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Expert breached rule over selection of tiles

A TOP Scrabble player has been banned from competing amid a cheating scandal.

Scot Allan Simmons, a prolific author of Scrabble books, previous UK champion and former chairman of the World English-Language Scrabble Players Association, was found to have broken the game’s rules in a match in June.

Lewis Mackay, 32, complained about Simmons after their encounter at the British Masters in Yarnfield, Gloucestershire.

Lewis, from Cambridge, said he had also been concerned when he saw Simmons play in last year’s World Championship in Lille, France.

The 60-year-old, of Coldingham in the Borders, was given a year-long ban by the Association of British Scrabble Players for “actions that led to a suspicion of cheating”.

The row centred on a breach of regulations about how tiles must be taken from the players’ cloth bags.

Competitors must show their opponent an open hand to prove they are not discarding unwanted letters, and the bag must be held at shoulder height to stop them trying to choose the tiles they want.

Simmons had been the Scrabble correspondent for a national newspaper since 2009 but will no longer contribute after using his Saturday column to compare the ban with “getting a red card a few seasons after a football match”.

He said: “I am now going to enjoy more of my world beyond Scrabble which has been somewhat neglected.

“I will rise above this issue and get on with more important things in life than playing Scrabble.”

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