With previous champions including breakthrough acts such as Beardyman, Reeps One and Faith SFX, competition is set to be fierce when the UK Beatbox Championships celebrate their 10th anniversary in Clapham.

The competition is at Clapham Grand from noon to 3am on Saturday, November 7, and will see 32 musicians battling it out in the main competition as well as 22 competitors in three other categories.

Former Greenwich University student ABH – real name Alex Belgarion Hackett – is among them. He’ll be looking to improve on his fourth place last year and also takes part in the team competition where his partner is reigning champ Contrix.

Explaining how the championships work, he said: “In a head-to-head judges score competitors on things like, technicality, musicality, originality, crowd reaction and battle presence.

“The audience gets to see beatboxers' best routines rolled into a few minutes, as with any battle there's always fierce energy flying around.”

It all makes for an electric atmosphere, too. Alex said: “UK Beatbox crowds are awesome. People go crazy for the good things you do, whereas when performing to a non-beatbox crowd they may miss some of the intricacies.

“When the crowd gets hype all that energy fuels a beatboxer and the beats get even better. “Also beatboxing is unique in the fact crowd response can sometimes alter the way we do beats live - an awesome dynamic for battles.”

Alex was first introduced to beatboxing as a teenager by a friend he used to rap with. Their phone broke so they were forced to provide their own beats.

He said: “We went to his and he showed me some Beardyman and Faith SFX videos and I was hooked. I just couldn’t stop beatboxing everywhere I went, getting sent out of class for beatboxing, annoying friends by doing the same thing over and over.”

He added: “By the time I finished uni I had got to the point I could support myself solely from busking and my hobby turned into a full time career.”

The UK Beatbox Championships 2015 are at Clapham Grand from noon to 3am on Saturday, November 7. Daytime tickets (to 6pm) cost £6, the evening and afterparty costs £12 or the whole thing costs £15. Go to ukbeatboxchampionships.com