Due to persistent vandalism, account creation has been suspended. If you would like an account, please contact Charlie Reams on Apterous.
Stewart Holden
Stewart Holden was an Octochamp in Series 51, scoring 870 points and a number of crushing victories in the process. His score of 137 against Anna Briggs was the highest of the series, and the fourth highest score ever. It included two nine letter words, MANTICORE and DEFEATING. After 7 games Holden's points total was one point better than Julian Fell's and with a score of 138 he could have passed Fell's score of 924 in 8 games. It was not to be however as Holden had a string of words disallowed and only won the game 79-73. 870 points was easily enough to be #1 seed come the finals of the series in June. In the quarter-final he scored a hard-fought win over #8 seed Nicole Hutchings thanks to the word PENTODE. The semi-final was less close, with Holden winning 93-60, by 33 points. The final was against Steve Graston which was a close game, eventually settled by Holden's find of WALDOES which meant he avoided a crucial conundrum. He did however solve the conundrum GENEALOGY and won Series 51 unbeaten.
After winning the series, he withdrew from Countdown to concentrate on Scrabble, having been on the England team at the World Scrabble Championship in 2003, and so did not appear in the Championship of Champions XII. He was runner-up in the 2007 National Scrabble Championship.
After Countdown he went on to run his own Scrabble accessories business, Tilefish, which he later sold. Holden has also written the content for the 2008, 2009 and 2010 editions of the desktop Countdown puzzle calendar produced by Infocado and is the Publicity Officer for the Association of British Scrabble Players.
Preceded by Chris Cummins |
Series winner Series 51 |
Followed by Mark Tournoff |
Episodes
# | Date | Type | Contestant 1 | Score | Contestant 2 | Presenters | Guest | Lex | Max | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3650 | 23/02/2004 | P | Philip Aelberry | 45 – 115 | Stewart Holden | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Jimmy Carr | Susie Dent | |||
3651 | 24/02/2004 | P | Stewart Holden | 108 – 21 | Fiona Scott | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Jimmy Carr | Susie Dent | |||
3652 | 25/02/2004 | P | Stewart Holden | 94 – 52 | Matt Dent | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Jimmy Carr | Susie Dent | |||
3653 | 26/02/2004 | P | Stewart Holden | 113 – 31 | Pamela Moffat | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Jimmy Carr | Susie Dent | |||
3654 | 27/02/2004 | P | Stewart Holden | 116 – 35 | Mike Collins | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Jimmy Carr | Susie Dent | |||
3655 | 1/03/2004 | P | Stewart Holden | 108 – 84 | Mo Janson | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Ken Bruce | Susie Dent | |||
3656 | 2/03/2004 | P | Stewart Holden | 137 – 68 | Anna Briggs | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Ken Bruce | Susie Dent | |||
3657 | 3/03/2004 | P | Stewart Holden | 79 – 73 | Martin Rigby | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Ken Bruce | Susie Dent | |||
3722 | 17/06/2004 | QF | Stewart Holden | 110 – 105 | Nicole Hutchings | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Martin Jarvis | Susie Dent | |||
3726 | 23/06/2004 | SF | Richard Pay | 60 – 93 | Stewart Holden | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Michael Aspel | Susie Dent | |||
3728 | 25/06/2004 | GF | Steve Graston | 81 – 104 | Stewart Holden | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Michael Aspel | Susie Dent |