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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