Welsh Scrabble? It’s just too tough, boyo

FANCY yourself a Scrabble champion? Try playing without the famously high-scoring X or Z.

Neither is included in the Welsh version of the game as they do not exist in the language, although there are tiles featuring two letters at once.

But it seems Welsh Scrabble has proved too fiendish for even native speakers, with a shop in the language’s heartland failing to sell a copy for two years. Waterstones in Carmarthen, West Wales, has cut the £24.99 price in half in a desperate bid to shift their old stocks of Scrabble yn Gymraeg, as it is known.

Branch manager Emma Morris admitted one customer had asked if they had a Polish version of Scrabble, while the Welsh copies attracted little interest.

She said: ‘We thought Welsh Scrabble would be snapped up in our games section and not linger so long – especially in Carmarthen where we have and order so many Welsh books for our customers.’

Waterstones ordered five sets of Welsh Scrabble for Christmas 2014 and shifted none then or the following year. When the game was released, with the backing of the Welsh Book Council, there were hopes it would be popular with native speakers as well as learners of the language.

There are no X or Z tiles in the Welsh version, while more common letters such as Y and W are only worth one point. Letters often seen together such as NG or RH appear on one tile and are worth ten points – although the more widely used DD is valued at one point.

A spokesman for Scrabble maker Mattel said: ‘We have received a very positive response to the game ... and other retail outlets in Wales have reported good sales.’