ACT Championship
The ACT Championship has been won by John Spaan. Top three :
| 1 | 15 | 1775 | John Spaan |
| 2 | 14 | 1495 | John Hamilton |
| 3 | 11 | 1600 | Ronnie Bennett |
The ACT Championship has been won by John Spaan. Top three :
| 1 | 15 | 1775 | John Spaan |
| 2 | 14 | 1495 | John Hamilton |
| 3 | 11 | 1600 | Ronnie Bennett |
The Tasmanian Championship has been won by Stephen Mooney-Pursell. Jon Ford-King and Martin Rose came second and third. See Results
Scrabble NSW has a yearly award, the Joan Rosenthal Trophy, for the NSW member who gains the most rating points in one year. This year it was won by Nathan Tang. And he also won it in 2024. Young eager players can gauge their progress by rating gains.
The three day event was also planned to include Scrabble coaching from two top experts and motivaters. Australian Youth Scrabble coach, Karen Richards, travelled from Queensland to coach the more-experienced youth, mostly those from interstate (Qld, ACT, Vic) - players who then competed honorably in the three-day open NSW Championship. Technically, this is the most difficult event in Australia for anyone rated under 1300.
Age category winners were Nathan Tang (under 18) and Ollie Klistorner (under 14)
On Saturday, in parallel with Day 1 of NSW Champs, John Hamilton (Australian Youth Scrabble Coordinator) worked with a bunch of young beginners, some of whom then competed against adults in the one-day Open event of Sunday. It was exciting to have some brand-new talent involved. Some of these came to Scrabble via MENSA. We will be working more closely with MENSA in future: Ollie (age 9) and Karen are leading a session for Primary School students at the Australian MENSA conference on 11/12 October.
Scrabble NSW/CASPA hope to make this Youth Coaching an annual event, being a school holiday period.
Contact Karen or John to reserve a place for your child.
The 2025 NSW Championship saw the top spot keenly contested with Edward leading most of the way, but with contenders at his heels on equal wins until the end. The top three were separated solely on spread.
Several Australians took part in the World Seniors Championship in Germany and the Continental Scrabble Championship in Budapest. Carmel Dodd was the best placed Australian in the World Seniors (11th) and the Continental saw Esther Perrins and Russell Honeybun take first and second places.
The Australian Masters and State Challenge is a selective annual event. It has been held every year since 2005 (except for covid years). This year it is being held in Melbourne at the Oakwood Premier in South Melbourne.
Twenty of the top players play the Australian Masters as a round robin. At the same time, teams of three players from each of seven states or territories play the State Team Challenge as head-to-head matches.
There is video streaming of a selected game each round. See list of featured games
Full results at the AMSC25 page
Congratulations to Oscar Ivanovski (16 y.o.) for his very commendable performance coming 11th in the World Youth Scrabble Championship in a huge field of 216 players from many countries. A highlight was Oscar's defeat of last year's champion on live stream.
Our Aussie performers placings (age in brackets).
It was a fantastic occasion for these youngsters and they enjoyed the travel experiences and meeting young players from other countries who shared their love of Scrabble.
The Queensland Championship was held in Townsville over 16 rounds in two days. 60 players including 10 from New Zealand played in the posh venue at the Grand Chancellor Hotel. The nice attendance figures were due to this being the culminating event of the Townsville Festival of Scrabble. Townsville and nearby Magnetic Island have great weather at this time of year, and there is a relaxed vibe.
Cameron Farlow was a clear winner this year, taking the title of Queensland Champion for the eighth time in a row. Second place was tightly contested. John Hamilton was pleased that the stars aligned to give him second place.
1 14 +1120 Cameron Farlow 2 11 +821 John Hamilton 3 11 +802 Bob Jackman 4 11 +603 Julie Brice 5 11 +515 Val Mills 6 11 +357 Murray Rogers 7 11 +281 Fadlan Satria
See Full results
The 2025 WESPA Championship will be held at The Palms by Eagles, Airport City, Accra (Formerly Holiday Inn)
Australia is entitled to send 14 players in addition to David Eldar who qualifies because he was World Champion. There are in fact four who are representing Australia, namely Karen Richards, Russell Honeybun, Kashi Thiris and Paul Richards
This will be WESPA rated and the venue is Eastlake Football Club, 3 Oxley St,
Griffith ACT. Susan MacGillivray is the key contact.
More details including payment and entries to date.
The Trans Tasman is a biennial event where an Australian team plays a New Zealand team. In 2026 12 Australians will play 12 New Zealand players over 24 games and this will be hosted in Australia, in Queensland.
For the first time there will be a Youth Trans Tasman alongside the adult event. Nine young Australians will play three New Zealand players over three days. There will be 22 rounds in all which is a double round robin of all 12 players, where the games of Australia vs New Zealand will count for team tallies.
See selection processes for Trans Tasman and Youth Trans Tasman