The Trans Tasman is a biennial competition between Australia and New Zealand held alternately in either country. This year it was in Brisbane.
In the adult section, there are teams of 12 from Australia and New Zealand
Players compete against players from the other country in a 24 game double round robin
Australian TeamNew Zealand Team
The winning team was Australia who won 155:133 counting all games played.
Bob Jackman (AUS) with Chris Tallman (NZ)
Nine Australians and three New Zealanders played a double round robin of all players, but counting only the games where the two countries competed
The winning team in the Youth section was New Zealand. They won 38 of the 54 games which counted.
New Zealand Youth
Maheu, Cooper, Lev
Second was Australia who won 16 of the 54 games which counted.
Australian Youth
Sam, Ashwin, Anthony, Danira
Lucas, Hugh, Oliver, Jithuni, Oriana, Celina
The best individual player in the Youth section was Ashwin Page from Queensland, Australia. He was thus also the Best Australian player.
John Hamilton with Ashwin Page 22 +2654
The best New Zealand player was Lev Roch. In one of his games he scored 637.
John Hamilton with Lev Roch 17 +1530
The Australian Championship was held in Brisbane over 15 rounds in three days.
The winner was Cameron Farlow, runner up was Ryan Anderson and third place went to Karen Richards.
See full results
World Seniors
Siva, Sally, Joanne, Howard, Susan, Karen, Geoff
Seven not so Little Australians attended the World Seniors in Sri Lanka. Sally Martin won her age category, and Karen Richards got a rating band prize.
The Australian Masters and State Challenge Trophy was held in Canberra. This is a selective event comprising twenty top players as Masters and twenty-one players representing seven states in the State Challenge Trophy. This was the twentieth incarnation of this event whose format was devised by Andrew Fisher in 2005. Two players have competed in all twenty, Carmel Dodd and Rod Talbot.
The Masters winner was Edward Okulicz. The winning state was New South Wales and the best individual player was Dianne Brumby.
This event has concluded in Kenya.
The winner is Dineth Fernando representing Australia. Dineth is attending school in Melbourne and has done very well in our Australian tournaments since he arrived.
Winning WYSC is a superb achievement, as he battled it out over 24 rounds, and in the third day playing against top players repeatedly. Australia can be very proud of the way that Dineth played for us and we extend our congratulations to him. Well done all the young players from around the world. Samuel Crispin from England and Suyash Manchali from India came second and thurd.
See all prizes at
This is the fourth time that WYSC has been won by an Australian.
2006 David Eldar
2011 Anand Bharadwaj
2012 Michael McKenna
2026 Dineth Fernando
Australian Youth Scrabble Championship
Top 3 places
This year the format was open to all youth on Saturday, then the top eight played a round robin on Sunday. 25 players took part and NSW, ACT, QLD and VIC took part. Prizes were awarded thus:
Sportsmanship Award - Oriana Beecham (QLD)
Best Provisionally Rated Player - Huy Lam (NSW)
High Word Score: Eric Lam (NSW) - GRINDING - 131
High Game Score: Phi Long Ma (NSW) - 601
Highest Rating Gain (on Saturday): Kelvin Korn (NSW)
Under 10
Runner Up: Oliver Klistorner (NSW)
Winner: Lucas Luu (NSW)
Under 13
Runner Up: Jithuni Vidana (VIC)
Winner: Ryder Lo (NSW)
Finalist Medals:
Oliver Klistorner (NSW)
Eric Phan (NSW)
Kelvin Korn (NSW)
Ryder Lo (NSW)
Lucas Luu (NSW)
Final top three
Third Place: Ashwin Page (QLD)
Runner Up: Nathan Tang (NSW)
Winner: Dineth Fernando (VIC)
Australasian Open
New Zealand and Australia used to get together on Norfolk Island for friendly Scrabble competition. Later there was the ongoing Trans Tasman competition which in 2026 is in Brisbane.
2026 saw the inaugural tournament of what will become an ongoing tradition. 2026 was the turn for New Zealand to host it and 11½ Australian players took part and were very appreciative of the hospitable and welcoming NZ Scrabble community. The event was won by Howard Warner who is well known here in Australia. Adam Kretschmer was Australia's top placed player, coming third.
Play from a featured table most rounds were streamed on the Scrabble NZ YouTube Channel and the event was
WESPA rated.
The Summit Cup is a selective event for 24 players in Malta in December administered by WESPA. The
criteria
make it difficult for Australians to qualify. Race to the Summit