The new world Scrabble champion has described his elation after a word for a type of wasp secured victory in an all-British showdown.
Brett Smitheram, 37, from Chingford in east London, was crowned the winning wordsmith after beating Mark Nyman, 49, from Knutsford in Cheshire, in the World Scrabble Championship 2016 final at the Grand Palais in Lille.
After his win, recruitment consultant Smitheram said his opponent, a former producer on Channel 4’s Countdown, was one of his “Scrabble idols” when he was growing up.
Smitheram told the Press Association: “He used to be the producer of Countdown and he got me on Countdown when I was 17, 20 years ago now. I was on Countdown about 10 or 12 times.
“So he’s known me for 20 years, and at the time when he interviewed me for Countdown he said ‘What’s your biggest aspiration?’ and I said ‘I want to win the Scrabble World Championship’.
“And today I beat him in order to do it. Quite a story behind it.”
Smitheram triumphed after three rounds when he produced the crucial word braconid, meaning a parasitic wasp. It scored him 176 points, but he then got an extra five points due to a failed challenge by his opponent.
Smitheram, who has won €7,000, said: “It’s absolutely amazing. I’m still speechless. I had to come back from behind to qualify for this.”
He said he was “absolutely thrilled” to have won, and described Nyman as a “very impressive opponent to play”.
The winner said he spent up to two hours a day revising words and playing games against a computer ahead of the competition.
Other strategic words played in the final round included: periagua, meaning a dugout canoe used by American Indians, scoring 76 points; variedly, meaning in a varied manner and scoring 95 points; sundri, a tree native to eastern India, scoring 28 points; and gynaecia, meaning a flower, scoring 95 points.
Smitheram became UK champion in 2000 and was quarter-finalist in the 2014 world championship.
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