The World Scrabble Champion, Mr Wellington Jighere is leading the park of 18 players invited by the Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF) for its national trials in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the trials which started on Monday will help the federation to select players for the two international tournaments bill for 2016.

The tournaments are the Mindsports International (MSI) World Scrabble Championship slated for Aug. 29 to Sept. 4 in Lille, France and the Africa Scrabble Championship.

CEOAFRICA  gathers that the Africa Scrabble Championship slated to hold in Gambia has been moved but no venue yet.

The scrabble senior team National Coach, Anthony Ikolo, said that the 18 players were the best selected from the Scrabble Tour Series which ended on Sunday in Abuja.

Ikolo said the players were expected to play 50 games in the trials and must remain among the top 10 to be selected to represent Nigeria in either of the championships.

He said that the federation would feature seven players (six male and a female) for the MSI World Scrabble Championship and 15 players (13 male and two female) for the Africa Scrabble Championship.

Ikolo, however, noted that the numbers of players that would take part in either of the events depended largely on sponsorship. He called on government and corporate organisations to support scrabble, adding that the sport was one of the few that constantly brought glory to the country.

He listed the players to include: World Scrabble Champion, Wellington Jighere, Africa Scrabble Champion, Nsikak Etim, Eta Karo, Dennis Ikekeregor, Onota Oteheri, Rex Ogbakpa, Emmanuel Umujose, Olatunde Oduwole and Cyril Umebiye.

Others are Oshevire Avwenagha, Prince Omosefe, Orickpen Ben, Curtis John, Tuoyo Mayuku, Emmanuel Ede, Bright Idahosa, Enoch Nwali and Adebisi Adekansi. The four-day event would end on Thursday