World Scrabble Players Set Goals

PRLog (Press Release) – Nov 12, 2007 – MUMBAI, India - The endorsement of a new word reference was considered a landmark event by the World English-language Scrabble Players Association (Wespa) in its 2005-07 term, Allan Simmons, Wespa chairman said in his report at Wespa's biannual general meeting (BGM) here on the sidelines of the ninth World Scrabble Championship. After four years, publisher Collins was finally able to publish this year a dictionary acceptable to Scrabble players. The project was guided by the Wespa dictionary committee though Collins sidelined the panel at a critical stage of production. Simmons said the life of the current world reference should be between four and fives years. Some players reported at the meeting that the Collins Scrabble Tournament and Club Word List was unavailable in their country though, the chairman said, the publisher assured him of worldwide distribution. "Wespa will study options for how to have a dictionary in the longer term," he said, "possibly even looking for another publisher. Currently, a divide exists between official use of a word list in North America and CSTCWL in the rest of the world though the Wespa aim is to have a tome that can be used globally by Scrabble players. Herve Bohbot (France) pointed out at BGM that the French International Scrabble Federation has published its own dictionary and earns 80,000 euros per year in royalties on sales, revenues which help to subsidise travel expenses for players from less affluent countries to French world championships. The idea did not settle well with Philip Nelkon, WSC organiser and Mattel manager, who feels that the copyright owner would not be pleased to know that a Scrabble dictionary would be published without a company licence. "Perhaps a royalty arrangement could be set up with Mattel," he suggested. A player questioned why the copyright owner should rule on what dictionary is used. In other matters, French- and Spanish-language world associations, along with Wespa, have banded together to create the World Scrabble Federation, it was announced by Simmons. The WSF would apply for membership in the Paris-based International Mind Sports Association which hopes to organise a "mind games Olympics" one or two months after the actual Olympics, to include bridge, chess, draughts (checkers) and Go, but not backgammon. Meanwhile, membership dues for Wespa were slashed in half for national associations, now at $150 to $50, depending on the size of the group. "At this point, we're very interested in getting in a wider range of national groups worldwide as Wespa operating expenses are quite minimal at present," Simmons said. A majority of the 50 players present voted for having the World Youth Scrabble Championship an annual event, a decision which is considered non-binding and being passed on to the youth committee. The second WYSC is set for next month in Malaysia. Sam Joseph (India) proposed hosting the 2008 WYSC in Cochin, Kerala, India. The youth committee is considering several venues at present, according to Karen Richards (Australia) who chairs the panel but was not present at the BGM. Other major international tournaments, aside from the WSC, were suggested, such as a "champion of champions" competition restricted to high-rated players. Sam Kantimathi (USA) briefed players on a contest which Chris Cree (USA) would like to hold in Dallas, Texas, to be an open event using both American and British words and aiming to attract top international entrants with generous prize money. Several players suggested holding the WSC annually though Nelkon underlined that Mattel, which foots the bill for the Scrabble "Olympics," is interested in maintaining the event as a biannual one while sponsoring other kinds of tourneys in the off-year. As 2008 is the 60th anniversary of Scrabble, a number of activities are planned by Mattel, he told the BGM. The 11-member Wespa management committee was tacitly elected, including in the 2007-09 term, Chief Toke Ake (Nigeria), Leslie Charles (Barbados), Jojo Delia (Malta), Andrew Fisher (Australia), Michael Gongolo (Kenya), Llewellin Jegels (Germany), Joseph, Kantimathi, Radika Mahalingaiah (India), Richards and Simmons. The committee will subsequently make appointments of officers and subcommittee chair persons.