Scrabble In The Land Of Oz

Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States were the first countries to have Scrabble marketed. With all of the fanfare that has followed in it's wake, it can be considered nothing less than amazing. From it's inception in 1938 by that unemployed Architect, Alfred Mosher Butts, to today Scrabble has come a long way. Wonder if Mr. Butts had any idea that it would last this long or go this far?

Australia has been a major Scrabble market since the game first arrived in 1955: and what a splash it made. If you should find yourself traveling to the land of Oz, you'll most certainly find yourself at home if you are a Scrabble player.

The US has it's National Scrabble Association (NSA), the UK it's Association of British Scrabble Players (ABSP). In line with that, Australia has it's Council of Australian Scrabble Players Association (CASPA) or (ASPA). ASPA is the official club name of Scrabble players in each state: denoted as ASPA - South Wales, for example.

The first recorded Scrabble clubs in Australia were formed in 1985. CASPA formed in 1992 from a coalition of Scrabble Clubs in the various states of Australia. Current Scrabble player membership in CASPA exceeds one thousand registered members. CASPA presently has membership from South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory. Presently there is no representation for the Northern Territory of Australia.

CASPA is charged with the promotion of Scrabble throughout Australia through tournament play on the state and national level. It also provides Scrabble teams for international competition. This is accomplished through numerous tournaments played throughout the year across Australia.

Among these Scrabble tournaments, are a youth tournament, a 'Winter Challenge', and 'Winter Masters'. These tournaments are held on a local and national level at different locations across Australia.

CASPA is governed by elected officials, voted into office each year near Easter. Further, CASPA has it's own constitution. The constitution reiterates it's goals, voting regulations, and allows for alteration of itself. According to this document, the only way for an alteration to be accepted is through a majority vote at the annual meeting and correspondence meeting. Also included in this constitution for Australian Scrabble players are provisions for the acceptance of the Northern Territory of Australia.

The overall goals of CASPA, according to it's website are to: promote the interests of Scrabble players, the game, growth of clubs, stage national championships, run a national rating system, select Australian representative teams for international competition, develop rules and standardize word lists.

To meet the goal of promoting Scrabble play, CASPA publishes it's own quarterly magazine 'Across the Board'. This publication contains playing hints, Scrabble news, Australia wide word lists and other information of interest to Australian Scrabble players.

Like it's North American and British counterparts, CASPA's website provides links to other avenues of play. Currently, CASPA is working on initiatives to get Scrabble play into school through it's own School Scrabble program.

Varying from the North America's NSA and the ABSP, CASPA utilized the 'Official Scrabble Words International' as it's source for acceptable tournament words until recently. Today CASPA uses Collins Scrabble Words. The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (OSPD) is utilized by CASPA also. In addition to this, the Chambers Dictionary is considered a valuable source for Scrabble words.