Scrabble loses elite player

As a Scrabble-player, I believed Ern Foster to be one of the elite members of the Woy Woy Scrabble Club.

He was the type of person who believed in encouraging newer players, who needed a bit of coaching in tactics, without letting it detract from his own competitiveness.

I had experienced a couple of very rare successes against him, over the few short years that I knew him (and I stress the word "rare").

The Scrabble fraternity on the Woy Woy Peninsula, as well as the NSW Scrabble Players Association, is much poorer for his passing, and my family's condolences go to Margaret and her surviving family.

Here is a small offering of verse, that I have composed, which I hope will befit this solemn occasion.

As a scrabble player, Ern Foster was the best,

He played the craftiest scrabble in the west,

However bad the state of the game,

His will to win remained the same.

When things looked impossibly bleak,

He often found the titles he would seek,

And if his opponent got up to win,

Ern took it bravely on the chin.

Vale! Ern Foster, may you rest in peace

Ray and Laurin Bride Woy Woy