Down Lexico Way
by Graham Brown

See Also: Where to play Scrabble and Scrabble type games online

No Butts

IT was 1931, Poughkeepsie USA, and Alfred Mosher Butts had just lost his job. There was little work to be found designing buildings . in fact, there was little work at all. However, rather than mope around flat-capped, posing for Depression Era Photographs, he elected . to devise a board game. Lexico was to be renamed four times over the next 17 years . "New Anagrams", "Alph" , "Criss-Cross" and "Criss-Crosswords". In 1948 "Scrabble" was born.

Into the Net

I began my search for Scrabble on the Net at www.scrabble.com. The tips section begins with the 120 officially sanctioned "Two Letter Words". The reason for learning these? . "They are useful to create parallel plays or for squeezing in a good play on a blocked board" They are also very useful for simply showing off! You can, for example, venture OO with aplomb. And how about AA, AE, AI, AX, AY, BA, BO, CH, DA, DI, EA, EE, FY, GI, GU, ID, IO, JO, KA, KO, KY, LI, MU, NA, NE, NU, NY, OB, OD, OE, OI, OM, OS, OU, OY, PH, PI, QI, SI, TE, UT, WO, XI, XU, YU, and ZO! Then there are "Hooks". These are letters that can be placed on the front or rear of a word to make a new word. So your opponent's carefully laid NAB turns into NABK (a prickly shrub) as they frantically try to reach a triple word square via your FRY or attempt to embellish your SUCH (both words being on the unhookable list!). Scrabble.com has something for everyone and even includes some excellent shockwave games including an inspired mix of Scrabble and Space Invaders.

Speedy's Site

I then chanced upon "Bob's Scrabble Page". (Note: Bob's Scrabble Page has disappeared - If you have any information on this excellent site please . Here is an archive version which just seems to be missing a few pictures.) The address is not so cool as scrabble.com but the site is. For one thing it has the best word lists I've found anywhere. (It can't be a SYN to play CWM if it helps you WYN.) By the time your opponent has unsuccessfully challenged OOT PHT and PYA you'll be able to lay any damn tiles you like! Bob also has a list of "Vowel Heavy Words" (at least 70% vowels) from AA to OOGONIA. Then there are plenty of voweless words including HM MM BRR BRRR PFFT PSST PHPHT CRWTHS. All these words can be found in Chambers Dictionary - 1998 Edition and in 'Official Scrabble Words' both published by Chambers. You can play them with confidence.

Playing online See the end of this article for update

I had been trying for some time to find a free scrabble playing program. Bob 's site provided the answer. Once Networdz was downloaded, Marilyn (my non-silicon scrabble consultant) was soon losing regularly to words such as "nidering" "feazed" "neap" and the interesting "barhop". I should add though, that running FOUL along VANMAN helped her finally claim victory for the human race . chalking up points with fa, on um and la. A fine case of "squeezing in a good play on a blocked board". Play the silicon scrabblemeister only if you feel brave . on form . bright as a button and lucky.

Not feeling any of those, I decided to try my luck playing against carbon based life. Within 15 minutes on Bob's site I had an enjoyable game against the polite but deadly American "sniper139" but got picked off word by word. However, it was great fun and you can play up to 3 people at the same time.

Here's how to play:

First download networdz by clicking the link on his page and then click on the "Start playing online now button".

Then click the 2nd button from the left "newnet" and enter a chatroom. Type your name and press return BUT DON'T CLICK THE BUTTON ON THE RIGHT

Ask someone in the chatroom for a game and do the following .

Click the icon that networdz has put on your desktop.

Click on OPTIONS/PLAYERS enter your name as player 1.

Check NONE for players 2,3 and 4. Hit OK

Click on OPTIONS/COMMUNICATE click ANSWER MODE...enter your name where required...

then click CONNECT.when the word disconnect appears hit OK.

You will now hear the sound of scrabble tiles as your opponent connects to you. Good Luck!!!

Speedy's story

Bob (Speedy) told me the story of his site. "I couldn't believe all the hoops that people needed to go through just to play a game of Scrabble. It took hours to figure out so I decided to try to make it easier for everyone. The first thing I did was get a hold of the official dictionary used in tournament play. That was my biggest complaint about Networdz at the time. The installation program completely installs and configures all aspects of the game. What used to take an hour, could now be done with a simple double-click. People who knew nothing about computers were playing in a matter of 10-15 minutes."

The one thing that I am most proud of is that you will NEVER see an advertisement for anything on my webpages. I have had tons of offers from game companies, online gaming businesses and such to advertise on my site, but I just can't do it. I wanted to create a place where Scrabble players can go to play other people, get information and feel like they are in a "Real Persons" website..... not some impersonal money making operation.

Hopefully I have created such a place. Everyday I get about 10-30 quick little message from people saying a quick "thanks". It doesn't sound like a big deal in the big scheme of things, but in the world of the Internet most people don't send little "thank-you" messages. So, when I get these messages, I know that they wouldn't have taken the time to write to me unless I really did make a small difference. And that's worth more then any ad banner could ever pay me."

Speedy's site, in a sea of getrichinaminute.com sites, is refreshing. As ultra-cool as inventing a world famous board game in the depths of the Great Depression. So if you enjoy scrabble . you may not be able to email Mr Butts anymore but why not send a quick thankyou to Speedy. And if all those High-Tec shares should come crashing down, don't sit around moping over that lost £100. Turn the certificate over . get a pen . and use it for something useful . create a Parlour Game.

If you have a website on scrabble you would like featured then please email me at

Where to play Scrabble Online - Update

The web moves on and Bob's scrabble page has sadly disappered since this article was written.

But we have just found the following site called ScrabbleOn! www.scrabbleon.org/intro.htm.

ScrabbleOn is a place where people can play Scrabble against other players, online, there is no charge of any kind! Its totally free! The way it works in relatively simple! Players gather in a special chat room just for Scrabblers! It is there, that you will find other scrabble players, like yourself, wanting to play a game or two! All players use a program called NetWordZ to connect and play one another!

You can download NetWordZ (which is also an excellent computer opponent) at the ScrabbleOn hopepage at www.scrabbleon.org/intro.htm. There you can also find links to latest news, help screens, tournaments.

For loads more places to play scrabble online see our main Scrabble page

Can't find it?
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Down Lexico Way by Graham Brown

Down Lexico Way
by Graham Brown