Founder of the Manx Scrabble Club, Gillian Street, has claimed victory in the fourth of five divisions at a recent Association of British Scrabble Players (ABSP) tournament.

The ‘Twixmas Scrabble Tournament’ in Daventry, Northampton, is one of the more popular competitions, with around 80 competitors participating in the two day competition.

Usually Scrabble tournaments have three divisions, however this year, there five. The first division being the highest rated players, Gillian was in the fourth.

Gilian said that she doesn’t aspire to be an ‘A’ grade (division one) player, as it means dedicating most of your time to Scrabble.

As it attracted a number of top-rated players, but Gillian, from Douglas, was able to win 13 of 15 games.

Scrabble, the board and tile game in which players compete in forming words with lettered tiles, was created in 1938,

Her last game was a fight to the finish with a two-point win. Tile-tracking, which counts the tiles that have been played to know what is on an opponent’s rack, allowed her to block her opponent’s chance of gaining a high score with the last “S”.

Gillian said: ‘I am really happy that I averaged over two bonuses (100 points) per game, it almost made the seven-hour crossing home on New Year’s Day on the Manxman worth it!’

Gillian competes in three competitions a year, but this is her first win. She was runner-up in an all-island championship last year.

Gillian said she was ‘inundated’ with expressions of interest from players in Daventry for another Manx tournament, following the success of the inaugural 2022 event at the Sefton.

‘Perhaps we can organise one in 2025, if we can encourage more players who live here to enter and/or volunteer to help,’ she added.

Only one other Manx resident, Kathryn Keeble, entered the 2022 competition in the island, who won the Best Novice award.

Manx Scrabble, which Gillian founded in 2017 when she moved to the island, meets at the Prospect Hotel, Prospect Hill, Douglas at 3.30pm on the first, third, and fifth Saturdays of each month.

Gillian said the club is continuing to grow.

All abilities are welcome, you can find out more information by emailing [email protected]

New players are provided with a list of ABSP allowable 2-letter words.