PHIL Appleby is a man of letters - literally. The 45-year-old is about to fly to Kuala Lumpur to compete in the World Scrabble Championships - against competitors from 45 countries.

This is the fourth time that Phil, a technical editor with IBM at Hursley, near Winchester, has competed in the championships.

He's hoping for some favourable sets of letters to enable him to achieve some really high scores.

"I'm now the top-rated player in the country, having been fourth highest rated last year," said Phil.

"It all started when I was about six - I was introduced to the game by my Canadian granny who taught me to play, but when I was about eight I beat her for the first time, and she refused to play Scrabble with me again after that!"

Phil has been playing Scrabble competitively since he was a student at Newcastle University 25 years ago.

"It has never lost its fascination," he added.

"I do enjoy playing it competitively - but it has to be played with someone of a similar ability.

"These days a lot of competitive Scrabble is played over the Internet, and it's great, because one can play against top players from all over the world."

Phil's Japanese wife, Tomoko, 40, doesn't play Scrabble.

"She struggles with English anyway - but she doesn't mind my playing," said Phil.

"But since we got married, seven years ago, I have played less Scrabble.

"The nice thing about this Championship in Kuala Lumpur is that Tomoko can fly on to Japan to visit her family, and I will follow her there after the tournament for a holiday."

Success at Scrabble can still be down to luck, according to Phil.

"There will be about 20-30 potential winners at the championships, but your chances will be less if you get a bad run of tiles," he explained.

"The person who gets the luck will win.

"English-speaking people are obviously at an advantage, and the top players are from America, Canada and the UK, although there are some very good players from Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

"It's wonderful meeting people with the same interests from all around the world."

Phil, from Lymington, holds the record for the highest ever score in a Scrabble game - 1,049.

The most he has ever scored for one word was 374 for the word oxidisers, spanning two triple word scores.

"Two very useful words are otarine (meaning like a sealion) and etaerio (a botanical term), because they both use extremely common tiles," he said.

"Another very useful word is qi, an alternative to chi, meaning a Chinese life force, as it's a good way of using a Q in a little word."

There's one obscure word that Phil would love to use if he had the opportunity.

It's 'taghiarm', which loosely means to lie behind a wall in Scotland concealed in the hide of an ox.

In case anyone were to suggest that Phil is obsessed with Scrabble, he does have another interest - golf. He is a member of Brokenhurst Manor Golf Club.

"During the summer the golf takes over. Scrabble is more my winter activity," he said.