2004 AFRICAN SCRABBLE
CHAMPIONSHIPS
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Heartiest Congratulations
to Dennis Ikekeregor of Nigeria!
Trevor
Hovelmeier & Dylan Early did us proud coming 5th & 6th
respectively.
A relatively
new comer to SANSPA, Duncan Keet, also
excelled, managing 11 wins
and 38th
position.
Many thanks
to all the TASPA Scrabblers for their great hospitality & a professional,
unforgettable
experience.
Review by DYLAN EARLY
I
am glad to be back home and reasonably proud to have come 6th. The
tournament
was the best I have ever attended. Everybody agrees that it was
the best
ASC ever! So congrats to TASPA for all their hard work. And
congrats to
Dennis for a fantastic victory.
The prime
minister opened the event amidst great pomp and ceremony on
Thursday
morning. He drew a rack and asked the reigning champ, Trevor, to
find the
best play. Unfortunately, Trevor was sick in his room and missed
that
opportunity, but Trevor recovered quickly and didn't let anything stop
him from
coming 5th overall. Even though I tried :-)
I won all
my games on Day 1 and was 1 game ahead of the field. I started to
think I had
a real chance of winning but Dennis Ikekeregor of Nigeria soon
put (a)paid
to those fantasies when he gave me a zero on Day 2 after I
missed
ZOECIUM for 150.
Some of the
players I beat included:
Sanni
Moshood, a previous winner (He beat me twice after that towards the
end in King
of the Hill).
Femi
Awowade (a previous winner).
Sunday
Oshodi (just plain brilliant).
Michael
Gongolo (Kenya) and Michael Quao (Ghana) - two brilliant and very
respected
players.
I beat
Trevor Hovelmeier twice and could have beaten him a 3rd time if I hadn't been greedy
in my outplay. Trevor quickly challenged my nonword and then cleverly played
out with TITIAN and scored 40 off my rack.
Moral of the story: don't be greedy. Take a sure win if you can.
Some of my
memorable plays included:
TOW was on
the board. My opponent, Koyyoko from Kenya, played TOWS and
STEARIC to
take the lead. We both thought the board was shut and I was about
to give up
when I noticed DRAYING fitted nicely under STEARIC making
TOWSY/TI/EN/AG
for 129.
In the same
game I held TORNADE with only 1 tile in the bag. I was trailing
by 28
points with nowhere to score. I noticed there were 2 Es to come so I
dropped the
A, making AE and opening up for my bingo. I pick the E for
ERODENT but
he blocked it with HEAME. Poor Koyyoko didn't realise he had
given me a
spot for DETHRONE and a win. Moral of the story: never give up,
your
opponent may make a mistake. And always give yourself a chance to win
however
slim the chances may seem.
My
opponent, Willy Mwangi from Kenya, played SQUIZ for 105. I held CGIOOO?
and was
thrilled to find ZOOLOGIC from his Z for 110.
Dennis
Ikekeregor played BIODATA. I played TEARIER parallel to it
underlapping
6 of his letters.
One of the
highlights was playing a friendly match after the tourney on
Sunday
until 3am. Previous African Champs (Femi, Moshood and Trevor) vs the
Future
African Champs (Quao, Sunday, Kpentey, Duncan and me). It wasn't
beating
them 3-1 that gave me a thrill, it was watching sheer brilliance in
action. We
thought Sunday was sleeping but realised he wasn't when he leaned
over and
played PARERGON when we were battling to find a play. The champs
played
IZVESTIA.
Another one
of the highlights was having Sam Kantimathi as a tournament
director.
He ruled that hall with an iron fist and ensured that everything
ran
smoothly. He is best remembered, apart from being the sexiest TD, as
saying
"Don't push me!" in his inimitable way. I hope he TDs all the ASCs
from now
on. Thanks Sam.
Oh, and by
the way, Duncan Keet bought a $1200 (R7800) Scrabble board for
$60. He
outbid everyone in an auction for the Scrabble board signed by all
the players
and the minister of sport himself.
Thanks for
your support
Try to make
it to the next ASC in Nigeria, I'm sure it will be well worth it.
Cheers
Dylan
Well, I just got home & so thrilled I went!
Arrived in Dar es Salaam on the same flight as Diana & Lynn to be welcomed
at the airport by Dr. Mushtak. We were transported to the beautiful New
Africa Hotel for a banquet by the pool, with none other than the prime
minister of Tanzania as the guest of honour! Locals performed a
high-spirited tribal dance, involving two mammoth pythons -- the size of
adult anacondas!
Great to see all of Africa's Scrabble fundies/fundis again, in greater form
than ever. NO game was a walkover... not for any of us! I, however, was not
in great form ---- with mysteriously swollen feet, and shortly, a swollen
face! We had been watching a Harry Potter movie on the flight, where a large
round woman gets so overly inflated she takes off into the air.... that was
me!!
After the 3rd game I was at table 2, but matched against the mighty Michael
Gongolo, soon found myself steadily demoted to the outer tables, while Dylan
& Trevor shone constantly; Dylan often glowing in first position. I was on
10 wins, but couldn't find the luckier end racks to win my last seven games
in succession, so finished with my tail between my legs, still on 10 wins.
In one game I came close to the highest game score of 637 with a score of
632. I needed to play FRAB to beat the game score, but for some reason I
hesitated over the word I have played 40 times before. My best move was
probably spotting GUAIOCUM, which wasn't challenged. Sam Kantimathi, our
SamTimer creator, was the hilariously
charming tourney director, who flew in
all the way from California for the event. Round wooden boards were
beautifully crafted by a local furniture company.
The catering was out of this world. We had the prize giving & Closing
Ceremony in the Crystal Room, where I had a chance to say a few words on
behalf of SANSPA. I said this was the most professionally run International
event I had ever attended, and TASPA could quite easily host the World
Scrabble Championships without a hitch, at that very hotel. I was saddened
the SA team was incomplete, as we had only 6/15 representatives:- Dylan
Early, Trevor Hovelmeier, Duncan Keet, Diana Mason, Lynn Roff and myself.
The 2006 Championships will be in Abuja or Lagos, Nigeria, and I beseech you to
start saving up for it right now! No doubt, under the auspices of Toke Aka,
our PANASA Chief, this will be the Tournament of tournaments. We were
honoured with the presence of the High Commissioner to Nigeria at both the
opening & closing ceremonies.
The African Scrabble Championships is well worth the investment.
debbe
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