My word! Dunedin boy shines at Scrabble world champs

Alex Leckie Zaharic (11), of Dunedin, is the second best under-12 Scrabble player in the world.

International-level Scrabble players are taking notice of the Mornington School pupil, who was New Zealand's first representative at the World Youth Scrabble Championships, held in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, last week.

Alex won a trophy for best player from a new country after coming second in his age group. He also took third place in his division of the Singapore Open Scrabble Championship, and won 21 of 45 games in the five-day open-grade Causeway Challenge, also held in Johor Bahru.

The player who won the under-12 group went on to win the World Youth Scrabble Championship.

"It's been a fabulous experience, which has opened his eyes to how big Scrabble is around the world,'' Alex's mother Tracie Leckie said.

"He impressed a lot of people from various countries who said they would be keeping their eye on him now.''

Dunedin Scrabble Club president Ruth Groffman, who organises the Dunedin-based annual youth Scrabble competition, was "quite overwhelmed'' by how well Alex performed at an international level.

"It is a fantastic effort, given he has only been playing Scrabble for 15 months,'' Mrs Groffman said.

A highlight for Alex was celebrating his 11th birthday during the Causeway Challenge. He also recorded personal bests for game score (620 points) and highest word score - 135 points for his use of "tickles''.