Trickster tale leaves word game wizards reeling

FOR much of yesterday morning, the literati were reeling in shock as the BBC news website heralded Armageddon.

For the first time in its history, the makers of the much-loved board game, Scrabble, were to allow the use of proper nouns, it reported. Mattel said the rule change would appeal to younger players.

Such rule changes, it stated, would allow players to use people’s names, place names and company names.

Beckham, Jedward, Tesco and New York would all have been legitimate steps to Scrabble domination.

In the game, players try to win the highest points by making words with individual letter tiles on a grid board. Each letter tile has a points value between one and 10, based on the letter’s frequency in standard English.

Various coloured squares on the board can double or triple a player’s points.

Scrabble has long been the ultimate test of your vocabulary.

Yesterday, disgusted bloggers claimed the “sky had fallen in” while other British-based purists called “for this to be made an election issue.”

Another diehard sneered: “I will continue to use the old rules, ones that test the language, and doesn’t pander to the illiterate.”

However, spokesman for the Irish Scrabble Association, John Ryan, cautioned that, “every few years, Mattel try and whip up this frenzy as they know it will get the media coverage”.

“Don’t believe it,” he warned.

And by late evening, a few more facts had fallen into place and it emerged that Scrabble as we know it is still intact.

Sure enough, further comments from Mattel revealed that “this is not a replacement of the classic board game, but will be available alongside Scrabble original”.

In fact, Scrabble’s latest progeny will be called Scrabble Trickster.

Wexford-based John Ryan, who is one of 100 members who play Scrabble with the association at least twice a week, laughed.

“They did this a few years ago when they issued press releases that they were considering allowing the usage of text language like OMG and lol. It works. People go crazy.”

Scrabble was first released in 1938, celebrating its 60th birthday two years ago.