How love proved more than a 14 point scrabble score
Love can mean many things but for one Berkshire couple it proved to be the board game Scrabble.
Graham and Helen Harding met at Scrabble tournaments in the 1990s however it was at one in Sheffield in 2000 that their love "sparkled over the board".
They were in a long distance relationship of 120 miles before they tied the knot in 2004.
The scrabble couple have been married for more than 20 years.
62-year-old Graham, from East Berkshire Scrabble club, met 68-year-old Helen from Leicester Scrabble club in the 1990s.
The couple had the same player rating in scrabble then and still do.
"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" Helen says.
"We both spent an awful lot of time driving up and down the M40".
The couple got married 20 years ago and brought their Scrabble board to the wedding.
"The Scrabble board that is in the photos was used in our wedding and it had a message on, we also had a Scrabble theme cake".
Scrabble was something competitive in Graham's family. He continued the hobby since the mid 70s when he was a teenager.
Helen took up Scrabble in her university years.
"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"
Graham's best word in scrabble ever was grazings for 221 "at the time it was the equal record holder in the UK"
Two decades on and the couple still play.
"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"
They both say at the same time that the secret of a marriage is "patience and understanding"
But it is also having the same player rating in scrabble.
Graham and Helen played against each other at the UK Open Scrabble Championship that took place in Reading.
It is the first UK Open since the Covid pandemic, and will use the updated Collins dictionary, which means words such as fav, bruv, fam, and unmute will be applicable for the first time.
"We played each other twice over the weekend and we each [won a] game"
The event comes to a close on Friday 10 January.
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