Blindness no barrier to Scrabble player

Olivia En, of Wellington, is an avid scrabbler who doesn't let her blindness miss a word score.
Armed with her personal Braille note computer and Scrabble blocks with letters in Braille, she knows her way round the Scrabble board and aims for a top word score every time, she said.
Wanganui Scrabble Club's annual Labour weekend tournament pulled in 27 contestants from Auckland, New Plymouth and Wellington including two members of the New Zealand Scrabble team.
A-grade players Howard Warner and Lynne Butler will join three other Kiwis (two of whom overseas in Kuala Lumpur and Sydney) for the International Scrabble Championship in Mumbai, India, next month.
Mr Warner said yesterday he had been brought up playing games in his family.
"It's what our family did play games and do puzzles. I was compiling puzzles for newspapers by the time I was 14."
The World Tournament was described by Mr Warner as the most prestigious title in competitive English language Scrabble.
This year is the ninth world Scrabble tournament, he said.
The love of words is an obvious prerequisite to play the game, he said.
As player Helen Sillis explained, her surname was a palindrome.
"Sillis&see;? A palindrome."
Anagrams are also a hot study topic for serious Scrabble players she said.
Club spokesperson Betty Eriksen said at the Wanganui club's weekly club night players were allowed to use dictionaries.
"It's a good way to improve and get your word power up."
As players concentrated across the tables from their partners armed with score counters, Scrabble boards and blocks at the St John rooms on Saturday and Sunday, it was obvious they were loving every word.
"It's always a marvellous game," Ms Eriksen said.