A former weightlifter has been crowned National Scrabble Champion 2006. Retired Jake Jacobs, 57, from Ely, Cambs, took the title in London despite giving up the game for a time to recover from a heart attack in 2002.
He once taught sportsmen how to weightlift for the 1980s show Superstars and has played competitive Scrabble since 1997. Mr Jacobs said: "I am absolutely thrilled. I would never have believed I could make it to the top."
This is the first time he has reached the National Scrabble Championships final, although he was highly ranked in 2002. He beat Christian Brown, 32, a relative newcomer to the Scrabble world, who has only played competitively for two years.
Mr Brown was until recently a civil servant for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Some of the words instrumental in gaining Mr Jacobs the Scrabble crown on Sunday included Outrace, Mullion, Caber, Itched - and winning word Solutive.
Over the five matches he scored a total of 1,922 points.
Mr Jacobs is celebrating winning the 35th national championships after only rejoining the scrabble scene this year. Along with the audience who had made the journey to London's Cavendish Conference Centre to watch the action, more than 50,000 fans logged on to view the clash via the internet.
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