AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD boy from Bolton has become the youngest winner of a nationwide spelling competition.

Harrison Mann, from SS Simon and Jude Primary School in Newport Road, was one of just three winners of the Bananagram challenge across England.

The competition was held in both the UK and the USA and asked children to try and spell as many words as they could with a random collection of letters.

Harrison’s father, Thomas, of Brook Hey Avenue, Great Lever, said he knew the youngster had a gift for words but had been surprised to find out that he was in the top three for the entire country.

He said: “I am extremely proud of him. He is the youngest person ever to have won it and he’s very clever.”

The game works similarly to Scrabble, with contestants using tiles to make a grid of joined-up words.

After winning the contest, Harrison and the two other winners have gone on to be part of Bananagram’s UK Ultimate Top Banana competition, which could see him win £1,000 for his school if he can get the most likes on the websites Facebook page.

Over 1,500 schools took part in the British section of the challenge, with the other winners coming from schools in Worcester and Newmarket.

Liz McMenamin, a Year Six teacher at the school who helped run the competition, said the event helped children expand their vocabulary and improve spelling.

She said: “We had 92 children entering our school tournament and children came every playtime and lunchtime to play, as they loved it so much.

“After five weeks of competitive, knock-out tournaments, Harrison, the youngest finalist in the competition, won.

“Please take the time to vote for our school by following the facebook link below, clicking on Harrison’s photo and pressing ‘like’. It will only take a second and we will be so grateful.”

To support Harrison and to help his cause on Facebook, visit: https://www.facebook.com/bananagrams.