Pan African Scrabble Association to honour exceptional players

…Players from Nigeria, Liberia, Ghana, Uganda and Kenya make the honours list

…The recognitions are a welcome development – NSF Technical Director, John Curtis

By Maxwell Kumoye

One of the most active and successful sporting bodies in Africa, the Pan African Scrabble Association (PANASA), will be honouring distinguished wordsmith across the continent in the last twelve months of the scrabble circuit.

The President of PANASA, Adekoyejo Adegbesan, disclosed this on Friday in Lagos in a chat with your authoritative scrabble news channel FIRST ZEALMEDIACAST BLOG.

Adegbesan, a tech expert explained that the nine distinguished wordsmith that will be honoured are drawn from five countries, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Uganda.

“Seven Grand Masters will be unveiled this Saturday by the Pan African Scrabble Association. 12 players made the Grand Masters status. However because 5 of them are already Continental Champions and have the Continental badge against their names which is the ultimate badge on the continent, we only awarded Grand Masters to the 7 others.” Adegbesan noted.

“We are also awarding an award to the player who has played the most PANASA rated games on the continent. So 9 people made the expert status. This is awarded to any player who had a total rating average between 2000 – 2099 rating points.” The PANASA President added.

Adegbesan who is also the chairman of Ogun State Scrabble Association (OSSA), said the Award will go a long way in encouraging the recipients and other players to give more to the game of words in Africa.

The West African Scrabble Championship, the PANASA President’s Cup, the Scrabble On The Nile, the Kenyan National Championship, Governor Douye Diri National Championship, the WESPA Championship, JAMSC and Lekki Scrabble Classic are some of the events that were rated by PANASA for the out going year.

The Technical Director of Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF), John Curtis explained that the Award will spur the players to thrive for excellence and reach for the top in the game.

“Basically, all these awards and recognitions are aimed at adding strength and vitality to the players out put and put the Championships rated by the continental body to the next level. This award will surely fire the players all the more” Curtis said.

Kenya’s Allan Oyende who recently won the Scrabble On The Nile Championship in Uganda and Ghana’s Charles Haizel Tachie-Menson who came 8th at the last World English Scrabble Players Association Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA are likely to make the honours list of PANASA.

Another household name during the last twelve months in the African Scrabble Circuit that may be nominated for one of the three categories is Uganda’s Edgar Odongkara. Odongkara has had an impressive run this season, so too is Richard Geria.

The Nine players who will be adorned with the EXPERT badge, seven Grand Masters and player with the Most Rated games under his arms by PANASA will be made public this Saturday, 23rd December, 2023 Only on Africa’s largest, most active Scrabble forum, the Scrabble Africa WhatsApp group.

The three awards categories are:

★ The Grand Master (7)

★ The Expert (9)

★ The Most Rated Games (1)