All-Ireland Scrabble Championship – Waterford, Sept 2023

The All-Ireland Championship / Waterford Scrabble Tournament took place on 16th & 17th September 2023 in the The Woodlands Hotel.

We had 14 games, with 34 players battling it out for the prizes. There were two completely new players who’d never played in a tournament before, including our youngest player ever, aged 12 (what a baptism of fire!) and a number of quite new players who have only played in a handful of tournaments. Brilliant to see new players coming in and then returning – we obviously didn’t scare them away, which is always good!

Annual General Meeting

We held the AGM during the tea-break on Saturday – a short AGM, as always. You can download the minutes here, and any members who would like a copy of the financial report please email treasurer@irishscrabble.org to request same.

Winners

The newly crowned 2023 All Ireland Scrabble champion is Feargal Weatherhead, who remained unbeaten. Feargal finished up on 14 wins and a huge spread of 2,336. In second place was Kay McColgan, with 11 wins and a spread of 805, and in third place was Liam Donnelly with 10 wins and a spread of 791.

The B ratings prize went to Brian Dillon, who finished on 9 wins and a spread of 144, and the C ratings prize went to Oisin Dilger (in his first ever tournament!) who finished on 8 wins and a spread of 627.

The high word score went to Bríd Ní Bhriain who scored 131 for UNSEATED, and the David and Goliath prize went to Tom Drohan who won his game against Theresa Scallan.

You can view all the stats from the weekend, and see photos below courtesy of Ger Hore Photography, much appreciated as always, as well as a selection taken by Feargal and TD Kate.