As seen on its numberplates, Adelaide is South Australia's Festival City
. I only made the move
from Perth last year but even so, I am always reminded why it has this moniker, amazed how there is always
something going on, advertisements for the next JAMBOREE, FIESTA or BEERFEST.
FESTIVALGOERS come far and wide from across town but also interstate and beyond to have a gander. It revs up in March when no sooner have the Christmas and New Years' celebrations subsided and leftovers polished off when MAD MARCH as it's known (which has its own stodgy anagram) comes around. A festival of festivals, it's a vibrant flurry of the arts, culture and events. DRAGSTERS rev at the Adelaide 500, PROSATEURS come for the Adelaide Writer's Festival. It's all topped off by the crown jewel, the Adelaide Fringe Festival, the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, where DIVAS, FUNNYMEN and TRUSTAFARIANS meet in the parklands for - well, any show you could imagine.
I even remarked that there was an EGALITY in the air, world-class acts like the bombastic Ross Noble performing metres from the streetside daredevil and stuntman STUNTING and OUTSTUNTING the next MANKINI-clad HARLEQUIN next door. One could mosey about the Garden of Unearthly Delights and Gluttony for days on end, go from spritely CANCANS to a measured, insightful PLENARY to a surprisingly tasty VEGEBURGER to a pop-up art display filled with GALLERYITES.
It was oddly reminiscent, then, when we packed up the last trestle of the South Australian Scrabble Championships (held in March, of course) only to get back into tournament mode for the Australian Championships. Going from the state champs to the Nationals, plus the intermittent tournaments and weekly club play, this March and April has felt like our own FRINGELIKE festival of Scrabble, and the traditional Easter weekend of competitive word-slinging was the perfect way to top it all off.
103 keen, canny Scrabblers from all of Australia's states and territories (and beyond) descended on Adelaide - Glenelg, to be precise. Play took place at the Holdfast Bay Bowls Club. In a delightful twist of coincidence, the 2025 Australian PETANQUE Championships were being lobbed into action just a few hundred metres up the road. Glenelg played host to a weekend where strategy wore two different hats, one dictionary-thick, the other broad-brimmed.
A most unlikely curveball came when tournament director James Gunner was sidelined with a bout of rhinovirus shortly before the tournament commencement. Fortunately, the tournament remained in the capable hands of Nick Ivanovski along with computer operator extraordinaire Lachlan Vnuk to ensure everything ran smoothly from clock start to challenge call.
Round 1 commences with that familiar chorus of tile rattling. Coming off his major victory at the City of Sydney Masters, Josh Watt romps ahead with six bingos, VERANDAS, SCROUGES, SIZEABLE, HEREUNTO, NAILSET and NONGLARE, getting to a final score of 587 and putting him firmly in front. Michael Vnuk plays WINNING for 90 - a sign of things to come?
In my first game, I am I drawn to play Cameron Farlow who won the championships in 2019. I draw the bag and get ahead with SIGNAGE, SNOTTIE, MORALIST and QUERIDA to win 524-399. The draw for Game 2 is put up only for everyone to find out it is identical to Game 1's. Back to the breakout room, everyone. Standby.
Funnily enough, my dumb luck followed me for the first day and much of the tournament. I somehow managed to go 7-2 on Day 1, putting me in second place. Personal highlights of the day included PROGERIA, AZOTH (81) and SIZZLER. Jane Taylor has a cracking game against Martin Waterworth, bingoing out with her third bingo of MARTINET to win by 276. Against Cameron, Adam Kretschmer extends his PATIENT with OUTPATIENT. No, that's not to surpass in patience.
I am reminded that Scrabble tournaments, particularly larger ones this one, produce a distinct, percussive
ambience of tile clicks, clock clacks and counting. It is nostalgic and familiar. What is just as familiar are
the game-to-game CHINWAGS. The breakout room is alight with intense discussion and recapping of the last game's
foibles, Well, she had everything
, I missed NEOBLAST
and the always heartbreaking
I had a word but nowhere to put it down
.
The lively discussion is accompanied by a lovely CUPPA and the wonderful catering work of Jacqui Pearce and Margaret Gibson who worked at an amazing pace, delivering plate after plate of CRUDITES and CANAPES. They even surprised us with ice-cream cones towards the end of the day, a South Australian tradition I'm told. I'm not sure how that started, but it was a darn good idea.
After three days of hotly contested competition, it was a case of Scrabble déjà vu where both the Championship and Plate winners of the previous year ascended to retake their titles again in unison! In the Championship, a familiar face in Victoria's David Eldar triumphed commandingly with 20 wins, four games ahead of the runners up. A three-time world champion and now four-time Australian champion, Jane jokes that David's forgetting to bring the 2024 trophy back this year was an elaborate gamble, one that paid off.
It was Queensland veteran Olga Visser who returned to stake her claim, and that she did! Olga won the 2024 Plate with 16.5 wins, and she came back and outdid herself with 18 wins! She edged out New South Wales's Margaret Neal (also 18 wins) by just over 100 spread points. Frank Csarics rounded out the top 3 on 16 wins. South Australia's Judy Mansfield won the high game with an impressive 584 while Queenslander Anne Hough's OVERAGES for 158 took the high word.
The Championship's top 3 was rounded out by South Australia's own Adam Kretschmer in second and Victorian Trevor Halsall in third. Adam also took out the high game prize of 639, while David Eldar and fellow Victorian Geoff Wright tied for the high word with GINGERED and INTERVAL respectively for 158.
As someone who started playing as a youth, now at best an ADULTESCENT, I have to mention how fantastic it was to see such a strong bevy of young people contesting this year's event with Oscar Ivanovski in the Championship and Maheu Papau T-Pole, Lev Roch, Danira De Silva, Sam Pizzano and Jithuni Vidana in the Plate. Nine-year-old Jithuni (Victoria) won the overall youth prize with 10 wins - well done Jithuni! Speaking about the YOUTHQUAKE, one insider source told me:
I was really impressed by them. They were unfailingly polite and curious and good humoured. They remained enthusiastic the whole time and were a delightful addition.
The Chris May Memorial Prize for highest rating gain went to Max Mason, picking up 98 rating points.
A big thank you to Nick Ivanovski and Lachlan Vnuk, Michael and Rowena Vnuk for their name tag and scorebook designs, Antony Kimber, Susan Roberts, Judy Mansfield, Tony Miller and Daniel Piechnick of the committee, caterers Jacqui Pearce and Margaret Gibson and all who assisted with the set-up and set-down. Biggest of all, thank you to the efficient, invaluable state president Jane Taylor for leading a coordinated committee effort to put on a successful and memorable tournament.
If you're feeling FRINGY next March, drop into Adelaide for the weekend and play some Scrabble while you're at it! The torch now gets passed on to Canberra who will host the 2026 event. See you there!