Scrabble Serious

Scrabble is growing in popularity, and ESPN was there when Honolulu’s Kenji Matsumoto placed at the recent national championship

Wednesday - September 14, 2005
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tionary; if you input a series of the letters you have on your rack, this device can suggest words you can play.

Another word source that is relied upon is the Official Tournament and Club Word List, which lists words that can be used including curses and racial slurs.

More techniques can strengthen your game if you memorize the two letter word list, where approved words such as aa, ar and es can score points. There’s also an accepted three letter word list where aah, aal and aas make the grade.

One of the popular words that is used that most people haven’t heard of is qat. A qat is one of the few words that can have a q without a u. According to the trusty Official Scrabble Dictionary, qat means kat (an evergreen shrub used as a narcotic in Africa).

Hawaii’s founding Scrabble couple, the Cornfields have been playing Scrabble since its inception in 1948. And they started Hawaii’s first Scrabble Club after they moved here in the 1980s. The first club met at the Waikiki Library, and it had several bases until it moved to the food court area of Kahala Mall, where they get more exposure due to mall traffic. About eight to 16 people come to the Kahala Mall club.

Alma Machado, a retired Navy Exchange beauty salon manager, found the Scrabble Club at Kahala Mall from a poster that was prominently displayed near the food court.

“I love it,” exclaims Machado, a Salt Lake resident who has been playing with the club for less than a year. “I always play Scrabble, and when I found this, I said this is it!”

Claire Durham, a retired information technology manager and Kaneohe resident, loves board games so much she used to own a store at Pearlridge Mall called Chairman of the Board.

Both clubs are extremely proud of the fact that visitors from all over find them through their listing on the Internet. The Scrabble Club that meets at the Elks Club was started later on in August 1989 because some of the members wanted to play during the day instead of at night. Peg Chesley is the director who got them the space.

Helen Close, from Alberta, Canada, vacations in Hawaii once a year, and she’s played with the Scrabble Club at the Elks Lodge for the past four years. Against the backdrop of the clear blue waters, the puffy clouds in the sky and the bright sunshine, the Scrabble Club members agree that being in the outdoors of Waikiki is the best way to start the week for locals and visitors.

Club founder Giv Cornfield

Cecily Capelouto has been playing with both clubs for about a year and a half. She loves the club atmosphere so much that she’s considering the possibility of continuing to play with the club even when she moves to the North Shore. When MidWeek visited the group in Waikiki, Capelouto was discussing the option of possibly catching the bus to Wahiawa to catch a ride to the games with her fellow Waikiki club member Joan Souki.

“We’ve become friends,” says Souki about the regular eight to 12 members of the club. “We play for fun.”

Affectionately called the bingo queen by the Waikiki group, Maria Rosehill got six bingos at the previous game, and two bingos the next week.

Loretta Arakaki would play Scrabble during lunch at work when she used to work for Hawaiian Airlines as a purchasing manager before she retired in 1991.

“We love to play with new people,” says Arakaki.

For more information on Scrabble Clubs, call Joan Souki at 622-4553 for Waikiki, and Claire at 235-3073 for Kahala Mall, or log onto www.scrabble-assoc.com.

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