Scrabble: Details of Toke Aka Jubilee National Championship out
By Maxwell Kumoye
The details of the maiden edition of the Engineer Toke Aka Jubilee National Scrabble Championship has been made public by the Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Chukwudi Ehibudu.
Ehibudu, came out with the details of the Jubilee National Championship as well as the Special Scrabble Retreat to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Managing Director of Kadegg Ltd who is also the President of Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF) Chief Engineer Toke Aka, on Monday in Abuja.
The Special Scrabble Retreat has been scheduled to hold on the 15th of June at the Zalika Garden while the National Scrabble Championship will be decided at the Hotel de Bentley in Utako-district, Abuja on the 17th of June.
The Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Chukwudi Ehibudu, told the media on Monday, that over two million naira has been set aside as prize money for the Championships with the King of the Masters category smiling to the bank with 250,000 naira while the winner of the Intermediate event will pocket 150,000 naira.
The Chairman, affectionately called One Arm Bandit by his pals and scrabble stakeholders, stressed that veterans players in the Jubilee National Championship will be handsomely rewarded as the top prize for them is 125,000 naira.
The Technical Director of Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF), John Curtis, says the one day National Championship is a 12 rounds of games event, 1 random, 8 lagged and 3 King of the hill pairings with each player having 20 minutes per game and the 2021 Collins Scrabble Words dictionary will be the reference material.
Curtis, explained that, the Special Scrabble Retreat is an 8 rounds of games all comers event with no catchment rating points while the National Jubilee Championship is in three different categories. Masters, Intermediate and Veterans.
To compete in the Masters event, a player must have 1,300 and above rating catchment points. The Intermediate rating catchment is 1,299 rating points and below.
On the other hand, the Veterans event has no rating catchment requirement.
The NSF Technical Director, stated that, the Masters event participants will pay 8,000 naira only while players wishing to battle for honours in the Intermediate and Veterans categories are expected to register with 6,000 naira each.
We also gathered that registration for the Special Scrabble Retreat which attracts a token fee of 3,000 Naira and it opened on Monday closes on the 14th of next month and late registration will not be entertained. The registration closing date for players seeking to be part of this unique competition, the Engineer Toke Aka Jubilee National Championship is the 15th of June.
The two-in-one event is open for sponsorship as well as donations. The chairman of the Organizing Committee, Chukwudi Ehibudu further stated that top quality hotels within the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja have been selected as alternative accommodation for players coming for these events.
After that Special Scrabble Retreat, a dinner for the celebrant, the Jagaban of Nigeria Scrabble, Chief Engineer Toke Aka, President of Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF) has been fixed for the 16th of June at the Hotel de Bentley.
