Celebrate National Scrabble Day On 13th April!

National Scrabble Day recognises the popular game of Scrabble which is played around the world. It coincides with the birthday of Alfred Mosher Butts in 1899; the man who invented the iconic board game.

Since its invention, over 150 million sets have been sold in 121 countries, with 29 different language versions. There is a global network of Scrabble clubs with their own local and national championships. There’s also an international competition calendar, including a bi-annual world championship that takes place in various worldwide locations.

New Zealand has had a club and competitive Scrabble scene since the late 1970s, run by New Zealand Scrabble. There are currently 17 Scrabble clubs and around 350 registered players, of whom about half play tournaments regularly. Newly this year, we have started a national Scrabble in Schools programme and will be hosting a domestic Youth Scrabble Championship in July in Mt. Albert, Auckland.

To acknowledge National Scrabble Day, NZ Scrabble is hosting a variety of events and a photo competition.

There are several events taking place on both Sunday, 12 April and Monday 13 April around the country. 

National Contact for NZ Scrabble Day: Chris Tallman (SNZ Secretary): 0274 520 941

NATIONAL SCRABBLE DAY EVENTS:

Sunday 12 April:

WHERE: NEW LYNN New Lynn Library AUCKLAND (10am to 1pm)

WHAT: Scrabble demonstration and promotion

LOCAL CONTACT: Liz Fagerlund 0276 276 089

Sunday 12 April

WHERE: PAKURANGA: Highland Park Library AUCKLAND (10-1pm)

WHAT: Scrabble demonstration and promotion

LOCAL CONTACT: Val Mills: 027 248 1701

Monday 13 April

WHERE: TE ATATU: St Giles Church, 1 Flanshaw Street

AUCKLAND (10am -12:15pm)

WHAT: Scrabble fun for youth

LOCAL CONTACT: Marama T-Pole: 027 463 9227

Monday 13 April

WHERE: DUNEDIN: South Dunedin Library, 148 King Edward Street, South Dunedin (1-4pm)

WHAT: Scrabble demonstration and promotion

LOCAL CONTACT: Ruth Groffman: groffmanruth@gmail.com

Sunday 19 April (to avoid the cyclone!)

WHERE: WHANGAREI: Outside in the Town Basin (1-3pm)

What: Scrabble demonstration and promotion

LOCAL CONTACT: Cicely Bruce: 021 110 3045

SCRABBLE FUN FACTS

The idea of Scrabble began in the USA during the Great Depression of 1929. Out of work architect Alfred Butts decided to create a game that people could enjoy during their free time. An avid puzzler, Butts combined the elements of anagrams and the classic crossword puzzle, and originally called it Lexiko, then Criss-Crosswords.

The word "scrabble" means to "grope frantically”. The word has one anagram playable in Scrabble - “clabbers” meaning “to curdle or turn sour”.

As in chess, competitive Scrabble is played with a clock, generally with 25 minutes per player. Also as in chess, some players play a “blitz” version of the game – attempting to place all 100 tiles in just a single minute each.

In a strange twist, Hasbro owns the rights to Scrabble in the US and Canada, while Mattel owns the rights in the rest of the world (including New Zealand).

New Zealand’s current national Scrabble champion is Dylan Early, who has won the title twice, and is also the 6-time South African Champion.

New Zealand’s youngest ever tournament player was just 8 years old, while our oldest was 88. Currently our youngest registered club member is 9 years old.

The most successful New Zealand national champion is Jeff Grant, commonly referred to as the “Roger Federer of Scrabble”, as he has won the national championships a record 16 times.

The most successful player in world championship history is a New Zealander - Nigel Richards. Nigel has won a record five world titles between 2007 and 2019, and many other accolades along the way. He made headlines in 2024 by winning the Spanish National Championship, despite not speaking Spanish!

In the Polish version of Scrabble, the letter 'Z' is only worth one point.

There is a street sign at 35th Avenue and 81st Street in Jackson Heights, New York that uses stylised scrabble like letters, with their values in Scrabble as a subscript. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/birthplace-of-scrabble-sign

The highest scoring four-letter word without premium squares isn’t QUIZ (22 points), but JAZY (23 points). It means a type of wig.

It’s possible to score 1782 points on a single word. That word is OXYPHENBUTAZONE, and to get the points, it would need to be played across the top of the board, hitting three Triple Word Score squares while making seven crosswords downward.

The highest (theoretical) score for a single move is 2044 points!

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