A MASTER wordsmith has crafted his way into the record books for the greatest number of games of Scrabble played simultaneously.

The attempt took place on Tuesday night at the Middlesbrough Gamers Club when Pete Finley faced 19 opponents at the same time.

He won 17 games and lost only two, completing all games in two hours and 47 minutes.

Mr Finley, of Sunderland, said: "I had serious doubts about whether this would be possible. I was playing so quickly and my opponents had so much more thinking time than I did, that I was delighted to squeak home in so many of the games."

The record attempt was organised under guidance from the Association of British Scrabble Players and followed guidelines set by Guinness World Records.

To set the record, Mr Finley had to win at least 75 per cent of the games.

A previous attempt to set the standard in Peterborough failed when fewer than half of the games were won.

Subject to official ratification, the achievement will be published in the next issue of the annual records book.

His best score in a game was 581, compared with the 200 or so points most players normally need to win a game.

Some of the words Mr Finley played included aequorin -a protein that some jellyfish emit so it looks as if they are glowing, beatnik, veritas and top-scoring word headrigs.

He has finished in the top four of the National Scrabble Championships four times.

He has also represented England three times in the world championships, including last year's championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.