Smitherham, a consultant at executive search firm Mercuri Urval, became champion in 2016 but failed to defend his title last year. 

With this year’s championship heats taking place in Torquay this week, culminating in the final to be held in London, Smitheram told Recruiter he is coming into this year’s competition off the back of an “extremely busy and successful” professional year. 

“Although I have found the time to successfully defend some of the local titles I won in 2017, I haven’t been able to focus quite as much as I would have liked on preparation for the Worlds,” he added.

Elaborating on the techniques he has been working on, Smitheram revealed he has been revising and testing himself on anagrams.

“My time in-game should be spent choosing which move to play rather than trying to work out what the options are – for example, I’d prefer to spend one minute finding a place for ‘BAZOUKI’, rather than three minutes finding it and placing it. I will be starting still as one of the front runners. But with a strong field looking likely, I’ll have to draw upon all my skills – and a bit of luck – to regain my title,” he said. 

“Either way, I’ll be back at the Westfield in Shepherd's Bush on Sunday for the grand finale – either as a competitor in the last two, or as the media face. I know which I’d rather be at this stage,” he added.

Good luck, Brett – let’s hope you have another world title to boast about this weekend!