Youth Scrabble
Are you 17 years old or younger?
Are you keen to become a great Scrabble player?
Does your school want to start or improve a Scrabble club?
If so you have come to the right place
Here you will find all you need to know and if you don't please contact
Garth on 0824546843 or by email
An Overview
Young people the world over are rediscovering the game of Scrabble. Many are playing it online at places such as the Internet Scrabble Club and on FaceBook. In some countries there have also been many players joining clubs and playing in tournaments. South Africa has been a bit behind in this regard and we hope to change that. We would like to establish more school Scrabble Clubs, get more young players entering tournaments and into the ratings system , and ultimately send a team of at least three players to the World Youth Scrabble Championships.
On 14th August HHP and about 40 other celebrities played in the Celebrity Scrabble Challenge at the 5FM studios in Auckland Park. Several Youth Players got to play as well and the day was a huge success.
Schools Scrabble
Scrabble is suitable for both Primary (from grade 4) and High Schools.
We can offer help to schools that would like to start or improve a Scrabble Club. Garth will come to the school and do two introductory workshops (or two advanced workshops if club is established already) he will also be available by email and phone to give support and advice. We will also give you software for word checking, game analysis, word learning, score sheets, etc. All of this is at no cost to the school. We can also source Scrabble sets about R70 cheaper than the retail price.
A schools tournament was held on Sunday 1 August at King David School, Linksfield, Johannesburg. 32 players from General Smuts (Vereeniging) RedHill, Holy Family, Bryandale Primary and Wits University took part. Joint winners were Funeka Sibande (Wits University) and Sam van Vliet (Bryandale Primary).
Scrabble Camp
From 23 to 25 July we held the Youth Scrabble camp from in Heidelberg.
We used a fantastic venue - the Klipkraal guest farm where we stayed in an old
house and had a separate function room for classes. This would actually be a
great venue for a weekend tournament as they are busy building a bigger function
hall in an old barn.
8 youngsters attended ranging in age from 11 - 18. All were reasonable players
already but learned a heck of a lot in two days of intensive workshops. Their
mental stamina was amazing to see as they started early in the morning and were
still playing late into the night. On the Sunday we played a seven game round
robin tournament under normal tournament conditions. Some great Scrabble was
played and a very smooth tournament was held.
The kids were all amazing - intelligent, motivated helpful etc. They helped with
cleaning up cooking etc and were all just great company. They also made great
new friends which will hopefully grow the youth Scrabble community.
I would like to thank Rosemary Tod who drove three kids down and helped with
catering and logistics while there. I think Rosemary gained nearly as much as
the kids from the workshops and we should be seeing a big ratings jump from her
soon ;)
Also big thanks to Karen and Paul Richards for driving all the way from
eMalahleni and for running such superb workshops. SA is now on the way to
catching the rest of the world as far as quality of youth players is concerned.
There is still much to be done though.
Suanne Ong and Alistair Richards at the World Youth Championships 2009
Click here for an interview with Suanne
World Youth Scrabble Championships
These will be held in Manila, Philipines in Dec 2010. ScrabbleSA had no representatives at the 2009 competition but would like to send a few in 2010. Please contact Garth for details on qualifying. Players must be born after 01 January 1993.
We are now all systems go for selecting at least two players and sending them to WYSC 2010. Collins Cup on 7th- 8th August will be our deciding tournament. Currently in the running are Joe Lequoalane (Heilbron) Tsholofelo Modise (Heilbron) and Faraad Moyce (Holy Family).
For information on the World Youth Scrabble Championship as well as
information and resources for Youth Players please click on the logo :
Heilbron Schools' Scrabble Workshop (Free State)
A 2 day workshop was held in Heilbron in 2009 for several schools in the area. A great time was had and some real talent identified. Some of the players played in the Benoni Tournament and are now rated and on their way to the top.
