THE Republic Bank Rose Hall branch has signalled its intention to sponsor the Second Annual Scrabble Competition for primary and secondary schools by presenting a $260,000 cheque to Mr. Paul La Cruz, Head Master of the Lower Corentyne Secondary.During a simple presentation at the St Francis Community Developers annex at Port Mourant, La Cruz told media operatives that the educational game is aimed at raising the standard of literacy and numeracy in Region 6, East Berbice / Corentyne.
The competition, which is scheduled to commence during the third week of September, will coincide with Education Month and Amerindian Heritage Month, he emphasised.
Further, the activity will get under way after a special training programme, which will allow teachers and students to become knowledgeable of the game.
The tournament is expected to attract more than 100 semi-skilled and competitive students, who will compete several rounds of one-on-one play over a five-day period. The winners are expected to receive cash and trophies as prizes.
Scrabble is a word-forming board game which was invented during the Great Depression in the U.S., after an out-of -work architect, Alfred Mosher Butts, in 1933, invented a game that would lift the spirits of millions.
Attempting to combine the thrill of chance and skill, Butts entwined the elements of anagrams and the classic crossword puzzle into a scoring word game first called LEXIKO. This was then refined during the early 1930s and 1940s to become CRISS CROSS WORDS.
Legend has it that Butts studied the front page of “The New York Times” to make his calculations for the letter distribution in the game. This skilled, cryptographic analysis of our language formed the basis of the original tile distribution, which has remained constant through almost three generations and billions of games.
Nevertheless, established game manufacturers unanimously slammed the door on Butts’s invention. It was only when Butts met James Brunot, a game-loving entrepreneur that the concept became a commercial reality.
Together they refined the rules and design and then, most importantly, came up with the name SCRABBLE – a word defined as “to grasp, collect, or hold on to something” and a word that truly captures the essence of this remarkable concept. And so the SCRABBLE Brand Crossword Game was trademarked in 1948.