Brett Smitheram posted a perfect 8-0 record on the final day of the UK National Scrabble Championship to jump from 12th place overnight to the top of the standings to clinch the title of National Champion for the second time.

The championship-deciding final game of the tournament saw Brett pitted against Elie Dangoor. Brett won the game by just 20 points to finish with a 13-3, +1377 record, with Elie having to settle for second place, finishing with a 13-3, +764 record.

Lewis Mackay led the group of four players with 11 wins to finish 3rd followed by Paul Gallen in 4th and Dave Koenig in 5th for the place prizes. Donna Stanton rounded out the group, taking home the first ratings prize with a tournament performance rating of 186, which was 35 points above her rating which now jumps up to 157. Jack Moran took home the second ratings prize after finishing in 14th place with a 9-7, +652 record and a tournament performance rating of 170, 28 above his rating.

Alan Males (13-3, +638) took the honours in the plate division after a final round winner-takes-all match with Janet Phillips (12-4, +552). Paul Cousins (11-5, +632) completed the place prize winners. Zoe Marlowe (9-7, -204) took the ratings prize with a performance 31 points above rating.

Final standings: Championship | Plate

The 2022 edition of the National Scrabble Championship is underway in Bristol with 54 players in the Championship division and 24 in the Plate division.

Dave Koenig leads the championship division after the 8 games on day 1, the only player to accumulate 7 wins on the first day. The defending champion, Phil Robertshaw, has 6 wins and leads the 10-way chasing group that includes other multiple major winners Lewis Mackay and David Webb along with Mohamed Kamara and Donna Stanton who are both going well, outperforming their ratings.

Meanwhile, Alan Males leads Janet Phillips on spread in the plate division both with a 7-1 record, with a group of players in hot pursuit just one game behind containing Paul Cousins, Rose Kingdom, Damian O'Malley and Jinoye Muzan Ekpelu.

The second and final day gets underway at 9.15am on Sunday morning. The links to Centrestar are on the main event page on the calendar.

Standings: Championship | Plate

The NSC 2022 in Bristol is now just three weeks away and numbers are looking good - we hit 60 paid entries yesterday and still some I know in the pipeline.

I didn't think I would be in a position to be talking about maximum numbers but no room is unlimited in size so I would get entries in quick smart - especially if you have already booked accommodation! I think from memory the maximum in the room is around 80 but will confirm that with the venue.

The absolute deadline is June 5th as I have to give final catering numbers on Monday 6th. After that date you would be reliant on cancellations. If you are sending by post in the next week or so give me a ring or email, as I am not at home for some of the time leading up to the event so might not pick up physical entries straight away. Also let me know if you have sent a bank transfer but I am checking that regularly.

Top prize in the main division should be at least £700 with 5 place prizes and two ratings prizes. The plate event is a little smaller than expected as a lot of those below 145 have played up, but will be prizes for top 3 and a rating prize.

We are also looking for a potential floater between the plate and the main event - players must be under 146 for this but would pay the lower plate price regardless of where they play.

Full tournament details details here.

Wayne Kelly
NSC Organiser

The Manx Scrabble Championship is right around the corner, so sign up by 28th April and take a trip over to the Isle of Man for a weekend or stay for longer to explore the island.

Tournament organiser, Gilly Street, has been working hard to prepare everything and is looking forward to welcoming everybody to the Isle of Man.

The tournament runs over the weekend of Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th May, and will be directed by James Burley. There will be 3 divisions, divided according to ratings. The cash prize pool is already over £2500. There will be a little "surprise" for the first 40 entrants signed up and paid up, so there are still a few available right now! To qualify for the "sur-prize", fill in the online registration form (or post a printed form) AND send the entry payment.

There's not just Scrabble on the menu either. The Manx Legion Club has generously offered to help celebrate the end of the event by laying on some complementary finger-food for anyone who would like to play Bingo on Sunday (8th May) evening. A bar, with very reasonably-priced drinks, opens at 7pm and games start at 8pm. A book of 5 Bingo games is £7 and various other games are another £1 each. Friends and family are welcome to join in. Not content with just running the Scrabble tournament, Gilly will be the guest Bingo caller for the evening as the regular caller is away.

If you fancy spending longer on the island and you need more Scrabble, then the Douglas Scrabble Club is meeting on Monday 2nd May (details on the website linked below) For people who like to get out and about and go on walks, Catriona at Manx Walks as well as walking.im walking tours are worth investigating.

The tournament is being supported by Visit Isle of Man which is the department that is underwriting the tournament. Their website is full of ideas of things to see and do on the island.

All the details can be found on the official tournament blog site

A quick reminder that ABSP-rated tournaments starting from today, Tuesday 19th April 2022, must be played using the updated Collins lexicon, CSW21.

Details of the initiation kit and Collins official word list book are in an earlier article.

If you use an app for self-adjudication in a tournament, please ensure you have the latest versions of Scrabble Checker (Android), ULU (iOS) or Collins Zyzzyva that contain the updated word list. Please ensure that you choose the required lexicon and confirm with your opponent that you have done so.

This year sees the publication of a new word list – CSW21 – which contains no additions, but 419 deletions from CSW19.

WESPA have produced an initiation kit which Mattel have endorsed, containing the removed words of 3-8 letters. This is available from the ABSP Database under the OnBoard section, but you must have renewed membership for 2022 to access that area. Players will also receive a printed copy if they currently receive a printed copy of OnBoard.

Note:This kit must not be uploaded to a public website and can only be shared with members.

WESPA have announced that from 4 April 2022, all their events must be played with CSW21.

At the ABSP AGM, we made it clear we would give sufficient notice before implementation of a new dictionary, as we wanted to have resources in place for the smooth running of events. Given we now have an initiation kit and many word checkers including Zyzzyva are already updated, we are happy to announce a changeover date. It is expected that other software such as Ulu will also be changed in the coming weeks.

The date for implementation of CSW21 for ABSP events will be Tuesday 19 April 2022, i.e. after Easter Monday. Before that date, all games must be played to CSW19 and from then on, all games must be played to CSW21. As we said at the AGM, there will be no parallel running of two dictionaries as that would be confusing. We are also trying to avoid conflict with WESPA as much as possible and, given there is a joint WESPA/ABSP event in May 2022, we want to give clear details for entrants and organisers alike.

There has been a delay in the publication of the Collins official word list book until 17th February, but we do not see this as a major barrier to implementation given that use of the physical copy is limited.