Strange News Round-up – August 1st 2015

French Scrabble Champion Can’t Speak French!

A man from New Zealand who can’t speak French is the new world champion in the French-language version of the game.

Nigel Richards doesn’t speak in tongues, or boast of some miraculous power, he’s just got a fantastically good memory. Richards, who has won several titles in his native tongue, simply sat down with a dictionary and learned all the words, without having any clue what they mean or how to fit them into a coherent sentence.

Richards is also a strategy whiz, and can make the most of the mathematics of the game according to scrabble expert Stefan Fatsis, who calls the new champion the best scrabble player of all time.

The final letter down confirming that Richards really is magnifiqué is the fact that he only started looking at his French dictionary in May this year! Read more here