Brett Smitheram

Brett Smitheram

Brett Smitheram was a quarter-finalist in Series 37. He was a law student from Exeter. He is also a competitive Scrabble player.

Smitheram debuted on 21 October 1997 with victory over fellow Scrabble player Kate Surtees who, despite losing her eighth game, held her position as number one seed. All his wins were half-centuries. After losing his seventh game by one point, he returned for the quarter-finals in December as number three seed, but lost on a tiebreak conundrum to Ruth Collier.

In 2003, he was invited back to Countdown for a special episode against fellow Scrabble great Harshan Lamabadusuriya, losing 87 – 101, but should have been 95 – 101 due to the wrongful disallowal of MUSTERER.

Smitheram is one of the world's most successful Scrabble grandmasters, and has been playing competitive Scrabble since 1996. A former UK and world number one, he is the 2016 MSI World Scrabble Champion, beating Mark Nyman 3 – 0 in the final. His second win came from 176 points behind, similar to one of Nyman's fightbacks in the 1993 World Scrabble Championship final. Coincidentally, Nyman was the lexicographer at the time of Smitheram's quarter-final appearance as well as the show's producer. Smitheram is also the 2000 and 2022 National Scrabble Champion, a four-time winner of the British Matchplay Scrabble Championship, and a semi-finalist in the 2018 World Scrabble Championship, losing to the eventual winner Nigel Richards. In 2020, Smitheram won the British Elimination Scrabble Tournament.

In 2017, Smitheram appeared on the Micky Flanagan show Thinking Aloud on Sky One.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
2119	21/10/1997	P	Kate Surtees	44 – 59	Brett Smitheram	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Geoffrey Durham	Anna Eaton	81
2120	22/10/1997	P	Brett Smitheram	50 – 28	Sylvia Bell	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Geoffrey Durham	Anna Eaton	73
2121	23/10/1997	P	Brett Smitheram	52 – 45	Colin Harwood	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Angela Rippon	Anna Eaton	67
2122	24/10/1997	P	Brett Smitheram	55 – 29	Betty Cunningham	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Angela Rippon	Anna Eaton	85
2123	27/10/1997	P	Brett Smitheram	53 – 31	Jonathan Goldstone	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Angela Rippon	Anna Eaton	70
2124	28/10/1997	P	Brett Smitheram	59 – 52	Jeff Schwartz	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Angela Rippon	Anna Eaton	71
2125	29/10/1997	P	Brett Smitheram	44 – 45	Alan Cameron	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Angela Rippon	Anna Eaton	77
2158	15/12/1997	QF	Brett Smitheram	44 – 54*	Ruth Collier	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Gyles Brandreth	Mark Nyman	84
S7	03/09/2003	S	Brett Smitheram	87 – 101	Harshan Lamabadusuriya	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman					Richard Stilgoe	Damian Eadie	119

* includes 10 points from a tie-break conundrum

External Links

• Brett Smitheram on Wikipedia.