Lagos leads individual/ team events at Day 2 of National Scrabble Festival
The 1st of 4 events in the NSF National Scrabble Festival “Gateway 2024”, the Asaph Zadok National Scrabble Championship, ends today Wednesday, at the serene Rolak Hotel and Suites, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.
Africa Scrabble Champion and 2nd seed Enock Nwali’s put up a good performance as he made his way to the top of Day 2 standings with 15 wins a draw and 4 losses with a +834 points.
5th seed, Lagos State’ John Aiyedun, claimed the 2nd spot with only 5 losses from 20 games and a commendable +917 cumulative spread. Joseph Okere on 13 wins was Lagos State’ 3rd man in the top 3, a whooping +835 points gave Lagos State the last podium spot over fierce rivals Delta State who had a trio of their own breathing down on his neck.
Delta State did well to replicate Lagos State’ ‘back-to-back’ with 4 seed Godwin Victor, National Sports Festival gold medalist Emmanuel Umujose and 2015 world champion Wellington Jighere, winning just as many games as 3rd placed Joseph Okere,13.
Adegbola Abiola of Oyo State was the last scrabbler who had 13 victories and sitting in the 8th spot as his Day 2 record.
Top seed Oluwatimilehin Doko, Victor Ewarah, Sunday Oshodi, Dokun Esan and Dennis Ikekeregor are on 12 wins each after 20 rounds.
Outside the top 10 but still on 12 wins was the second face from Oyo, Dokun Esan, Dennis Ikekeregor was the fourth Delta State occupant of the top 20, and it was not too positive for the last two names in the first dozen with -46 and -127 as their cumulative deficeits.
11 wins and 9 losses was the most common result on Day 2 with 10 players finding solace with those highest common digits, Lagos State had another trio to thank as they make sure that the city of excellence goes into the final day of the championship with quality representation in both the Individual and Team Event.
Olatunde Adigun’s +467, Ewruje James’ cumulative of 50 points less and Adeyemi Adeosun’ plus 359 made sure they made the best use of their 11 triumphs thus far, stamp their names in the halfway line of the prestigious event and put Lagos at the top of both leader boards going into the final day of the annual competition.
Samuel Adebola, who was part of the hosts 6 man delegation to welcome scrabble to the Gateway State was no doubt a good ambasador, claiming a +272 points, to stay just below the top 15 at the close of Day 2.
16th placed Anthony Odok from Cross Rivers’ finished the day with +128 cumulative points from the same number of wins as the others between the 13th and 23rd positions, Emmanuel Ekpo who flies the flag of Akwa Ibom State had the 18th spot as his Day 2 dinner table.
Bayelsa State’ Ben Quickpen and Edo’ George Ezinore positive cumulative spread earned them a share of the top 20, on Tuesday, with Edo State’ point man buying himself a plus 75 points to stay on the 20 spot, while 8th seed Ben Quickpen, surpassed that number by +23 points and finished 19th.
The next three spots held strugglers from 3 different States, with Ogun State’ Khaleel Adedeji, as their kingpin having a meager +3 cumulative points, FCT’s Peter Ebomah, who by the pre-tournament standings should be ahead of Khaleel, was incidentally behind with -174 points.
Bayelsa State’ Ohaka Bright, possessed the most eye rattling negative in the top half of the playing field with a minus 262 points.
Akwa Ibom’ Ryan Jacob should have been 3 places ahead of his current stop, the only deterrent was a draw that put him behind those on 11 wins and a shoulder above those with 10. The draw was an unwanted baggage he picked up as early as round 9 on Day 1, plus 71 was his cumulative record.
Delta State’ Jacob Tone was another player on a draw but also one step backwards, the 25th spot with 10 wins, and a -61 points gave him the unkind favour of seating behind the scrabbler from the Land of Promise.
