Scrabble

During the Great Depression, when jobs were scarce and you lived on your wits alone, an out of work architect called Alfred Mosher Butts decided to pursue his passion for word games. Wanting to create a game that required both the vocabulary and anagrammising skills of a crossword fanatic and an element of chance, he came up with scrabble. Though it took twenty long years to catch on, once it did, it became a worldwide phenomenon selling over 100 million sets in 29 languages, easily making it the world's best selling word game.

A couple of interesting facts

• A resident in an old age home was once thrown out because she couldn't play scrabble.
• In 1985 Lt., Cdr. Waghorn and Lance Corporal Gill played Scrabble continuously for five days when trapped in a crevasse in Antarctica.

A Few Simple Rules

1. Teams of two or less.
2. Written Prelims to choose about ten teams who will play a series of games in a modified Swiss System format.