The Athol Recreation Committee’s 9th annual Scrabble tournament winner left with, as the saying goes, a feather in her cap. 

On Sunday, The Athol Rec Committee (ARC) convened and hosted their 9th annual Scrabble tournament at Athol Town Hall in Cherry Valley.  This was the first time since 2020 the  tournament had been held due to COVID-19. The committee was unable to hold the tournament in 2021 and 2022.

So this year, scrabblers had to get their heads in the game. 

“We were a little worried because we are just getting back into it after COVID. But, it looks like people haven’t forgotten how much fun they had in the past,” said Susan Wallis. “The ARC wanted to start with something smaller like the Scrabble tournament and then work our way up to bigger events we have done in the past like the strawberry social and music nights where there are live bands and bars.”

(Anna Miller for the Gazette)

Wallis started the Scrabble tournament in 2013 with great success.

“Susan was telling us she found this trophy of an owl at one of the second-hand stores, came home and handed it to her husband Glen who is a national award designer producer and she said make me something. This is the result,” said Athol Rec’s Alison Kelly, pointing to the trophy.

The committee calls this beautiful trophy the Golden Hoot. The award goes to the highest-scoring Scrabble player and that player gets to take it home for the year and put their name on the trophy next to all the other cutthroat, ruthless Scrabble players who have won in the past.

And the competition to amass points and wind up atop the leader board in 2023 was nip and tuck.

“Everyone was so close to each other in this game,” said Kelly.

Barb Callaghan won third place with 360 points. Not far behind them was Angela Adams winning second place with 369 points.

Finally, Carol Hobbs was the winner of the Golden Hoot with a total of 396.

It was Hobbs’ first time attending this event and she was ecstatic to win. Hobbs has enjoyed Scrabble since she was young.

“It’s just something we’ve always done in our family,” said Hobbs. “Every time I get together with my two sisters, we play a lot.” 

A lot of returning players showed up this year. However, there were a significant number of firstcomers as well. 

“I find that as adults it’s hard to meet friends, so coming to events like this allows you to meet more people with common interests. Now there is a group of 17 people who know they love scrabble,” said Kelly.