Oxford. The City of Dreaming Spires. Home to the English-speaking world’s oldest university, the language’s most authoritative dictionary, a sizeable cycling population and, once you mix those up a bit, Scrabble On Bikes.
Oxford Cycle Workshop, the co-operative based just off the city’s Cowley Road, held the first such event last December and it was such a success that it’s going to repeat the event this coming Sunday, 20 March.
We’ll let Dan Harris from Oxford Cycle Workshop explains how it works: “Scrabble on Bicycles starts with a treasure hunt. You get an hour to find as many of the 30 Scrabble tiles we've hidden around our beautiful city. Collect all 30 or just 7, it doesn't matter because on arriving at the Scrabble board you have to select 7 tiles to enter the game with.
“You don't get to refresh any tiles laid on the board, 7 tiles is it. You're only allowed one of each letter, and there's no bonus for laying 7 tiles at once. The highest score wins. “
Better still, here’s a video of December’s edition so you can see the game in action:
It’s just one of the events planned by Oxford Cycle Workshop this Spring, and you can find full details of Scrabble on Bicycles and other events on the Spring Events brochure, which you can read here.
The organisation is also running a Fastest Mechanic competition, with qualifying heats held at its spring events ahead of the finals at the Oxford Cycle Festival in May, so if you sparkle with the spanner or talk the torque with the wrench, now’s your chance to prove it.
Finally, Oxford Cycle Workshop is currently featured in a national TV advert by The Co-operative Group, directed by Luke Scott, son of Ridley Scott. The advert, which is also supported by a print campaign, focuses on The Co-operative’s latest three-year ethical operations plan, with Oxford Cycle Workshop Training having benefited from assistance from The Co-operative Enterprise Hub during the past two years.
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Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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