Put That Tea Set Away

Last week Alex played TEASETS against me. It isn’t an allowable word, but I chose not to challenge because he had an immunity card and wouldn’t have lost a turn. He is so good at finding bingos that he surely would have spotted the only allowed bingo – ESTATES. I was keen that he didn’t play in a different place because I had letters that only made one good play and I wanted to be sure that he didn’t play in that spot and block me.

It is worth pausing a moment before challenging a word, even if you know it is wrong. Sometimes it can be better to leave it there. One occasion that springs to mind is when I played a Z on the side of the board scoring 56 points, but putting an S after a word which could not be pluralized. I was playing a very good player and he was in immediately to challenge off my incorrect word. Five seconds after we walked back from the computer he said “Bugger! If I had left it there I had DENIZENS on the Triple-Triple”. That would have scored him 212 points!

A Grade Challenge

Can you unscramble these 8 letter words with T, E and A? Answers are at the end.

A A E E N R T T

A A B E N R T U

A D E E N O S T

A A E M O S T T

A A E K P S T U

B & C Grade Learning List

Tea sets may have to be 2 separate words, but there are quite a few TEA words that can be played. At least I won’t have to put in all the meanings this week. They all mean exactly what they say.

TEABAG TEABERRY TEABOARD TEABOWL TEABOX TEABREAD TEACAKE TEACART TEACUP TEACUPFUL TEAHOUSE TEAKETTLE TEALIGHT TEALIKE TEAMAKER TEAPOT TEAPOY TEAROOM TEASHOP TEASPOON TEASPOONFUL TEATASTER TEATIME TEAWARE

Perhaps the only one that needs a meaning added is TEAPOY. An Indian stand with 3 legs that has caddies for holding tea.

Most of them you are only likely to play as a bingo, but there may be other opportunities. If your opponent starts a game with KETTLE you can get 39 points for 3 little 1 point letters by extending it back to the triple Word Score.

Answers to A Grade Challenge

ANTEATER Any of several mammals that feed on ants

ARBUTEAN Relating to the ARBUTE (also called the strawberry tree)

ENDOSTEA Plural of ENDOSTEUM. A membrane lining a bone

STEATOMA A cyst that contains matter like suet

PUKATEAS New Zealand trees valued for high quality timber

There was a theme to all the words this week. Did you notice that all the words had TEA in sequence somewhere? Just not at the start.

Happy Scrabbling Patrick