Did I ever mention that I won a gold medal in a Scrabble competition?
Okay, now I did.
The year was 2014. December 2014, to be precise. I represented the Ministry of Information for the Federal Civil Service Games in Akure, Ondo State.
1992.
The first time I saw a Scrabble board, I was stunned. My neighbor played a game, and I couldn’t understand it with letters and numbers on a tile to be played on a board with complex instructions.
I lost interest and soon began to play tinko with my neighbor.
2008.
During my service year, my roommate taught me how to play Scrabble. She explained the ‘complex instructions,’ and I started to enjoy playing Scrabble.
I met Dee. Dee played competitive Scrabble. I recall our first game. He played a word that I knew didn’t exist in the regular dictionary. I challenged it, and he opened the Scrabble dictionary. I lost a turn. I lost a lot of turns as I kept on challenging his words. Dee played three bingos in that game. He is still an excellent Scrabble player.
2014.
I walked into the cafeteria. I saw two people play Scrabble. I walked towards them and watched their game.
“Do you play Scrabble?” one of the players asked me.
“I play a bit,” I replied as I tried to be modest.
“Let’s Play a game after this round.” he requested.
I had nothing to lose, so I decided to play a game with him.
He won the game and asked if I was interested in getting trained as he saw potential.
I agreed, and I spent an hour every day playing Scrabble. Learning different strategies to win the game. Thinking of anagrams in less than a minute and Maximizing my score.
I also had to memorize all the 2-letter words and some 3-letter words.
December 2018.
Akure.
My coach made me play a friendly game with the current champion. She won the first game. I was scared. I mean, I was a rookie playing with a champion. But, I quickly grasped her strategy and then won the next game as I played her with her own strategy.
The news spread like wildfire. There was an underdog to watch out for. I was the underdog.
Singles game.
I was still anxious while I played most games. Here was I, sitting amongst Scrabble legends who knew over 1000 3-letter words plus hooks to create new words and score bingos.
In the Scrabble competition, King of the Hill was used to choose the winner. That is, in addition to the number of games won, the cumulative score counted as well.
I must have done pretty well with my scores as I was the fourth on the tables.
One more game to go. If I won this game, I would come second on the tables. If I lost, I’d remain fourth. I lost that game.
Doubles game.
The next day started with the doubles. I teamed up with another rookie. I was more determined to win a medal. More so, I had played with most of them, so I knew their strategies.
Most of them liked to close the board. So I decided to open the board as much as possible and play as many bingos as possible.
I won the first two games and was the King of the Hill. I moved to the first table to continue my other games. My strategy played out fine as I won my next two games.
It was obvious I was winning the gold medal. Then, other competitors refused I play the final game. Their concern was that I could throw the game and let the person I played win since I had nothing to lose.
Ah, so that’s a thing,” I thought to myself.
Since I was on a winning streak, I wanted another win for myself.
TANGELO(S)
That was my opening play. Forming a new word (TANGELO) to the S on the board.
“Ki lo je be TANGELO?”, my opponent queried.
“Challenge it if you wish”, I replied.
One of the competition rules was of you challenged a word played, your opponent gains an additional 10 points.
My score was 24+50 (bingo)=74. If she challenged, an additional 10 points would raise my score to 84.
“Tangelo, tangelo”,my opponent repeated to herself. “I’m challenging this word”, she cried out.
That singular act discombobulated my opponent. My partner and I cinched the gold medal in the Scrabble doubles.
2015 and beyond.
I would have loved to return for subsequent games and sustain my position as a gold medalist. But I moved from Nigeria to Tokyo.
I found a Scrabble club in Tokyo where I could play, but the timing didn’t sit well with my schedule.
Sometimes, I organize Scrabble events where I teach people how to play Scrabble, usually for fun.
Hopefully, one of these days, I will contest in one of the global Scrabble competitions.
Hopefully.
