“People sometimes assume before they meet me that I’m obsessed with spelling,” says Brett Smitheram. Smitheram’s grievance would be an unusual one for most people, but as Scrabble world champion it’s become a somewhat predictable problem – as has the odd assumption that the recruitment consultant’s mastery of letters on a grid means he struggles to put together words off the tabletop.
“People assume that Scrabble, or indeed any competitive mind sport, requires a high level of geekiness and limited social skills to really excel at,” he adds. “While there’s no doubt these people do exist in the world of high-level Scrabble, I would say they are no more prevalent than in any other area of life. That said, a level of dedication is required to be world-class at anything – I haven’t seen anyone calling Lennox Lewis a geek for his devotion to his sport recently, though.”