Latest news with #HowardWarner
The Spinoff
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
Watch live: the 2025 NZ Scrabble Nationals
The biggest event on the New Zealand Scrabble calendar brings players of all ages and experience levels together over three days this King's Birthday weekend. Day one – Saturday (stream starts 9am) Click here for live results and standings. What's all this then? Nationals is the biggest tournament on the New Zealand Scrabble calendar – this year 69 players are competing over 24 rounds across three days. This is the 45th edition of the tournament, and the first one that's being live streamed. Unlike previous live streamed tournaments (the Trans-Tasmans and the Masters) Nationals is open to all, with players split into six grades based on their ratings, so for the first time we'll get to see a range of skill levels on the stream. What's the format? This year's tournament is double round-robin (22 games, everyone plays everyone else in their grade twice) followed by two rounds of 'king of the hill' (first plays second, third plays fourth etc). This should make for some mouthwatering match-ups come Monday. Who are the players to watch? It's shaping up to be very competitive at the top of the pyramid this year, with 2024 Nationals champion Howard Warner looking to defend his crown, 2025 Masters champion Dylan Early out to dethrone him. Their game at the Masters earlier this year was a classic for the ages: But it's certainly not a two-horse race – top five rated players Chris Tallman, Blue Thorogood and Australia-based Joanne Craig are bound to be be in the mix, with plenty of other dark horses lurking. And the focus won't just be on the A Grade, either! This weekend will showcase match-ups from all grades, offering a chance to see plenty of Scrabblers who've never played in front of an online audience before, from Scrabble documentarian Alexander Gandar (B Grade) to the tournament's youngest player Maheu Papau T-Pole (12, F Grade). Even I (E Grade) might get a game on stream. Who's commentating? Good commentary plays a huge part in making Scrabble so much fun to watch, and we will be in the safe hands of some of the best in the game all weekend, including world champion New Zealander Alistair Richards, Canadian Scrabble rock star Josh Sokol and more. What dictionary are they using? NZ Scrabble adopted the CSW24 lexicon at the start of the year, bringing us in line with most of the rest of the world. The update means a handful of potentially offensive slur words are no longer valid and introduces modern lingo like ADORBS, CHONKY, and WOKERY. (See the full list of new additions here.) How do I play? There are Scrabble clubs scattered around New Zealand, and they welcome new players of all ages, abilities and competitiveness levels. There's also a weekly on Tuesday nights where you can test yourself against other keen Scrabblers around the country.
RNZ News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Hamilton hosts 45th National Scrabble Champs this weekend
The 45th National Scrabble Championship is being held in Hamilton this weekend. Photo: 123RF Hamiltonians are preparing for the 45th National Scrabble Championship hosted in the city this weekend. Top players from across New Zealand and Australia are flying in to battle it out, tile by tile. Reigning champion Howard Warner has 12 national titles already under his belt. He said he started playing board games and doing puzzles as a child. "Naturally I would gravitate towards the king of all word games when I was a bit older." He said he was pretty relaxed about this weekend's competition. "I've been doing it a long time now and I'd like to get the first game under my belt and at that point then that settles the nerves, butterflies in the stomach and then I'm fine." Warner thought about 100 players would be competing this weekend although said it could be a struggle against other 'brain sports' such as chess and bridge. Anyone who wants to follow the national champs can do so via a livestream on YouTube. A good scrabble player does not just need to be a good speller, he said. "To be honest you have to have a very good mathematical mind, believe it or not, there are a lot of things like probability theory come into it." But Warner described himself as useless at maths "except in the context of scrabble". Strategy was also important which involved knowing where to play which tiles and what to keep on your rack, as well as always looking ahead rather than just focusing on your next turn, he said. At this level players did not just learn words or their meanings, he said. "We learn huge numbers of anagrams, so a combination of seven or eight random letters and what they make, so that when we're playing a game the words can just leap into our minds straight away and we don't have to spend a lot of time thinking about it." High level scrabble players also need to be competitive and have a "killer instinct", he said. "Also what I can hang-in-ability where even if you're losing you just hang in and hang in and hang in, hoping that by the end you can turn the game just so that you can just end one point ahead of your opponent." Warner said the highest scoring word he had ever played was fiberize which got him 252 points. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Scoop
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Scoop
Watch New Zealand's 2025 Scrabble Championship Live
Press Release – New Zealand Association of Scrabble Players WHAT: 45th New Zealand Scrabble Championship WHERE: St Paul's Collegiate School, 77 Hukanui Road, Hamilton WHEN: All day Sat 31 May, Sun 1 June and Mon 2 June 2025 Seventy avid Scrabble players will be descending on Hamilton this coming King's Birthday weekend to decide who will be New Zealand's 45th Scrabble Champion. The premier event on NZ's Scrabble calendar is being livestreamed for the first time with expert international commentators. With the growing global interest in Scrabble, organisers are expecting over 10,000 views by the end of the long weekend. To tune in to the livestream go to The current national champion is Howard Warner of Wellington who has won the title a staggering 13 times. Howard is currently ranked #1 in the national standings. Trying to wrest the title from him are several New Zealand Scrabble Grand Masters and world ranked players including: Dylan Early (Wellington): Dylan won the 2025 NZ Masters Championship and is ranked #6 Chris Tallman (Mt Albert): Chris is currently ranked #2 in New Zealand Joanne Craig: A New Zealander resident in Sydney, Joanne is currently ranked #1 in New South Wales and #4 in NZ. Joanne has won the NZ Championship three times. Andrew Bradley (Mt Albert): Andrew won the 2023 NZ Masters and is ranked #9 Lewis Hawkins (Christchurch): At 21 Lewis is one of the youngest players in the Nationals. He came third in the 2025 Masters and is currently ranked 11th overall. Scrabble is a very popular game in New Zealand, and competition at all levels in the national championship is fierce but also lots of fun. Participants this year are from every part of New Zealand and are of all ages and occupations. The youngest participant is 12-year-old Maheu T-Pole from the Mt Albert Scrabble Club, and there are several competitors 80+ years old.
Scoop
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Scoop
Watch New Zealand's 2025 Scrabble Championship Live
WHAT: 45th New Zealand Scrabble Championship WHERE: St Paul's Collegiate School, 77 Hukanui Road, Hamilton WHEN: All day Sat 31 May, Sun 1 June and Mon 2 June 2025 Seventy avid Scrabble players will be descending on Hamilton this coming King's Birthday weekend to decide who will be New Zealand's 45th Scrabble Champion. The premier event on NZ's Scrabble calendar is being livestreamed for the first time with expert international commentators. With the growing global interest in Scrabble, organisers are expecting over 10,000 views by the end of the long weekend. To tune in to the livestream go to The current national champion is Howard Warner of Wellington who has won the title a staggering 13 times. Howard is currently ranked #1 in the national standings. Trying to wrest the title from him are several New Zealand Scrabble Grand Masters and world ranked players including: Dylan Early (Wellington): Dylan won the 2025 NZ Masters Championship and is ranked #6 Chris Tallman (Mt Albert): Chris is currently ranked #2 in New Zealand Joanne Craig: A New Zealander resident in Sydney, Joanne is currently ranked #1 in New South Wales and #4 in NZ. Joanne has won the NZ Championship three times. Andrew Bradley (Mt Albert): Andrew won the 2023 NZ Masters and is ranked #9 Lewis Hawkins (Christchurch): At 21 Lewis is one of the youngest players in the Nationals. He came third in the 2025 Masters and is currently ranked 11th overall. Scrabble is a very popular game in New Zealand, and competition at all levels in the national championship is fierce but also lots of fun. Participants this year are from every part of New Zealand and are of all ages and occupations. The youngest participant is 12-year-old Maheu T-Pole from the Mt Albert Scrabble Club, and there are several competitors 80+ years old.
