Copyright

HarperCollins Publishers

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Fourth edition 2020

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Written by: Mark Nyman

E-book Edition © 09 2020

ISBN 9780008395841

Version: 2020-08-06

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Foreword

1 Two’s Company

2 Less Is More

3 Starters

4 Meaning-less?

5 Pardon Me

6 No Rush

7 Hello Hello Hello

8 Irritable Vowel Syndrome

9 A Fine Mess

10 E by Gum

11 For Your Is Only

12 O My Word

13 U-seless

14 Vocabulary

15 Size Matters

16 Some Real Corkers

17 Time for a Change

18 Hold on to Your Retsina

19 Chuck ’Em In

20 To the Max

21 Leave No Stone Unturned

22 Take the Rough with the Smooth

23 In-consonants

24 Not In-consonants

25 Licence to Thrill

26 Tasty Twosomes

27 Americanisms

28 Monkey Business

29 Slanguage

30 Feathered Friends

31 Abbreviations and Acronyms

32 The Blank

33 Bonus Play

34 Another Retsina

35 Anties in your Panties

36 Seating Room Only

37 Man-alive

38 De-stress

39 Wood You Believe It?

40 Against All Odds

41 Cheats Never Prosper

42 Poker Face

43 Know Your Ologies

44 Suffixes

45 Ess-ential

46 Non-words

47 Play to the Board

48 Blocking and Opening

49 Set-ups

50 By Hook or by Crook

51 Off the hook

52 More Vowel Trouble

53 Sub-mission

54 It’s Only a Game

55 Skulduggery

56 Like-ability

57 Je Ne Regrette Rien

58 Have You Got What It Takes?

59 Juicy J-words

60 Jinn and Tonic

61 Q without a U

62 X-pertise

63 Zo Far Zo Good

64 Enjoy the Moment

65 South African Words

66 More Hooks

67 A Young Man’s Game?

68 More Corkers

69 Hard of Herring

70 Tile Tracking

71 Check Your Averages

72 UK OK

73 Māori Words

74 More Māori

75 Type-cast

76 Never Say Never

77 Off the Record

78 Special Sixes

79 Magnificent Sevens

80 Great Eights

81 Even More Hooks

82 Even More Vowel Trouble

83 Triple Tactics

84 Handy Hindi

85 More Handy Hindi

86 Rising to the Challenge

87 Vanquish the V

88 U Don’t Want to Be with a W

89 Super Words

90 Angry Words

91 Wise Words

92 Fatherly Advice

93 ZZZS

94 Hook, Line, and Sinker

95 Superstitions

96 Do You Feel Lucky?

97 New Additions

98 Eliminate the Page

99 Consonant Dumps

100 It’s Even Colder Outside

101 Think Positive

102 Four Nights in Bangkok

103 Over…..

104 And Out

105 And So to Zed

106 Spiritual Scrabble

107 Play Them at Their Own Game

108 Aspirations

109 ‘Out of the Box’ Thinking

110 You Cannot be Serious

111 The Penultimate is the Ultimate

112 Modesty Forbids

The Two-Letter Words Playable in Scrabble are …

The Three-Letter Words Playable in Scrabble are …

Essential Scrabble Glossary

Worth a Play, Read and Watch

Taking It Further

About the Publisher

Foreword

Mark Nyman is the antithesis of a Scrabble geek! He is a man from the real world who happens to be one of the greatest Scrabble players of all time. In this gem of a book utilising a mixture of mischievousness, wit and masterful expertise he is able to showcase the game as interesting, enjoyable and enormous fun.

I met Mark in 1992 when awestruck by his word game abilities in an international tournament in Bangkok. I will always remember his kindness in addressing my newbie questions at length. He helped to inspire me to devote myself to learning the game and just two years later we faced each other in a professional game in the USA. He won!

Though aimed at the beginner, there is something for everyone in this updated edition of Scrabble Secrets from what to do with too many vowels, and what prefixes and suffixes to look for, to pertinent advice about those valuable tiles the ‘S’ and the blank.

Mark’s skill extends well beyond vocabulary and strategy, however, to such subjects as handling winning and losing, maintaining a poker-face, skulduggery and even the question of cheating. We also find out why he hangs around the bathroom in between important games …

Scrabble Secrets and its 100 plus top tips will delight you and hopefully encourage even the most casual player to consider taking the game more seriously by joining a club or entering a competitive tournament.

Gerry Carter

1998 Asia Pacific Scrabble Champion

Gerry Carter is the originator of the Facebook Forum ‘Scrabble International’

1 Two’s Company

Scrabble study always starts with the two-letter words. The most useful of these are the ones with the highest-scoring letters, i.e. the Q and Z. So let’s begin with the four most useful words in Scrabble:

QI | Life force
ZA | Pizza
ZE | Gender-neutral pronoun
ZO | Himalayan cattle

So if an I, A, E or O is directly below or to the right of a triple-letter square, you could place the Q or Z on it and, if you can go across/down with the same word, a potential 62 points can be picked up, much to the consternation of your opponent!

2 Less Is More

A common myth amongst Scrabble beginners is that the longer the word, the higher the score – this is not necessarily true at all.

You may AGONIZE for as little as 17 if you don’t make good use of the premium squares, whereas as in secret 1 a simple ZA, ZE or ZO might get you 62 on the same turn – be economical with your tiles.

3 Starters

S, C and P respectively are the most common starting letters and together comprise over a quarter of the words in the dictionary. So when moving your rack around it’s a good idea to put them at the beginning – a profusion of words arise from such useful prefixes as:

SEMI-, SUB-

CH-, CO-

POLY-, PRE-

4 Meaning-less?

Whether or not to insist on knowing the meanings of words played is a controversial topic and can lead to lots of arguments.

The official rule is that you don’t have to know them, but some people still think it’s just not right. If you are playing at home and insist on knowing the meanings it can lead to trouble because it’s a moot point how close you have to get to the exact definition. For example, you may play ZLOTY knowing it’s a type of currency, but your opponent may insist on you explaining from which country it originates. If you don’t know, will they let you have the word?

These inconsistencies can cause a fallout, so far better to stick to the ‘not having to know’ rule for peace’s sake. It’s great to find out the meanings, but when there are 162,500 Scrabble words with 9 letters or less, it would take an incredible mind to know every meaning as well as every word.

Personally, I would rather learn a new word than a meaning of an existing word I know (shock horror), but I do enjoy picking up some of the meanings along the way. Former World Champion Pakorn Nemitrmansuk from Thailand struggles with fluent English and doesn’t bother with the meanings of the more outlandish words.

On the other hand, Scrabble is a great learning tool for improving vocabulary, so at the end of the day it’s whatever floats your boat. Just don’t sneer at your opponent if they don’t know a definition unless you think they’d do the same to you.

5 Pardon Me

The six-letter combination PARDON goes with every vowel to make an unusual seven-letter word and thereby give a possible 50-point bonus:

PARDON | + A | PANDORA – sea bream
| + E | PADRONE – Italian inn owner
| + I | PONIARD – dagger
| + O | PANDOOR – one of an 18th-century force of Croatian soldiers
| + U | PANDOUR – " " " "

By the way PARDON ME is an anagram of POMANDER and I PARDON ME is an anagram of MEROPIDAN – a bird of the bee-eater family – and PROMENADE ap-piers to be an anagram of PARDON MEE.

6 No Rush

Use all of your twenty-five minutes when you play to a clock. Don’t rush into playing the first move you think of – there’s usually a better move you haven’t spotted yet.

It’s also worth giving yourself a couple of extra seconds after placing your move on the board and before hitting the clock to make sure you’re happy with it.

7 Hello Hello Hello

There are no less than thirteen different variations of the word HELLO:

HALLO

HALLALOO

HALLOA

HALLOO

HILLO

HILLOA

HOLLA

HOLLO

HOLLOA

HOLLOO

HULLO

HULLOA

HULLOO

They are all verbs (apart from HALLALOO) and HALLOES, HELLOES, HILLOES, HOLLOES and HULLOES are also okay, so there are forty-five derivatives altogether.

8 Irritable Vowel Syndrome

Too many vowels on your rack can lead to disaster. Generally, the ideal ratio of consonants to vowels is 4:3. So having four vowels is a slight overload but fairly easily remedied – five or more and the alarm bells start ringing.

In this case, it can take two or three turns to restore the balance, and the worst of it is you are unlikely to score well in the meantime since the vowels are worth only one point at face value.

Here are some examples of lovely vowelly words to get you out of trouble quickly:

AE | one
AI | slow moving shaggy South American animal
EA | a river
IO | moth
OI | shout for attention
OU | man
AIA | Eastern female servant
AUA | mullet
AUE | Māori exclamation
EAU | a river
EUOI | a cry of Bacchic frenzy
EUOUAE | a Gregorian cadence

It’s amazing how often EUOI especially comes up – those followers of Bacchus had some fun didn’t they?

9 A Fine Mess

You can easily get out of a sticky situation with multiple As if you know some of these:

AA | volcanic lava
AAL | Asian tree
ABA | Syrian camel-haired cloth
AKA | New Zealand vine
ALA | wing
AMA | water vessel
ANA | collection of reminiscences
AVA | Polynesian shrub
AWA | away
CAA | to call
FAA | fall
MAA | to bleat
ACAI | Brazilian berry
ANOA | small cattle
ATUA | demon
AULA | hall
ABACA | Philippine plant
ALAAP | Indian rhythm
ALAPA | " "
ANANA | pineapple
ARABA | Asian carriage
TAATA | father
ARAARA | game fish
TAIAHA | Māori staff

10 E by Gum

E is the most common letter and the best vowel to hold. You can really struggle with a dearth of Es in the game – they are its lifeblood – but on the flip side, you don’t really want more than a couple on your rack at any one time. Because there are twelve in the set, you can quite often find yourself with three or four Es – here are a few words to Es the problem:

EE | eye
EEN | eyes
EEW | expression of disgust
EME | uncle
ENE | even
JEE | to move ahead
MEE | Malaysian noodle dish
EEEW | expression of greater disgust
EEVEN | evening
ELPEE | long-playing record
ETWEE | small case
EXEME | to set free
GELEE | jelly
ENTETE | obsessed
VEEPEE | vice president
VENEWE | venue

Do, however, try and keep one E back on your rack unless the score with it is too good to miss.

11 For Your Is Only

It’s amazing how regularly you can get stuck with two or three Is on your rack and, if you’re not careful, the problem can persist. To dig you out of the I-hole sooner rather than later, try playing the following:

IWI | Māori tribe
BIDI | Indian cigarette
DIVI | stupid person
FINI | finish
HILI | scar on a seed
IMID | a drug
INIA | points at the back of the head
IRID | iris
IXIA | African plant
LIRI | monetary unit
NIDI | insects’ nests
PILI | Philippine tree
TITI | South American monkey
WILI | spirit
AALII | bushy shrub
BIKIE | motorcycle gang member
CIVIE | civilian
DIXIE | cooking pot
FIXIT | solution to a problem
LITAI | Lithuanian monetary unit
MIRIN | Japanese rice wine
OIDIA | fungal spores
TEIID | lizard
VISIE | to look
YITIE | bunting
ZIMBI | cowrie shell

12 O My Word

A surfeit of Os is relatively easy to alleviate, but here’s a soupçon of gems to make it even simpler:

OO | wool
OBO | ship carrying oil
ONO | Hawaiian fish
OOM | old man’s title of respect
OOR | our
OOT | out
OXO | acid containing oxygen
OLIO | dish of differing ingredients
ORZO | pasta
OVOLO | convex moulding
GOOROO | guru
HOOROO | hurrah

13 U-seless

The U is by far the least useful of the vowels, unless of course accompanied by the Q. More than one U can really cramp your style and flow, but there are a few unusual multiple U-words that can help:

ULU | knife
UMU | oven
UTU | reward
BUBU | African garment
HUHU | hairy New Zealand beetle
KURU | nervous disease
LULU | outstanding person
PUPU | Hawaiian dish
RURU | owl
SULU | Fijian sarong
UNAU | two-toed sloth
URUS | extinct European ox
YUZU | citrus fruit
AHURU | Pacific cod
BUTUT | Gambian monetary unit
DURUM | Mediterranean wheat
QUIPU | Incan recording device
UHURU | national independence
URUBU | bird
MUUMUU | Hawaiian dress

14 Vocabulary

A player’s vocabulary is their ammunition in the game. It’s not the ‘be all and end all’ but the more words you know, the more you should improve. An average person’s vocabulary is between 10–15,000 words, i.e. about 10% of all the words useful to Scrabble, so there’s plenty of scope for improvement.

Don’t be put off at the thought of having to learn 100,000 new words. If you’re willing to give it a go, you can be economical with your study as some words are a lot more ‘Scrabble-friendly’ than others. The best players probably know about half of them and there are only a handful of people close to knowing the lot – and they definitely need to get out more …

15 Size Matters

The two-letter words are the bread and butter of Scrabble, and learning them is by no means an insurmountable task. There are just 127 twos of which about a third are everyday words anyway, so learning two or three a day will crack them all in the space of a month.

Next come the 1347 three-letter words. Only the top players know all these, but it’s surprising how many you will pick up with practice.

The more weird and wonderful 4s and 5s are reserved for the serious player – if you’re starting out on the competitive road, it’s best to kick off by learning those with the high-scoring letters.

The 6s aren’t as important as you might think and probably come last in a study regime. However, there are some fabulous six-letter blockers worth knowing.

The high-probability 7s and 8s are really useful in the search for that treasured 50-point bonus. There are about 34,000 seven-letter words in all and 42,000 eights, but don’t let that deter you. Knowledge of the most likely 250 of each will improve your game immensely.

Nine-letter (or longer) words come up very rarely, though it’s incredibly satisfying when they do. In terms of Scrabble study don’t worry about them – that saves you looking at half the dictionary.

16 Some Real Corkers

Here’s an A to Z of some of my favourite 7s and 8s:

AZULEJO | Spanish porcelain tile
BUHUNDS | Norwegian dogs
CONEPATL | skunk
DWEEBISH | quite stupid
EUPHRASY | annual plant
FIREFANG | to overheat through decomposition
GUNKHOLE | to go on short boat excursions
HEITIKI | Māori neck ornament
ICEKHANA | motor race on frozen lake
JEREPIGO | fortified wine
KERCHOO | atishoo
LUNKHEAD | stupid person
MRIDANGA | Indian drum
NUDZHES | nudges
OLYCOOK | American doughnut
PATOOTIE | person’s bottom
QUETZAL | Central American bird
RUDESBY | rude person
SLYBOOTS | sly person
TAGHAIRM | divination sought by lying in a bullock’s hide under a Scottish waterfall
UNSHRUBD | not having shrubs
VEEJAYS | video jockeys
WOSBIRD | illegitimate child
XERAFIN | Indian coin
YAHOOISM | crudeness
ZEDOARY | Asian stem used as a stimulant

17 Time for a Change

There is a great deal of skill in choosing the right time to change your letters, as well as which ones to throw back in the bag.

The first, and most important, tip on this subject is DON’T BE AFRAID TO CHANGE. You may score zero on that particular turn, but if the alternative is to be left with a horrible combination of letters, like IIIUVVW, you may get stuck scoring 10 points per move for several turns. Say you average 20 points per turn, it’s better to change and score a likely 60 over the next three moves than 40 without the change.

18 Hold on to Your Retsina

The most 50-point bonus-conducive letters are AEINRST – generally, when throwing tiles in the bag, you want to keep one of any of these that you hold on your rack, as long as you leave a decent consonant to vowel ratio (i.e. 3:2, 2:2, 2:1, 1:1). The highest scoring letters JQXZ are only worth keeping if there are some tasty triple-letter and triple-word squares available to play onto the board. If the board is tight and especially if there are no floating vowels, the high-scorers could be rendered useless. The X and Z are generally more fruitful than the J and Q if you can’t resist holding one back.

19 Chuck ’Em In

In my opinion, the converse of AEINRST is FGJQUVW – i.e. these are the seven worst letters in the set. So, when changing, always get rid of these unless you have the Q with a U, a high-scoring place for the J, or a promising -ING combination. Even then you might be held back, especially if the board is tight.

You may be surprised about the inclusion of the G, but in my experience Gs are generally bad news. If you’re deciding to change, always throw back a V if you have one. V is the weakest letter of all, partly because it’s the only one that doesn’t form a two-letter word. As for the rest – BCDHKLMOPXYZ – they all have their merits and it depends on the state of the board as to whether any of them are worth keeping. Usually chuck them though.

20 To the Max

MAX- is a handy prefix and produces some lovely extensions:

MAXED | reached full extent
MAXI | large racing yacht
MAXICOAT | long coat
MAXILLA | upper jawbone
MAXIMIN | highest of set of minimum values
MAXIMITE | explosive
MAXIMUS | method rung on twelve bells
MAXING | reaching full extent
MAXIXE | Brazilian dance
MAXWELL | unit of magnetic flux

There’s also SUPERMAX – relating to the very highest levels of security.

21 Leave No Stone Unturned

Here’s a selection of words to a-stone-ish you:

ASTONE | astonish
BURSTONE | hard rock
CAMSTONE | limestone
EARSTONE | calcium carbonate crystal in the ear
HISTONE | DNA protein
ICESTONE | cryolite
LAPSTONE | cobbler’s device
POTSTONE | used for making cooking vessels
ROESTONE | limestone
RUBSTONE | used for sharpening
STONERAG | lichen
STONERAW | "
SUNSTONE | feldspar
TINSTONE | black or brown stone

There’s also the nine-letter IRONSTONE, which is a very nice anagram of SEROTONIN, and LIMESTONE and MILESTONE are both anagrams of LEMONIEST and MELONIEST.

22 Take the Rough with the Smooth

Certain mini-combinations of consonants work really well together and are worth holding on to in the search for a 50-point bonus. They often tend to comprise both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ letters but it’s best not to keep back all ‘hard’ letters together and likewise all ‘soft’.

‘Hard’ consonants | BDFGJKPQTVX
‘Soft’ consonants | HLMNRSWYZ

I’ve left out C as it can be both ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ – this adaptability is why it’s a particular favourite.

So……….

23 In-consonants

Consonant combinations particularly worth keeping back for potential bonus play:

BL, BM, BR, CH, CK, CL, CN, CP, CR, CT, DL, DN, DR, HP, KL, KN, KR, LP, MP, NT, PR, RT

BDR, BLR, BMR, CDR, CHN, CHR, CHT, CLR, CLT, CNR, CNT, CPR, CRT, DLR, DNR, DPR, DRT, GLN, GNR, HPR, HPT, KLN, KLR, KNR, KNT, LPR, LPT, MPR, NRT, PRT

An S is always worth holding on to in addition to these combinations. You will see they all contain at least one ‘hard’ and one ‘soft’ letter.

24 Not In-consonants

Consonant combinations to avoid (using 3-point or lower tiles):

BG, BP, CG, DT, GP, GT, LN

BDT, BGP, BGT, BPT, DGP, DGT, GPT, LNR

You will notice that all these contain either all ‘soft’ or all ‘hard’ letters. Of course, any combination with two of the same letter and you automatically look to offload the duplicate.

25 Licence to Thrill

It can be good anagram practice to look at car number plates and try to find the shortest word you can using all the letters within them. Add any extra letters you want but the less the better, for example:

SKO5 CYJ | JOCKEYS (beats JOYSTICK)
NCL2 END | INCLINED (beats DECLINING)
OWO6 ETA | TEAKWOOD (beats TAEKWONDO)

This can be great fun and very satisfying on a long car journey but don’t forget to concentrate on the road as well. Of course, you won’t be able to find a word with all the plates – if you see QXO7 GJZ, give up immediately and move on to the next car.

26 Tasty Twosomes

There are some gorgeous seven- and eight-letter anagram pairs – here are some of my favourites:

APPRIZE | ZAPPIER
BOGEYMAN | MONEYBAG
CRUMPETS | SPECTRUM
DOORBELL | BORDELLO
ELATION | TOENAIL
FLUSHING | LUNGFISH (freshwater fish)
GHETTOED | DOGTEETH (carved ornaments)
HOGMANAY | MAHOGANY
IFFIEST | FIFTIES
JITTERS | TRIJETS (jets with three engines)
KIDNAPS | SKIDPAN (slippery area)
LIMEADE | EMAILED
MOORHEN | HORMONE
NAPPIES | PINESAP (red herb)
OOMPAHS | SHAMPOO
PRESUME | SUPREME
QUERIES | ESQUIRE
RINGTONE | NITROGEN
SCREWTOP | CROWSTEP (set of steps to the top of a gable)
TAPEWORM | POMWATER (kind of apple)
UTOPIAN | OPUNTIA (cactus)
VIOLATED | DOVETAIL
WASPNEST | STEWPANS
XEROTIC | EXCITOR (nerve)
YACKERS | SCREAKY
ZINCITE | CITIZEN

XEROTIC is not as kinky as it sounds – it relates to dryness of bodily tissues.

27 Americanisms

As a general rule, all US alternative spellings are allowed in Scrabble, so color, humor, neighbor, etc. are OK – like it or not. Also, almost every –ISE verb can be spelt with –IZE. It’s interesting that Collins is recognised everywhere in the World as the English Scrabble ‘bible’, apart from the US and Canada, where they use Webster’s. Since Collins incorporates all of Webster’s and a lot more, you ironically need to unlearn loads of words to play in the States. This seems a reflection of the US ‘we are the world’ attitude, so don’t bother playing serious Scrabble over there.

South America is a relatively unexplored continent dictionary-wise – there’s plenty of scope for future great words from that neck of the woods.

28 Monkey Business

‘I’m a Believer’ in monkeys – they keep ape-earing in the official Scrabble word list:

BANDARI

CEBID

COAITA

DOUC

ENTELLUS

GRIVET

GUEREZA

HANUMAN

JOCKO

LANGUR

MANGABEY

MICO

OUAKARI

OUISTITI

SAGOUIN

SAIMIRI

SAJOU

TALAPOIN

TAMARIN

VERVET

WANDEROO

ZATI

The beautiful CYNOMOLGI have to be worth a mention, however unlikely they are to jump out at you.

29 Slanguage

Slang words are perfectly allowable in Scrabble when they become common English usage. A lot of Australian slang appears, such as:

ALF | an uncultivated Australian
SIK | excellent
ACCA | an academic
ALKO | alcoholic
DACK | to forcefully remove trousers
DOCO | documentary
DORB | stupid person
DRAC | unattractive
GOOG | egg
KERO | kerosene
KYBO | temporary camping lavatory
MYXO | myxomatosis
NOAH | shark
UMPY | umpire
WARB | insignificant person
FIRIE | firefighter
NIXER | spare-time job
UMPIE | umpire

SLANGUAGE is a word in itself – a lovely front hook to ‘language’.

30 Feathered Friends

There are plenty of exotic -BIRD words to fly by you:

AXEBIRD | nightjar
BOOBIRD | person who boos
COWBIRD | American songbird
FATBIRD | nocturnal bird
GAOLBIRD | person confined to jail
HANGBIRD | bird that builds a hanging nest
JAYBIRD | jay
KINGBIRD | American flycatcher
LYREBIRD | Australian bird that spreads its tail into shape of a lyre
MAYBIRD | American songbird
OVENBIRD | small South American bird
PUFFBIRD | tropical American bird
RICEBIRD | bird frequenting rice fields
SNOWBIRD | bird of Arctic regions
WHIPBIRD | whistling bird
YARDBIRD | inexperienced soldier

31 Abbreviations and Acronyms

Abbreviations are not allowed in themselves unless they come into common conversation, in which case they become colloquialisms, for example AD for advertisement. The same applies to acronyms – there are a few crackers:

ASPRO | associate professor
BAMBI | born-again middle-aged biker
ELINT | electronic intelligence
FEDEX | federal express
JATO | jet-assisted take-off
MIPS | million instructions per second
NOX | nitrogen oxide
POMO | post-modernism
QUANGO | quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation
RONZER | someone from rest of New Zealand – not Auckland
TASER | Thomas A. Swift’s electric rifle
TWOCCING | taking without owner’s consent
WAAC | member of Women’s Auxiliary Arms Corps
WOOPIE | well-off older person
YABA | yet another bloody acronym!

32 The Blank

The blank is without doubt the best tile in the Scrabble set. If you’re lucky enough to get both during the course of the game it will increase your chances of winning hugely, but you need to make the most of them.

If you get a blank early on, try and save it until you can use it in a 50-point bonus word. Never waste it on a move scoring less than 30 points.

Some players get really stuck when a blank appears – it’s not surprising when you consider there are effectively twenty-six combinations to think about. But try to envisage the blank as a particular letter on your rack – some are more likely to go well with your other six letters than others. Even so, moves with a blank tend to require a great deal more thought and it’s understandable they take longer.

As a general rule, use the blank when your move scores over 20 points more than one without it. Otherwise, hold on for a big play later – it’s worth the wait.

Two blanks together can be a real mind-blower as there are 676 potential combinations. Don’t panic: the more you play, the more you’ll get a feel for which letters you’re looking for them to be.

33 Bonus Play

If you can play out all your letters for the 50-point bonus, you’ll enhance your winning chances enormously. Achieving this once in a game is good, twice excellent and three or more times will almost guarantee you victory.

The art of bonus finding is innate to Scrabble success – much of it is to do with rack-balancing along with knowing some high-probability seven- and eight-letter words (i.e. those with the most common letters) to help find that killer move.

There are some great six- and seven-letter combinations to work towards to give yourself the best opportunity of making it happen.

34 Another Retsina

As well as having ten anagrams (you don’t need to know them all), RETSINA goes with more letters to make an eight-letter word than any other – so look for these floaters on the board:

A ARTESIAN (well)

B BANISTER

C CANISTER

D STRAINED

E TRAINEES

F FENITARS (European plants)

G ANGRIEST

H HAIRNETS

I RAINIEST

J NARTJIES (tangerines)

K NARKIEST

L ENTRAILS

M MINARETS

N TRANNIES

O NOTARIES

P PAINTERS

R TRAINERS

S STAINERS

T NITRATES

U URINATES

W TINWARES (objects made of tin plate)

35 Anties in your Panties

The six-letter combination ANTIES goes with more letters to make a seven-letter word than any other:

A ENTASIA (convex curve)

B BASINET (medieval helmet)

C CINEAST (film enthusiast)

D DETAINS

E ETESIAN (Mediterranean wind)

F FAINEST (most eager)

G SEATING

H SHEITAN (Muslim demon)

I ISATINE (yellowish-red compound)

J JANTIES (petty officers)

K INTAKES

L ENTAILS

M INMATES

N INANEST

O ATONIES (lack of muscle tone)

P PANTIES

R RETSINA

S NASTIES

T INSTATE

U AUNTIES

V NATIVES

W TAWNIES

X SEXTAIN (Italian verse)

Z ZANIEST

So only Q and Y don’t work. Note that there are several anagrams in some cases but knowing one is often enough.

36 Seating Room Only

Along with RETSINA, SEATING is the most prolific seven-letter word when it comes to anagrams – it has ten:

EASTING | distance eastwards
EATINGS
GAINEST | straightest
GENISTA | member of broom family
INGATES | entrances
INGESTA | nourishment
TAGINES | African cooking pots
TANGIES | Orkney water spirits
TEASING
TSIGANE | Gypsy music

37 Man-alive

-MAN is a very productive suffix – here are some 7s and 8s you might not expect:

ADWOMAN | woman working in advertising
BRIDEMAN | bridegroom’s attendant
CHOREMAN | handyman
DRAGOMAN | Middle Eastern guide
EARTHMAN | inhabitant of the earth
FACEMAN | miner working at coalface
GLEEMAN | minstrel
HELIMAN | helicopter pilot
IRONMAN | very strong man
JURYMAN | member of a jury
KEELMAN | bargeman
LOCOMAN | railwayman
MOTORMAN | driver of electric train
OVERSMAN | overseer
PRIZEMAN | winner of prize
QUILLMAN | clerk
RADIOMAN | radio operator
SWEETMAN | man kept by a woman
TOYWOMAN | woman who sells toys
UNWOMAN | to remove womanly qualities from
VERSEMAN | man who writes verse
WATERMAN | skilled boatman
YEGGMAN | burglar

38 De-stress

Part of the attraction of Scrabble is it helps you forget about your worries while you’re concentrating on the game. Here are a few suggestions to make it an even more relaxing and positive experience:

(a) Sleep well the night before – a couple of beers or glasses of wine should do the trick

(b) Drink caffeine to stimulate your brain – not too much though as it might get a bit wayward

(c) Drink water – again in moderation as needing the loo will make you lose concentration

(d) Have a massage

(e) Play uplifting music – I find listening to lyrics and being silent (anagram of listen) much more productive than being loud and talking. Put together playlists with your favourite songs and get your earphones on before a game to get you in the right mood.

(f) Avoid stressful work and particularly bad bosses

(g) Avoid affairs

(h) Play in pleasant uncluttered surroundings

(i) Laugh at your opponent if they are over-competitive

(j) Support a winning football team, i.e. Barcelona or QPR

39 Wood You Believe It?

WOOD works really well as a prefix and suffix:

AGALWOOD | Asian tree
BEARWOOD | bark used as a laxative
CAMWOOD | West African tree
DAGWOOD | European shrub
ELMWOOD | wood from elm tree
FATWOOD | kindling
GUMWOOD | gumtree
HAREWOOD | sycamore
INKWOOD | tree
KINGWOOD | wood of Brazilian leguminous tree
LATEWOOD | formed later in tree’s growing season
MILKWOOD | tree producing latex
NUTWOOD | walnut
OVENWOOD | word for burning in oven
PEARWOOD | wood from pear tree
SAPWOOD | soft wood beneath bark
WILDWOOD | forest growing in natural uncultivated state
WOODBIN | box for firewood
WOODFREE | paper from treated pulp
WOODHEN | flightless bird
WOODLORE | woodcraft skills
WOODMEAL | sawdust powder
WOODMICE | field mice
WOODNESS | quality of wood
WOODNOTE | natural musical note
WOODROOF | plant
WOODSIA | fern
WOODSIER | more connected with woods
WOODSKIN | canoe made of bark
WOODTONE | colour matching that of wood
WOODWALE | green woodpecker
WOODWARD | person in charge of wood
WOODWOSE | hairy wild man of the woods

40 Against All Odds

ANTI- as a prefix gives rise to plenty of high-probability 7s and 8s – the meanings are mainly self-explanatory:

ANTIACNE

ANTIBOSS

ANTICOLD

ANTIDORA (bread used in Russian Orthodox Communion)

ANTIFOG

ANTIGANG

ANTIJAM

ANTIKING (a rival to an established king)

ANTILEAK

ANTIMALE

ANTINUKE

ANTIPOT

ANTIROCK (preventing a vehicle from rocking)

ANTISNOB

ANTITAX

ANTIVAX (opposed to vaccination)

ANTIWEED

41 Cheats Never Prosper

Cheating is a very tricky subject to cover. If you’re just playing a casual game at home with a like-minded individual, cheating can be fun. However, if there is any degree of competitiveness involved – DON’T CHEAT – it will only end in tears.

The obvious way to cheat is to take a very subtle peep in the bag while (hopefully) your adversary is not looking – you can avoid this by insisting the bag stays above your shoulder when picking tiles. There are all sorts of house rules to combat any shenanigans, but in tournament play there have been several instances of players being banned when caught cheating.

In one event, the deathly hush of the playing area was interrupted by the organiser announcing in front of 200 people that someone had been found out – he was literally frogmarched out of the room by a security guard, never to be seen again …

Obviously, friendly games are a different matter, but if there’s any potential of upsetting your opponent rather than humouring them, don’t bother.

In any case bad karma will get you in the end.

42 Poker Face

It can be easy to tell whether your opponent has a good or bad rack by the look on their face once they’ve picked their tiles, and they can give away where they want to play their next move by staring at a particular part of the board.

This doesn’t matter too much in a friendly game but, if you want to win, it will help your cause to watch out for the giveaway signs, and not react to your own letters either facially or verbally.

I think ironically I played a lot better in the 1997 World Championship when I came 5th than when I won in 1993. The biggest mistake I remember making was not missing a good word, but when spotting a difficult winning move VOUGE (not vogue) in a vital game which seemed lost, I got over excited and my body language gave away the fact I thought I could win. My opponent, the legendary American Joe Edley, whose turn it was, later told me that if I had kept a poker face, he would not have caught on to the fact I could win the game – instead he knew I was up to something, spent extra time looking for the move he knew I’d spotted, eventually saw VOUGE, made the necessary block and won the game – very clever.

43 Know Your Ologies

Try studying these to some degree:

AEROLOGY | study of the atmosphere
AGROLOGY | " " soils
AREOLOGY | Mars
APIOLOGY | bees
BATOLOGY | brambles
CETOLOGY | whales
CHAOLOGY | chaos theory
DEMOLOGY | demography
DOXOLOGY | short hymn
ENOLOGY | study of wine
ETIOLOGY | " " causes of diseases
FETOLOGY | the foetus
MENOLOGY | religious calendar
MISOLOGY | hatred of reasoned argument
MIXOLOGY | the art of mixing cocktails
NOOLOGY | study of intuition
NOMOLOGY | " " law
NOSOLOGY | classification of diseases
OENOLOGY | more wine
OINOLOGY | even more wine
OOLOGY | birds’ eggs
OREOLOGY | mountains
PEDOLOGY | children
PELOLOGY | mud therapy
PENOLOGY | punishment
RHEOLOGY | matter in physics
SEXOLOGY | human sexual behaviour
SINOLOGY | Chinese culture
SITOLOGY | food
UFOLOGY | UFOs
VINOLOGY | vines
VIROLOGY | viruses

OLOGY itself is also perfectly acceptable – it has a rather less cerebral anagram.

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