Gaming With Grandma - 32

My Mum (Grandma) dropped by for our weekly gaming session. This morning we decided to play a game of Scrabble. Mum went first after drawing an A to my C.

Turn 1 [Mum] RAKE 16, [Me] YA(K) 18
Turn 2 [Mum] H(A)IR/H(A) 21, [Me] FLOO(R) 10
Turn 3 [Mum] (F)IG 14, [Me] (O)NE 4
Turn 4 [Mum] WA(G) 14, [Me] P(A)/P(I) 8
Turn 5 [Mum] (YAK)S/(I)S 13, [Me] DUA(L) 5
Turn 6 [Mum] (W)ED 14, [Me] (A)G/G(O)ON/(O)N/N(E) 16
Turn 7 [Mum] J(E)T/PA(T) 15, [Me] (J)EU/E(D) 26
Turn 8 [Mum] P(U)S/(WED)S 23, [Me] Swapped 3 tiles
Turn 9 [Mum] ((Y)AM 8, [Me] EXA(M) 26
Turn 10 [Mum] (HA)T/(A)T(E) 9, [Me] ST(E)W 14
Turn 11 [Mum] (T)O/O(X) 11, [Me] (PUS)H 13
Turn 12 [Mum] VA(S) 8, [Me] A(N) 2
Turn 13 [Mum] DO(V)E 24, [Me] (D)UN 4
Turn 14 [Mum] BR(I)DE 12, [Me] (B)EY 12
Turn 15 [Mum] TILE(R) 10, [Me] L(I) 4
Turn 16 [Mum] CO(W) 8, [Me] (C)AT 15
Turn 17 [Mum] LE(E) 9, [Me] ZeS(T) 24
Turn 18 [Mum] R(E)CUT 16, [Me] fE(Z)/E(R) 35
Turn 19 [Mum] DI(N) 5, [Me] MAI(L)/M(U)/A(T) 12
Turn 20 [Mum] GO(D) 7, [Me] (T)RIBE 10
Turn 21 [Mum] (Y)O 5, [Me] LI(E) 3
Turn 22 [Mum] N(O) 2, [Me] (I)N 2

I ended the game by playing my last tile. Mum was left with an F, Q, R and V for minus 19 points (ouch!) from her final score.

I found this an oddly satisfying and yet overall frustrating game. The word placement was very constrained and right from the start we both seemed to be trying not to let the game open up. The satisfying part for me was attempting to make several words at once and I believe my four words on turn 6 was the most words I'd ever scored on a single turn.

The frustrating part of the game for me were the tiles I chose. I seemed to get most of the vowels while Mum got most of the consonants. It got so bad for me that on turn 8 I decided to swap 3 tiles which is something I rarely do.

My 2-letter word knowledge paid off with some obscure words like ED (education), PA (father), PI (a Greek letter), AG (agriculture), NE (born with the name of), LI (a Chinese unit of distance), ER (used to express hesitation) and MU (a Greek letter). My interest in history gave me BEY (a Turkish ruler) and my interest in games gave me JEU (a game).

Mum held her initial lead for most of the game with me only overtaking her score on turn 18. Final scores were me on 263 points and Mum on 245 points. I averaged 11.95 points per turn which is a bit lower than some of my previous games.