Printing Format of the New Word List

by Michael J. Adler
(Canberra, ACT Australia)

The Format of the current Collins Scrabble Tournament & Club Word List, including allowable words from 2 to 15 letters, was extremely wasteful and cumbersome.

I am only guessing at the percentage of course, but I would suggest that at least 60 per cent of players had virtually no interest in a list of words of 10 to 15 letters.

I am the Assistant Convenor of the Canberra, (Australian Capital Territory), Day Scrabble Club. As a Retired Printer, I am quite familiar with Bookbinding and printing procedures.

Following receipt of the last edition, I collected all of our members books, and cut them between the 2-9, and the 10-15 page sections, and re-bound them into 2 separate volumes.

This proved so popular, that when I attended tournaments in other towns in New South Wales(Australia),I had many requests to bring my binding materials to future competitions, and deal with their books accordingly.

I am certain that all players other than Masters, rarely if ever, would have referred to the 10-15 word section over the years.

Again, just as a guess, I suggest that for every 1000 copies of the print run of the 2-9 word edition, you would only need to also have printed perhaps 300-400 copies of the 10-15 word section. This will partly alleviate cost, considering the paper saving.

Furthermore, I suggest that, as these books will have relevance until the next edition, that is probably at least 6 years usage, the additional cost of using better quality paper than the current adition, and also using sewn sections (for greater durability), and hard covers, would be well-accepted by the Scrabble fraternity.