Scrabble is over in hunt for games venue

DUBAI // The country's star Scrabble players, who rank among the best in the world, are no longer without a venue to meet.

Gone are the days when they were more likely to see each other at tournaments in Oman, Sri Lanka or Malaysia. And they will no longer just practise alone at a computer.

The UAE Scrabble Club, which once existed as more of a Facebook group than a gathering of people, can now hold weekly game nights.

They have been invited to meet and groom future talent at the University of Wollongong in Knowledge Village, after vice president Raymi van der Spek heard about their plight.

He believed hosting some of the world's best Scrabble players would benefit not just them but his students, too.

"It seemed unfair to me that you had people who were pretty good but didn't have anywhere to play," he said.

"At the same time, dealing with shortcomings in the English language skills of incoming students is a big problem," he said. "This seemed to me to be a natural fit. It's a relatively intellectual exercise; it helps to develop vocabulary."

The university is considering hosting the UAE's first inter-collegial Scrabble tournament and a regional tournament for veteran players. To begin attracting students, yesterday morning a few of those old hands - who have at their command vocabularies that are tens of thousands of words strong - set up boards on campus and coached a steady stream of students.

chuang@thenational.ae