Scrabble aficionado and up-and-coming comedian James Burley brings us all the details from our latest trip over the border
Saturday 18th October 2025 saw 26 Countdowners converge on The New Melville Bridge Club in Edinburgh the latest instalment of CO:EDI, making a welcome return to the calendar this year under the expert leadership of Adam “Beachy” Beach.
Getting underway on time following a very comprehensive run-down of the day and the rules therein from Beachy, the players, alongside the ever-elusive prune, got underway in randomly drawn groups. Four rounds were played throughout the day, meaning that each participant hosted 4 games and played in 8, before the showpiece final at the end.
That final was eventually to be held between Dylan Taylor and Tom “Maus” Carey, who had ironically tortured himself by not booking a budget flight and instead a budget coach for the privilege of attending “Auld Reekie”. Before that, though…
Adam Latchford and Maus found their final game of round 4 before the final containing an odd twist. Their table one showdown would result in one of them playing in the final, and to secure his place, Maus had to lose by the right amount (or win, but he didn’t do that, where’s the fun in that?). Though Latchford won the match 59-38, Maus still progressed through to the final by the virtue of scoring 5 more points than Adam across the 8 games.
Although initially close, Dylan was able to pull away towards the end of the first half of the final with a 6 small numbers solve that eluded Maus, and continued to capitalise on this meaning that by the time the conundrum round arrived, the result was a foregone conclusion with the scores at 115-88. This is how the results stayed as the conundrum ISHESCOTS went unsolved – SCHISTOSE for anyone wondering…
The day was topped off by a fantastic gathering in Zizzi’s with excellent food and banter, followed by several hearty recommendations for the efforts of Star, our server, and for the brand new menu, which was excellent!
Congratulations to Dylan on his latest win, to Maus on acquiring a new piece of hand-luggage to get past the Ryanair regulations, and to Jase and Sam on getting personal best finishes of 6th and 7th respectively. Thanks and congratulations are also due to Logan Skelton who organised a lunchtime game of Jeopardy which had contained so much effort and was so faithful to the original that it really was something special!
The biggest thanks of course goes to Beachy for doing a stellar job as organiser and host. He’s handing me the keys for next year, so here’s to April 2026 when CO:EDI will return once again to the New Melville Bridge Club.
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