Londoner crowned world Scrabble champion with 74-point score for the word 'carrels'

A new world Scrabble champion has been crowned thanks to his knowledge of classroom furniture.

David Eldar, 27, beat his opponent Harshan Lamabadusurilya 3-0 in a best of five final - placing the word "carrels", a cubicle desk, to score 74 points.

The Australian born wordsmith, who now lives in London, claimed victory at the Old Museum, Nottingham Conference Centre, on Sunday, after competing against players from more than 26 countries and across three rounds of the MSI World Championships.

As well as the title, Mr Eldar, who has been playing the board game for 14 years, took home £7,000 in prize money.

He is ranked second in the world and works in real estate in London.

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 just had to keep focused and if the tiles went in my favour I could clinch it."

The runner up, who is ranked 16th in the world and has been playing Scrabble for two decades, will take home £3,000.

Some of the words the pair managed to produce during the final included Obvs, slang for obvious, scoring 10 and Asinicos, meaning stupid fellows, scoring 64.