Due to persistent vandalism, account creation has been suspended. If you would like an account, please contact Charlie Reams on Apterous.

Mark Murray

From Countdown
Mark Murray
Octochamp Statistics
Final positionChampion
Seeding1
Points total902
Conundrums solved6
Mark Murray in Series 70...
...and again in the Championship of Champions XIV.

Mark Murray was a contestant in Series 41, an octochamp in and the champion of Series 70 - making him the first series winner born in the Republic of Ireland, and a quarter-finalist in Championship of Champions XIV. He is also an Apterite and briefly, a former chairperson of FOCAL.

Appearances on the programme

Heat games

At the time of his run, his cumulative total (902) was the highest-scoring octochamp whose run had included a crucial conundrum. He had three altogether, in his matches against Bobby Johnson, Ciaran McCarthy and Peter Steggle. Because of this and McCarthy's century, many consider Murray to have had the hardest ever octochamp run on the show. This record was beaten by Ahmed Mohamed's 927-point octochamp run in Series 84.

Finals

Despite the array of difficult opponents, Murray was the clear number 1 seed for the finals and saw off the challenges of Andy Gardner, Neil Green and Andy Naylor to win the series.

Championship of Champions XIV

Murray returned in 2016 for Championship of Champions XIV, facing off against Series 71 runner-up: Antoinette Ryan in a game self-styled as "Battle of the Leprechauns", Murray emerged victorious 125 – 88. In the quarter-final, he came up against another Series 71 contestant in series champion: Cool Dan McColm. In the battle of the two series winners of 2014, Cool Dan won a tense match 112 – 99.

Co-events

In 2005, Murray entered the unofficial Countdown tournament CoBris 2005, and subsequently CoBris 2006 and CoBris 2007. In 2015, he revived Countdown in Bristol as a co-host, along with veteran Jeff Clayton to create CoBris 2015. This proved to be popular enough to encourage him to repeat with Countdown Bristol 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Catsdown

In January 2017, Murray also made a spoof appearance on the first episode of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown Series 12, paired with Sean Lock and Stephen Mangan. He was introduced as Sean's mascot nephew "Donny". Unbeknownst to the rest of the panel, he was brought in to play the game for Sean. Murray helped Sean achieve the maximum score in the first two rounds, whispering the solutions to him and declaring the answers as his own. Murray returned for the Conundrum, solving DENTPOOPS, where his true identity was revealed shortly before that.

Outside of Countdown

Away from Countdown, Murray has partaken in Scrabble tournaments. He has also appeared on a few other quiz shows with varying success, including The Weakest Link, 100% and Brainteaser.

Preceded by
Callum Todd
Series winner
Series 70
Followed by
Dan McColm

Episodes

# Date Type Contestant 1 Score Contestant 2 Presenters Guest Lex Max
2630 27/10/1999 P Sanjay Mazumder 65 – 25 Mark Murray Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Marc Freden Mark Nyman 73
5902 10/04/2014 P Bobby Johnson 96 – 115 Mark Murray Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Michael Whitehall Susie Dent 145
5903 11/04/2014 P Mark Murray 108 – 42 Chris Newbury Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Michael Whitehall Susie Dent 120
5904 14/04/2014 P Mark Murray 120 – 104 Ciaran McCarthy Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Michael Whitehall Susie Dent 137
5905 15/04/2014 P Mark Murray 100 – 26 Jim Sales Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Louise Minchin Susie Dent 132
5906 16/04/2014 P Mark Murray 115 – 48 David Jameson Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Louise Minchin Susie Dent 135
5907 17/04/2014 P Mark Murray 112 – 95 Peter Steggle Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Louise Minchin Susie Dent 123
5908 18/04/2014 P Mark Murray 122 – 86 Mike Wilson Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Louise Minchin Susie Dent 133
5909 21/04/2014 P Mark Murray 110 – 69 Simon Pinder Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Louise Minchin Susie Dent 133
5940 13/06/2014 QF Mark Murray 95 – 63 Andy Gardner Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Mark Foster Susie Dent 120
5944 25/06/2014 SF Mark Murray 89 – 64 Neil Green Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Mark Foster Susie Dent 134
5946 27/06/2014 GF Mark Murray 105 – 70 Andy Naylor Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Jon Culshaw Susie Dent 137
6285 13/01/2016 CP Antoinette Ryan 88 – 125 Mark Murray Nick Hewer Rachel Riley John Inverdale Susie Dent 140
6289 19/01/2016 CQF Dan McColm 112 – 99 Mark Murray Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Naga Munchetty Susie Dent 145
Cats75 13/01/2017 S Stephen Mangan,
Mark Murray
& Sean Lock
45 – 22* Noel Fielding,
Fay Ripley
& Rachel Riley
Jimmy Carr Rachel Riley The Brett Domino Trio Susie Dent 80
* Includes 22 Points from a bonus game.

External Links