A hospital payroll clerk has finished in the top 35 players at the World Scrabble Championships held in Kenya.

John Ashmore, 55, from Bradwell, improved on his performance at the 2015 World English-Language Scrabble Players Association Championship in Perth, Australia, where he won 16 out of 32 games – this time around at the 2017 finals in Nairobi he won 18 of his 32 matches.

Mr Ashmore, who works at Gorleston’s James Paget Hospital, finished 34th in a field of 118 of the world’s top players.

He said: “My opponents included players from Australia, the USA, Singapore, Malaysia, Kenya and Thailand and I met many of the people I last met two years ago in Australia.

“Day three was my most successful – when I won seven out of eight games – and I’m really pleased that I managed to do better than I did in 2015 by winning 18 of my 32 games.”