'I’m a West Midlands maths teacher turned UK Scrabble champion - I practice over 500 anagrams while watching TV'
Watch UK Scrabble champion Natalie Zolty from the West Midlands discuss how she got into playing the game competitively.
A West Midlands maths teacher has become the UK’s top female Scrabble player - despite admitting she doesn't know what most of her winning words mean.
Natalie Zolty smashed her competition when she won 12 out of her 15 games during the UK Open Competition in Reading on January 9.
The 61-year-old outsmarted Scrabble grandmaster Gary Oliver to claim the top spot by playing the word zendiks - meaning heretic or unbeliever - which scored an amazing 108 points. But the mum-of-one admits she doesn't know what a lot of her words actually mean and says she has to learn thousands to remain competitive.
Natalie took up the hobby on Facebook around 17 years ago and now she ranks within the top 20 of all UK players.
Natalie, of Solihull, said: “I started playing Scrabble on Facebook around 2009. I've always played since a child like everyone else, so I wanted to challenge myself online. I was really surprised when people started chatting about the game, they were from all around the world. A woman from Australia mentioned that there were Scrabble tournaments, I didn't even know people played face to face. It was 2012 that I first went along and got massively into it from then onwards.
“I’ve been a professional Scrabble player for several years and two years ago I got the 'expert' title. This one was a two day tournament and I won 12 out of my 15 games. Anything over 100 is good for points. I got 108 with Zendiks. If you get across two triples you can easily get across over 200.
“I don’t know what many of the words mean, it is useful to know, but you don’t need to know. That’s true for a lot of players. I love words, but you can’t learn them all."
Now Natalie regularly travels the world for competitions. She trains for an hour a day, practicing over 500 anagrams while watching TV.
She said: “I just really got into it. There’s a lot of word learning and studying. You learn basically the entire dictionary, but you learn it in what is most valuable in a game, what words create the best points. I do that for an hour a day, and it is a bit obsessive, which is why there might be more men than women.
“I just really found it interesting from a maths angle, it’s actually a maths game at the core.
"A lot of the best players in the world don’t speak English. The top guy is from New Zealand and has won the French speaking tournaments, but he doesn’t speak French.
“It’s a completely different game to the one you play with your friends or family."
Natalie is now hoping more women take up the sport after noticing a clear male dominance in recent competitions.
She said: “I had no idea that there was a massive community out there, it’s amazing how much bigger it is in other countries.
“I do one tournament a month, there’s a giant one in Bangkok in May. It's massive in Thailand, Pakistan, and in Nigeria it’s bigger than the UK.
“It’s a massive difference for men and women. Out of the top 100 in this Thai tournament, only four or five are women. I do still think women are a bit less competitive than men, maybe a bit more sensible. Maybe they have a lot less free time. It’s only men that have won the world championships. But I do wish more women would take it up, even just to try and play it. It’s great for your brain and keeping you thinking.”
James Burley, director of the UK Open tournament, said: "She's very good. And it's the fact that she's improved over time, sustained it over time.
“There is another title beyond expert. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that Natalie is going to consider that at some point. She is capable of doing that with the continued study and effort that she puts in. It is her dedication that has really shown and her determination to succeed as well."
