Ever get asked to write about something, think it will be a total bore, not too mention the event and then, GET SUCKED in?

As Tom Waits said; "I confess, I am not weird about it or anything ......" Yup I got sucked in and found a few facts about Scrabble that should help you at 6:30 p.m. on the 12th of July at ABYC:

* A Scrabble board is 15 spaces high and 15 spaces wide, for a total of 225 squares.

* Scrabble was invented in 1938 by architect Alfred Mosher Butts. Butts created the game as a variation of another word game he invented, Lexiko.

* There is just one Q in a Scrabble game.

* The highest known score for a single word in competition Scrabble is 392. In 1982, Dr. Saladin Khoshnaw achieved this score for the word "caziques," which means "Indian chief."

* The highest possible score a player can get in Scrabble, on a first turn, is for the word MUZJIKS (128 points).

* The highest score obtainable by playing a seven-letter word is QUARTZY (164 points) across a triple-word-score square with the Z on a double-letter-score square.

* There are 10 two-letter words spelled with vowels only: AA, AE, AI, AY, OE, OI, OY, YA, YE, YO.

* The SOWPODS dictionary has a total of 267 751 words out of which 124 are two letter words.

* SOWPODS is an easily-pronounced anagram of OSW and OSPD. (See Below)
** OSW - In 1988 for the first time a single list of all the valid words, without the ambiguity of discussing conjugations, declensions and plurals was published under the title Official Scrabble Words from Chambers (this would come to be known as OSW).
** OSPD - Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (derived from the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary and four other college dictionaries).

FOR THE SCRABBLE PLAYER WHO WANTS TO GET AHEAD:

1. Two letter word combinations are often overlooked so the following list could help you on the 12th of July:

The Letter K is worth 5 points. Possible combinations are as follows:

* KA (5+1)
* KO (5+1)
* KY (5+4)

The Letter J is worth 8 points. Possible combinations are as follows:

* JO (8+1)

The Letter X is worth 8 points. Possible combinations are as follows:

* AX (1+ 8)
* EX (1+ 8)
* OX (1+ 8)
* XI (8+1)
* XU (8+1)

The Letter Q is worth 10 points. Possible combinations are as follows:

* QI (10+1)

The Letter Z is worth 10 points. Possible combinations are as follows:

* ZO (10+1)

2. CLICK HERE to download the entire SOWPODS word list (686 kilobytes).

3. And for the 3G phone enabled CHEATER, here is an online SCRABBLE HELPER.

The Scrabble Evening takes place at the Algoa Bay Yacht Club at 6:30 p.m. on the 12th of July.

Two to a team.

Please bring your own Scrabble board and your mates if you have any.