The UK Scrabble scene continued its northern autumn tour with a weekend double-header in Cleveland. Andy Goodwin dominated Division A on both days, Richard Moody and Michael Thomas took Division B on Saturday and Sunday respectively, and veteran Syd Berger delivered a commanding clean sweep in Division C.
The UK Scrabble scene continued its northern autumn tour! Last weekend saw 42 players compete at a weekend double-header in Cleveland, coordinated and ably directed by well-travelled Scrabbler and tournament organiser Judith Moore.
On Saturday, Rose Northmore returned from her recent surgery in fine form, winning five of seven games to take 2nd place in Division B. Rose recorded a tournament rating of 146—her highest at any event this year—and gained two rating points while doing so. Welcome back, Rose!
However, Division B was taken by Richard Moody, who was able to win six of his seven games—including one by a 205-point margin—and record a 158 tournament rating, his highest since May 2018. Richard remarked that he was “pleasantly surprised at such a good result” which was “certainly his best for a long time”, lamenting only that he regretted not blocking LORDLIER after challenging off Rose Northmore’s DROLLIER*, in a closely-fought 35-point loss.
In Saturday’s Division A, the pre-tournament favourites were Expert Andy Goodwin and aspiring Expert Colin Northmore, who both entered the tournament with a 173 rating. It was Andy who triumphed, winning six of his seven games with a commanding +655 spread. However, Peter Thorpe’s performance was also exceptionally impressive: coming in seeded 7th of 8 in the Division, he beat Colin and handed Andy his only defeat of the day to come 2nd. The result represented a continuation of Peter’s fine run of form, after his recent Division B win at the BMSC.
However, the most dominant performance of the weekend was undoubtedly veteran Syd Berger. Sydney recorded a clean sweep in Division C, and the tournament’s highest spread—+820—winning three of his eight games by margins of over 150 points.
Fresh and fired up from his Division A win on Saturday, Andy Goodwin (Exp) went one better on Sunday, delivering seven wins from seven games, a 201 Tournament Rating, and the highest spread of the entire weekend—+859. A commanding performance ended on a resounding high with a 320-point victory over Raymond Tate, ending a streak that also featured win margins of 221 points and 184 points. Andy took home four rating points, and now sits at 176—his highest rating since 2018.
In Division B, Syd followed up on his clean sweep by coming second, with Michael Thomas winning the Division with six wins and a +343 spread.
Congratulations to all winners! Huge thanks are due to Judith for her work to organise the weekend, and to Wayne for directing the tournaments. We’ll be sharing tournament round-ups every weekend on the ‘ABSP Discussion’ Facebook group, and monthly in the newsletter from now on—please be sure to capture your best boards and trickiest positions for this column! If you’d like one of them shared in the newsletter, please send them over to abspcommunicationsoffice@gmail.com.
There are plenty of great events coming up across the UK in October, too, for those with their eyes on clean sweeps and 300-point wins: James Burley’s Manuden double-header on October 3rd and 4th; Cumbernauld on October 10th for the Scots; over into Wales for James’s Cardiff double-header on the 17th and 18th, and, finally, back up to Edinburgh on October 31st. We hope to see many of you there!
Keep Scrabbling,
Jack Moran
ABSP Communications Officer
25 September 2026