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Written by HG

Category: News

Published: 31 March 2026

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Over the weekend of 21/22 March there were 2 7 game tournaments. 

Wanda, Helen and Graham played in both.

The first was held in a large village hall in Manuden, and attracted 32 entrants. Lots of familiar faces but there were people there from Northern Ireland, Poland and the Netherlands. (The venue was only 3 miles from Stansted Airport). The organiser decided on not having 2 divisions; there would be 1 large division with a very large skill range between top and bottom. The tournament was played with a 5-point penalty challenge which meant if a challenged word was valid, it would score an additional 5 points. This penalty soon adds up if one challenges 3 or 4 words!

Wanda :

I arrived at Manuden on the Saturday to discover that there was going to be one large division instead of an A and a B. I was almost at the bottom of the rankings so I was pleased to win 4 out of 7 games against players ranked up to 30 points above my ratings.

My first game was fairly close most of the way. With 2 tiles left in the bag I got a bonus word down BOILERS for 78 points and picked up QI. My opponent went out with the bonus SOIREES for 85. Fortunately despite having 11 points on my rack I was far enough ahead and managed to win by 7 points.

Some of my bonus words:-ZITHERS   NAIADES    POUNDAGE   REALNESS

I won one of the 3 ratings prizes which was on offer that day for winning 4 games.

Helen :

As my (bad) luck would have it, I was drawn against the top two rated players, Stewart Holden and Rik Kennedy, in the first two rounds, and emerged from those games having narrowly lost both.    Things got a bit easier after that, and I won three of the remaining five games.     I finished in 18^th place (about correct for my starting position of 16^th seed) with three wins from seven and a rating exactly matching my start rating.   Of the words I played, some of the best were ASTHORE and DEDUCTED, both for 92 points, and DENATURES for 80 points.  Unusual words played against me were NERVINES and QUANNETS.

Graham :

Unlike Helen, I started off playing a couple of the weaker players in the division and won one game by 120 and the other by 13.  The luck changed in the 3^rd game with a 310-447 loss. I managed to find the only bonus from AFM?OOT to start game 4 and retained the lead all game. Game 5 pitted me against a player who I have a great record against – sadly this time I lost by 100 points.

Then the only game I would play against an East Berks player all weekend – I played Wanda.

A game full of incident – I started with 3 bonus words, TERCIOS, HEATING, GALLEONS. Wanda came back strongly with EXPLOIT and then the invalid WEEINGS* ! Later in the same game Wanda put an R after the word GOORIE making GOORIER* and that too wasn’t challenged by me and it isn’t allowed! In the end an 87 point win – but it should have been more had I challenged!

My last game, was a repeat – against the player I lost to in round 5. I took the lead early on with BOSSILY – and won comfortably.  A good day’s performance winning 5 out of 7 and finishing just outside the prize positions.

The second tournament was at Elsenham a village about 6 miles from Manuden. The village hall was much older and smaller and there were a smaller number of players too. Wanda, Helen and Graham were all in Division B, with Graham the number 1 player and Helen the number 2.

Wanda :

On Sunday the tournament was in Elsenham, a few miles from Manuden and I was in the B division. I only won 3 out of 7 games but managed to score over 500 points against one of my opponents.

 Some of my bonus words:- TRIBADE   GUERITES   BETAINES   SIENITE   ANOESIS

Overall I gained 2 ratings points which I was pleased with.

Helen :

This tournament went much better for me:  I won my first game narrowly – after my opponent had spent 3 moves trying to find a bonus, trying WIREABLE*, BAWLIER*, and finally WIRABLE (correct!).  I then won the second a little more easily, but I lost the third game by just 3 points. 

After lunch things went very well indeed, and I won all my remaining games, finishing in second place on 6 wins out of 7, losing only on spread (goal difference) to the winner, Alan Males.  My final game was against Alan, and I knew I had to win by 150 points or more to win the division … and he knew that too!   In the end I won by exactly 100 points, not quite enough.   Some of my highest scoring words were WANGLES, for 113 points, and ENCASED and SQUIRES, both for 95 points and TRINDLED for 86.   My opponents came up with TWANGLES, OUTCHARM, and DIOCESAN.

All in all, a very pleasant weekend!

Graham :

The day started like Manuden with a large first game win, followed by a narrow win.

Unlike Manuden I won the third but then played the only other unbeaten player, (the eventual winner Alan) in game 4. His game was on fire and he played JAUNTIE 2^nd move for 101, ZOON for 78, PROVINGS 74 and CATAPULT for 61. This catapulted me away from the top table and I was never to reach it again.

I lost game 5, won game 6 and lost game 7. The latter games hinged in whether RIFLINGS, RENAMINGS and SENSINGS were valid. RIFLINGS was played against me and is valid, RENAMINGS* was played by me and was challenged off, and SENSINGS* should have been challenged too…but stayed on the board! A frustrating day as I finished in 4 wins and outside the prizes.

All three of us had one very good day, and one average day – but more importantly we won 2 prizes over the weekend. Very well done to Wanda and Helen!

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Written by HG

Category: News

Published: 24 March 2026

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On March 14 both Richard and Pat attended the 7 game 1 day event in Romford.

How well did they do ?  Read on...

Richard played in Division A.  

After my poor performance at Reading where I lost 4 ranking points, I had a much better tournament at Romford.

 

I played 7 games in Division C, and came top winning 6 of those games.

 

There were some close matches; in fact two of my wins came because my opponents incurred a penalty by running over time. In my best game, I had 3 bonuses, starting the game with ALCOVES, and then playing STINTED and SEVERING. I ended that game by playing LUCK.

 

The updated ratings show that I have regained 2 of my ranking points.

 

 

 

Well done Pat - certainly LUCK was with you - but it still takes great SKILL to win a division - well done!

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Written by HG

Category: News

Published: 13 February 2026

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Well done to Fiona, Deborah and Gillian for winning their respective divisions in the Winter League.

The final results are shown here :

2025-2026 WINTER LEAGUE

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Written by HG

Category: News

Published: 27 January 2026

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 During the first week in January, 3 Scrabble tournaments were held back-to-back at the Holiday Inn, Reading.

The first, the UK Open, was a 24 game event and had just under 100 participants spread across 3 divisions. The second, ‘The Midweek Triple’  a 22 game event (actually two 11 game events with promotion and relegation between 4 divisions). The last event was the 15 game Final Fling with 28 players across 2 divisions. Many players just played in one tournament, but about a dozen players played all 61 games !

East Berks had 6 players competing in different tournaments across the week… here are their thoughts.

Richard :

I played in Division A of the UK Open – I had a good start with 3 wins from 4 including a win against a top player (see attached first Board photo). Bonused with ENFRAME and ARTISTIC early on -opponent played CUTWATER which I didn't know but held on for a 403-369 win. Then had a poor run of just one win from 8.

Fortunately turned it round with 8 wins from the final 12 to finish on 12 wins out of 24 -a mid table finish.

One of the best games was in the second board photo below. Opponent took charge with bonus of LIBIDOS, followed by ADJURE for 66 and ZOBU for 45 to lead by 75. However there were still bonus chances for me so I played off the W leaving 1 in the bag and bonus friendly letters. Opponent blocked the E of ADJURE with OARED but this didn't prevent me bonusing out with VIRALS/GESTANT for 91 to win 475-445.

Word highlights were, Me - NOCTULE, RULESSE, TOTANUS, BENETTED, HEMATOID, ADIPSIA, RATOONED

Opponents - CUTWATER, ECLOGITE, MUTINEER

Helen :

I played in the main event at the UK Open in Reading between January 3rd and 5th.  The standard was very high indeed, with former World Champions and runners-up in the field, as well as a number of players from the USA, Singapore and elsewhere.  I didn't do quite as well as I had hoped, winning only 9 games, though there were at least a couple of games that I managed to throw away right at the end!

Some of the most interesting words I played were: AIRHOLES, CATENARY, ALBINISM, PEABRAIN (for 140 points) and CONFITS.

Graham :

I played in the  A division at the UK Open and won 9 out of 23 games. The 24^th game was a bye as my opponent was unwell.   It was quite pleasing to win 9 games, as I lost the first 5, and didn’t score 400 in any of them! Most of my wins came on the last day when I won 4 out of the last 5! Games were played to a 5point per word challenge, and the words I challenged (and my opponent gained 5 points) included : HILD, SENNITS, DOVERING, TOULADI, ATENOLOL, FLUORITE.

Of course my opponents challenged some of my words too : MUSLINED, STRELITZ, USURE, ATABRINE, DOTTLED.

The attached board is from my biggest win 546-241.

Wanda :

I attended the Reading Scrabble tournament from Saturday the 3^rd until Thursday the 8^th January. This was the first time I have ever played for so many consecutive days. There were 46 games in all and I only won 21.5 of them which was a bit disappointing. My best day was Monday 5^th January when I won 7 out of 8 of my games. It also happened to be my daughter’s birthday so maybe she unwittingly brought me some luck.

I had a few close games. Four of them were determined by the tile that was left in the bag, three of which I lost.

In the one that I won I had AEERSTU. AUSTERE wouldn’t go down as the P of PITA on the left of the board was too high up. I gambled on the last tile in the bag and opened up the top left corner by playing the U above the R to make UR. I picked the last O out of the bag and managed to go out with ROSEATE/OUR to win the game.

Here are a few of the bonuses I managed to play:- FEALTIES, OREADES, PROTEAN, OCREATE, ENGENDER, ADRATES, BAREFOOT, SEALIONS!, EXTRUDING for 121 points, THENARS, WINDLESS and TANAISTE.

Fiona :

I was reserve for the first two of the UK Open events.  The reserve player is to try and help ensure that numbers are even in the event of an odd number of sign-ups, or last minute withdrawals.  I wasn't needed for the main event, although did play a couple of 'side games' after a player withdrew, as well as helping with entering scores and general tournament admin. 

After another withdrawal, I was able to play in the mid week triple, which was run as two back-to-back 11 game tournaments, with promotion and relegation between the divisions after the first set of games.   I was in Division D.  All the games were played with a 5-point challenge penalty, meaning players were more cautious about challenging words than they would have been with free challenge.  In the first tournament I won 6 of my 11 games, finishing mid table.  For the second 11 games, we were joined by the three bottom players from Division C, and our three top players were promoted.  I felt I played better for the second half (or had more luck!) and finished third with 7 wins and a draw, winning a prize!   I was very pleased to score over 500 in three of my games across the two tournaments, having a particularly memorable game where I played five bonuses in my first six turns! I did feel for my opponent, but she did very well to not give up and reduced the spread to just over 100 points, scoring over 400 herself.  

It was an extremely well run tournament in a very nice venue - recommended for next year, when there should also be some one day events to try!

Pat :

I played in the Final Fling and  had a poor tournament, winning just 3 of 15 games.

I did play a number of bonuses, my best move being TOPDRESS.  The playing room was spacious, with one game to a table.

(Ed : Pat was the only East Berks player at the Final Fling and so we didn’t have a photo. However That’s TV (Thames Valley) attended during the Final Fling, and while interviewing the organiser, James Burley, featured Pat as a background shot).

In summary some mixed results for East Berks members with Fiona coming third in her division being the only highlight, otherwise East Berks players hovered at the mid-table mark or below.  Over the week nearly 130 people played across the various tournaments from all over the UK and the World. The 2027 tournaments promise to be bigger still – a great way to meet new players and learn new words from them.