Nigeria Scrabble players will take a center stage from today at the Scrabble event of 13th All Africa Games currently holding in Ghana. Ably led by the national coach, Anthony Ikolo, eight top Scrabble players have been announced to fly the nation's flag at the games. The Scrabble event will be showcased as a demonstration sport at the games and will begin from March 15 -17 2023, at the Alisa Hotel in Accra.
The Pan African Scrabble Association (PANASA) recently announced that a total of 13 countries will be participating, and also that the Scrabble event at the Games in Ghana will be streamed live on its official Twitch channel for viewers globally. Interested viewers can connect to the PANASA official Twitch channel by clicking here to follow the games live. The Scrabble event at the games are in two languages; English and French.
In the English language Scrabble event, Nigeria will be joined by the host nation Ghana, as well as Liberia, Kenya, Uganda, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, South Africa and Zambia while the French language Scrabble competition will feature Benin Republic, Gabon, Togo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF) recently selected a team of eight (8) players to carry the nations flag after an intense three-week camping at Ibadan, Nigeria. The team along with NSF officials including NSF president, Toke Aka and the federation's secretary Ejiro Thukson, are currently in Ghana and are in high spirits to defend the nation's rating as the best Scrabble playing nation in Africa.
Doko Oluwatimilehin, a 500-level Pharmacy student at the University of Lagos has emerged winner of the second edition of the West African Scrabble Championship, (WASC) which took place in Lagos on Saturday the 25th of November 2023.
Doko, who missed the African Scrabble Championship in Lusaka, Zambia and the World Scrabble Championship held in Las Vegas, Nevada USA in July 2023, won nineteen and lost nine rounds of games with a cumulative spread of +1163 points to edge out Tega Okiemute (3rd) and former African champion Moses Peter, who finished second.
The 2nd WASC title holder had an impressive run throughout the three-day Championship. He ended day one at the top of the ladder with 9 wins. At the end of day two, Oluwatimilehin Doko (15 points, +774) and George Ezinore secured 15 wins each but Ezinore finished the day ahead on spread (+1243)
At the start of the final day of the championship, Doko defeated his school mate and current African Scrabble Champion Enoch Nwali 495-293 in game 23 on table 2. He then had to contend with the second runner-up, Tega Okiemute three times in the final KOH rounds; 26, 27 and 28 to claim the WASC title and the two thousand dollar cash prize.
Moses Peter finished in second place after beating George Ezinore 507-418 to amass 18 points with Tega Okiemute (18 points, +1165) but Moses Peter went home with the one thousand dollar first runner-up cash prize because of his higher cumulative (+1351) spread.
Team Nigeria, at the end of the championship asserted its dominance as the powerhouse of Scrabble game in Africa as its players occupied the first to the ninth positions.The players include Okiemute Tega, Karo Eta, Nwali Enoch, Ezinore George, Odoh Anthony, Etim Nsikak and Victor Godwin.The Gambia's Richard Sock finished in the tenth position to receive the hundred dollar cash prize earmarked for the top ten. Charles Tachie-Menson was the best Ghanaian at number 12 at the end of the competition.
Nigeria emerged winner of the team event claiming one thousand five hundred dollar cash prize while Gambia finished ahead of Ghana to claim the one thousand dollar team prize for the first runner-up. Team Ghana took home five hundred dollars for the third best team.
Elated by his feat, Doko admitted that his victory was not a stroll in the pack, saying that it has been a herculean task t combining studies and sports.
"It is very thrilling to win this tournament. I feel elated really, it is a dream come true. I just want to keep improving my game."
The President of Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF), Toke Aka attributed the emergence of young players like African Scrabble Champion; Enoch Nwali and Doko Oluwatimilehin to the youth Scrabble games organised by the NSF to develop budding talents. "Then they used to have a scrabble game where secondary schools meet and winners emerge. Nwali Enoch and Doko Oluwatimilehin are a product of that tournament".
"They went through all of that, that was like 10 years ago when they started, today they are winning, it is not because they started today. They started a long time ago and we are beginning to see the result of what they started a long year ago,” he said.
The Sports Minister, Senator John Enoh represented by the ministry’s Lagos state Liaison Officer, Ikhana Mbora appreciated the effort of the Nigeria Scrabble Federation, NSF for hosting the West African Championship. “We are impressed with the Nigeria Scrabble Federation, NSF. I am not surprised by what we are seeing. I want to thank you all for coming,” he said.
The next edition of the championship is expected to be hosted by Gambia, in 2024.
Nigeria yet again proved to be the dominant force in African Scrabble by retaining the Africa Scrabble Championship title at the 13th ASC held in Kenya from November 28 to December 2, 2018. The National Scrabble team took the top three positions at the 4 day event won by current National Champion (2018) Moses Peter who had 26 points and a spread of +2051. Former African champion Jighere Wellington was first runner-up with 22 points (+2083) while Eta Karo came third with 21 points (+88). Four other Nigerians were also placed in the top ten (10) positions at the end of the 32-round tournment ensuring that Nigeria also successfully retained the Best Team title won in Ghana in 2016.
The new champion Moses Peter (who was also team captain of the squad) displayed the strong form that won him the National Scrabble Championship title earlier this year (July 2018) and runner-up at the WESPAC Championship last year (November 2017) from the start of the tournament. He won his first 5 games and was consistently among the top 5 on the standings to the very end, a feat that ensured he had effectively won the title by round 30 with 2 games to spare.
Other members of the team performed brilliantly, with members of the team in the 5th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 15th, 25th, 26th and 38th positions ensuring that 7 Nigerian were in the top 10 prize table. Sixty-two players from seven African countries attended the tournament. The countries are Nigeria, hosts Kenya, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Tanzania and Zambia. At the end of the event, team Nigeria topped the team performance charts with a mean spread of +1722, an average rank of 3.8 and a win rate of 63.73% playing against players from other countries. Kenya took the team runner-up position with a average spread of -626.2, an average rank of 10.0 and 46.98% performance against others.
Scrabble Kenya and the Pan African Scrabble Association (PANASA) invites all member federations to the 13th (thirteenth) edition of the Africa Scrabble Championship holding in Kenya.
The event is based on country representation.
The event will be held from the 28th November to 2nd December 2018 in Kirinyaga County. Kirinyaga County is a county in the former Central Province of Kenya. Its capital is Kutus and its largest town is Wanguru. In 2009, the county had a population of 528,054 and an area of 1,205.4 km². It is a one to two hours journey from Nairobi.
Each country will field the qualified fifteen players following the country-specific selection process (an additional 5 wildcards can be fielded in consultation with the PANASA secretariat).
The registration fee is $250 per player with country registration at $100 per federation. A total of 32 games will be played over 4 days with awards for the top 10 and country trophies.
To this end, the Nigeria Scrabble Federation has written to the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports Development for sponsorship.
Team Nigeria will depart for Kenya on Monday 26th November to defend her title won in 2016 (Ghana) by Saidu Ayorinde.
Location: Kesdem Hotel, Tema, Ghana, West of Africa. Date: 18th of December 2016. Event: 12th Africa Scrabble Championship.
It was the last day of the thirty-two round 4 day tournament and the new king of Scrabble in Africa was about to be crowned. Nigeria had taken a formidable team of 21 players to the tourney including 4 previous winners of the tourney viz Ikekeregor Dennis (2004,2006), Jighere Wellington (2008,2010), Rex Ogbakpa (2012) and the defending champion Nsikan Etim (2014). Team Nigeria's performance was looking good going into the last rounds with at least eight out of the top ten places occupied by Nigerians with two Kenyans (Njoroge Stanley and Nderitu Gitonga) giving Team Nigeria a run for her money.
ASC 2016 Trophies5th seed Ayorinde Saidu had displayed his intention of being a serious contender for the African title by establishing a foothold among the top 5 midway into the tourney. By round 20 he had usurped compatriot Oshevire Avwenagha from the top spot. From that round onwards he parried all attempts to displace him from the summit, the strongest and most consistent threat coming from 6th seed Nderitu Gitonga. Gitonga eventually caught up on points with Saidu after winning round 29. They had equal wins (20 wins each), Saidu however had superior cummulative margin and they they were to face each other again in round 30. It was evident that whoever won the next round will have the edge going into the final two. Round 30 proved to be dramatic! Leading Saidu 380 - 317 with no tiles left in the bag, Nderitu chose to play GUTCHES* an unacceptable word which was challenged off instead of blocking the only spot where Saidu could play a bingo (i.e use all his 7 tiles). That was all Saidu needed to play RAILERS a bingo and win 423 - 380 to regain the 1 point lead. You can play back that game. After dispatching former Africa Champion Rex Ogbakpa 575 - 479 in the penultimate round (round 31), Saidu had established an unassailable lead of 2 points (23 wins, 9 losses) over the nearest competitor becoming the 12th African Scrabble Champion and the 11th Nigerian to win the title.
Nigeria's Eta Karo (10) beat 4th seed Ogbakpa Rex in the last round to finish as the first runner-up (2nd) while 13th seed Umebiye Cyril dispatched Nderitu Gitonga 489 - 393 to finish in 3rd place. Nigeria was also adjudged the best team with a mean post-tourney rank of 17.7 followed by Kenya and Ghana in that order.
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Round 32 Board 2 Karo, Eta (NGA) vs. Ogbakpa, Rex (NGA)
KOH Round 31 Board 1 Saidu, Ayorinde (NGA) vs Ogbakpa, Rex (NGA)
KOH Round 30 Board 1 Saidu, Ayorinde (NGA) vs Nderitu, Gitonga (KEN)
KOH Round 29 Board 1 Nderitu, Gitonga (KEN) vs. Saidu, Ayorinde (NGA)
KOH Round 28 Board 1 Saidu, Ayorinde (NGA) vs. Ogbakpa, Rex (NGA)
KOH Round 27 Board 1 Nderitu, Gitonga (KEN) vs. Saidu, Ayorinde (NGA)
Round 26 Board 1 Saidu, Ayorinde (NGA) vs. Etim, Nsikak (NGA)
Round 24 Board 1 Mutahi, Martins (KEN) vs. Saidu, Ayorinde (NGA)
Round 23 Board 1 Ogbakpa, Rex (NGA) vs. Saidu, Ayorinde (NGA)
Round 22 Board 1 Saidu, Ayorinde (NGA) vs. Oyende, Allan (KEN)
Round 21 Board 1 Saidu, Ayorinde (NGA) vs. Jighere, Wellington (NGA)
Round 20 Board 1 Jighere, Wellington (NGA) vs. Avwenagha, Oshevire (NGA)
Round 19 Board 1 Saidu, Ayorinde (NGA) vs. Omosefe, Prince (NGA)
Round 18 Board 1 Saidu, Ayorinde (NGA) vs. Nderitu, Gitonga (KEN)
Round 17 Board 1 Avwenagha, Oshevire (NGA) vs. Saidu, Ayorinde (NGA)
Round 16 Board 1 Edwin-Mugisha, Phillip (UGA) vs. Avwenagha, Oshevire (NGA)
Round 15 Board 1 Avwenagha, Oshevire (NGA) vs. Idahosa Bright (NGR)
Round 6 Board 1 Avwenagha, Oshevire (NGA) vs. Etim, Nsikak (NGA)
Round 10 Board 1 Avwenagha, Oshevire (NGA) vs. Nwangi Willy (KEN)
Round 9 Board 1 Avwenagha, Oshevire (NGA) vs. Tachie-Menson, Charles (GHA)
Round 7 Board 1 Avwenagha, Oshevire (NGA) vs. Tachie-Menson, Charles (GHA)
Nigeria dominated Africa Scrabble with yet another superlative performance at the 11th edition of the Africa Scrabble Championship (ASC) held in Cape Town, South Africa from the 25th - 28th of October 2014. Mr Nsikak Etim of Nigeria became the eleventh (11th) Africa Scrabble champion and the eighth (8th) Nigerian player to win the prize award of USD 5000 (five thousand dollars). After thirty-two (32) rounds of Scrabble spanning three days in a field of 62 (sixty-two) players, he won 22 games with a cumulative spread of +1725 to beat compatriot Olatunde Oduwole (21 points +1436) to the second (2nd) position. Prince Omosefe with 21 points and a spread of +1077 placed third (3rd) to complete Nigeria's sweep of the top prizes at the ASC 2014. Mr Etim's performance takes Nigeria's ASC title haul to 10 (ten) out of eleven editions of the championship since it's inception in 1994 in Kenya.
Nigeria took the top nine position with Messrs Dennis Ikekeregor, Ayorinde Saidu, Karo Eta, Moses Peter, Kabir Olaiya and Owolabi Lukeman in that order placing fourth to ninth. This feat which earned Nigeria the overall best team award. Mr Dokun Esan carted home the highest win award of USD 100 for his 650-291 win against Dennis Ikekeregor. Former African champion (2002) and the only non-Nigeria to ever hold the title, South Africa's Hovelmeier Trevor took the 10th (tenth) position to complete the top ten best Africa Scrabble players at the end of the tournament. The next edition of the event will be held in 2016 in Gambia.
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