Hidden Scrabble tiles spell end for would-be champion

One of the top young Scrabble players in the US has been kicked out of his national championship in Florida after he was caught hiding blank letter tiles.

John Williams, executive director of the US National Scrabble Association, said a male player was ejected in round 24 of the 28-round event.

The cheating was spotted by a player at a nearby table, who noticed the ejected player conceal a pair of blank tiles, which can be used as wild card letters, by dropping them on the floor. When confronted by the tournament director, he admitted it, organisers said.

Williams, who has served as executive director for 25 years and co-authored a book on the popular board game in 1993, said this was the first incident of cheating at a national tournament.

"It does happen no matter what. People will try to do this," he said. "It's the first time it's happened in a venue this big though. It's unfortunate. The Scrabble world is abuzz. The internet is abuzz."

Williams would not identify the player by name or age because he is a minor. There are four divisions and he was competing in Division Three. Williams said Division Three was equal to "any great living-room player out there."

In Scrabble matches, players accumulate points during one-on-one matches by pulling random letter tiles from a bag of 100 and trying to create words.

The ejected player had concluded a previous game and never reinserted the blank tiles into his bag in an attempt to use them at his discretion in the next game, organisers said.

Williams said there was usually "good self-policing in the Scrabble world" as players try to protect the integrity of statistics on the competitive circuit.

The winner of the 350-player tournament receives a top prize of $10,000 (£6,400).