Spate is also a former tournament Scrabble player. He was the top rated United Kingdom player in 1991, 1994 and 1995. He competed at the World Scrabble Championship in 1993, finishing ninth out of sixty-four.
Spate gradually retired from the game, although he made a brief comeback in 2003, when he was the runner-up at the British National Scrabble Championship.
He was the winner of the eighth series of Countdown and has won many other television quizzes, including the 2003 series Grand Slam, a contest between previous quiz show champions which also featured Olav Bjortomt, Mark Labbett, Graham Nash and David Edwards, among others The winner that year was Countdown Champion of Champions, Mark Nyman - the first United Kingdom Scrabble player to hold the World Championship title.
