UNLIKE many thousands of people across Britain and the world, I know only one thing about Blur. That doesn't include the fact that they are a band of some sort (I thought they were a boy band, but apparently they are not, although they look like boys in my 42-year-old field of vision.)

What I do know about them, and it came as a bit of a surprise, is that

after a gig (I began to write 'concert' but thought it would alienate younger readers -- to me that's anyone under 40) they settle down for a game of Scrabble.

The lads are among a number of celebrities who have taken to the game. Other fans include Kylie (Minogue, to anyone who is even more ignorant about music than I am), Ant and Dec (don't know anything about them either, except that they appeared in a Likely Lads remake), Mel Gibson, Madonna (I really do know who they are) and husband Guy Ritchie.

So Scrabble is trendy. Does this mean that when I sit around the board with my dad, husband and brother, ready for a game that I know will last at least five hours, I should be bursting at the seams with excitement?

Don't get me wrong, I love Scrabble. I love words -- I must do, my job

revolves around them and I believe that I have a reasonable grasp of the English language.

But bring together a bunch of people who are also of that opinion for a game and the result is not pleasant. In fact, it is about as enjoyable as a city break in Baghdad.

If there was ever a catalyst (that's a word I could smugly spell out with my tiles) for a third world war it is Scrabble.

From the outset, it is fraught with situations in which one or more players are likely to blow their tops. Fired with a determination to win and their seven letters in front of them, there is always someone who thinks they can use up all their tiles for a big fat bonus.

And unless you are sensible enough to have introduced a 'ten-minute' rule, this person will spend up to an hour mulling over different possibilities. Only when everyone else has abandoned the board to watch the Channel 5 movie, does he reluctantly concede that there may not be a seven-letter word made up of OOIAAXV -- well not in the English language anyway.

Another Scrabble scam that should be nipped in the bud before play is the use of a dictionary. In my opinion, if you can't spell it, or worse -- if you haven't heard of it -- you shouldn't be using it. I've been guilty myself, of taking a peek in my pocket English Gem and confidently proffering something like ZEUGMA, and then having my dad -- a human dictionary/thesaurus -- asking what it means. For some, regular toilet breaks (don't be fooled by the 'dodgy curry' excuse) provide the opportunity for rifling through a dictionary, carefully sewn into a shirt lining for the purpose, and picking out words.

And there are those irritating people who seem to win simply by placing

's' or 'ing' on the end of words that others have spent ages formulating.

Scrabble may be the height of fashion, but I steer well-clear. It's a dangerous game If Blur, or Madonna and Guy suddenly split up, there is bound to be a triple word score at the heart of it.