A local couple is approaching their 1,000th game of Super Scrabble together after beginning the tradition during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For nearly four years, Gerry and Susan Walma have sat down most days to play the game at their dining room table, with a well-worn Scrabble dictionary and neatly kept records of their competition nearby.
After 994 games, Gerry has a slight edge over his wife, winning 499 games to her 495 — a feat he is proud of given Susan’s master’s degree in psychology.
“If I can beat my wife, I figured I beat the best because she’s got that university degree and I have nada,” Gerry, 86, quipped.
That said, Susan still holds the record for the highest single-word and single-game scores throughout the competition, although she is not quite as competitive about the game as her husband is.
“It doesn’t matter to me, but for him, he is really happy,” said Susan, 82. “Typically, when we start a game … I’m really going good … and then he’ll have a huge score, and that’s typically what he does — he’s behind, and then, boom.”
With not much to do throughout the pandemic, and with both Gerry and Susan being retired, the Orillia couple found the game was a fun way to pass the time.
They started with traditional Scrabble but found games passed too quickly, so they switched to the larger Super Scrabble to keep them going longer.
“It was fun, and he was totally motivated because he was beating me,” Susan said. “We just keep going. What do you do at three o’clock in the afternoon when you don’t have a job?”
As their 1,000th game draws near, Gerry hopes to take the overall win against Susan, and they plan to continue their tradition well beyond then.
“It’ll feel good if I go over the top to win it,” Gerry said.
