BY day accountant Bill Friar is a number-cruncher, but away from the office he’s a board game inventor.

Now Bill, who turned 55 this week, has developed a new game named Jabokni, in which the players score points linking words on a board containing an octagonal grid.

Although the idea for the game has been germinating for 17 years, it is only within the last 12 months that he has started to develop the concept further.

Bill, who lives on Prescot Road, has produced 1,000 prototypes of the game, which he has handed out to friends and family to test their opinion.

It looks like Bill could have a winner on his hands.

He said: “Everyone so far have said it’s addictive.

“A couple of my friends recently went to London by train and they played it there and back.

“I came up with the idea when I was having a patio built.

“My youngest niece and her friend were playing on it jumping from square to square, shouting letters and words at the same time.

“I thought about putting letters on the squares to form words.”

He says the word ‘Jabokni’ is a made-up name, and he has registered it as a trademark.

Now he has teamed up with Newton-based company Cultivate Creative, who designed the packaging and has received backing from St Helens Chamber.

Bill said the next step was to get the game known across St Helens, and he intends visiting local groups and organisations to give people a taste of the game he is hopeful will prove to be a winner.