A Surbiton grandfather-to-be has made it in to the top 20 of the annual Times Crossword Competition this year.

Former Kingston College teacher Tom Stubbs, 57, beat more than 50 other crossword fans to make it to the paper’s national final, where he eventually came 19th out of 24 entrants.

But the Surbiton Hill Park resident, who came sixth in the semi-final said he would not give up until he made a name for himself.

The-father-of-one said: “If I could keep moving up the rankings, that would be good.

“If I could get in to the top 10, that would be a dream.

“But there is an extremely good champion at the moment, who makes the rest of us look a bit second rate and he has won it for the past five or six years.”

Mr Stubbs, who studied Latin at King’s College London, said he became inspired to take on crosswords after his father got in to the top ten of the competition.

His own enthusiasm continued after he followed his father’s footsteps and entered the competition, moving up the rankings to come 65th in 1988 when he was in his 30s.

But he joked: “Progress was not entirely as quick as I might have hoped.”

Mr Stubbs, who has been enjoying crosswords for more than 40 years, said it took him 12 minutes on average to do a crossword puzzle.

Surrey Comet:

Tom Stubbs

He said: “Yesterday I did one in five minutes and today it took me 25 – I don’t think I woke up in top form this morning.”

When asked for a crossword tip or two, Mr Stubbs said: “I don’t have any that I could give out to any potential competitors.

“But I probably ought to sleep more than I do.”

The crossword loving finalist added he always took on his puzzles early in the morning – around 6am – as soon as his newpaper landed on his doorstep. When asked what could drag him away from his latest crossword, Mr Stubbs said: “Well if my daughter phoned up and she said she was in labour I might put it down, but I do get really into it.”

Aside from figuring out crossword puzzles in record time Mr Stubbs enjoys going to the Virgin Active gym in Kingston and teaching English to refugees on the Cambridge estate.