| About |
| News |
| Player Profiles |
| Associations |
| Committee |
| Dictionary |
| Tournaments |
| Rules |
| Ratings |
| Youth |
| Home |
Member Biographies
In December 2003, the government of Nigeria cited him for exemplary leadership of sporting federations; and the Kenya Amateur Scrabble Association presented him a leadership award the following year.
He has been instrumental in setting up an e-mail group for the Nigerian Scrabble players and also the NSF website www.nigerianscrabble.com.
Through Chief Tokes initiatives, computerised tournament pairings, adjudication and national ratings were introduced. Over the past years, he has enabled Nigerian delegations to compete in all major world and African championships.
Elie Dangoor, from London, England is a real estate director. He plays backgammon, chess and bridge, but concentrates on Scrabble as he finds it the most enjoyable. He has played in Thailand, India, Germany and Ireland as well as all over the UK, and has won several tournaments including the prestigious Easter Matchplay and the recent London League Tournament.
As well as being on the ABSP Committee, he has recently taken over as Chairman of WESPA and has been busy encouraging national associations to join, and also undertaking a review of all the committees.
His aim is to have all WSC nations as members, so that they can have a say in the future development of English Language Scrabble all over the world, as well as vote in the Biennial General Meeting to be held at this year's WSC.
Jojo Delia, age 55, married 3 children, Conservation Architect. Played Scrabble since 1996 and Malta WSC representative 2005,2007. Past President and Treasurer of the Malta Scrabble Club 2000-2007. WESPA committee member since 2005.
Seeking to establish Malta on the International Scrabble scene despite small population of 400k.
Andrew Fisher,
a chartered accountant and auditor by profession, has been actively
involved with club and tournament Scrabble for over two decades. He is an experienced
international and has competed in all World Scrabble Championships to date except for 1993,
his best placing to date being fifth (in both 1999 and 2001). Originally hailing from the UK,
he has competed for Australia since 2002.
Andrew acts as honorary treasurer for a number of non-profit bodies other than WESPA,
including ASPA Vic (the Victorian state Scrabble association); in the past he has also
served as UK ratings officer and ABSP auditor, and has organised a number of tournaments
including instigating the Australian Masters and State Challenge. His WESPA duties include
financial control and accounting, and liaison with other foreign-language international federations.
Cheah Siu Hean, 45, works for Apex Healthcare, a Malaysian drug manufacturer and distributor. Since the age of 10 he has owned at least 2 dozen Scrabble sets. He first encountered the then-word list at his university Scrabble club, which was headed at the time by Peter Gilliver and then by Harvey Freeman.
He is concurrently president of the Singapore Scrabble Association and secretary of WESPA. He won Singapore's national championship in 2007, and the Australian championship in 2002 and 2004, Penang Open in 2002, and represented Singapore the 2001, 2005 and 2007 WorldScrabble Championships. Although he cannot claim any credit for this, he regards the most positive development in Singapore Scrabble during his tenure to have been the dramatic fall in the average age of the top-ranked players.
Sam Kantimathi, an aerospace engineering executive, is doubtless best known in the Scrabble world for his SamTimer, the game's highly successful digital clock as well as other products for word games. He's competed in many high-level tournaments in the US, the Philippines ($10,000 first prize) and Thailand (twice runner-up), taking first place in competitions in seven countries.
Sam has been the contest director for chess and Scrabble tourneys and match director at the sixth African championships in Dar es Salaam. He's a member of a number of professional societies.
Sam will be representing the US in the World Scrabble Championships this year, as he has in the past.
Karen Richards, retired Management trainer, is a member of Australia s Rating Advisory Committee, and spent four years as National Rules Coordinator. Over the past ten years, she has played 3000+ tournament games, including in Britain , Malaysia , New Zealand , Singapore and Thailand . She has utilized her managerial and training experience to help others optimise the use of their talents, specifically by establishing two schools, where students learn at their own pace. Many of the students she worked with suffer Asperges (high-functioning autism) or similar conditions. Currently, she runs Scrabble coaching clinics for young people world-wide, plus the annual World Youth Scrabble Championship. Her best Scrabble moment may have been winning the little old lady award at Kings Cup 2006 (actually, there were two awards best senior, and best female).
Michael Tang, a media executive since 1992, has been actively involved in organising Scrabble tournaments in Singapore and Malaysia. He organised the one and only Channel NewsAsia World Scrabble Masters in 1999 which was won by Naweeen Fernando with a prize money of US$25,000. He has also been organising the annual Causeway Scrabble Challenge since 2002 and will be hosting the WSC 2009 and WYSC 2009 in Johor Bahru. He is a regular Scrabble player in International tournaments and has competed in 1999 and 2001 WSC.