A way with words
The first time Dr. Harshan Lamabadusuriya competed at a Scrabble tournament was when he represented his alma mater Royal College at the All Island Inter-School Scrabble tournament. The thrill of meeting and competing against other youngsters from across the country was accompanied by the all too familiar “butterflies in the stomach feeling”.
Harshan vs Nigel Richards
Decades later, the metaphorical flutter in his gut follows the experienced wordsmith who emerged runner-up at the recently concluded World Scrabble Championship 2017 in the UK.
Dr. Lamabadusuriya followed in his parents’ footsteps in medicine specializing in pediatrics. Due to frequent moves as a child Harshan attended several school from Richmond College , S Thomas’ College and Royal College to Steyning Grammar School in Sussex, England. One aspect of his life however, remained constant- his love for reading. “I would regularly complete a book a day, ” he admits, his passion nurtured by the library at S Thomas’ College where the youngster would borrow books to read during the interval and sneaking a read during class times with the book safely peeking out from under his desk.
Despite his voracious appetite for books, he describes his younger self as a “problem child”, viewed so because of his mediocre performance in his studies in the lower grades. But a move to England during his A/L’s and a change in the education system allowed him to thrive, earning him a place at Cambridge and then Oxford University to study Medicine.
Before his move to the United Kingdom, Harshan spent his childhood playing scrabble at Royal College when scrabble prodigy Missaka Warusawitharana created the school scrabble club. His involvement with the club opened his eyes to the Sri Lanka Scrabble League and Inter-School Scrabble at the age of 14. Harshan’s interest was further fuelled by a “strong peer group of excellent young Sri Lankan players,” such as Missaka, Naween Fernando and Suresh Chinnaiya and before long he was hooked. Following his move to the UK, Harshan joined his local scrabble club , competing in national and international tournaments even after university as a medical student and junior doctor. His numerous achievements include winning the UK National Championship, British Elimination Scrabble Tournament, UK Masters, the British Matchplay Scrabble Championship and the UK’s highest rated player award. Taking a break of around five years, Harshan returned to the world of scrabble last August at the prompting of his wife, Dr. Michelle Goonasekera who he adds “is sorely responsible for my current Scrabble obsession.”
The game itself surpasses the deceptive simplicity of being a family-fun board game or a mental and linguistic exercise. Expert level players keep their minds sharp and practise with the help of computer programmes like Zyzzyva which teaches and tests one on words in anagram form. Harshan’s opponent in the final- the current champion Nigel Richards, however, uses a system based on a photographic memory to scan through an alphabetized list of all words 2-15 letters long. This system, Harshan tells us allowed Nigel to win the French Language World Scrabble Championship even though he could not speak a word of French. For Harshan, the best practice is analyzing one’s past games and playing against the best in the arena. In addition, the runner up to this year’s world championship also revises shorter words and practices against Quackle which is the strongest Scrabble computer program. Exercise and sleep are also at the top of his list of pre-game routines- “playing high level competitive Scrabble whilst sleep deprived is no fun.”
For enthusiasts such as Dr. Lamabadusuriya playing scrabble at a ‘professional’ level is a near impossibility, with travel costs exceeding the value of the prize money. For others like him, the game is a “passion, a frustration and a labour of love.” Learning the game is easy enough he says, while mastering it marks the challenge. Over his twenty year love affair with the game, however, the achievements and accolades are only a slice of the joy he gets from the game, next to the intellectual challenge and exercise. For Harshan “the people who play Scrabble at the top level are as interesting and entertaining as the game itself, and are a pleasure to meet and compete against,” he says.
His numerous achievements include winning the UK National Championship, British Elimination Scrabble Tournament, UK Masters, the British Matchplay Scrabble Championship and the UK’s highest rated player award.
Winning board against Nigel Richards (460-370)
The Semi Finalists: Left to right Austin Shin, David Eldar, Goutham Jayaraman, Harshan Lamabadusuriya.
The Quarter Finalists (from left: Elie Dangoor, Harshan Lamabadusuriya, Neil Scott, Nigel Richards, Mark Nyman, Goutham Jayaraman, Austin Shin and David Eldar.