Tournament Results

This is the Hall of Fame, listing all tournament winners since the formation of the ABSP in 1987. If you can supply any of the missing data from the early years then please let us know.

A summary of the major event winners can be found at the bottom of this page.

1987-90 -- 1991 -- 1992 -- 1993

1994 -- 1995 -- 1996 -- 1997

1998 -- 1999 -- 2000 -- 2001

2002 -- 2003 -- 2004 -- 2005

2006 -- 2007 (Money List)

2008 (Money List) -- 2009 (Money List)

2010 (Money List)

The National Scrabble Championships is organised by Mattel, the Scrabble trademark owners, and has had a variety of formats over its years of existence. The current format involves six regional stages where players play over 7 games in one day; the number of qualifying places available varies according to the number and strength of players in the region. The 60 qualifiers then play a 14-game semi-final stage, with the top two finishers qualifying for a best-of-five head to head final in London towards the end of the year.

The British Matchplay Scrabble Championships (BMSC) is the flagship event of the ABSP. Consisting of 19 games played over the August Bank Holiday weekend, it was held in Nottingham until 2001, moved to Birmingham for 2002-2004 but has more recently found a home at Yarnfield Conference Centre in Staffordshire.

The ABSP Masters is an elite invitational event for the 16 best players in the UK. It is usually a 'round robin' event (i.e. everyone plays everyone else once), currently held on the first weekend in July in Staffordshire.

---

Other Major Events

The first five tournaments below are considered to be the 'Majors' of Scrabble.

The UK Open was introduced in 2008 and is the longest event of the year, comprising a mammoth 38 games over 5 days in early January. The Spring Matchplay was originally held at Durham University but moved to Daventry in 2008, also increasing from 13 to 25 rounds over the early May Bank Holiday weekend. The Easter Matchplay is held in Exeter over the Easter weekend and comprises 19 rounds, as does the Festival of Scrabble (formerly known as Summer Matchplay) in Edinburgh in June. The Winter Matchplay is 12 rounds played in Milton Keynes in late November each year.

The British Elimination Scrabble Tournament (BEST) is a knockout competition which lasts over six months. Played as a series of face-to-face knockout matches at regional and then national level, the winner typically plays more than 70 games over six months to lift the trophy. The event has its own website with past results.

	National Champion	BMSC	ABSP Masters
1987		Allan Simmons
1988		Allan Simmons
1989	Russell Byers	Gareth Williams
1990	Philip Nelkon	Phil Appleby
1991	Phil Appleby	Allan Simmons
1992	Philip Nelkon	Mark Nyman	Di Dennis
1993	Allan Saldanha	Andrew Fisher	Phil Appleby
1994	Mike Willis	Russell Byers	Allan Simmons
1995		Allan Saldanha	Mark Nyman
1996	Andrew Fisher	Mark Nyman	Gareth Williams
1997	Andrew Cook	Andrew Davis	Mark Nyman
1998	Mark Nyman	Helen Gipson	Andrew Fisher
1999	Evan Simpson	Andrew Perry	Andrew Davis
2000	Brett Smitheram	David Acton	Mark Nyman
2001	Mark Nyman	Andrew Cook	Andrew Davis
2002	Mark Nyman	Mark Nyman	Andrew Davis
2003	Harshan Lamabadusuriya	Brett Smiterham	Mark Nyman
2004	Mark Nyman	Brett Smitheram	Mark Nyman
2005	Wale Fashina	Harshan Lamabadusuriya	Brett Smitheram
2006	Jake Jacobs	Brett Smitheram	David Webb
2007	Paul Allan	Paul Allan	Allan Simmons
2008	Allan Simmons	Allan Simmons	Harshan Lamabadusuriya
2009	Craig Beevers	Mark Nyman	Jared Robinson
2010		Brett Smitheram	Lewis Mackay

	UK Open	Spring Matchplay	Easter Matchplay
1988		Mark Nyman
1989		Barrie Knox
1990		Pete Finley
1991		Simon Gillam
1992		Andrew Fisher
1993		Mark Nyman	John Grayson
1994		Helen Grayson	Mark Nyman
1995		Mike Willis	Terry Kirk
1996		Clive Spate	Andrew Fisher
1997		Clive Spate	Terry Kirk
1998		Peter Preston	Phil Appleby
1999		Rob Dowse	Andrew Perry
2000		Mike Willis	Allan Simmons
2001		Paul Allan	Gareth Williams
2002		David Acton	Andrew Fisher
2003		Allan Simmons	Femi Awowade
2004		Adam Philpotts	Phil Appleby
2005		Adam Logan	Ed Martin
2006		Wayne Kelly	Brett Smitheram
2007		Ed Martin	Elie Dangoor
2008	Nigel Richards	Martin Harrison	Brett Smitheram
2009	Helen Gipson	Austin Shin	Phil Robertshaw
2010	Nigel Richards	Martin Harrison	Wayne Kelly

	Festival of Scrabble	Winter Matchplay	BEST
1989	Darryl Francis
1990	Mark Nyman
1991	Mark Nyman	Mark Nyman
1992	Gareth Williams	Mark Nyman
1993	Andrew Fisher	Evan Simpson
1994	Clive Spate	Mark Nyman
1995	Russell Byers	Andrew Cook
1996	Martin Fowkes	Joyce Cansfield
1997	David Acton	Bob Violett
1998	Karl Khoshnaw	Jackie McLeod
1999	Joyce Cansfield	Andrew Perry
2000	Paul Allan	Andrew Cook
2001	Paul Allan	Andrew Cook	Andrew Fisher
2002	Robert Richland	Shanker Menon	Paul Allan
2003	Martin Thompson	Pete Finley	Phil Appleby
2004	Lewis Mackay	Pete Finley	Adam Logan
2005	Stewart Holden	Austin Shin
2006	Paul Allan	Craig Beevers	Phil Appleby
2007	Helen Gipson	Femi Awowade
2008	Mikki Nicholson	Austin Shin	Harshan Lamabadusuriya
2009	Martin Harrison	Azu Ogbogu	David Webb
2010

For details of all of these tournaments and others, have a look at the Calendar.