Nderitu triumph at Scrabble Kenya Championships in Ol’Kalou

Fresh from anchoring team Kenya to win silver at the Africa Scrabble Championships (ASC) in Kigali, Rwanda, Patrick Nderitu Gitonga won the national Scrabble Kenya championships over the weekend at the Ol’Kalou in Nyandarua County.

 Nderitu, the winner of the 2024 East, Central and Southern Africa Scrabble (ECASA) champion won his second title of the national series beating top players.

Accompanied by his two sons as cheering squad, Nderitu won 13 matches out of 18 in the two day full of action. The championships marked both the 2025 qualifiers for ECASA and WESPAC qualifiers.

“I carried my two boys who were cheer leaders and my motivation throughout the championships. Apart from my sons, I was also motivated by my coach Richard Okechi who is very rich with skills in the sport,” said Nderitu.

He added that despite Okechi being a young man, he has what it takes to train any person with his skills at the top.

“Before heading to Ol,Kalou, we had a three day training session in my home in Sagana, playing 36 games and after every game we used to analyze and see where we had gone wrong and rectify before contuining which really shaped me,” said the expert of the game.

despite winning, Nderitu was full of praise for Grandmaster Allan Oyende, who he described as the best that Kenya has in the game.

“As much as I won, Oyende (Allan) is Kenya’s master in the game. we played 33 marathon game and he is very good before going to Nyandarua. Him losing the title was just but unlucky on the day because I expected him to be up there. If I may asked on how we are doing in the game, Allan remains our best player despite I winning yesterday,” he said.

Both Oyende and Nderitu were part of a contingent of team kenya for ASC in Kigali where Kenya won silver behind champions Nigeria.

Leader Board after two days