CAMBRIDGE – Getting “rebuked” should have meant at least 13 points for John Roberston during a recent game of Scrabble.

Instead it came in the form of a stern warning from two Hespeler librarians.

According to Robertson, he and his buddy Peter Sawatzky were basically told to shut down their game for rattling a tile bag too loudly.

“No, I’m not kidding,” said Robertson, in an email sent to the Times.

“Remember, this is the same library system that has re-branded itself as an ‘Idea Exchange.’ Their mission statement says they welcome active intellectual pursuits.

“From what I gather, the new concept of the library is supposed to eliminate the practice of shushing people for being noisy in the hope of making it akin to a community drop-in centre.”

Robertson claims a child was screaming at the time of the incident.

“When I complained that the screaming kid was making far worse noise than we were, the one librarian said that telling the kid to be quiet would discourage the mother from bringing the kid to the library. How asinine is that?” he charged.

“I’ve been there when musicians have been playing keyboards and no one tells them they can’t do it. I’ve been there when groups of teenagers have been loudly chatting while doing schoolwork and no one has rebuked them. Yet the soft sound of Scrabble tiles rattling is enough to drive two librarians into a tizzy.”

Robertson, a member of the Golden Triangle Scrabble Club, has attended tournaments at libraries in the United States and has staged exhibitions at the Pioneer Park branch of the Kitchener Public Library. Sawatzky routinely goes to the Waterloo Public Library where people play chess and backgammon without any problem.