21st February 2008

UK Scrabble Majors

The ABSP Committee has followed the debates regarding the increasing number and variety of tournaments in the UK and the various consequences of this, particularly in relation to what have become known as the Major titles.

We feel it is important that with a growing number of events around the country there are still certain titles which are considered more prestigious and will attract a higher number and perhaps standard of competitors. Most other competitive activities have Major titles which carry higher prestige; historically the most prized Scrabble tournaments in the UK have been the National Championships (usually organised by Mattel), our own flagship event, the British Matchplay Scrabble Championship and the invitational ABSP Masters event. There are no plans to change any of these events; the historical winners of each can be found here. A second tier of Major events has included Durham, the Easter Matchplay (usually in Exeter), the Summer Matchplay (previously known as the Festival of Scrabble, held in either Sheffield or Edinburgh) and the Winter Matchplay (usually in Milton Keynes). All four of these events have been running for many years and their continuity is seen as important. The UK Open, a newcomer this year, with a record number of games and prize money attracting an international contingent is also included.

Unfortunately the usual venue for the Durham event, Trevelyan College, is undergoing renovation this year and efforts by several people to find a suitable alternative have not been successful. The event's organiser, Laura Finley, had also raised the point to the committee that Durham had become a Major tournament by default rather than by choice and that having a gap in the list of winners, recorded simply as 'event not held', should be avoided if possible. The committee has decided, with the full support of all concerned, that this tournament will be renamed the Spring Matchplay and that the winner for 2008 will be decided at the 25-game tournament to be held at Staverton Park in Daventry on 3rd-5th May. The intention is for the Durham tournament to recommence in 2009 and the decision as to which tournament is then called the Spring Matchplay will be taken nearer the time.

The Summer Matchplay event has alternated between Sheffield and Edinburgh in recent years, organised by Mike Willis and Amy Byrne respectively. Mike has indicated that he is not planning to organise anything in Sheffield this summer, while Amy is already accepting entries for a 19-game event on 7th-8th June in Edinburgh. This tournament was previously named the Festival of Scrabble when it was devised by the late Terry Hollington, and we feel that because of the intense nature of this exciting new tournament this is a more appropriate name for it. Thus the Summer Matchplay will revert back to its old name of The Festival of Scrabble and (providing the June event is successful) be held in Edinburgh from now on.

The Easter Matchplay and Winter Matchplay remain unchanged, organised by Ronnie Reid and Mike Willis respectively. A further issue we have been examining is avoiding clashes between Major events and other tournaments, particularly in the light of two tournaments happening simultaneously with the recent Winter Matchplay which was widely seen as undesirable. Our intention is to have fixed weekends for all Major events which are published well in advance and to isolate those weekends so that no other tournaments take place anywhere in the country at the same time. Steve Perry, the Tournament Scheduler is also reconsidering the rules on distances allowed between events on the same date and other criteria to ensure any negative effects of the increased number of tournaments is minimised.

At this point I would like to thank all our tournament organisers and directors for providing events for us to enjoy. I look forward to seeing many of you at events around the country during the coming year.

Terry Kirk

ABSP Chair