THE SCRABBLE ASYLUM

Do we have mental cases playing the game? Yes, we sure do. One funny example that comes to mind is "Stephanie", who is a female Victorian player. She claims, rightly or wrongly, that she cannot walk to the computer to check challenged words. This is quite acceptable if it doesn’t cause problems. Her opponents can do the checking for her. But the mad aspect is when she wants to create a scene. She challenged one of my played words. I went to the computer and came back to tell her that my word was “UNACCEPTABLE". Guess what she did: She sprung up yelling at the highest pitch of her screeching voice, “I got to see for myself”. She dashed to the computer on perfectly capable legs and came back to tell me in a loud voice, “It’s unacceptable”, to which I replied, “So I told you! I have already taken my word off the board. It’s your turn now.” To her chagrin, no one took much notice, except the lady sitting next to her, who exchanged a wondering look with me.

 I suppose it would be alright for a person to be mad, but it would be a bit outlandish to be both mad and shifty. I noticed that I almost ran out of time whenever I played that particular female. I usually have up to 10 minutes left on my clock at the end of a game. So, I decided to keep an eye on the clock and to make sure that it has been stopped before making the trip to the checking computer. What I found out was that every time I turned my back on that mental case, while heading to the computer, she operated my clock.

After discovering her ploy, I had a plan to deal with it. I put a small laptop on the table and told her that we would use it for challenges, instead of me flying solo to the common computer. She refused and ran off to call the TD. The TD was a friend of hers, and quite possibly privy to her frolics. I decisively said to the TD, “Either accept having the small computer on the table, or your friend must walk with me to the common computer to resolve challenges.” The dumbfounded TD hesitated a little before agreeing to have the computer on the table. Do you think we are suffering any shortage of mental cases? Nah! The TD announced shortly after, during the following 2012 tournament at Geelong, that electronic devices would not be allowed on tables. She made no allowance for exceptional cases like that of her friend. It was one of her clumsy reactions to my attempt at sorting out the problem of her intimate friend at the previous Mt Martha tournament. It was also a sneaky obfuscatory attempt to indirectly suggest that, "This Mohammed is the source of all our problems"!

Incidentally, don't miss the congregation of the half-wit disciples on 24/05/2015. Check the Tournament Calendar for details.