…We Are Heading To Abuja With Experience And Talented Youths – Engr. Akanbi
Lagos State has named a six man team for the forthcoming Asaph Zadok National Scrabble Festival scheduled to hold in Abuja from the 20th to the 22nd of this month.
The team that will be heading to the nation’s capital, Abuja, will be led by current African Champion and University of Lagos Health Education 300 level student, Enoch Nwali.
The team also has in its fold four players in the Masters category of the NSF latest ratings and one talented player currently with 1382 points.
Team Lagos to the Asaph Zadok National Scrabble Festival was named on Sunday after the gruelling trials.
2022 winner of the Emmanuel Egbele Annual Scrabble Tournament and current African Champion, Enoch Nwali topped the trials with 12 wins from 18 rounds of games and a plus 920 cumulative points.
Joseph Okere and Olatunde Adigun also secured 12 wins each but with a lower cumulative, plus 637 for Okere and plus 445 for Adigun.
John Aiyedun came fourth with 10 wins and a minus 117 cumulative. Timi Olaitan, the winner of the Pyramid Scrabble Club retreat for November 2022 came fifth ahead of 2022 South West Closed Champion, Adeyemi Adeosun and Victor Ewarah.
The trio had 9 wins each but Ewarah missed out of Team Lagos due to an inferior cumulative. Plus 343 for Olaitan who is also an assistant coach with Lagos State. Adeosun had a cumulative points of 274 while it was minus 17 for Ewarah.
Two heavyweight players who were earlier tipped to team up with Nwali for Lagos State could not participate in the trials.
Wale Fashina a former African Champion told our correspondent that, he could not take part in the Lagos trials due to illness. Fashina who is part of Team Nigeria to USA in July for Scrabble’s most prestigious event, the WESPA Championship is getting back his groove on the game.
Current Champion of Champions and 2022 National Sports Festival double gold medalist, Olatunde Oduwole could not also make the trials while Priscilla Akhabue missed out due to school work.
Priscilla Akhabue, a Mass Communication student explained that she will be concentrating on the grand finale of the NSF Inter Club Championship with her team Ikorodu Scrabble Club instead.
The chairman of Lagos State Scrabble and Monopoly Association (LSSMA), Engineer Dipo Akanbi is confident that his team will play some scentilating scrabble and rock the Asaph Zadok National Scrabble Festival in Abuja.
He said: “After 18 grueling games, those 6 players qualified to represent Lagos at the Nationals. The team will be led by the African Champion, Enoch Nwali, Lagos team is a young team of talented youths accompanied by an accomplished veteran, Olatunde Adigun and the Assistant Coach of Lagos State, Timi Olaitan.”
A close look at Team Lagos to Abuja, shows that five of the players, Enoch Tochukwu Nwali, Olatunde Adigun, John Aiyedun, Timi Olaitan and Adeyemi Adeosun are in the Masters category of the NSF rating system while Joseph Okere is currently in the Intermediate bracket with 1382 points at 102 spot.
Nwali with 1600 points at number 14 is the highest ranked player going to Abuja under the flag of the Centre of Excellence. Olaitan is ranked 32 with 1522 points ahead of Aiyedun with 1473 in the 51st position.
Timi Olaitan at the end of last scrabble season told your authoritative news channel, that he is looking forward to an exciting 2023 scrabble filled year and that is what it’s turning out to be for him.
”In the next 12 months I see scrabble on another level across the states and with the country, many states are beginning to key into the innovation both in schools and as a medal winning event.” Olaitan said.
Adeyemi Adeosun who won the first edition of South West Closed in Ibadan last year is another arsenal in Team Lagos to Abuja, he is presently rated 56 in the Scrabble passionate country, Nigeria with 1461 points.
Experienced wordsmith who can hold his own on the board any day or anytime, Olatunde Adigun will be hoping to engrave his name in gold in Abuja. With 1437 points, he is Nigeria’s number 67th ranked player.
Engineer Akanbi says the combination of experience mixed with talented youth is the way to go for Lagos State.
Each State is expected to send six players for the Asaph Zadok National Scrabble Festival which begins on the 20th and ends on the 22nd of March in Abuja.
In a press release made available to your authoritative news channel, that,
all states that would be participating in the Asaph Zadok National Championship 2023 are expected to register the names of players that would be representing them on or before Wednesday, 15th March, 2023.
The NSF registration portal is already up and running from Thursday 2nd to the 15th of March, 2023.
The Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF) Technical Director, John Curtis, explained that registration per player is put at ten thousand naira only (N10,000).
The Scrabble Festival is a 28 rounds of games competition, 1 random, 22 lagged and 5 king of the hill pairings.
Each player has 25 minutes per game while 2021 Collins Scrabble Words dictionary is the reference for the event.
Lagos State will not only be participating in the Asaph Zadok National Championship, the Centre of Excellence will be represented during the grand finale of the NSF Inter Club Scrabble Championship by two clubs, Ikorodu SC and Pyramid A Scrabble Club.
Both clubs and Ibadan SC are the standard bearers from the South West zone at the Inter Club grand finale.
