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.

Photos by Khwanjai Thammaping

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

Masters

The final outcome is a clear win (15:1179) for Andrew Fisher in the Masters section, with tense last games for the placegetters Naween Fernando(13:1183) and Cameron Farlow (13:462). See Masters results

State Team Challenge

In the State Team Challenge, Victoria prevailed (36.5 wins) , and the highest placed of all 18 competitors is Oscar Ivanovski from Victoria.
See State Challenge Trophy results

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).

• 64 Ashwin Page (14)
• 84 Ryder Lo (11) 3rd in under 12 category
• 88 Kelvin Korn (13)
• 102 Nathan Tang (16)
• 143 Shukanya Prachi (17)
• 147 Alvin Korn (12)
• 149 Oliver Kilstirner (9) 3rd in under 10 category
• 170 Jithuni Vidanaparath (10)
• 178 Samuel Pizzano (13)
• 190 Justin Eng (6) 2nd in under 8 category
• 192 Phi Long Ma (11)
• 204 Danira De Silva (14)
• 210 Hugh Boveington (10)

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.

WYSC results

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 Australian Women's Championship was held in Townsville over 16 rounds in two days. Women from all around Australia took part as well as eight from New Zealand. (New Zealand plans to have a Women's Championship in Auckland in January 2026).

The top five places

1   12 +1030 Sally Martin
2   12  +771 Liz Fagerlund
3   12  +313 Carmel Dodd
4 11.5  +154 Val Mills
5   11  +848 Joanne Craig
  

This is the first of several events in Townsville this August.

See Full results

1   18 +2129 David Eldar
2   12  +894 Josh Watt
3   12   +42 Tony Hunt
4   11  +874 Edward Okulicz
5   11  +541 John Holgate
  

The Chris May Winter Masters honours the memory of Chris May, a top class Scrabble player from NSW who represented Australia overseas. 18 games were played over two days. David Eldar demonstrated his astounding ability by winning all 18 games, 6 games ahead of second place!
The event was rated not only in Australia, but also internationally. David Eldar's Australian rating is now a definite outlier, over 300 rating points ahead of anyone else in Australia.
See WESPA rating.

See Full results

This was the second Australian Junior Scrabble Championship. 32 players competed in Sydney and there were prizes for age bands. Thank you to all who helped organise and help to make it all happen. It is hoped that this event will go from strength to strength and thus encourage a new generation who love this game and strive for excellence.

• OVERALL
  • WINNER: Oscar Ivanovski, VIC
  • RUNNER UP: Kelvin Korn NSW
• U18
  • 1st Ashwin Page, QLD
  • 2nd Nathan Tang, NSW
• U14
  • 1st Alvin Korn, NSW
  • 2nd Sam Pizzano, ACT
• U12
  • 1st Ryder Lo, NSW
  • 2nd Jithuni Vidana, VIC
• U10
  • 1st Lucas Luu, NSW
  • 2nd Oliver Klistorner, NSW

• High game: Ashwin Page 569
• High word: Sam Pizzano WHIRLING 94
• High rating gain: Shukanya Prachi +138

See Full results

Some of these young Scrabblers go to Malaysia at the end of August to compete in the World Youth Scrabble Championship where they will undoubdtedly make friends with other likeminded youth from all around the world.