TLW96 - Nomads Results

Forgotten Fives
(a word list contribution from David Sutton)
Most players seem relatively weak on their knowledge
on their five-letter words. Easy to understand why:
the typical aspiring player learns the twos, threes
and some of the fours, then rushes on to study the
high-probability six- and seven-letter bonus stems,
meaning to return to the uncommoner fives in due
course, but somehow never quite gets round to
learning any more of them than a few useful vowel
dumps and a selection of the JQXZ words. This
is a pity. The bonus sevens and eights might
be the knockdown blows of Scrabble, but the fives
are the short-range body punches that wear an opponent down. Below are fifty five-letter
words that have two things in common: they are all medium probability, containing at
least one three or four pointer, and they are all words that I have played in recent months
against opponents at my local West Berks club and which they (mistrustful lot that they
are) have challenged. How many would you have challenged? And how confident are
you of the hooks? My opponents have, for example, tried -S hooks on CHODE, PEART
and WAIDE. This is not to be recommended!
ABLOW ALEFT BECAP BIFID BIGAE
BLAUD BONIE CHODE CUBEB CURDY
DONAH DOUMA FUGIO GEYAN GIBUS
GLEEK GREWS HALON HEROE HOWBE
ILIUM KYANG LINDY METIF MOYLE
MUDGE MUNGO MURRY NEAFE NOILY
PEART PIERT SAYID SCUTA SOILY
SOWAR SPROD SWELT SWIRE TAMAL
TUPEK VACUA VIMEN VINCA VITTA
VIVAT WAIDE WEFTE WILED YERBA
First and last
Complete the following words, given just the length of the word and the first and last
letters. In each case there is only one answer:
(a) E __ M (3 letters)
Y __ __ O (4 letters)
V __ __ __ B (5 letters)
Z __ __ __ __ P (6 letters)
T __ __ __ __ __ W (7 letters)
A __ __ __ __ __ __ W (8 letters)
V __ __ __ __ __ __ __ K (9 letters)
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Now complete the following words, given just the first and last letter. This time you have
to work out the number of letters yourself! Again, there is only one answer in each case.
(b) A ____________ J
T ____________ V
D ____________ U
X ____________ G
V ____________ F
Phoney Goings On (3) (contributed by David Sutton)
My friend Jeremiah Wanwordy, whose idiosyncratic approach to Scrabble involves
learning everything that is not a word on the grounds that whatever then remains on his
rack, however improbable, must be a valid play, has recently been entranced to discover
that almost any word can be transformed into a non-word by the addition of almost any
letter on the front of it, and has been spending much time on the study of these ‘antihooks’,
as he terms them. I happened to be glancing at one of his rather thick notebooks on the
subject , and noticed that once again he has made a number of mistakes and some of his
more spectacular antihooks are in fact perfectly valid. Can you put him right? In each case,
one of the three words is genuine.
ANTELOPE CANTELOPE a kind of melon
GANTELOPE an armoured glove
PANTELOPE a mediaeval clown, a buffoon
ACONITE BACONITE one who believes that Shakespeare’s plays were written
by Bacon
RACONITE a radar control beacon
TACONITE a type of iron-bearing rock
IMPLEMENT DIMPLEMENT the state of being dimpled
PIMPLEMENT a small pimple
SIMPLEMENT a medicinal herb
INDIGO BINDIGO a vagabond who carries his possessions in a bundle
MINDIGO a large Canadian lake fish
WINDIGO a mythical monster of American Indian legend
RABBIT DRABBIT a low-class wench, a slattern
FRABBIT cross, peevish
GRABBIT a hand-tool, a kind of wrench
URSIFORM BURSIFORM shaped like a purse or pouch
CURSIFORM of earthworks, having a curved shape
NURSIFORM (US) a nurse’s uniform
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