Trey Wright won the National Scrabble Championship in New Orleans yesterday, notes SFGate.com, despite a tense moment involving dubious insensitivity and covert tile manipulation. In the final round, Wright played the word “lez,” which, rather unexpectedly, was on a list of offensive words that were not to be used during the tournament’s broadcast on ESPN. Wright, a 30-year-old concert pianist, used his nimble fingers to draw two new tiles before the referee noticed. When the ref did spot the word, he said the slang term for a rug-muncher was not valid. “There are words you just can’t show on television,” said John Williams, Scrabble Association executive director. “He violated the rules. But there were also people who were upset that the word was played.”
Williams spoke with Wright and his opponent, David Gibson, then called an emergency meeting of the Scrabble Advisory Board. The board unanimously agreed to remove the word. Wright then returned the two tiles he had selected and played a different word, Williams said.
Whew. Talk about exciting!
