Jighere Wellington a Cowboy-hat wearing Nigerian crushed his English opponent 4 - 0 at the World Scrabble Championship in Australia to become the first African to bag the word game’s global title.

Jighere was among more than 120 competitors who travelled to Perth for the World English-language Scrabble Players’ Association Championship, which culminated in Sunday’s best-of-seven final against England’s Lewis Mackay.

“He had to battle for four days to emerge on top but once he got there — maybe he was a little fresher, or got a bit of luck — everything fell into place for him and he won four-nil,” Adam Kretschmer, one of the organisers of the event, told AFP of Jighere’s effort.

The Nigerian used such high-scoring words as “fahlores”, “avouched” and “mentored” as he puzzled his way to victory.

“It is the first time that an African has won in these world championships,” Jighere told The Guardian after the win.

Words like dacoit, aah and yow helped Nigerian Wellington Jighere become Africa's first English-language Scrabble world champion.

He said he felt as though he had the "whole continent" behind him when he was playing.

In his congratulatory message ,President Muhammadu Buhari said he had "done the country proud".


(In case you were wondering dacoit is "a member of a class of robbers in India", aah is "an expression of surprise" and yow is slang in Australia "to keep a look-out" - all according to oed.com.)

But he conceded that: “Nigel is still the master. It just happens that today was my day.”


Culled BBC Sport and The Guardian

Kudos

Nigeria has talented people most in the world