A female word wizard has the answer to a complaint that there are not enough women competing at scrabble - they are too busy looking after men.

Joyce Cansfield, who three years ago was the Mensa Games Scrabble Champion, says women have less time to cram vocabulary.

Organisers of the Association of British Scrabble Players national championship, taking place in London on November 5, are lamenting the lack of a females in the finals - the last was 18 years ago.

Mrs Cansfield, 77, a member of the Aireborough scrabble club, says she can enlighten them as to why this is now the case.

"Men can spend more time learning lists of words - they don't have to do as much around the house as women," she said.

"When they come home after work, they can more or less do what they like, but we women have to get down to the housework."

By profession Mrs Cansfield is a crossword compiler - including the Times crossword - and is also a member of Mensa, Britain's brainiest club.

"I managed to build up my word knowledge because I lived with my mother a long time and she allowed me to get on with things," she said.

She had been playing since the 1950s and part of the skill was to memorise lists of words.

She also learned their meanings, which helped when forming word-hooks and derivatives, but many players elected not to learn meanings.

Mrs Cansfield, of Otley, just missed winning a place in this year's national tournament by failing to clinch one of the nine places at the North East Regional heats in Shipley, earlier this year.

"I was leading after four games and then failed to keep a grip on the last two," she said.

The game had always been popular with women, and it is now gaining more members through its popularity on the internet.

The club, which meets in Guiseley every Monday, has recently attracted a number of young men in their twenties.

"If you want to compete, you need to join a club because people need to get experience at playing head-to-head and against the clock," Mrs Cransfield said.

Stewart Holden of the ABSP said there were twice as many woman playing the game in the UK as men, yet they rarely made it to the top.

In the run-up to this year's championship final, the highest ranking woman finished in 27th place. He said: It has been proved scientifically that females have better memories than males.

"We want to find some players who can teach the men a thing or two."

People wishing to know more about the Association of British Scrabble Players should visit www.absp.org.uk.

e.mail:clive.white@bradford.newsquest.co.uk