Christopher Osunbote Games VI

The sixth edition of the annual Christopher Osunbote Games was held from September 26th to 27th, while the creative writing category took place earlier, between September 11th and 21st. The Games have always been, and continue to be, one of the events that bring together UCH students irrespective of faculty or hall, under a common umbrella to have fun and interact.

The sponsor; to whom the games owe their eponym, Dr. Christopher Osunbote, was a former psychiatry resident at the University College Hospital who admitted to having found friends and rest in the Alexander Brown Hall's indoor games culture. In his closing note for the games, he admitted to being an avid chess and table tennis player. Something he also pointed out, was that while not known to many, he had a very keen interest in creative writing. In his words, "What is perhaps less apparent is how interested I am in the creative writing. This is perhaps less about grading what our bright minds can produce but more about an honest expression of insights. I hope to learn without the contamination social media brings to debates online these days."

The games were held between the 26th and 27th of September. On Friday, the 26th, preliminaries for chess, scrabble, and table tennis were held at the Alexander Brown Hall. Plans to hold the chess and scrabble games at the School of Nursing fell through due to 'logistics issues.' The finals on the 27th were quite a tense period. Categories such as scrabble, male, chess female, chess male, among others, had winning spots actually more limited than might be obvious at first glance. Why? Champions who had proven themselves previously, such as Okoye Portian, Hussein Abeeb, Ojo Abimbola, and Okojie Simeon, were playing too. And they dominated right from the preliminaries, making it very obvious, others would be competing for the other positions. The creative writing category had actually kicked off on the 11th, with a ten-day deadline for participants to turn in pieces on the theme "White, Black, and everything in-between." 

Submissions for the creative writing category actually closed on the 24th. However, relying on that date would have been false hope, as entries submitted after the 10th day were not considered. The form only remained open until the 24th because registration for all categories, including creative writing, was hosted on the same Google Form.

The press can confirm that at least a day after the deadline, the submission page was still accepting responses. The judging criteria and process were sent out soon after the winners were announced. The criteria stated that they ensured the anonymity of writers to avoid biases. The message detailing the judging criteria expressed praise for the quality of work received in what was a short window for submission. They implored that the results of the competition should not deter contestants from writing more. "We implore all writers who participated in this contest to keep the ideas streaming & the ink flowing. This writing contest should never define you as a writer. But we hope it will spark/reignite something magical in your bright, creative minds."

The games ended on the 27th. Winners were announced, many surprises, some not. Somewhat shocking might be the density of participants; and winners from the 2k24 class, a class currently staring down the nostrils of their second medical board examinations. The likes of Okojie Simeon; gold, Chess male, Olajiga Kehinde; Silver Creative Writing, Udochukwu Victor; silver Table Tennis male, Portian Okoye and Abeeb Hussein, Gold and silver respectively, Scrabble male, Ayomide Abel, and Olowolayemo Samuel, joint 4th place in Chess, and Salami Wisdom, gold Creative Writing are worthy of mention in this class. Also notable, is the varied nature of competitors and winners, even from classes not yet on the clinical side. The chess category remains the highest contested and the most rewarded, with four people tying for fifth place. For the other categories, only the first to third places won prizes.

The games concluded, winners rewarded, others encouraged. In the words of Christopher Osunbote himself, "There really is no parting note as COG hopes to continue. And creative writing may come with comparatively more competitive prizes. I am grateful for you all and this experience."

Salami Wisdom