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Kate Ogilvie

From Countdown
Kate Ogilvie
Octochamp Statistics
Final positionChampion
Seeding2
Points total417
Conundrums solved2
Kate Ogilvie

Kate Ogilvie was an octochamp in and the champion of Series 39, the runner-up of Championship of Champions X and the winner of the Ladies' Championship. She is currently the only female xicount. She was a teaching assistant at Whitcliffe Mount School from Huddersfield, but originally from near Edinburgh.

Appearances on the show

Heat games

She first appeared on the show on 11 September 1998, beating Neil Doherty 48 – 42 in a hard-fought game. She won a further seven games to become an octochamp, facing only two crucial conundrums in the heats, and returned for the series finals as number two seed.

Series finals

After beating Pat Peacock on a crucial conundrum in her quarter-final, and then defeating Andrew Lucas in her semi-final, she took on Richard Saldanha, brother of the famous Allan Saldanha, in the grand final on Christmas Day 1998. The final was a close-run affair, with Ogilvie leading by two points going into the crucial conundrum. However, neither player was able to unscramble YULETIDER in the 30 seconds, meaning that Ogilvie became the 39th champion of Countdown – only the fifth ever female series winner, and to date, the only woman to win a series unbeaten.

As the first octochamp of Series 39, Ogilvie was the first-ever finalist to be seeded above someone who had amassed more points than she had (excluding some erratic cases in Series 2). In the previous series, the production team had changed the seeding system such that win count took precedence over point count – however, Series 38's finalists were all in descending order of point count anyway.

Championship of Champions X

Ogilvie declares SPEAKING in the grand final of Championship of Champions X.

She returned to Countdown in December 1999 for Championship of Champions X, where she was given a bye into the semi-finals on account of her undefeated status. After beating Terence English, she faced Scott Mearns in the grand final, and was outclassed by the young champion, losing 82 – 56.

Special episode and Ladies' Championship

Ogilvie would later be invited back twice to the Countdown studios – the first time to record a special episode, a rematch of her grand final against Richard Saldanha, which she again won, and secondly to film the Ladies' Championship in Series 49, where she beat Verity Joubert and Hilary Hopper to win the three-day mini-series.

Appearance on quiz show

Prior to her time on Countdown, she had previously appeared on Fifteen to One in April 1998, coming runner-up in her episode to another previous Countdown finalist, Amy Godel.

Preceded by
John Ashmore
Series winner
Series 39
Followed by
Terence English


Preceded by
Pete Cashmore
Champion of Champions runner-up
Championship of Champions X
Followed by
Chris Wills

Episodes

# Date Type Contestant 1 Score Contestant 2 Presenters Guest Lex Max
2347 11/09/1998 P Neil Doherty 42 – 48 Kate Ogilvie Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Diane Keen Mark Nyman 86
2348 14/09/1998 P Kate Ogilvie 50 – 38 Roy Smith Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Diane Keen Mark Nyman 74
2349 15/09/1998 P Kate Ogilvie 64 – 42 Phyllis Gilmour Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Diane Keen Mark Nyman 85
2350 16/09/1998 P Kate Ogilvie 44 – 43 John Saunders Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Diane Keen Mark Nyman 72
2351 17/09/1998 P Kate Ogilvie 54 – 35 Jane Gordon-Cumming Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Diane Keen Mark Nyman 75
2352 18/09/1998 P Kate Ogilvie 54 – 35 Declan Cahill Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Diane Keen Mark Nyman 73
2353 21/09/1998 P Kate Ogilvie 53 – 30 Mark Duffield Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Richard Digance Susie Dent 83
2354 22/09/1998 P Kate Ogilvie 50 – 44 Steven Prior Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Richard Digance Susie Dent 74
2417 18/12/1998 QF Kate Ogilvie 61 – 46 Pat Peacock Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Magnus Magnusson Mark Nyman 71
2421 24/12/1998 SF Kate Ogilvie 52 – 39 Andrew Lucas Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Gloria Hunniford Mark Nyman 83
2422 25/12/1998 GF Kate Ogilvie 83 – 81 Richard Saldanha Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Gloria Hunniford Mark Nyman 118
2676 29/12/1999 CSF Kate Ogilvie 57 – 30 Terence English Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Nigel Rees Mark Nyman 85
2678 31/12/1999 CGF Scott Mearns 82 – 56 Kate Ogilvie Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Nigel Rees Mark Nyman 128
3437 12/03/2003 LSF Kate Ogilvie 47 – 39 Verity Joubert Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Rick Wakeman Alison Heard 74
3438 13/03/2003 LF Hilary Hopper 32 – 54 Kate Ogilvie Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Rick Wakeman Alison Heard 83
S16 26/07/2004 S Richard Saldanha 83 – 92 Kate Ogilvie Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Geoffrey Durham Susie Dent 121


Championship of Champions Runners-Up

I : Joyce Cansfield | II : Peter Evans | III : David Trace | IV : Tony Vick | V : Gino Corr | VI : Chris Waddington | VII : Damian Eadie | VIII : Kenneth Michie | IX : Pete Cashmore | X : Kate Ogilvie | XI : Chris Wills | XII : Mark Tournoff | XIII : Charlie Reams | XIV : Dan McColm | XV : Bradley Horrocks | XVI : James Haughton