One of Countdown’s youngest competitors has continued his run of form, winning his third show in a row.

Eleven-year-old Kai Laddiman beat his latest challenger – taxi driver Bill Franklin – by a comfortable 95 points to 61.

And the schoolboy, from Broad Oak in East Sussex, is proving to be a king of the conundrums.

He took just four seconds to solve the puzzle, turning the letters LORNASBUM into SUBNORMAL.

Kai, who has to sit on a pile of cushions during filming so he can be seen by the cameras, has already obtained a B grade in AS level maths.

He said he learned the alphabet and how to count from the show, which he has been watching since he was two.

After his third win the young brain box grinned happily.

Mr Franklin, 49, from Market Harborough, Leicestershire, looked sheepish in defeat.

The Channel 4 word game has attracted a stream of youthful competitors in recent years.

In 1992, eight-year-old James Squires won, and in 2005, Tanmay Dixit won in two shows at the age of eight. In 2006, 14-year-old Conor Travers became the youngest series champion.

It does beg the question, “How would you deal with getting beaten at spelling by a child?”