The Scrabble club meets every Thursday afternoon at the Narooma Servos club for a few friendly games.

Last Thursday among the eight regular players was a special visitor in the shape of Richard Jeremy, the ACT’s current Scrabble champion.

But its not just champions who can have fun as the club has humble origins, according to founding member Ann DeVries, who still makes it each week.

“We have a lot of fun,” Mrs DeVries said, noting that people must realise the club played according its rules using the standard Scrabble dictionary.

“We are very civilised, and are nice and helpful.”

Ann was always a Scrabble fan playing the game at home but back in about 1994 she decided to form a local club after talking to fellow Bridge player Alistair McGregor at one of the Red Cross card days they both regularly attended.

Alistair, who has since moved away from Narooma, was also a big Scrabble fan travelling to tournaments around the region and playing competitively.

The pair started the Scrabble club that is still going today with several other long-term members from those original founding days.

One of the newer members to come along is Tony Hunt from Coolagolite, who had a long association in the Blue Mountain Scrabble club and who played in the Cobargo Scrabble club.

Tony is also a competitive player whose Scrabble highlights include being an official at the World Youth Scrabble Championships held in Wollongong in 2006.

He also participates in the regional ACT Championships held in Canberra every November and now was the time be getting ready for that.

He encouraged anyone who enjoyed playing Scrabble at home to come along to the club as playing competitively was also very enjoyable.

“We’ve got players here that are good enough to play in tournaments, but who’ve just not tried it yet,” he said.

“Come along, practice and see how you go.”