Africa-Press – Kenya. United Kingdom-based Kenyan Tobias Outi is the winner of the British Matchplay Scrabble Championships played on Monday evening in Milton Keynes, UK.
The victory was redemption enough for Outi, who missed the World English Scrabble Players Association Championships (WESPAC) held in Las Vegas in the United States of America in July.
Outi was seeded 21 at the annual three-day tournament, which was launched in 1987.
The prestigious championship attracted 48 players in Division ‘A’ and a total of 82 in the three divisions.
Division ‘B’ attracted 18 players with Division ‘C’ having 16 players.
Outi, who has also won a couple of Scrabble Kenya tournaments alongside Allan Oyende, Gitonga Nderitu, Michael Gongolo among others, won 18 of a possible 24 matches to clinch the title.
“The tournament was great. Playing with Experts, Grand Masters and all the awesome players at the tournament was very competitive and particularly enthralling,” said Outi.
Despite losing the opening game to host’s Colin Northmore, Outi recovered with back-to-back wins before losing Game Four to GM Lewis Mackay.
He also to lost Game 10 to Nick Deller, Game 14 to Wayne Kelly (GM), Game 15 to Craig Solomons (Exp) and Game 18 to Brian Po.
“The experienced players give you a great game, and it’s all part of the learning curve for me. I started on a low note but the finishing was perfect,” added Outi.
He also noted and lauded the growth of the game among the youth in Kenya.
“Scrabble Kenya has good structures for the youth to develop in the game, which is a great opportunity that needs to be tapped into further,” said Outi.
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