In what could be tagged a world Scrabble jamboree in faraway Malaysia, the world Scrabble community just concluded the longest number of games 45 in all in the richest Scrabble fiesta brazenly organised by one man and his family, Mr Michael Tang. Tagged Causeway Challenge, about 240 players from all over the world cutting across all plausible categories of Scrabble players participated in a weeklong Scrabble Festival the Youth, the Premier division, the Masters, the Intermediate and the Opens comprising the who is who in the global Scrabble community led by World undisputable numero uno Nigel Richards participated in the World Richest Scrabble end of year fiesta.
It is the best well organized Scrabble Tournament so far using all criteria as a yardstick of measurement in all departments of the game, Technical Directorship, Venues and hotel accommodation, feeding, Scrabble appurtenances, prize money which ran into thousands of Dollars and players demeanours name it, Causeway Challenge scored alphas all the way through. Even for observers from afar, streaming of live videos of the events was unmatched in the annals of Scrabble Organisations as candid realtime pictures were posted leading to on the spot analysis of events even as they unravelled.
With this background no doubt that the players played their hearts out as all games were contested fiercely and only the bold and the best emerged as the winners. In the elitist category, it was a roll call of World Best as former world Champions were adequately represented apart from the shouting absence of the two current World Champions British Brett Smitheran and Nigeria's Jighere Wellington who may have preferred to savour their present spotlights positions a bit more before their likely eventual dethronements in Kenya next year.
Team Nigeria was a cynosure of all eyes as the members demonstrated for the umpteenth time that Nigeria is the best Scrabble playing nation worldwide even as recently acclaimed in an empirically espoused research not too long ago. Apart from the Youth category where Nigeria did not feature, Nigeria swamped all other categories winning a whopping 70% of all the available prizes. From the Premier where Saidu Adebanjo the Coach of Ogun State Nigeria placed third to the Masters, Intermediate and Opens Team Nigeria performed a wonderful feat unprecedented in the annals of Scrabble aficionados convergences. The World-renowned best player of the game Nigel Richards maintained his number one position as he won the star prize of $10,000 against all resistance by Scrabble best from all over the globe.
In conclusion, I am using this opportunity to call on our leaders and sports administrators to hearken to the global call and give Scrabble the deserved recognition by funding this game that placed the nation indisputably on the global map as the best Scrabble playing nation. Scrabble has a lot of roles to play in amelioration of the downward trend of our educational sector, hence let it be included in the curriculum of our youths for the attendant gain of educational development.
Culled from Mr Kayode Fashola's (NSF Players Rep) report as posted on 6th December 2016 on Facebook
The 10th Causeway Scrabble Challenge is holding from 30th November till 4th December 2011 at Zon Regency Hotel, Johor Bahru, Malaysia. There are three Divisions, namely Premier, Masters and Open. 45 rounds of Scrabble will be played in each division and Nigeria will feature in the Premier Masters and Open division. The winner in the Premier division will take home the sum of $10,000. Representing Nigeria in the Premier division are:
Nigeria's representative in the Masters Division are:
In the Open division, Nigeria is represented by Moses Owugah.
Update: Pakorn Nemitrmansuk is the winner of the 2011 Causeway Scrabble Challenge. He won 31 games and had a +2361 cumulative spread to cart away the 10,000 dollars prize. Current World Champion (2011) Nigel Richards came second with 29 wins and a spread of +1515 and in the third place was Hubert Wee 28 wins and a +817 spread.
In the Premier division, a late rally by Nsikan Etim was almost enough to take him into the top 10. And in the Masters division, Victor Owokure did enough in the last 20 games to write his name in gold among the top 4. Jack Mpakaboari won the prize for the highest game in the Master division.
Here is a summary of Team Nigeria result:
