Piddlers is on the lookout for a bingo...
When it comes to nicknames the best are hard-earned. Anne Lyng is the founder of the Churchtown Scrabble Club* on the southside of Dublin.
They meet once a week in the Good Shephard parish hall, roll out several well-worn boards and go at it.
Then after the hard yards are earned in the bowels of the local community centre, Scrabble players from Wexford, Galway, the North and beyond descend on Anne’s corner of the city for once-monthly competitions.
Along with stray vowel tiles, the sacristan often sweeps broken teeth from the bloodied floor. Welcome to the competitive world of Scrabble.
And the nickname? “I was in a competition one day,” she laughs, “I looked at my board and there was a S.P.D.I.E., I think. And there was a D on the board. So I tried ‘PIDDLERS!’” She laughs again at the memory. “Piddlers. It won me the highest-word score prize that day. I think it was 169 points or something ludicrous like that because it was a nine-timer.”
Boom. That’s Scrabble, ladies and gentlemen.
The popular board game is celebrating it 72th Christmas this year. In that time, approximately 100 million sets have been sold in 30 languages across over 100 countries. Many of you — whether you like it or not — will find that familiar box with the green logo emblazoned across its front, beneath the Christmas tree tomorrow morning.
One of the competitors who often sits across a table from Anne is Pauline Russell — a member of the Clontarf club.
Those in the northside outfit ramble over to the St Gabriel’s Parish Hall every Tuesday night around 7pm, have a chat and get going at 7.30pm.
But the time they fold away the gear at 10.30pm, they’ll have enjoyed four games.
“The club itself is around 30 years old as far as I know,” Pauline says. “I’m from Marino but I’ll head over every Tuesday.
“I honestly don’t know how long I’m a member,” she says as she pauses and tots up the years like points on a board, “it was before my son was born and he’s 24 now so let’s say 25 or 26 years.”
But these days — like the drag emigration has on GAA teams throughout he country — it’s harder and harder for people to make it to the table in the parish hall. “We actually don’t have huge numbers at the moment. There’s about six or seven of us maybe in our club. Some good friends. But some nights that’s down to two to be honest.”
Anne is a self-confessed Scrabble-addict (“I say I’m incurable”) and is a former Countdown quarter-finalist. She says any knack she does have for the game is because her nose is invariably between the covers of a book.
“I grew up in Dundrum and it was right beside the library. Well, you couldn’t get me out of there. I’m still a member there. And I still borrow books. But now I run a Scrabble night there once a month.”
However, the Scrabble player of today is developed not in the dusty high aisles of the local public library, but in the warm glow of a computer screen.
The game has enjoyed a huge resurgence with young people wasting their employers’ man hours surreptitiously playing the game online. Facebook hosts an application that allows its users to play with their ‘friends’. One can miss the bus stop because of Scrabble on the iPhone. The future is now.
So have many wide-eyed, hoodie-wearing youngsters drifted down the steps to the parish hall? “You get a few,” says Pauline. “I used to be good but the young ones who play now have the memory.
“They play online and come in and they seem to able to remember these words that you wouldn’t. You’ve seen the words before of course but they just have the memory now.
“I haven’t played online myself but I have a disc, a CD Rom, and that’s fine. The online thing hasn’t taken away from our game at all — in fact, anything that keeps people playing is great.
“And would you believe at these competitions, sometimes it’s the first time they’ve sat across from a human playing the game. It’s extraordinary,” she adds.
Anne agrees: “We need more young blood.” You imagine she’s hoping for fresh faces to surprise with words like Piddlers and other nine-timer.
“We’re always going for the bingo. That’s what we call the big one — a bingo. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?”
*Just like anyone who voted for Fianna Fáil in the last election (there were almost 900,000) should be precluded from cribbing about the economy, anyone who helped Phil Taylor into second in Sunday’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award can’t write me letters on the subject of Scrabble and its sporting merits.
* Twitter: @adrianrussell Email: adrianjrussell@gmail.com
