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

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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.

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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.

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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

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Some of these young Scrabblers will be travelling 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.

This was the 40th anniversary of the Victorian Championship.
42 players took part , including some from overseas and interstate. It was a threepeat for David Eldar (yes it is a Scrabble word), and in a highly contested race, Euclid Hui from Hong Kong came second, and Ayorinde Saidu from Nigeria came third. Awards were

• 1st - David Eldar
• 2nd - Euclid Hui
• 3rd - Ayorinde Saidu
• 4th - Edward Okulicz
• 5th - Andrew Fisher
• Rating Prize - Band to 1150: Jayanthi Viswanathan
• Rating Prize - Band 1151-1400: Jenny Brysha
• Rating Prize - Band above 1401: Fadlan Satria
• Rating Prize - Best Interstate Player: Paul Richards
• High Word: David Eldar, STAMPEDO, 185
• High Game: Edward Okulicz, 659

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Read the report by Geoff Shepheard and Ian Ting.

The Western Australia Championship was held in Perth on the June long weekend. David Vanzyl won 17 out of 18 games to emerge as the clear winner.

Some of the unusual words played included:

• ARABINS - essence of gum arabic
• SHIVAREE - discordant mock serenade to newlyweds, made with pans, kettles, etc.
• CLIVERS - cleavers (plant with small white flowers and sticky fruits)
• DESYATIN - Russian unit of area
• SHERWANI - long coat closed up to the neck, worn by men in India
• PENOCHE - a type of fudge

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