My word . . . new Scrabble champ owes it all to ‘carrels’

IT’S the kind of victory worthy of a night on the tiles.

A London-based wordsmith is celebrating having been crowned the Scrabble champion of the world yesterday.

David Eldar, 27, beat Harshan Lamabadusuriya 3-0 in a best of five final by placing the word ‘carrels’ – a cubicle desk – to score 74 points.

Some of the words the pair produced in the final included ‘obvs’, slang for obvious, scoring ten, and ‘asinicos’, meaning stupid fellows, scoring 64.

Mr Eldar, who hails from Australia, claimed victory after competing with players from more than 26 countries in the Mind Sports International World Championships in Nottingham.

The estate agent, who has been playing the board game for 14 years, also took home £7,000 in prize money.

He said: ‘This means a lot to me, I went into the third game with a huge mental advantage having won both previous games, so I knew I had to keep focused and if the tiles went in my favour I could clinch it.’

Mr Lamabadusuriya, a paediatrician from Slough, may have been lost for words but he took home £3,000 as runner-up.