Accrington has its very own Olympic champion - of the mind.
Martyn Hamer, 31, will be representing England at the Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) in London from August 21-30, as defending champion.
Trainee accountant Martyn, who lives with his mum on Manchester Road, is an all-round games expert and last year he won the five-event championship the Pentamind.
This combines the traditional pursuits like chess, poker and backgammon with new games like circular strategic board game Pacru and grid-based build and destroy game Alfreds Wyke.
Around 50 competitors take part in individual game world championships, without about half of those battling to win the Pentamind.
Last year he set a new record with five gold medals to earn the perfect score, en route beating the previously unbeaten Pacru grandmaster Alain Dekker, from South Africa.
This year Martyn will also be trying to win back the title of amateur poker world champion.
The maths and statistics graduate from Warwick University has been a member of Great Harwood chess club for 16 years, achieving a grade of 169.
He said: "The main two games I play are chess and poker, but basically I love all sorts of games and am reasonably good at quite a lot of them.
"I’ve been playing down at the Olympiad since about 2002 or 2003 and I’ve always done okay but last year I managed to win the overall main prize.
"They take the best five games you’ve done and give you a score based on those five. It was a bit of a shock to win because there’s quite a lot of other very good games players down there."
For more information about the Olympiad visit www.boardability.com
