Scrabble champ doesn’t speak language

A New Zealand man has won the French language Scrabble championship, despite not speaking French.

Nigel Richards triumphed over Schélick Ilagou Rekawe, from French-speaking Gabon, in the final in Louvain, Belgium.

Richards’ friend Liz Fagerlund, former president of the New Zealand Scrabble Association, revealed that he had been studying the French Scrabble dictionary closely for approximately eight weeks in preparation.

“He doesn’t speak French at all,” she said. “He just learnt the words. He won’t know what they mean and wouldn’t be able to carry out a conversation in French, I wouldn’t think.”

Originally from Christchurch, the three-time World Championship winner now lives in Malaysia.

He has many other titles under his belt, including five US National wins.

Richards’ French-speaking rivals would have had an idea what they were letting themselves in for. But while Fagerlund confirms that he “does have a reputation for being the best Scrabble player ever… they probably didn’t necessarily expect him to go in for the first time and beat them at their own game”.

Scrabble lovers and players found common words to describe the New Zealander.

“Freak” comes up a lot, along with “elusive”, “enigmatic” and, the highest-scoring of all, “amazing”.

He is also, ironically, described as “a man of few words”. A rival New Zealand Scrabbler once said Richards was “like a computer with a big ginger beard”.