Graduate wins UK Scrabble title

Craig Beevers explains the secrets of his success at scrabble

A Teesside man has been crowned UK Scrabble champion, after being beaten in the final of the event last year.

Craig Beevers, 28, from Stockton, won the competition at the Cavendish Conference Centre in London on Sunday.

The maths graduate won the first three games in the best of five contest against 47-year-old civil servant David Webb, from Hertfordshire.

Among the words used by Mr Beevers was jerrid - a type of wooden javelin, and vav - a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

Mr Beevers, who won £1,500 in prize money, said he started playing the word game at a young age.

He said: "My family tell me I used to put words into the Spectrum 48K computer scrabble game when I was three or four years old.

"But I didn't start playing seriously until I was 20 and the internet really took off.

"Last year I didn't have the depth of word knowledge and this year I got better tiles and I probably played better."

Next month he is due to fly to Malaysia to take part in the world championship.

Mr Beevers was recently granted grand master status by the Association of British Scrabble Players.

Scrabble was invented in 1938 by American-born architect Alfred Butts.