Scrooge Plays Scrabble Online
The letters on your rack are:
E E E E N Z ?
On the board there is an R near the right hand side that can be used as either the last letter or the 2nd to last letter. You need to play an 8 letter word using the R that is on the board
The answer to this week's puzzle comes soon, not at the bottom of the page.
I was playing against someone online and they managed to play a bingo in that situation. It is a strange feature of playing scrabble on the internet that when someone plays an unusual bonus word which you don’t know you seem to automatically think “Bah Humbug! They must be cheating using an anagrammer”
Even though I have played against people in ‘real life’ tournaments who are capable of such plays it seems to be human nature to be cynical when you can’t actually see your opponent.
For example when Alistair Richards played BURRFISH against me I challenged and then when it turned out to be a word I said “Wow, nice play”
Similarly I said the same thing when Andrew Fisher played VITILIGO against me. Fortunately I didn’t need to challenge, but it was still an amazingly good find on a rack with no blanks.
I am glad that the most unusual word I have ever played – AMADAVAT – was played in a live game because if it was played online you just know in your heart what your opponent must be thinking.
So when my opponent with this week's problem rack played EBENEZER I gritted my teeth and typed in “nice”. However my cynical streak was there as I muttered to myself. Later, after we had finished I had a look at that player’s history to study some of their other games. As usual when I check someone like that, they found several other very good bonus words, but I also satisfied myself they were not a cheat. If they had been using an anagrammer I found several occasions where they would have definitely found even more bingos as well. Obviously they are just a very good player who studies their bingos. If by any chance they happen to read this blog, then I will put an exclamation mark after “nice’ and ungrit my teeth. (Whoops, ungrit is NOT a word)
Anyway I hope you found EBENEZER with all those clues I gave you.
We did words with lots of E’s last week, we can’t do that again. Humbug! I say. We will do 6 letter words where the only vowels are the letter U. To keep the list to a manageable size I have also excluded words with an S and words you can’t play without a blank, such as HUBBUB:
BUHUND A Norwegian dog
BULBUL An Indian Songbird
BULGUR A form of cooked, broken wheat
BUNKUM Insincere or foolish talk
CUNDUM A condom
CUPFUL As much as a cup can hold
CUPRUM Copper
DUMDUM A soft nosed expanding bullet
DURDUM An uproar
FUCKUP Something completely mismanaged. A disaster
FURFUR Dandruff
GRUGRU A West Indian name for several types of palm tree
GUMNUT The woody fruit of the eucalyptus
GURJUN A thin balsam or wood oil from derived from an East Indian tree
GUTFUL One’s fill. More than enough
HUDDUP An instruction to a horse. Like giddyup.
HUMBUG To deceive
HUMHUM A plain coarse cotton cloth
JUGFUL As much as a jug can hold
KRUBUT A malodorous tropical plant
KULTUR Culture
LUXURY Ease, pleasure and indulgence
MUCLUC A sealskin boot
MUDBUG A crayfish
MUGFUL As much as a mug can hold
MUGGUR An Indian crocodile with a broad snout
MULMUL A fine soft muslin
MULTUM Extract of quassia licorice used in shoddy brewing to save on hops
MURMUR A subdued, muttered sound
MZUNGU A white person in East Africa. (Same as PAKEHA in New Zealand)
NUBUCK A type of leather with a velvety finsih
PULLUP The act of raising oneself when hanging by the hands
PULTUN A regiment in the Indian army
RUMDUM An alcoholic
TUBFUL As much as a tub can hold
TUCHUN A Chinese military governor
TUMULT To make a great din and commotion
TUNDUN Australian bullroarer (Ceremonial noisemaker or signalling device)
TURNUP A part of a garment that is turned up
UNBURY To exhume
UNCUFF To remove from handcuffs
UNCURB To remove from restraints
UNCURL To straighten the curls
UNDULY Exceeding what is appropriate or normal
UNFURL To unroll
UNHUNG Not hung
UNHURT Not hurt
UNPLUG To take a plug out
UNRULY Difficult to control
UNTUCK To release from being tucked up
UNTURF To strip the turf from
UNTURN To turn backwards
UPCURL To curl up
UPFURL To roll up
UPHUNG Past tense of to hang up
UPHURL To hurl up
UPTURN To turn up or over
URNFUL As much as an urn can hold
The most surprising one was HUMBUG. I thought it was just an expression, but it is a verb meaning to deceive. Apparently I was humbugged by humbug
Happy Scrabbling Patrick