Paul Allan wins the 2023 UK National Scrabble Championship

Paul Allan, 2023 UK National Champion, sporting his snazzy Scrabble shirt

Paul Allan posted a 17-4, +1825 record to secure the tournament victory and be crowned UK National Scrabble Champion for the third time.

Paul was Gibsonized with two rounds to go, finishing with a two game lead over Phil Robertshaw (15-6, +1419) with three players ending with 14 wins to win the remaining place prizes, with Ryan Wee (14-7, +1038) taking third, Harshan Lamabadusuriya (14-7, +849) in fourth and Lukeman Owolabi (14-7, +409) in fifth.

The tournament was tight going into the final day's 8 games, with over a third of the field of 44 players within 3 games of the tournament lead. However, by the lunch break half way through the day's play, the field had started to thin out, with the final prize winners occupying 5 of the top 6 places. Paul's win over Harshan in round 19 put him in an unassailable position.

Joshua Moisey, winner of the Plate at the 2023 NSC

Meanwhile, in the Plate division, Joshua Moisey (16-5, +2272) was Gibsonized with one round to go due to holding a 1 game lead with a spread of more than 1000 at the time over Ruth MacInerney, who finished in second place with a 16-5, +1402 record. Nicky Huitson (15-6, +1155) won the third place prize.

While Ruth started the final day with a one game lead over Joshua and Samuel Crispin, Joshua and Ruth were neck and neck throughout the final day, but Joshua's 89-point win in the penultimate round sealed the victory and Nicky overtook Samuel in the final round.

Joshua had a remarkable tournament, averaging 484 points per game, posting 4 of the highest 5 scores through the 21 games in the division, including a score of 740 in the first round of the final day to surpass his previous division-leading best score of 609 from the day before. Joshua's 10,154 total points scored was the most of anybody at the tournament, including Paul Allan!

Final standings: Championship division | Plate division