‘No one is bigger than the game’: British Scrabble group bans star player for breaking tile rule
Witnesses saw Simmons put a hand with freshly drawn letter tiles back into a bag to draw more tiles – contrary to the rules
The Association of British Scrabble players banned one of its star players for three years after an independent investigation concluded that he had broken rules in the popular word game.
Allan Simmons has written books on Scrabble and contributed game coverage to The Times newspaper, which first reported his ban from competition. The London-based newspaper said it will no longer use him as a contributor.
A committee member for the association, Elie Dangoor, said on Monday that three independent witnesses saw Simmons put a hand with freshly drawn letter tiles back into a bag to draw more tiles – contrary to the rules.
“The natural conclusion had been that he had been cheating,” Dangoor said.
There were four instances dating back to 2016, and the committee conducted an independent probe which was concluded a few weeks ago. The matter came to larger public attention only recently, and was discussed during the World English Language Scrabble Players Association event that ended Sunday.