London (AP) — 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 authored books on Scrabble and contributed game coverage to The Times newspaper, which first reported his ban from competition. The London-based newspaper says it will no longer use him as a contributor.
A committee member for the association, Elie Dangoor, said 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 told The Associated Press.
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.
Simmons told the Times he denied cheating, and that he had suffered the same “untimely bad luck from the bag as anyone else.”
Dangoor said that Simmons had been “a huge part of the game’s development” and that there was “great disappointment,” as he is a liked and respected part of the Scrabble community. But action had to be taken.
“There’s no one person bigger than the game,” Dangoor said.
