How Scrabble Championships led to 20 years of marriage

A married couple with a shared passion for the word game Scrabble have been reflecting on when love "sparkled over the board" more than 20 years ago.

Graham and Helen Harding were members of their local Scrabble clubs in Berkshire and Leicestershire in the 1990s and had met at tournaments.

They said romance blossomed at a tournament in Sheffield in 2000 and they began a long-distance relationship before tying the knot in 2004.

The pair have been taking part in the UK Open Scrabble Championship in Reading.

Graham's family were Scrabble enthusiasts and he had played since he was a teenager in the mid-1970s.

Meanwhile, Helen took up the game in her university years and had joined Leicester Scrabble club.

In the 1990s, the pair had met at various Scrabble tournaments around the country, before facing each other at an event in Sheffield in 2000.

Now 68, Helen said: "We knew each other on and off for five years and we would stop and have a chat and then one year we saw something else and took it from there.

"We both spent an awful lot of time driving up and down the M40," she added.

When they got married 20 years ago, Graham and Helen Harding even brought their Scrabble board to the wedding and had a Scrabble-themed cake.

Two decades on, the couple still play regularly.

"The more words you know the more ammunition you've got, but there is only about 10% luck in it.

"The people who do well at it tend to be numbers people rather than words people because it is all about probabilities," said Helen.

Graham, 62, said his best ever word in Scrabble was "grazings" which scored 221.

"At the time it was the equal record holder in the UK," he said.

Asked who wins most often, Graham said the pair were "50-50".

"We play at our Scrabble club and in tournaments, but not really at home, but in the pandemic we did play one game a week," he said.

They both said together that the secret of a marriage was "patience and understanding".

The couple played against each other at the UK Open Scrabble Championship taking place in Reading.

It is the first time the UK Open has been held since the Covid pandemic.

The tournament is using the updated Collins dictionary for the first time, which means words such as fav, bruv, fam, and unmute are applicable.

"We played each other twice over the weekend and we each won a game.

"It was hard work, mentally, but it was good fun," said Helen.

The event comes to a close on Friday 10 January.

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