Forget The Olympics: We Got The Scrabble Championships

By Rob Last edited 221 months ago
Forget The Olympics: We Got The Scrabble Championships
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Yes it's street party time again because London has been announced as the official venue for the 2005 World Scrabble Championships.

We can tell you're excited really.

Next month this prestigious and highly prized title will be fought over at the Marriott Regent's Park Hotel, with entrants travelling from every corner of the globe to 'clash tiles'.

The reigning champ' is 19 year old Panupol Sujjayakorn (there's a triple word score right there!) from Thailand who, we're told, "speaks little conversational English, but knows the English dictionary back to front".

How is that possible?

Panupol will be up against some of the Srcabble world's young contenders such as "15 year old school boy, David Eldar who is representing Australia."...now you'd think it would be hard to for Aussie Scrabble players not to instinctively truncate all their words wouldn't you? Barbie, ute, arvo etc. Is there a special Oz version of Scrabble where these words are allowed? We need to know.

Anyway, according to the press release we can expect to see a whole host of Scrabble-mad celebrities at the Championships, as "A growing band of rock stars, comedians and television personalities like nothing more than to spend an evening vying for a triple-word score with those little plastic letters known as Scrabble tiles."

Confirmed Scrabble fans include Mr and Mrs Saatchi aka Nigella Lawson, Mel Gibson, Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams, Christina Aguilera, Chris Martin, (lead singer with the band Coldplay) and comedians Alistair McGowan and Sean Hughes. Even Madonna and Guy Ritchie have been outed as aficionados and Jordan and her fiancé Peter Andre are also reported to be confirmed fans of the game.

Madonna, Jordan and Chris Martin rubbing shoulders at the Scrabble after party? This is quite patently bollocks and shame on Mattel for trying to raise Scrabble's profile in a such a base manner.

Why not just focus on the glamorous past-winners of the event such as Mark Nyman, David Boys and Joel Sherman, pictured here from left to right:

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Joel especially, we think, has a face which could really bring people to the game.

Seriously though, there is a $35,500 prize fund for the competition, with around half that going to the winner, so if you fancy your chances (hey, the guy you have to beat doesn't even speak English, how hard can it be?) then you can register here.

Londonist will of course keep you updated with all the action from the contest when it begins on 16th November. Who knows, we may even send a Londonist representative to cover the proceedings.

Last Updated 20 October 2005