Brian Po wins the 2026 UK Open

Brian Po clinched victory at the UK Open with one round to go with a stunning performance, marking his first UK major win and best career win to date.

Brian defeated tournament top seed and runner-up Harshan Lamabadusuriya 531-396 in the pivotal penultimate game, going on to finish the tournament with a 20-4 (+1924) record. Both players scored multiple bonuses in the game, although the key play may have been in the middle of the game when, leading by 149, Brian chose to sacrifice 20 points to play YEA(n) for just 12, crucially blocking an open triple-triple lane. This proved hugely consequential, as Harshan had the word GUNGIEST lined up on his rack ready to play for 140 points that would have brought the scores almost level, but he had to settle for GUNITES for about half that score.

Brian's bonuses in the game were (F)RITZInG for 94 points, STARLIT for 72, INFECTS for 93, and AMEBOiD for 96, whilst Harshan's bonuses were DECURION for 82 and GUNITES for 72.

You can watch this game again on the UK Open day 3 stream on ABSP Tournament Scrabble UK YouTube channel . The game build-up begins at 7:09:30 into the video.

Harshan finished in second place with a 17–7 (+1289) record, just ahead of Gary Oliver on spread (17-7, +871) who won their final round game, but could not make up the spread deficit. Mohamed Kamara was fourth (16-8, +693) with the final place prize going to David Webb (15-9, +1477). Donna Stanton, Chris Davies and Fidelis Olutu won the ratings prizes for division A.

In division B, Matthew Pinner took top spot (17-7, +959) one win ahead of runner-up Niamh Warde (16-8, +812). Third place went to Amy Byrne (15-9, +578), with the ratings prizes going to Breda O'Brien and Jake Berliner.

Division C was won by Michael Thomas (20-4, +1855) from Jake Haidar (19-5, +1672) and Rose Northmore (16-8, +1061). Alvin Moisey won the ratings prize. Jake's second place is particularly impressive, as he is only 12 years old!

The 3-day main event, taking place in Reading, Berkshire is the centrepiece of an 8-day Scrabble festival from 3rd to 10th January, building on the success of last year's event at the same venue. The event has attracted more than 100 players over the course of the week's three events, with players from around the world competing. Players staying for the whole week will contest 61 games over the 8 days across three tournaments: the Main Event, the Midweek Triple and the Final Fling.

Festivities conclude on Saturday 10th January 2026.

UK Open Main Event Final standings: Division A | Division B | Division C

New Year's Honours List

Firstly, many thanks to the Stewart Houten and Rachel Bingham for their parts in the maintenance of the database over the last year. This year we may very well have a new ratings system and database but in the meantime here is how 2025 panned out regarding titles and awards.

Titles

There are no new titles to give out this year unfortunately so let’s look ahead to next year where we could very well have 3 or 4!

Potential Experts (5 years of 170+ ratings)

• 4 years:

  • Chris Cummins
  • Jack Moran
  • Brian Po (including first 180+ rating)
  • Chris Lipe (including 2 180+ ratings in 4 years)

• 3 years:

  • John Ashmore
  • Chris Vicary

• 2 years:

  • Sam Crispin
  • Joel Davey
  • Marlon Prudencio
  • Ryan Wee (including 1 180+ rating in 2 years)

• 1 year:

  • Rasheed Balogun*
  • Mike Baron*
  • Nick Deller
  • Raymond Gbaraba*
  • Graham Haigh
  • Kong Chock Heng
  • Nsikan Iyanam*
  • Bob Linn
  • Samson Okosagah*
  • Ben Schoenbrun*

* - first 170+ rating

Rasheed, Nick, Raymond, Samson & Ben all recorded a 180+ rating which is also the first step towards GM.

Potential GMs (5 years of 180+ ratings)

• 1 year:

  • Calum Edwards

There are some with potential to get back on the ladder but with a rating higher than their previous best so they have been excluded. Let me know if you think there is anything amiss.

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Highest Rated Player Award

The Highest Rated Player Award is given to the highest rated ABSP Member on January 1st of each year, provided that they have played at least 30 games in the previous year.

The winner is Harshan Lamabadusuriya (193)

Harshan has had a phenomenal year winning several majors, and currently only Brett Smitheram who didn’t play in 2025 and Ben Schoenbrun, who isn’t a member and has not played 150 games yet, are ahead of him on the current active players list.

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Most Improved Player Award

The Most Improved Player award is given to the ABSP member (as at 31st Dec) who has a full rating at the start of the calendar year, plays at least 30 games throughout that year and improves their rating the most. The player's rating at the end of the year must be higher than any previous end-of-year full rating.

The winner for 2025 with an improvement of 30 from 137 to 167 is Ronan Dance. He played 282 games in the year and also increased last year by 18 ratings points when he was not eligible to win due to low number of games in the previous year. It is a strong improvement and I am not sure it is done just yet!

Four other players met the criteria and improved by at least 10.

• +14 (159) Richard Spencer
• +13 (109) Lisa Atkins (who has been top 5 years in a row after winning last year)
• +12 (180) Chris Cummins
• +11 (122) Richard Appleyard

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Some other stats:

• Most games played and most prolific Expert: Craig Solomons (518)
• Most prolific GM: Phil Robertshaw (224)

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Unweighted ratings for those with a rating over 150 plus details of highest games scores for 2025 can be found on the ABSP database. Well done to all winners - and those that missed out - keep trying!

Wayne Kelly

Happy New Year

Happy New Year ABSP Members!

Here's to another great year ahead, kickstarting with the UK Open at the weekend.

Many thanks to all on the committee, organisers, clubs and players for spreading the word - membership seems to be rebuilding gradually so hopefully that will continue.

The Committee welcomed Rob Blundell as the new secretary to replace Fazile Zahir, and recently Rik Kennedy who has come on board to develop streaming across the UK.

This exciting development will be in full force at the UK Open - you can watch here from Saturday: https:// www.youtube.com/@ABSPScrabble

Thanks also to Stewart Houten and Rachel Bingham for the database upkeep and ratings, and hopefully more developments there as the year progresses.

Don't forget to renew your membership as today you will have lost access to the database if you haven't yet renewed, but Nuala will be at the UK Open to collect any subscriptions if you are attending.

The newsletter seems to be bedding in nicely thanks to Ross Mackenzie, but we always need more articles!

Easter is now on the calendar, with BMSC negotiations underway also in the new venue we used in 2025. NSC is still to be decided.

Hope everyone has a great year and as always, spread the word!

Wayne Kelly
1st January 2026

ABSP Streaming at the UK Open

Tune in live (or catch up whenever) this Saturday from 10.45am for 3 days' coverage of the UK Open on the ABSP's very own YouTube channel!

Just click our channel link to go straight there: https://www.youtube.com/@ABSPScrabble

Additionally, most smart TVs these days have YouTube already installed, enabling you to watch the action in decadent comfort!

Please also click the 'subscribe' button on our YouTube channel to be alerted of broadcasts and help us grow the channel.

Please note, clicking 'subscribe' is completely free and doesn't bind you to anything, clicking just helps you and the channel.

The ABSP Stream Team
31st December 2025

Harshan Lamabadusuriya wins UK Open

An Oxfordshire man has won the first UK Open Scrabble Championship for five years. Harshan Lamabadusuriya, a 45 year-old paediatrician from Abingdon, took the title and the £500 prize in the 27-game championship with two rounds to spare, finishing with a record of 21 wins and just 6 defeats.

The 3-day main event, taking place in Reading, Berkshire is the centrepiece of an 8-day Scrabble extravaganza from 3rd to 10th January, which has attracted nearly 100 players over the course of the event, with some travelling from the USA, Ireland and Hong Kong to attend. Those who have stayed for all 8 days of competition, playing four different events in that time, will have played 67 games of Scrabble each by the time the event concludes on Friday 10th January 2025.

This has been the first major tournament in the UK to officially use the new CSW24 word list. For the first time, words such as COVID, RONA, FAM, UNMUTE and ZOOMERS, as well as SEALION, can be played legitimately in the game as valid words.

Speaking about the large event, Tournament Organiser and director James Burley, 37, said "It is great to be able to bring people together to play the game they love. This game has created a community, lifelong friendships and even marriages. It is very important to continue to bring people together over shared passions such as these."

Amongst words played to win the tournament, Harshan extended the word BA to make the 9 letter word BACKSTORY. He also scored 645 points in one game against American Scrabble player Bob Linn. In round 21, he played Bob Lynn, from the UK, with the American Linn emerging victorious.

In a moving acceptance speech to fellow players, Harshan championed the Scrabble community by saying "The diversity in this room in terms of age, occupation, country, ethnicity, continents is unbelievable. The one thing that we have in common is the love of this wonderful game. The one thing that's better than the game is the community. It's an incredible community."

Other high scoring moves included CHICKENS played across two triple word score spaces, by Amy Byrne from Edinburgh, for 122 points and CABBAGES, played by Fiona Titcombe from Hampshire, scoring 167.

The highest game score was from author Barry Grossman, with 683 points in his round 13 game. Barry's publications include books teaching others how to improve their own Scrabble Game.

The second division was won by Paul Cousins from Bristol, who finished with 20 wins out of 27.

Amongst the players in the UK Open was Ellie Mackin, a blind player who uses Braille tiles in her games. Ellie finished 14th in the event having started 28th. She received a prize for the highest performance above her start rating.

The event was hosted for the first time by the Holiday Inn, Reading South. Sales and Marketing Manager David Berry said "It was a great honour and pleasure to host players over the world at this fantastic tournament. We look forward to welcoming them again next year."

Quotes from participants:

Rick Blakeway, Birmingham: "It was an excellent tournament, superbly organised. I would definitely come again."

Ian Coventry, 49, Cheshire: "A welcome antidote to the post-Christmas lethargy."

Anonymous: "Fantastic venue which is really accessible for all and an excellent tournament."

Victoria Kingham, Hastings: "This was a very exciting tournament, and it was lovely to see outsiders taking an interest in the game."

Penny Downer, Isle of Wight: It was great to meet up with old friends throughout the country. My opponents were charming!"

Amy Byrne, Edinburgh "It was a very enjoyable and well organised tournament."

James Burley
8th January 2025

New Year's Honours List

Happy New Year ABSP members! The start of a new year means it's time for Wayne Kelly to reveal the updated titles and awards after 2024.

Firstly, many thanks to the Stewart Houten and Rachel Bingham for their parts in the maintenance of the database over the last year. This year we may very well a new ratings system and database but in the meanwhile here is how 2024 panned out regarding titles and awards.

Titles

There are no new titles to give out this year, unfortunately, so let's look ahead to this time next year.

Potential Experts for 2025:

• 4 years
  • Colin Northmore (4 170+ ratings)
• 3 years
  • Chris Cummins (3 170+ ratings)
  • Jack Moran (3 170+ ratings)
  • Brian Po (3 170+ ratings)
  • Wale Ilori (3 at 175 average)
• 2 years
  • John Ashmore (2 170+ ratings)
  • Stewart Houten (2 170+ ratings)
  • Chris Vicary (2 170+ ratings)
  • Ryan Wee (2 170+ ratings)
• 1 year
  • Toke Aka
  • Sam Crispin (1st 170+ rating)
  • Joel Davey (1st 170+ rating)
  • Becky Dyer (1st 170+ rating)
  • Lee Jones (1st 170+ rating)
  • Olaiya Kabir
  • Jeremy Khoo
  • Ross Mackenzie
  • Ebi Sosseh
  • James Squires

Potential GMs for 2025:

• 1 year
  • Marlon Prudencio
  • Tony Sim
  • (Also Ryan Wee recorded a 180+ rating)

There are some with potential to get back on the ladder but with a rating higher than their previous best so they have been excluded. Let me know if you think there is anything amiss.

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Highest Rated Player

The Highest Rated Player Award is given to the highest rated ABSP Member on January 1st of each year, provided that they have played at least 30 games in the previous year.

The winner is Brett Smitheram (199)

In Brett's first fully active year for a while, he managed 4 190+ ratings in the 4 tournaments he played with his best rating at Belfast in January.

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Most Improved Player

The Most Improved Player award is given to the ABSP member (as at 31st Dec) who has a full rating at the start of the calendar year, plays at least 30 games throughout that year and improves their rating the most. The player's rating at the end of the year must be higher than any previous end-of-year full rating.

The winner for 2024 with an improvement of 27 from 69 to 96 is Lisa Atkins. Lisa played 90 games in the year and was second in last year's list with a rise of 18. This makes a 45 point leap over two years!

Four other players met the criteria and improved by at least 10:

• +21 (172) Samuel Crispin
• +20 (137) Peter Hill
• +16 (114) Jake Haidar
• +10 (79) Mary-Ann Bennett

Also Ronan Dance increased by +18 to 137 but had not played 30 games before the start of the year.

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Some other stats:

• Most games played and most prolific Expert – Craig Solomons (519)
• Most prolific GM – Phil Robertshaw (189)

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Unweighted ratings for those with a rating over 150 plus details of highest games scores for 2024 can be found on the ABSP database. Well done to all winners - and those that missed out - keep trying!

Wayne Kelly

Early 2025 tournaments

Looking forward to 2025

Tournaments this Autumn

Early tournaments in 2024

New Year's Honours List

Early Autumn tournaments coming up

Tobias Outi wins the 2023 British Matchplay Scrabble Championship