IT was second time lucky for Craig Beevers who was Champion yesterday.

The 28-year-old, from Stockton, was defeated in last year’s final, but beat his opponent, David Webb, at the Cavendish Conference Centre in London where he won the first three games in a best of five contest.

Mr Beevers, who won £1,500, said: ‘‘My family tell me I used to put words into a 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 will fly to Malaysia to take part in the world championship.