A BRITISH Scrabble champion from the North-East today clinched the world title when he won a best-of-five showdown against a US opponent by three games to one.

Craig Beevers, 33, from Guisborough, is the first British champion to win the world title since 1993, and only the second British player to clinch the accolade.

Mr Beevers and his opponent, Chris Lipe, from Clinton, New York had competed with more than 100 players from more than 25 countries over five days to reach the final and battle it out for the title and £3,000 prize money.

Mr Beevers organises Scrabble tournaments and was UK national champion in 2009 and has been playing for more than 12 years.

His decisive play was with the word talaq, meaning a Muslim form of divorce, scoring 42 points and giving him an incontestable lead in the deciding match. He finished the fourth game with a score of 440, beating Lipe's 412.

Other words played in the final game included ventrous, meaning adventurous, scoring 65, gleet, meaning inflammation of the urethra, scoring 24, and diorite, meaning igneous rock, scoring 69.

Mr Beevers said: "I am absolutely thrilled to have won, it was a closely fought championship and Chris was a very impressive opponent to play.'

The Scrabble Champions Tournament final took place today at the ExCeL Centre, London, in association with Mattel and Mind Sports International.