CHEATING CLAIMS SPELL TROUBLE FOR SCRABBLE MASTER

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 word game.

A committee member for the association, Elie Dangoor, said Monday that three independent witnesses saw Allan Simmons, who has authored books on Scrabble, 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.