Player Profile

Joan Rosenthal

WSC Representative: 1993, 1995, 1999
Trans Tasman Representative: 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004

Occupation: 'Retired'
Location: Sydney

One of the originals

A Scrabble veteran, Joan is the only person still playing who played in the first tournament in Australia (in 1976). She has been an Australian representative in three World Championships (New York, London and Melbourne) and in all the Trans-Tasman tournaments. Although she plays mostly in NSW, she has played in all Australian states except the Northern Territory, and also in USA, Singapore and Bangkok.

Joan's interest in clarifying Australia's National Rules and in working towards a standard set of rules across the country led to her being CASPA Rules Coordinator for 4 years. She is currently Australian representative on the WESPA Rules Subcommittee.

Affinity with words

With a background in linguistics, speech pathology and university teaching, Joan has a long history of interest in words. She remembers winning a spelling bee at age 10 or 11 by spelling "choreography". Even now in so-called retirement, as a freelance editor working mainly with theses and journal publications, she deals with words on a daily basis. One thesis on the architecture of religious educational buildings in Iran provided reinforcement of many Scrabble words (it was fun to actually come across "waqf" in meaningful prose). Learning words for the game is still a regular task, and the list of words not yet known doesn't seem to get that much shorter.

Team Australia 2004 Player profiles

Other interests

Is there life outside Scrabble? Yes, Joan has a great interest in bird-watching and regularly goes on outings with bird groups. She currently gets much pleasure from monitoring birds weekly at Sydney Olympic Park. She has also been swooped on by a brown goshawk - but luckily was wearing a hard hat that day. She enjoys bushwalking, going to opera and concerts, travel, watching cricket, and trying to get the garden to grow as desired.

Joan and her partner Ian are the proud companions of two cats, Fluff and Ginger.