THE MONTH IN THE WORLD OF SCRABBLE: DECEMBER
The last month of 2015 certainly could not be described as quiet in competitive Scrabble.
Before we take a look at it though, in an addendum to November, The Princess Cup took place in Thailand with Nigel Richards leading after the main games; in the final, however, he ended up as runner-up to Panupol who took it out with a two game aggregate score of 938.
Tony Leah took out the Oshawa tournament in Ontario, Canada at the end of November.
In December, Nigeria continued to celebrate Wellington Jighere's victory in WESPAC with a tournament on the 13th: to jointly cover his win and the overall performance of Team Nigeria. After 16 games, Adigun Olatunde had won 14 and took out the victory. Wellington came 18th.
It is also interesting to note that the very end of 2015 (from Christmas to New Year) saw a very crowded calendar of tournaments around the globe as many countries tried to finish the Scrabble year with a bang.
In Pakistan, Moiz Baig won the Danpak's 5th Rating tournament from the 26th - 27th December, winning 15 of his games with a margin on 2628.
The Philippines ran the Word Bangers Tournament in Quezon City, with the number 2 seed, Leonora Labog being victorious.
The top three ranked players in Australia played the 10 game tournament in Melbourne (the Decathon) and finished 1, 2 and 3 at the end.
Singapore's 1st Zanjero Cup was taken out by Andy Kurnia in A and Leon Han in B.
Nigeria saw the year out with an intense contest of 45 games in two days with Olatunde Oduwole taking out this endurance test of Scrabble.
The UK saw the Ilford Tournament on the 27th, with the number one seed, David Webb, take out the title.
Although December seemed quite crowded, it has nothing on January 2016. The first month of a new Scrabble year sees WESPA rated tournaments in Australia, the UK, India, USA, and debut tournament for South Africa.
What a month ahead - see you next month for the January report.