After a long while of giving myself a break from Scrabble due to my final examinations and the conclusion of my project, I eventually decided to enter for a rated Scrabble tournament involving players from all categories playing together.
It was organized by the IBADAN SCRABBLE CLUB, the first Scrabble club in Nigeria, ably coordinated by Champ Femi Awowade, an international Master player of the game who flew in from UK to attend the tourney. It was held at the Ibadan Recreation club in the heart of the ancient West African city. It had 51 players in attendance. The first of 9 games began at 9:45am
Admittedly, I was match rusty as my last meaningful scrabble game was on the last day of last year. However, I painfully lost my first game to a Master player by 10 points, followed by an 100 point win, followed by another agonising loss by 3 points to an intermediate player and Veteran of the game(Adegbenro Segun, a former ambassador of MATTEL in Africa)
The next four games included a draw against a player I've always lost against(so for me it was a win), another win against an intermediate player, a game in which I played my word of the tournament(COQUITOS), followed by another loss and then a win against a familiar opponent with over 150 points.
So at this point I had 3.5 wins from 7 games. The final 2 games will be King of the Hill format, where a player gets to play the next best player(#1 plays #2, #3 plays #4 and so on). But before the remaining two games were played we had a sumptuous lunch courtesy of the hosts.
I knew I had to win my last two games to finish the tournament respectably, so when my opponent came along I bullied her with outrageous scores, until she submitted on the board shown below.
My premium words: SIERRAN 73pts, GRADIENT 70pts
However, I also got my fair share of bullying from a Master of the game who has won different tournaments in Europe when he was living in Liverpool, UK. He won with more than 50pts on the board shown below.
Opponent's premium word : SAVELOY 70pts
My premium words : BITINGS 79pts SEATRAIN 60pts
This board had my favorite words of the tourney
My highest scoring word : HARRIES/JASPES 98pts
my nicest find : COQUITOS 64pts(54+10 for challenge)
Conclusively, it was an average tournament for me as I ended up at the 26th position at the end, but having stayed away for a while, it was a realistic result. The champion of the tourney is a Veteran of the game, Mr Adekunle Ayo, and the victory was a great one because 2 years ago he was financially supported by Nigerian Scrabble players to carry out surgery for a stroke he was suffering at the time. It was a indeed a victory for Nigerian Scrabble.
As soon as I submit my project, I'll resume my study routine and my insatiable passion for the game I so dearly love.
NOTES :
- This is first of many articles I'll be writing to about the Scrabble games and various Scrabble tournaments.
- To know the meaning of some of the words on the boards shown, you may need a Scrabble dictionary (either hard copy or an app).