Tim's vision creates Braille Scrabble board

Dutch immigrant Rotorua's Tim Henneveld learned English with the help of Scrabble, so it is no surprise he was happy to create a Braille Scrabble board for his blind friend.

Blind Scrabble enthusiast Olivia Godfrey, who lives in Palmerston North, comes from a family of 17 and she loves to play the board game, so her friend Mr Henneveld was elated when he got his hands on an old board to do up for her.

Mr Henneveld, a former Rotorua Lakes High School woodwork teacher, said it took him weeks to prepare the board after he faced some difficulties.

"I had to find a half-millimetre drill piece that fitted my drill but I couldn't find one.

"I looked everywhere. No shops in New Zealand had one, or overseas.

"Anyway it turned out my next door neighbour, a watchmaker, had one.

"So I was able to drill 400 and something little holes into the board."

He said the original board was picked up from a rubbish skip in Sydney by a family member of New Zealand's top Scrabble player, Howard Warner.

He said Mr Warner brought the board to his workshop to do up.

Mr Henneveld priced the board to be fixed and Mr Warner decided it would be cheaper to give it away than to do it up.

Mr Henneveld said nobody made Scrabble boards for the blind any more and he saw it as a chance to help his friend out.

"Olivia has a really old and ragged board, so it was time for an upgrade."

The board will likely be on display at Rotorua's open Scrabble tournament at the Rotorua Bridge Club this weekend.

Mr Henneveld moved to New Zealand with his wife in 1974 from the Netherlands and had been playing since.

"We learned English mainly through teachers' college and spelling through Scrabble.

"We use to play with the dictionary on our lap."

He said he and his wife played about four times a day, with an average score of about 300.