 14

2^nd band = 7 single = 7

3^rd band = 7 tripled = 21

4^th band = 7 single = 7

That’s the multiplication element.

A player throws 3 darts at the board and adds up their score.  When I played with my Dad, I had to add up his score and mine!  Bloody hell.  That’s the addition element.

When you start a game you start at 501 and subtract what you scored for the round.  So if on your first turn you scored 57 points, you are left with 444.  There’s your subtraction element.

And finally to the end game.  You must go out on a double.  So say, you have 43 points left.  There are several ways to go out.  You could score 3, leaving you with 40 points so that’s a double 20.  You could score 13, leaving 30 points so that’s double 15 etc.  There’s the division element.

The real challenge is being able to add up the round score in your head, write that number down and then work out what you have left.  After a while your sheet of paper or blackboard will look like this:

If you are afraid of children “accidentally” stabbing each other with darts, there are velcro and magnetic versions to buy in any good toyshop, especially good for the classroom or library.

Darts will bring a fantastic level of accuracy and speed to numeracy skills.   A great quiz to have with a group of children is the “what’s left” quiz.  The teacher calls out a number and the children have to write down an option for going out using up to 3 darts.  The highest possible number that can be gone out on is 170.  That’s 2 x triple 20’s and the bullseye which is a double 25.  Take note that there are sometimes many ways to go out using a given number.  Top players will sometimes prefer a particular number so they will use that one to go out. 

As a top player is throwing, they will work out the numbers in their head and score accordingly when getting close to the finish point.  Some numbers cannot be finished with three darts even though they are lower than 170 so players will work towards those numbers if they can.  The ultimate dart game is playing a whole game using only 9 darts.  Work out the math for that one!

Not to gloat or anything, but I can work out simple math like this quicker than my colleague can work it out on a calculator all because of playing darts and Scrabble as a child. Anyway, get throwing, adding and have a great Christmas.  

John The Captain Ryan.   

My Blogs about Scrabble (a summary)

I love playing Scrabble and teaching other players so blogging about it came easy.  I've done 5 blogs about Scrabble as follows:

(www.cartoonistgroup.com)

Being the son of a retired primary school teacher and working in the library, I know how literacy and the ability to read is so important.  Scrabble can help with literacy skills so here's a little introduction with a list of clubs in Ireland: Scrabble & Literacy

You will find the basic rules of Scrabble & a variation of the game called Duplicate Scrabble to get started HERE

A dog is for life, just like Scrabble.  Combining my love of Scrabble & dogs, here's an important message and a great list of words allowed in Scrabble A Dog is for Life

If you are thinking of starting a Scrabble club answer all the questions HERE

And finally, put more fun in your games by using these rule variations Rule Changes

Have a lovely Christmas and a fabulous 2018.  Remember it's all fun and games until someone loses an I.



John The Captain Ryan

Making family fun more fun – Alternatives for Monopoly.

Playing board games at Christmas SHOULD be all about having fun with your family and friends, not war but the “go-to” traditional board games can cause arguments due to the flawed nature of the game mechanics and rules. 

Following on from my post about some rule variations for Scrabble HERE, read on for some variations for playing Monopoly.

As of October 11^th 2017 there are 1,298 versions of Monopoly with new versions being shipped every year.  There are some fab ones from our favourite TV series and hobbies including Game of Thrones, Star Wars & Mario.

My favourite of course was Star Trek The Next Generation complete with Gold Pressed Latinum, planets, ships and space stations.

The main problem with Monopoly is the game takes too long to get going and then drags on, especially if one player has amassed a huge lead.  Or if four people are playing, 2 have gained a lead and are battling between themselves; the remaining 2 are left trying to be good humored losers.  Most importantly of course, don’t change the rules mid-game.  You can use one or a combination of these alternatives...

Alternative 1

Accelerated start. Each player gets 2 property cards dealt randomly from the deck.  This helps things get started. (This is easier than the alternative rules packaged in the modern game that has an extra dice and extra rules).  If there are 4 players, randomly deal the 4 stations also.  This stops one player getting the full collection too early.  If there are 5/6 players add in the utilities.

Alternative 2

Timed ending.  Set an alarm clock with a time limit of about 60 minutes (go with 57 or 62 to keep people guessing a little).  Hide the clock.  When the alarm goes off each player has one more move.  Add up money after this.

Alternative 3

Help the game end quicker.  Remember the recession, nobody could get a mortgage.  Don’t allow any loans from another player, “letting off” of a rent bill or taking out a mortgage.  All bills should be paid, sell what you need back to the bank and go bankrupt.  Let the game finish as quickly as possible.  Not allowing loans or “letting off” of a rent bill also heads off what normally causes arguments with players helping each other to beat the other opponent.  Don't allow exchange of property to settle a bill, sell the property back to the bank and have an immediate mortgage for it.

  

Alternative 4

Extra money at the start.  Be careful with this one.  Yes, it helps the game get going but the flip side is players have more money so the game will last longer.

Alternative 5

Auction off everything.  Don’t forget the rule at the start of the game that when a property is landed on, the player can chose to buy it or IT MUST BE auctioned by the bank.  Help get all property bought up as quickly as possible by auctioning all remaining property after all players have gone around the board 3 times.  This brings an interesting tactic into the game, the player who has been unlucky in landing on property squares gets a chance to buy and also the players who has been frugal with their money gets an opportunity to buy up what’s left.  

(image courtesy of www.maze.icomix.com)

Adults Only

Check out this nice printable A4 poster I've done up, played between consenting adults of course...

These alternatives should help, let me know how you get on or if you have any other variations.  Remember make fun, not war and no throwing game pieces around the room (but it's ok to throw your clothes)!

John The Captain Ryan