'Spell Sport', is a word and letter game on a board of 26 by 26 squares, using tiles of two-square (domino) shape, each tile bearing two letters (possibly the same), one in each square. On one side of the tile the two letters are printed in 'across' fashion, and on the other side the same two letters are printed, in the same sequence, in 'down' fashion. This two-sided property of the tiles is the main feature of the game for which I believe some originality may be claimed.
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The total number of tiles possible, using all combinations of letters, would be 26×26 = 676, but many of these combinations do not occur in actual words (e.g. QZ) or occur only rarely (e.g. BT). The number of tiles actually used is 338, half this total, just sufficient to cover the board completely, since each tile covers two cells. This also makes the equipment easy to manufacture and pack, by printing the tiles on a single sheet of card of the same size as the board, leaving the purchaser to cut out the tiles—or, with more sophisticated manufacture, to push them out.
The pairs of letters chosen to appear on the tiles are those combinations of letters that most commonly occur in everyday English words. After several trials I selected the pairs of letters as shown in the following chart. The first ten columns of the chart are formed on a systematic basis, showing all possible combinations of the vowels A, E, I, O, U preceded and followed by the consonants B, C, D, F, G, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, V. These 130 tiles are duplicated in the complete set. The remaining 78 tiles, occupying the last six columns of the chart, constitute an unsystematic selection of other common letter combinations, i.e. those consisting of two vowels or two consonants, or combining a vowel with the less-used consonants H, J, K, Q, W, X, Y, Z. Some of these pairs have been chosen not for their frequency of occurrence but simply to ensure that each letter appears at least twice.
Chart of the 338 tiles (down side)
| A B | E B | I B | O B | U B | B A | B E | B I | B O | B U | A B | E B | I B | O B | U B | B A | B E | B I | B O | B U | A I | E A | E E | I O | O O | O U |
| A C | E C | I C | O C | U C | C A | C E | C I | C O | C U | A C | E C | I C | O C | U C | C A | C E | C I | C O | C U | H A | H E | H I | H O | H U | H Y |
| A D | E D | I D | O D | U D | D A | D E | D I | D O | D U | A D | E D | I D | O D | U D | D A | D E | D I | D O | D U | J A | J U | K E | K I | E Q | Q U |
| A F | E F | I F | O F | U F | F A | F E | F I | F O | F U | A F | E F | I F | O F | U F | F A | F E | F I | F O | F U | W A | W E | W I | A W | E W | O W |
| A G | E G | I G | O G | U G | G A | G E | G I | G O | G U | A G | E G | I G | O G | U G | G A | G E | G I | G O | G U | E X | O X | A Y | Y E | I Z | Z O |
| A L | E L | I L | O L | U L | L A | L E | L I | L O | L U | A L | E L | I L | O L | U L | L A | L E | L I | L O | L U | M B | S C | N D | L F | N G | C K |
| A M | E M | I M | O M | U M | M A | M E | M I | M O | M U | A M | E M | I M | O M | U M | M A | M E | M I | M O | M U | C H | G H | P H | S H | T H | W H |
| A N | E N | I N | O N | U N | N A | N E | N I | N O | N U | A N | E N | I N | O N | U N | N A | N E | N I | N O | N U | B L | C L | F L | L L | P L | S L |
| A P | E P | I P | O P | U P | P A | P E | P I | P O | P U | A P | E P | I P | O P | U P | P A | P E | P I | P O | P U | S M | K N | R N | M P | S P | S Q |
| A R | E R | I R | O R | U R | R A | R E | R I | R O | R U | A R | E R | I R | O R | U R | R A | R E | R I | R O | R U | C R | D R | F R | P R | T R | W R |
| A S | E S | I S | O S | U S | S A | S E | S I | S O | S U | A S | E S | I S | O S | U S | S A | S E | S I | S O | S U | C S | N S | P S | R S | S S | T S |
| A T | E T | I T | O T | U T | T A | T E | T I | T O | T U | A T | E T | I T | O T | U T | T A | T E | T I | T O | T U | C T | F T | N T | R T | S T | X T |
| A V | E V | I V | O V | U V | V A | V E | V I | V O | V U | A V | E V | I V | O V | U V | V A | V E | V I | V O | V U | S W | T W | G Y | L Y | R Y | T Y |
It may be possible to improve the selection here, I do not claim to have found the best solution yet, possibly there are too many Us and Vs. In an earlier version all 338 tiles were differently lettered, and I found that 301 of the pairs occurred in the list of 850 words of 'Basic English' published by C. K. Ogden in 1930 (and reproduced on p.356 of D. Crystal's Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language). However, this proved to have too many double-consonant combinations, which restricted word formation.
Using two printed charts (the second being the 'reflection' of the above in the principal diagonal—i.e. beginning with [A B]) I was able to make a set of tiles by copying them four times using the enlargement facility on a photocopier (which magnified by a factor of 1.22, approximately A4 to B4), ending up with tiles with roughly half-inch squares. I pasted the sheets from the first chart onto card, and when dry pasted the sheets from the second chart onto the other sides, and, when the glue was dry again, cut the cards up into the individual tiles. It needs special care of course to get the fronts and backs of the tiles to align correctly.
In play it is permitted to place the tiles using combinations of the letters H, I, N, O, S, X, Z either way up, so that for instance the [I O] tile also serves for [O I]. Using a different type face it might also be allowed to interpret the inverted M as a W and vice versa.
Some authority of course needs to be agreed beforehand to decide the validity of words. This can be any dictionary that happens to be available to the players, and not necessarily the most comprehensive. Hyphenated words are allowed, spelt without the hyphen.
With this equipment it is obviously possible to play a range of 'Spell Sports'. The rules offered here are not the final word on the subject. Readers may like to experiment with alternatives. Play between the two players will normally be for a series of games (a 'rubber'), the object being to achieve the highest score over the series. The method of scoring is explained below.
A single game ends when one of the players completes a connected path of tiles from one side of the board to the other. By so doing this player doubles their score for that game, while their opponent's score is unchanged. These scores are added to the running total for the rubber. The first player doubles if the path is across the board, and the second player doubles if the path is down the board. A path that goes across the board may meander, but must not touch the upper or lower sides of the board, though it may have offshoots that do so. Similarly a path down the board must not touch the right or left sides.
The cells of the board can obviously be named by lettering the columns a,b,c.... and the rows A,B,C,... so that aA is the top left cell, zA the top right, aZ the bottom left and zZ the bottom right.
To begin the game the tiles are shaken in a bag and each player takes a random selection of twelve. These tiles are not hidden but are displayed in front of the player, where the opponent can see them. The opponent is permitted to use any number of tiles from the opponent's set, but at a penalty of 4 points for each stolen tile. When a player is left with six or fewer tiles at the end of a play he may take a random selection of another six.
The players alternately place a series of tiles on the board, to form words. Any tile may be placed by either player to read across or down. Each tile placed must have at least one side either against an edge of the board or adjacent to a tile already placed, either in the same turn of play or earlier in the game. When placed adjacent to another tile, the two adjacent letters must form part of an across or down word of at least three letters. Not more than two words may be formed in one go, one across and one down. These words may make use of letters of existing words, either by extending them, at one or both ends, or by forming a junction or cross formation. A player who completes a circuit of words doubles his score for that play.
If a single word is formed, across or down, it scores the number of letters in it. If two separate words are formed, one across and the other down, these scores are added. If two joined words are formed however these scores are multiplied. Thus in a normal go the player will seek to form two joined words, one 'across' and the other 'down'. The join need not occur at a newly placed tile.
Here is how a sample game might begin. 'Across' takes the tiles AD, BA, DU, ID, IS, IT, OX, SH, TO, UF, UV, WO and 'Down' takes AL, BU, CE, DR, ER, ET, GA, GO, HA, HI, PI, VO. (1) A claims D's ET and spells out WO/AD across, from square aM to dM, and D/UV/ET down from dM to dQ, thus getting rid of the awkward UV, and scoring 4×5 = 20 less the 4-point penalty, giving 16. D now plays PI/ER/CE down from, say, nA to nF, and VO/C/AL across from lE to pE, scoring 6×5 = 30, and having only 6 tiles left he can take 6 new ones, which prove to be AT, FA, OC, OU, PH, RY. (2) A extends VOCAL/IS/T across with TO/SH down scoring 8×4 = 32, and enabling him to take 6 new tiles: AR, ER, NU, TI, UL, YE. D immediately steals ER from A to play HI/G/H across (to the H of TOSH) and GO/PH/ER down, scoring 4×6 – 4 = 20.