Article written by Helen Ougham.

"I'm writing this at home down by the Marina in Aberystwyth, with a gale blowing outside.

It's dark, but I know that the waves are crashing over the prom and the water is pouring across the road and down into the harbour. This morning the breaking waves were throwing spray up above the height of the harbour-mouth lighthouse. Earlier in the week, when it was calmer, I saw an otter swimming about just below our front window.

It's the first time I've spotted one, though I know from friends that there is a small colony of them living in the area. I love living in Aberystwyth, especially by the sea. Like so many people, I came to the town for three years to do a degree - in my case, a PhD in the old Biochemistry department - and just couldn't bear to leave. My work as a scientist at IGER (together with occasional other activities, such as crossword competitions) means I'm frequently travelling, in the UK and beyond, but it's always a delight to come home.

Winning the Times National Crossword Championship for a second time wasn't the only reason why 2006 was a special year for me. It was also the year in which my partner of more than 10 years, Sid Thomas, and I, decided it was time to make it official, and we got married at the end of March. Our parents are all elderly and unable to travel, and we didn't want a big ceremony without them, so instead we had a private ceremony - just the two of us - at Gretna Green on the way up to a meeting in Scotland. We'd only let close family know in advance, so our friends and colleagues were all taken by surprise!

My mother, now 86, was especially pleased about both the marriage and the championship. When I first won in 1995, she came to the national final in London. She'd never met Sid before, but by the end of the competition (I heard afterwards) they were both so nervous that they were sitting with their arms round each other and their eyes tight shut.

It was a fairly unusual way to meet your future "in-law" for the first time! In 2006, Sid came with me to Cheltenham for the championship but went off for a walk while I was competing - he said his nerves just wouldn't stand being present during the final.

He has, however, faithfully promised to polish the impressive cup I won; it has to be returned in time to be presented to the 2007 winner, so I think he's hoping not too much polishing will be required.

Does living in Aberystwyth help to make a crossword champion? A former Registrar of the University, the late Tom Arfon Owen, was also a keen crossword enthusiast, and he and I met a few times at regional and national competitions.

I know several crossword enthusiasts, at work and elsewhere in Aber. The high proportion of graduates in the town may have something to do with it, though by no means all successful "cruciverbalists" have an academic background. I'd like to say that a knowledge of Welsh is helpful is solving cryptic crosswords in English, but the truth is that not many Welsh words find their way into the dictionaries, such as Chambers, which the crossword setters use as definitive reference sources.

"Cwm" is the best-known exception; some people claim that "penguin" is another example, but there's some doubt as to whether the origin of the word is really the Welsh "pen gwyn". After all, most penguins don't have white heads!

It might come as a surprise to some that the typical winner of the Times competition isn't a specialist in languages, English or dictionaries.

People working in maths, computing and science tend to do well, so being a biologist with experience in computing has probably stood me in good stead.

Maybe the urge to solve problems crosses the boundary between science/technology and crosswords - that's undoubtedly why expert cryptic crossword solvers were recruited to the Bletchley Park squad of Enigma codebreakers in WW2.

I'm often asked what is my favourite crossword clue, but the honest answer is that it's usually the best one I've read in the last week.

Doing a lot of crosswords does make you aware of some of the peculiarities of the English language: how many people would guess, for example, that "orchestra" is an anagram of "carthorse"? Or that the word "kip" has seven completely separate meanings?

Cryptic crosswords do exist in many other languages, including Welsh (though strangely they're very uncommon in the USA), but English, with all its idiosyncratic variations in spelling, pronunciation and grammar, is uniquely suited to the cryptic puzzle.

So now, before I get on with some household chores, I think I'll just log on to the Times crossword club web site, and see how I get on with today's...

Article written by Helen Ougham.