Delta State overtook Edo State at the summit of the medals table by claiming Gold medals in the Masters and Open categories of the Men's Team event and a Silver in the Women's Team event to bring their tally to 4 Gold, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze medals (a total of 7).
In contrast, Edo State who also has a total of 7 medals was only able to add a Bronze medal to their tally today in the Open category of the Men's Team event. Edo finished in 2nd place with 2 Gold, 4 Silver and 1 Bronze medals. Bayelsa who could not add any medal to their tally in the Team events finished in third place with 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medal. For the full medals table in Scrabble click here.
Here are the results and (final round scores) for medalists only. For round by round results and statistics click here.
| Rank | Player | Won-Lost | Spread | Last Game |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Player | Won-Lost | Spread | Last Game |
| 1 | Team Ogun | 9 - 1 | +1759 | a 101-100 WIN vs Team Edo |
| 2 | Team Delta | 7 - 3 | +1205 | a 242-100 WIN vs Team Fct |
| 3 | Team Oyo | 7 - 3 | +950 | a 394-100 WIN vs Team Rivers |
| Rank | Player | Won-Lost | Spread | Last Game |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Player | Won-Lost | Spread | Last Game |
| 1 | Team Delta | 8 - 2 | +674 | a 400-100 WIN vs Team Plateau |
| 2 | Team Plateau | 8 - 2 | +305 | a 100-400 LOSS vs Team Delta |
| 3 | Team Niger | 7 - 3 | +1161 | a 250-100 WIN vs Team Akwa-Ibom |
| Rank | Player | Won-Lost | Spread | Last Game |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Player | Won-Lost | Spread | Last Game |
| 1 | Team Kebbi | 9 - 1 | +1388 | a 249-100 WIN vs Team Fct |
| 2 | Team Lagos | 7 - 3 | +435 | a 172-100 WIN vs Team Akwa-Ibom |
| 3 | Team Rivers | 7 - 3 | +434 | a 101-100 WIN vs Team Plateau |
| Rank | Player | Won-Lost | Spread | Last Game |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Player | Won-Lost | Spread | Last Game |
| 1 | Team Delta | 8 - 2 | +1123 | a 309-100 WIN vs Team Edo |
| 2 | Team Lagos | 7 - 3 | +890 | a 247-100 WIN vs Team Bayelsa |
| 3 | Team Edo | 7 - 3 | +369 | a 100-309 LOSS vs Team Delta |
Click here for full results and statistics.
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Follow results and stats on tournaments section of our website
Delta state added another Gold medal yesterday in the Women's Doubles event at the ongoing 19th National Sports Festival. The duo of Tuoyo Mayuku and Seun Oshagbemi won Gold in the event with 8 points and a +457 spread. Edo state doubles team took the Silver medal with 7 points (+628) and Rivers got Bronze with 7 points and a spread of +316.
In the Open category, Edo State doubles team clinched the Gold medal with 7 wins and a +697 spread. Bayelsa got Silver (7 +422) while Abia Doubles team edged out Oyo State to claim the Bronze medal with 7 wins and a +129 spread.
In the Masters category, Niger state surprised all to clinch the Gold medal with 8 points and a +624 margin. Lagos State got her first medal in Scrabble when her doubles team clinched Silver ( 7 points, +124) while the Bronze medal went to Bayelsa (6 points, +296).
Edo state doubles team clinched another Gold in the Intermediate category beating Oyo and Plateau to the second (Silver medal) and third (Bronze medal) positions respectively. Edo team had a perfect score of 10 wins out of 10 and a spread of 1497. The Oyo state pair of Kazeem Raji and Qamar Adebowale defeated Ogun state in the final game to clinch the Silver with 7 points (+224) while Plateau team took the Bronze with 6 points and a spread of +336.
The Singles event of the 19th National Sports Festival was concluded on Wednesday 12th December. Fifteen games were played in each of the 4 categories (Masters, Open, Intermediate and Ladies/Women). Click here for full results and stats across the categories.
In the Women category, Tuoyo Mayuku, arguably Africa's strongest female Scrabble player was given a run for her money. The Delta state player was beaten thrice but survived to win the Gold medal with 12 points and +1027 spread. Edo's Sule Success won the Silver medal with 12 points and a spread of +720 while Zini Yeribo of Rivers state won the bronze with 11 points +670 spread.
The Masters category had current African and National champion Moses Peter of Akwa Ibom state and former World champion Wellington Jighere playing for Delta state participating. At the end of 15 rounds Moses Peter proved he is still the man to beat currently in Nigeria Scrabble circuit by clinching the Gold medal with 12 points and a spread of +845, edging out Olatunde Oduwole of Plateau state (10 points, + 753) and Jighere Wellington (10 points +746) to Silver and Bronze medal positions respectively.
In the Intermediate Men singles, Bayelsa state's Igali Precious proved superior. He won the Gold medal with 11 points and a + 597 spread while Olueh Godwin (Edo) clinched the Silver medal (11 points, +381) ahead of Raji Kazeem of Oyo state who took away the Bronze with 10 points and a spread of +654. The keenly contested Open category was won by Henry Nwosu of Kano state with 11 points and a spread of +392. Ituah Iyasele of Edo state clinched the Silver medal with 10 points and a +979 spread while Ejenavi Omovie of Delta state won Bronze with 10 points and a spread of +705.
The President, Nigeria Scrabble Federation Sulaiman Garba Gora has sent a congratulatory message to the members of the Nigerian team to the Alchemist Cup. See below for the full text of the letter circulated on Facebook..
On behalf of the Nigeria Scrabble Federation and the entire scrabble community I extend our congratulation to our players for making us proud. You performances were amazing and inspiring considering your tight schedule leading to the tournament.
After playing at the African Scrabble Championship where you came out victorious, you have to jet out in less than 24 hours for long flights that took you to Addis Ababa, Singapore and Penang, only to start the gruesome 45 games of the Alchemist Cup a day after your arrival with no time to rest.
There is no doubt jet lag and fatigue was to set in at a given time. Moses Peter has to be taken to hospital during the tournament.
With all above, you still fought gallantly by proving to the world why we are still the best in the world. For us, we are proud of you guys and heartily congratulate you and shall be looking to welcome you home to a hero reception you all deserve.
I want to sincerely thank everybody who supported me in making sure we never missed our international engagements at this difficult and trying time in sports administration. Thank you also for understanding and representing this country in the most austere conditions. You have proven that flying the flag of your country comes first above any other consideration.
Welcome home our heroes and pride
God bless you all
God bless our country
Sulaiman Garba Gora
President
Nigeria's five-man team to the maiden Alchemist Cup finished in 4th place as the tournament ended yesterday (9th December 2018) in Penang, Malaysia. Members of the team include the reigning African Champion, Moses Peter, Eta Karo, Olatunde Oduwole and Etim Nsikan who all competed in the 13th Africa Scrabble Championship (Kenya 2018). After the tournament, they immediately jetted out from Kenya to Malaysia to join the fifth member of the team Saidu Ayorinde.
The Alchemist Cup is an elite invitational Scrabble tournament. Ten teams of five players per team will play a schedule where each player plays the 45 players from teams other than their own. The event is organized by Mr Micheal Tang who also organises the Causeway Challenge. The maiden event had teams from the best Scrabble playing nations in the world (with WESPA rating as at 28 Oct) viz Nigeria (mean rating 2065, the highest), USA (2048), Australia (eventual champions- mean rating 2043), New Zealand (1971), Thailand (1962), Singapore (1896) and Malaysia (1886). They were joined by teams from Rest of the World (1960), East Africa (1785) and Rest of Asia (1785). A total of 45 games was played over 5 days from the 5th to 9th of December 2018.
The Nigerian team performed creditably considering the fact that the bulk of the team barely had time to rest after the ASC in Kenya. Results from the event website showed that our team never placed lower than the 5th position all through the 5-day event. Nigeria won 27 rounds and had 126.5 points with a spread of +4908 which placed her in the fourth position overall.
| Nigeria | ASAI | EKAR | MPET | NETI | OODU | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games = 126.5 | 22 | 27 | 29 | 23 | 25.5 | ||
| Spread +4908 | +855 | +1033 | +1518 | +1035 | +467 | ||
| Mean | 429 | 442 | 460 | 442 | 437 |
Team Performance Table (courtesy Alchemist Cup website )
Australia won 31 rounds (with 133 points and +2739 spread) to finish as champions, the USA was first runner-up with 31 rounds, 131 points and a spread of +5362 while the Rest of the World team came third with 30 round wins, 125 points and +2609 spread. East Africa finished in 10th place (11 rounds won, 78.5 points and a spread of -6386). The Champion team won USD 10000, second placed team USD 5000 while the third-placed team took home USD 3000.
Ganesh Asirvatham of Malaysia won the top Individual Prize (for those not in the top 3 teams) of USD 1000 with 31 wins and a spread of +2560. Nigel Richards (NZL) 31 +1499 and Thacha Koowirat (THA) 30 +1880 won USD 600 and USD 400 respectively as the 2nd and 3rd best performing players for those outside the top 3 teams.
The Scrabble event of the 19th National Sports Festival begins this morning Tuesday 11th December 2018 with the Men and Women's Singles games in the following category (Masters, Intermediate, Open and Ladies).
NSF Technical Director Faruq Baba-Inna reports that twenty-four states have entries in the male category and fourteen states in the female. One hundred and eighty-six male athletes and thirty-eight female athletes. The total number of athletes is two hundred and twenty-four. New entrants are Bauchi, Gombe and Kebbi States. Missing in action are Katsina, Ondo, Kogi and Kaduna states.
The program of events released by the NSF shows a total of 33 games will be played over five days to determine medalists in the various events. Find the events results and coverage on our tournaments section.
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.
