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David O'Donnell (Series 58)

From Countdown
David O'Donnell (Series 58)
Octochamp Statistics
Final positionChampion
Seeding1
Points total880
Conundrums solved6
For other people called David O'Donnell, see David O'Donnell.
David O'Donnell in the process of missing LATTICES.
David O'Donnell in the 30th Birthday Championship.

David O'Donnell was an octochamp in and the champion of Series 58, and was a quarter-finalist in the Championship of Champions XIII and the 30th Birthday Championship.

He first appeared on the 24th of January 2008 and scored 110 against Marjorie Hillman, winning by 56 points. In his next two games he fell below 100 but came back with 117 against Bill Barrack. His next game turned out to have the second largest winning margin of all-time, David beat Hazel Wheeler by 98 points, winning 111 – 13. He scored 114 against Rick Ruegg before scoring 122 against Ian Browning, the second highest score of the series. On the 4 February, David finished his octochamp run with a score of 117, and an impressive octototal of 880.

O'Donnell returned for the finals as #1 seed and saw off the challenge of Ben Hanks and then very narrowly beat Jonathan Coles on a crucial conundrum, despite having ULTIMATI disallowed. In the final, Richard Priest gave a good performance but was 13 – 0 after two rounds and never recovered. After David beat him in the later rounds with EPIDOTE the game was effectively over and O'Donnell became the Series 58 champion, winning the final game of the series 91 – 61, although he failed to solve the conundrum SCORELINE.

O'Donnell returned for the Championship of Champions XIII, beating James Hurrell on a crucial conundrum solved in less than a second. In the quarter-finals, he faced Steven Briers. The scores were close all the way, until Briers spotted the nine-letter word PESTICIDE when O'Donnell only had a seven. The players continued to score in every round, until the conundrum, where Briers led by 18 points. O'Donnell solved the conundrum in 0.5 seconds, but it wasn't enough as he lost 118 – 110, one of the highest ever losing scores.

He returned to Countdown in 2013, as one of 41 contestants taking part in the 30th Birthday Championship. After receiving a bye to the first round, he won his first match against Series 47 runner-up Tom Hargreaves by a score of 111 – 86. He then played the Series 61 champion Chris Davies in one of the greatest games of Countdown ever. After getting nines in the last 2 letters games, and getting 2 away in the last numbers game, both Davies and O'Donnell scored 117 points, but after Davies incorrectly guessed PARGETMAN as an answer to PENTAGRAM, it left O'Donnell to correctly guess GARBOLOGY in the second conundrum to win by a score of 127 – 117, the highest aggregate score in the history of the show. He then fell at the quarter-final stage to the still unbeaten Series 63 champion Jack Hurst, although he did become the first person to take Hurst to a crucial conundrum.

In January 2010, O'Donnell attended his first unofficial Countdown tournament, COLIN 2010.

Preceded by
Craig Beevers
Series winner
Series 58
Followed by
Junaid Mubeen

Episodes

# Date Type Contestant 1 Score Contestant 2 Presenters Guest Lex Max
4525 24/01/2008 P Marjorie Hillman 54 – 110 David O'Donnell Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Trudie Goodwin Alison Heard 120
4526 25/01/2008 P David O'Donnell 97 – 49 Brian Kay Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Trudie Goodwin Alison Heard 130
4527 28/01/2008 P David O'Donnell 92 – 62 Martin Smith Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Trudie Goodwin Alison Heard 119
4528 29/01/2008 P David O'Donnell 117 – 45 Bill Barrack Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Trudie Goodwin Alison Heard 121
4529 30/01/2008 P David O'Donnell 111 – 13 Hazel Wheeler Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Richard Digance Alison Heard 126
4530 31/01/2008 P David O'Donnell 114 – 44 Rick Ruegg Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Richard Digance Alison Heard 131
4531 1/02/2008 P David O'Donnell 122 – 62 Ian Browning Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Richard Digance Alison Heard 128
4532 4/02/2008 P David O'Donnell 117 – 48 Steve Jepp Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Richard Digance Alison Heard 120
4621 12/06/2008 QF David O'Donnell 92 – 46 Ben Hanks Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Alastair Stewart Susie Dent 118
4625 18/06/2008 SF David O'Donnell 95 – 82 Jonathan Coles Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Dr Phil Hammond Susie Dent 119
4627 20/06/2008 GF David O'Donnell 91 – 61 Richard Priest Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Dr Phil Hammond Susie Dent 118
4733 12/01/2009 CP David O'Donnell 101 – 82 James Hurrell Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley Andrew Sachs Susie Dent 119
4741 22/01/2009 CQF Steve Briers 118 – 110 David O'Donnell Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley Alastair Stewart Susie Dent 130
5635 4/02/2013 30B1 David O'Donnell 111 – 86 Tom Hargreaves Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Kate Adie Susie Dent 128
5644 15/02/2013 30B2 Chris Davies 117 – 127* David O'Donnell Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Ken Bruce Susie Dent 140
5651 26/02/2013 30BQF Jack Hurst 115 – 97 David O'Donnell Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Jenny Eclair Susie Dent 122
* includes 10 points from a tie-break conundrum