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Sri Lankan-born paediatrician wins Open UK Scrabble competition
View(s):Dr. Harshan Lamabadusuriya has won the Open UK Scrabble 2025 competition held from January 3-10, with a rating of 194, earning him widespread recognition in the Scrabble community for his strategic play and impressive vocabulary.
The biggest scrabble tournament in Europe, the Open UK Scrabble tournament saw stiff competition with over 100 players ranging in age from 11 to 90 vying for the honours. The Association of British Scrabble Players launched the competition in 2008, and it returned after a five-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Dr. Harshan Lamabadusuriya
A consultant paediatrician, Harshan’s passion for competitive Scrabble has gone hand in hand with his academic accomplishments.
Harshan grew up in Sri Lanka and attended Richmond College, Galle, S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, and Royal College (RC). The groundwork for his Scrabble career was laid by taking part in many local Scrabble competitions and winning multiple titles during his school years. Following his success in local competitions, Harshan went on to represent Sri Lanka internationally.
When he and his family took a sabbatical to the UK in 1996, he worked for two years as a locum consultant pediatrician at Worthing Hospital, marking a key turning point in his career. He kept up his love of Scrabble throughout this time, competing in tournaments and even winning the title of champion on British TV’s Channel 4′s wildly popular Countdown programme.
A high achiever, he received five A’s in his London A’Levels while attending the Steyning Grammar School in the United Kingdom. He started his medical studies at Cambridge University, and went on to Oxford University, where
he finished his clinical studies. He
currently works at Swindon Hospital.
His success in Scrabble grew along with his medical profession. Harshan represented the United Kingdom in international Scrabble competitions and became the National British Scrabble Champion in 2003. He kept breaking records and once held the record for the highest-scoring word in Scrabble, earning an amazing 329 points with the word “Kreuzers,” which refers to an old German coin. In 2017, he finished second in the World Scrabble Championship, marking the pinnacle of his competitive accomplishments.
Harshan is the son of Dr. Sanath P. Lamabadusuriya, Emeritus Professor of Paediatrics and former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo. Harshan is married to Michelle Gunasekera, a specialist in renal medicine at the John Radcliffe Infirmary and they have a son, Inesh, who is already showing great promise in Scrabble.
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