Sacre bleu! Francophone Scrabble champ doesn’t speak a word of French
New Zealander Nigel Richards racks up remarkable victory after reportedly memorising francophone Scrabble dictionary in nine weeks.
Scrabble lovers tend to alight on similar words when describing Nigel Richards, the New Zealander who this week won the word game’s francophone world championship even though he cannot speak any French.
“Freak” comes up a lot, along with “elusive”, “enigmatic” and, the highest-scoring of all, “amazing”. He is also, ironically, described as “a man of few words”.
The 48-year-old claimed the title in Brussels after memorising virtually the entire francophone Scrabble dictionary -- then needed a translator to thank the audience.
A rival New Zealand Scrabbler once said Richards was “like a computer with a big ginger beard”, while Malaysian tournament organiser Michael Tang has called him “the Tiger Woods of Scrabble”.
He already dominates English-language Scrabble, with three world championships, five North American titles and 11 wins at the prestigious King’s Cup in Thailand, sponsored by the Thai royal family.
“Nigel’s a word freak,” said John Baird, secretary of New Zealand’s Christchurch Scrabble Club, where Richards began playing competitively 20 years ago.