British Scrabble champion accused of cheating by double-dipping

November 15, 2017 10:54 AM

Allan Simmons, a top-billed British Scrabble player, has been barred from tournaments for three years after an inquiry concluded he had broken the rules by putting a hand with freshly drawn letter tiles back into a bag to draw more favorable tiles.

Simmons denied the charges, but said he would not try to overturn the ban, in order to avoid creating a “distraction.” In any event, he said, he had already been thinking about retiring from competitive play. The chair of the Association of British Scrabble Players has resigned her position. A few previous discussions of Scrabble: Here, here, and here.

posted by ALeaflikeStructure (18 comments total)

I believe I speak for many of us when I say "KILL HIM WITH FIRE."
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:01 AM on November 15, 2017 [7 favorites]

I confess I have done this once or twice with Carcassone tiles.
posted by Kitteh at 11:02 AM on November 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

Maybe he was just taken aback by the weird, ugly wrongness of the British tiles and, in his shock, hoped a second dip would get him some real ones.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:10 AM on November 15, 2017

C₃ H₄ E₁ A₁ T₁ E₁ R₁ = 12 pts

posted by Fizz at 11:15 AM on November 15, 2017 [15 favorites]

I would comment more on this, but I don't have the letters.
posted by littlesq at 11:19 AM on November 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Just grab some more from the bag!
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:21 AM on November 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

AFAICT all English Scrabble versions have the same letter tile distribution -- no British flavour with more U's. I wonder how they deal with spelling variations US / UK.
posted by kurumi at 11:32 AM on November 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

I am rolling my eyes at his "taking my tiles and going home!" response.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:38 AM on November 15, 2017

KILL HIM WITH FIRE

33 points.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 11:42 AM on November 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

I believe I speak for many of us when I say "KILL HIM WITH FIRE."

I mean, that's a reasonable and proportionate response, but I think we can do better... by which I mean, we should stone him with Scrabble tiles, starting with the very ones he purloined.
posted by mordax at 12:04 PM on November 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm still trying to figure out how this could be done without it being glaringly obvious.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 12:15 PM on November 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

"And I woulda gotten away with it too, if it warn't for those scrabblin' kids!"
posted by chavenet at 12:37 PM on November 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

This kind of brazen behavior could never have taken place with Boggle. Makes you think, doesn't it?
posted by mittens at 12:40 PM on November 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

kurumi: "I wonder how they deal with spelling variations US / UK."

The variations account for less than 2000 words and IIRC the international scrabble dictionary lists both versions. The censored North American version is target at both the US and Canada so I can't imagine it not including both versions as well.
posted by Mitheral at 1:15 PM on November 15, 2017

This kind of brazen behavior could never have taken place with Boggle. Makes you think, doesn't it?

Indeed! It's mind...boggling!

I'll see myself out...
posted by ninazer0 at 2:24 PM on November 15, 2017

Wouldn't have happened with Bananagrams, a game I enjoy much more than the stilted and rule-bound Scrabble. In Bananagrams, all the tiles are on display all the time.
posted by scruss at 3:11 PM on November 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Plus, my family sings the banagrams song when we play. It's just the word "banagrams" set to the music of the Muppets song "Mahna Mahna."
posted by Chrysostom at 11:03 PM on November 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Meanwhile, in a Guardian article called We should forgive Scrabble cheats. Board games bring out the worst in us Daisy Buchanan has this to say:
It has always astonished me that there are people in the world who are prepared to professionally devote themselves to board games, because, after growing up in a household in which every child had, at times, behaved like Steven Seagal in a pool hall (YT), but with Scrabble tiles, I cannot comprehend the focus and calm that must be required to succeed in that world.
posted by glasseyes at 9:23 AM on November 16, 2017