Shy Scrabble master excels, but please excuse his French

Scrabble lovers tend to choose similar words when describing Nigel Richards, the New Zealander who this week won the word game's Francophone world championship even though he cannot speak French.

"Freak" comes up a lot, along with "elusive", "enigmatic" and, the highest-scoring of all, "amazing". He is also, ironically, described as "a man of few words".

The 48-year-old claimed the title in Brussels after memorizing virtually the entire Francophone Scrabble dictionary - then needed a translator to thank the audience.