Whipround for Scrabble title tilt

Neil Green is joining the world's top Scrabble players in Malaysia

A concierge who spends his night shifts swotting up on words is taking on the Scrabble elite for Wales at the world championships in Malaysia.

Neil Green, 29, from Cardiff, said it was a "dream" to be pitting his wits against 110 of the best word masters.

Mr Green said he had had a difficult year after his son was born prematurely and his fiancée had kidney failure.

But when he was given the chance to represent Wales, fellow players raised more than £800 for him to take part.

Mr Green, who is one of the top three players in Wales and is in the UK top 40, already has three title wins under his belt, despite taking part only in competitive Scrabble game-play for seven years.

Euouae is the word that all scrabble players know about... it's the longest word with all the vowels Neil Green

He said he was hoping to end up in the top third of players - but added he was just happy to be at the tournament in Johor Bahru, which runs over the next three days.

"It's been a bitch of a year so it's really nice I've been able to come here," he said.

"Our little boy Devin was born three-and-a-half months prematurely weighing just one and a half pounds.

"We thought he wasn't going to make it really. It was touch and go," said Mr Green, who is originally from Sunderland but has lived in Wales for seven years.

"And on top of that my fiancée Sophia's kidneys failed and she's now on dialysis and needs to go to the hospital three times a week.

PLAYING THE GAME Scrabble is a game in which two or four players try to gain the highest points by making words with individual letter tiles on a grid board Each letter tile has a value from between 1 or 10 based on the letter's frequency in standard English Commonly used letters such as E or O are worth one point, while less common letters score higher, with Q and Z each worth 10 points You also get a 50-point bonus for seven-letter words Various coloured squares on the board can double or triple your points

"Financially it's also been hard as my fiancée's not been able to work since it all happened.

"I think that's why people have helped out by raising money. They knew what I had been going through."

Mr Green only found out he was going to Malaysia two weeks ago after another Welsh contestant, Gareth Williams from Cardiff, had to drop out. He is one of 13 British players in Malaysia and the only one representing Wales.

Without a prepared budget for the trip, around 40 friends and associates on the Scrabble circuit - plus a man in the USA who heard about his plight - donated most of the money needed.

He will now take on players from 40 countries including Japan, the USA, Bahrain, Ghana and Australia during the three-day tournament, battling for the $30,000 (£17,947) prize fund.

Mr Green, who works as a concierge at an apartment block in Cardiff Bay, has spent any spare moment swotting up for the event, including cramming during his night shifts. He also plays games online and takes part in contests around the UK.

"I haven't had much time recently so I try to read books and study aids when I can," he said.

But which word will he be trying to use to beat the competition in Malaysia?

"Euouae is the word that all scrabble players know about," he said.

"I have no idea what it means but it's the longest word with all the vowels. And if you add an S to the end to make it plural, you use seven letters and get a 50-point bonus. That's my goal to get."