- May 15 - May Tournament
- May 28 - In-Person Tablet Online Tournament
- Jun 11-12 - Victorian Championship Details on CALENDAR



Close finish with Peter winning 18/24 games with a margin of 1181 to beat Chris May by the margin of 129. High Game was Chris May with 613 and Carol Johnsen scored 212 for BLIZZARD.
Other Victorians' placings (Championship)- Mythili Rudra 12th, Trevor Halsall 14th, Nat Podesser 21st, Heather Long 35th, Carol Johnsen 37th, Lainie Mercieca 39h, Kashi Thiris 46th and John Rider 52nd. And in the Plate - Peter Bauer 11th, Khwanjai Thammaping 14th and Siva Sivapalasundram 17th.


Eighteen competitors took part in this wonderful venue - Moonee Ponds Club on Mt Alexander Rd. Congratulations to Carol Mascitti on winning all 5 games. Norma Fisher score the High Word with JINGOES for 110 and High Game of 597.



Fourteen competitors took part in this wonderful venue - Mordy HQ on Nepean Highway Mordialloc. Congratulations to Dianne Davis on winning all 7 games. Oscar Ivanovski scored the High Word with FLIRTING for 122 and Alan Burn had the High Game with 508.



Returned to the popular Moonee Ponds Club for our first half-day comp in just over 15 months. It was our best-attended event in 2022 and hopefully signals a return to more numbers in coming months! Thank you to everyone in attendance for their support and for the venue for hosting us.
There were four divisions playing a round robin format - only two players went through undefeated but only one won all their games?? We welcomed back a number of players who had not played in over 12 months; as a result, the second of our three 2022 awards has been activated. In D Division all the players there won 2 games, so it was very tight indeed.
High Word winners were Div A - Geoff Wright - TUNICATE 102; Div B - Noel Coulter - NEUTRALS 126; Div D - Ann Goodwin - JOINERS 102.







Twenty players, including four interstaters, had a wonderful weekend in beautiful Bendigo to celebrate the contribution of Ruth Fewings (albeit delayed by two years due to Covid-19). Two divisions played 9 games of Round Robin with game 10 King of the Hill. Congratulations to Edward Okulicz and Rob York for winning their respective divisions. With 9 straight wins Edward has equaled the longest winning streak (14 wins) in 2022. High Game (629) for A Division went to Joanne Craig and B Division won by Shaun Donnelly (529).
Ruth's son,Father Andrew Fewings (Parish Priest at the St Therese's Primary School venue) opened the tournament. Thanks to Peter Bauer and Heather Long for their work in organising the tournament. And it was a pleasure to welcome back, after 17 years, Neil McLean, also from Bendigo. Neil had organised the last tournament held in Bendigo in 2005.








Chris Radin models her prize as 2nd placegetter in the 2021 Langwarrin Club Challenge for the year with fellow Club members Peter Attwood and Geoff Gittus approving in the background. Presentations were made this month and the perpetual trophy pictured to the righthand side of Chris was won by Alan Burn.
The Victorian Committee is very sorry that it has had to cancel the tournaments which were to be held in February. Unfortunately, COVID-19 events and protocols have forced the need for this. However, the Ruth Fewings Memorial Tournament will definitely be going ahead on the weekend of 5 and 6 March in Bendigo. We hope to welcome lots of players back. Details are on the Tournaments page.
Nine-Timer scores 221
Paula Messer scores 221 for QUANTITY down on TINGLES at Balwyn Club on 7 February.

Collins Zyzzyva, with the new word list suitable for word judging, is currently available at https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/scrabble/scrabble-tools/.
ULU : https://www.dropbox.com/s/gagbzhzbe2900ua/CSW22.txt?dl=1&name=CSW2022
The WESPA 2021 Initiation Kit has been created to assist players in learning the changes in the new CSW Word list. For reference, the new edition of CSW contains exactly 419 deletions and no additions. For a copy of this kit contact Nick Ivanovski at nicksfbemail@gmail.com.
Congratulations to Liz McKean on achieving her 1000 games and Andrew Fisher with 2000 games. Both awards were presented at the Bil Rose Aestival on 16 January.


Congratulations to Andrew Fisher on his 2nd place in the Sydney International Masters held in late January.
Victorian Plate & Side Event
Twelve-years old Oscar Ivanovski took out top honours in the Victorian Plate with 6 out of 7 wins and a High Game of 514. High Word HELPERS (105) - Mohammed Hegazi.Edward Okulicz (6 out of 7 wins) won the Side Event (5 point challenge). High Game - Trevor Halsall (617) and High Word IDEALIZE (104) - Geoff Wright.
Last minute changes to find a venue resulted in play at the Moonee Ponds Club (historically the Moonee Ponds Bicycle Club established in the 1800's). The air-conditioned venue with bar and sporting facilities proved to be popular and more Scrabble events are planned for there.
Trevor Halsall (617) and Carol Johnsen (476) played an 1089 aggregate game (board below); and Trevor (461) and Edward (464) were featured where Trevor lost by 3 points (his over-time of 59.9 seconds proving his downfall - board and clock below).








Bil Rose Aestival
The first event of the year saw 28 players compete in an Open event which proved very popular as it pitted players with opponents whom they may never have played before which proved entertaining and friendly. It was also the first tournament in Victoria with CSW21 as the reference. By the end of the day, most players were conversant with updating the various apps for adjudication with Nick Ivanovski's assistance..Andrew Fisher took top honours winning his 7 games, with Edward Okulicz and Norma Fisher placing 2nd and 3rd respectively. Noel Coulter's highlight of the day was playing a nine-timer for 131 (NARROWED) against Andrew Fisher. Andrew, of course not to be out-classed, quickly followed up with 3 bingos to go on and win the match.
Rating band prizes went to Rob Hutchinson (under 1300) and Doreen Ivanovski (under 1000). In keeping with the Australian Tennis Open theme, Oscar Ivanovski won Word of the Day with OPEN which was determined by a computer-generated program.




Decathon '21
One of the most popular events of the year with a return after 2 years of not being held. Today marked the final Committee-run tournament using CSW19, with CSW21 being used for Victorian Committee-run events from January 1, 2022 onwards.Three divisions played round robins which ensured that the day went smoothly and quickly. Both Divs B & C played one round, whilst A Div played 2 rounds.





Bayside 2
Oh, to be beside the sea. Becoming one of our favourite venues, the Mordialloc Sports Club by the sea. Make sure you don't miss the next one on February 13 in 2022 here. Mythili Rudra (2nd) and Peter Kougi (3rd) were fresh from their sucess at the recent Virtual WESPA Championship (Peter placed 4th and Mythili 47th.)


December Summer
This event starts December off to be a very busy Scrabble month with 4 tournaments. Low numbers (20) did not detract rom the tough competition with Geoff Wright and Siva Sivapalasundram taking out top spots in Divs A & B.

Results and ratings: 05.12.2021 Vic December following ss0412re.tou on 20211204 PratCooker 12.05, pending NRO processing. A 7 games W M Old Chg New 1 6 +559 Geoff Wright 1633 +19 1652 2 5 +812 Nick Ivanovski 1621 -2 1619 3 5 +329 Chris Scholten 1409 +19 1428 4 5 +231 Norma Fisher 1520 +13 1533 5 4 -217 Mal Eden 1221 +30 1251 6 3 -22 John Rider 1331 +2 1333 7 0 -872 Paula Messer 1124 -32 1092 6 games 1 3 -118 Lainie Chojna 1330 +7 1337 2 1 -467 Barry Harridge 1407 -47 1360 5 games 1 1 -235 Noel Coulter 1252 -9 1243 High game Nick Ivanovski 560 High word Geoff Wright WIRIEST 104 B 7 games W M Old Chg New 1 6 +608 Siva Sivapalasundram 1065 +31 1096 2 5 +248&Luke Breen ( 798) ( 925) 3 4 +209 Dominica Krstic 1024 -3 1021 4 4 +186 Oscar Ivanovski 1029 -4 1025 5 4 +23 Ann Goodwin 919 +6 925 6 3 -132 Elizabeth McKean 769 +11 780 7 3 -385&Carol Rollmann ( 844) ( 847) 8 2 -114 Annette Casey 896 -24 872 9 2 -229 Mohammed Hegazi 842 -24 818 10 2 -414 Lay-Hoon Ng 848 -22 826 High game Siva Sivapalasundram 534 High word Annette Casey NASTIER 106 Luke Breen is still provisional (20 games) Carol Rollmann is still provisional (46 games)
Scrabble Festival
Following the Scrabble Festival Open Day on 20 November, 20 players participated in 3 divisions in round robin style. Whilst confusion reigned at the commencement, it soon settled down and thank you for the patience of all present. We welcomed Novice Catherine Jackson-Grose who admitted to thoroughly enjoying the day and she was very keen to continue to participate. Division placings were:A:
1st - Norma Fisher - 5 wins
2nd - Geoff Wright - 4 wins
3rd - Barry Harridge - 3 wins
HW: BENDERS - 90 - Shaun Donnelly
HG: Norma Fisher - 500
B:
1st - Noel Coulter - 4 wins (won on aggregate)
2nd - John Rider - 4 wins
3rd - Mal Eden - 3 wins
HW: CLIMAXES - 101 - Noel Coulter
HG: Mal Eden - 494
C:
1st - Siva Sivapalasundram - 4 wins (won on aggregate)
2nd - Ann Goodwin - 4 wins
3rd - Dominica Krstic - 3 wins
HW: MENDERS 91 & COUPLET 91 - Dominica Krstic
HG: Carol Rollmann - 502




Victorian Championship
Thank you to all the players who attended and supported our first event back after lockdown restrictions had eased! It was a really enjoyable event to run as a result and I hope you enjoyed it as well, no matter how you fared.Congratulations to David Eldar, winning the title comprehensively - by three wins and margin. It was a decade since David had played in this event (having been overseas in that time) and he was pleased to be back. Thank you to David for his generosity when it came to donating his prize money back to Scrabble. - Nick Ivanovski, TD.
Prizes:
1st - David Eldar - $1,000
2nd - Andrew Fisher - $500
3rd - Trevor Halsall - $300
HG: Andrew Fisher - $100
HW: Lainie Chojna - $100
Rating Band Prize: Shaun Donnelly - $100
Rating Band Prize: Michael Smitheram - $100







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