A man has been crowned World Scrabble Champion after he defeated his opponent with an incredible 176-point word.
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The 37-year-old, a quarter-finalist in 2014, went head-to-head with his longstanding rival Mark Nyman, 49, from Knutsford, Cheshire, at the Grand Palais in Lille, France, yesterday.
Competitors from 30 countries took part in the event, held as part of the Mindsports International Championships.
Mr Smitheram, who scooped a £5,875 cash prize, is a recruitment consultant and was United Kingdom champion in 2000 as well as a quarter-finalist at the 2014 World Scrabble Championship.
Variedly, meaning in a varied manner, scored 95 points, the same total awarded for Gynaecia, a flower.
He won it with words such as “braconid”, a type of parasitic wasp, “periagua”, a Caribbean term referring to canoes, and “sundri”, a type of Indian tree.
Mr Smitheram, who has appeared on Countdown several times, revealed Mr Nyman had been one of his “Scrabble idols” growing up. [Mr Nyman] used to be the producer of Countdown and he got me on Countdown when I was 17, 20 years ago now.
“It’s absolutely incredible”, Mr Smitheram said of his victory. I was on Countdown 10 or 12 times.
Organisers said the final will kick off at 11am French time. Quite a story behind it’.
The MSI World Championships are open to the top-rated Scrabble players by invitation, with 20 minutes allocated per game.
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It was the former United Kingdom champion’s first victory at the tournament.
