W/ African Scrabble Championship: NSF President, Aka, happy with preparations

All is set for the second edition of West Africa Scrabble Championship (WASC) holding on today , November 23, 2023 at the luxurious Novatel Hotels, Lekki, Lagos and the President of the Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF) High Chief Engineer Toke Aka says they are more than ready to host the West African sub-region and defend the crown they won a year ago in Accra, Ghana.
Engineer Toke Aka, made this submission during an interview with Nigerian Television Channel, TVC on Wednesday, stating that “Team Nigeria is well prepared and he can’t say our preparation can be better.”
When asked about Team Nigeria’s chances at the three-day championship, Engineer Toke Aka who also doubles as an Executive Board Member of the World English Scrabble Players Association (WESPA) noted that everything is not as it seems on paper, but he was very confident that Team Nigeria squad would give a good account of themselves and make the nation proud.
“In Scrabble, anything can happen, on paper we have a hundred percent chance of winning. But there are some upcoming scrabblers from Ghana, The Gambia, Liberia and Sierra Leone from all the countries in attendance and they have been preparing for the regional tournament.” Aka, the Hydro Engineer said.
The passionate scrabble enthusiast and administrator emphasized the fact that the tides can turn at any given point in time and complete focus is important, “Every game of scrabble is as important as the next and until the last two or three games every game is vital”.
The cricketer turn scrabbler added; “I’m sure that Nigeria’s squad consisting of defending Champion Eta Paul Karo, UNILAG 400 level Pharmacy student Oluwatimilehin Doko and Current African King Enoch Tochukwu Nwali, and former world champion and North America Scrabble Players Association (NASPA) winner, Wellington Jighere accompanied by a host of carefully selected top Nigerian wordsmith to add to the lethal capacity of Team Nigeria deadly killer squad that will definitely shine at the captiviting environment of Novatel Hotels Lagos.”
The Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF) has named a 21 man strong team for the much anticipated West African Scrabble Championship (WASC) and the team also has on it’s list of wordsmith, the winner of the maiden edition of the PANASA President’s Cup, Godwin Victor.
Others in the fire-proof list of super heavyweight wordsmith are four other African Champions, Nsikak Etim of Shell Scrabble Club of Port Harcourt, Moses Peter of Uyo SC, Rex Ogbakpa of Sapele SC,
Emmanuel Umujose, Godwin Victor and reigning champion Eta Karo are the three players from Warri Scrabble Club in Team Nigeria.
Team Nigeria is loaded with young and talented wordsmith Doko Oluwatimilehin a final year pharmacy student of the University of Lagos and a key member of the all conquering Hurricane SC. Doko narrowly missed the top prize at the end of MGI Grand Slam tournament in Lagos last month.
Members of Team Nigeria who have been camping at the Wood Peckers Garden in Yaba moved into the championship hotel on Wednesday.
John Curtis who doubles as the Chairman of the Sub Committee Technical and Tournament Logistics, says the West Africa Championship is a 28 games competition. 1 random, 22 lagged and 5 king of the hill pairings, with 10 games scheduled for day one and two with 8 games to be played on the final day of the championship.
Day one will certain bring some exciting encounters with 10 rounds of games scheduled for the day and the tournament director Kaheel Adedeji who is very experienced with TSH, the Software to be use during the championship. Adedeji’s hands is saddled with the weighty task of setting and dictating the pace at the scrabble feast.
12,000 dollars has been set aside as prize money for the individual and team events of the championship and the prize money pool of the individual category is for the top ten and top three for the team event.
Eta Karo of Nigeria is the defending champion in the individual category while Nigeria holds the team event diadem won in Accra, the Ghana, last year.