Darryl Francis
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Darryl Francis (born 16 April 1948) is a well-known author of books on Scrabble.
He was a co-compiler of Chambers' original Official Scrabble Words publication in 1988 and consultant on all future editions, along with ex ABSP chairman Allan Simmons. He is also co-compiler on the Collins Official Scrabble Words publication in 2007 and 2012, again along with ex ABSP chairman Allan Simmons.
Darryl Francis co-hosted a series of five short programmes for the BBC on the World Scrabble Championship in 1991, alongside TV presenter Alan Coren.[1] He has also ghost-written many Scrabble books for well known personalities, most notably ex-MP Gyles Brandreth.
In 1985, he was the series 6 champion for the UK game show Countdown.[2] In 2013, as a celebration of the long-running show's thirtieth anniversary, many previous contestants were invited back to the studios to take part in a special tournament, in which Francis is currently competing.
He has also written extensively for the American journal Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics, having contributed nearly 200 articles as of 2010.[3][4] His articles on wordplay, word puzzles and all manner of word recreations have appeared regularly since 1968.
References
- ^ British Scrabble Association website
- ^ Countdown, Series 6
- ^ http://www.genius2000.com/wordways/author.html
- ^ Eckler, A. Ross (2010). "Look back!". Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics. 43 (3): 228–229.