As Easy as ABC

I will start this blog with an advertisement.

One of the buttons on my scrabble clock started getting stuck down. I thought it was probably a spring, but I am not much of a handyman. Julie suggested a watch maker or jeweler so I took it to Precision Watches in New Lynn. They spent about 15 minutes opening the back and testing everything, but said it definitely didn't need a spring, but was possibly sticking in a small groove that had been made in the plastic from wear and tear. After their efforts it seems to be OK unless you push the button down hard. They couldn’t fix it any better than that because unsurprisingly they did not have the right part and would have had to try to manufacture something. I would happily have paid for their time, but they insisted there was no charge. All I can do for them is to give them a good report in this blog and say if anyone else has problems with a scrabble clock I recommend you try Precision Watches. After receiving good service, I will certainly take my clock back to them even though asking them to manufacture the right part might end up being a more expensive solution. At the moment if you are using my board don't press the buttons too hard.

A Grade Challenge

A     B     C     E     L     N     O     T

A     B     C     E     L     O     T     U

A     B     C     D     E     L     N     O

A     B     C     E     O     N     S     U

A     B     C     E     I     L     S     T

B and C Grade Study List

These are all 5 letter words that you might not have known that all start with the letters A, B or C. There are 6 words to learn for each letter. They are also words that look as though they might take an S as a back hook, but in fact do not

Maybe you knew some of these words. But did you know they didn't take an S?

ACERB – Bitter and sour

ALBEE – Another way of saying All be it

ALOWE – Scottish word meaning ablaze

AMENE – Pleasant. Takes D for AMENED

ANCON – The elbow. Takes E for ANCONE

ANURA – Frogs and toads. Takes L & N for ANURAL & ANURAN

BAITH – A Scottish word for both.

BATTU – A ballet movement. Takes E for BATTUE

BAYER – More resembling the colour bay

BITOU – Describing a sort of South African bush

BOYAU – A communication trench. Takes X for BOYAUX

BULLA – A round seal on a papal notice. Takes E for BULLAE

CAJON – A steep canyon

CAJUN – Relating to French speakers in Louisiana

CHIMO – An Eskimo word used as a greeting

CLOMB – Climbed

COURD – Covered

CRONK – Australian word indicating low quality

Random Fun Fact

There is a fish called the Asian Dragonfish

Why is it useful at Scrabble?

If your guess is that you could put DRAGON in front of FISH you would be wrong

Not only because it is rare to play 10 letter words, but because the computer would tell you that dragonfish is not a word. That would be annoying!

However If you have too many A’s that fish could be a gold mine

It has another name, with 4 ways of spelling it:

ARUANA, ARAWANA, AROWANA and ARAHUANA

PS. Note that I spelled GOLD MINE as two words because you cannot have it as a single word. However, COALMINE is allowed. Just one of the inconsistencies you can find in our dictionary (You can play MODELING instead of gold mine)

Answers to A Grade Challenge

BALCONET – A small balcony

BLUECOAT– A soldier dressed in blue

BLANCOED – Whitened with blanco

SUBOCEAN – Beneath the ocean

BASILECT – The least prestigious language of an area

Happy Scrabbling

Patrick