Dan McColm

Dan McColm with his winners' trophy.

Dan McColm was a contestant in Series 64, an octochamp in and the series champion of Series 71, and is a planned participant in Championship of Champions XIV. He is an Apterite and a member of C4Countdown.

His Countdown career began in Series 64, when he was defeated in a close contest against future quarter-finalist Ned Pendleton. However, this wasn't an entirely bad thing, as he was allowed to return in Series 71 (less than four years later), leaving his mark as one of the greatest octochamps in the show's entire history.

McColm's incredible octorun started off with a relatively close game against one-time winner Gary Mehaffy. McColm started off by finding SULCATE, giving him a 7 point lead. However, a tough battle between the two and McColm offering the invalid word annatos ☓ saw Mehaffy equalise in round 7. Despite the close first half, the game was pretty one-sided from this point on, with McColm ending his not-technically-a-début début with an extremely impressive 13 maxes and 113 points. He then went on to win a further 7 games, including 6 more centuries, offering words like NANOTUBE, TERATOMA, PERORATE and perhaps the greatest 9 spot in the history of Countdown - INAMORATO. McColm also took advantage of this being the first ODO-dictionary series, offering modern words such as WHATEV and solving the conundrum PHOTOBOMB in just a second. McColm's score of 137 in his 6th game is the highest ever for a game with only one nine available, and this along with his 4 nines and impeccable numbers and conundrum performance landed McColm with an octototal of 942 - the sixth highest in the show's history.

After defeating Paul Worsley in the quarter-finals, he defeated the #5 seed, George Ford in the semi-final with a perfect game. McColm then went on to face #2 seed Antoinette Ryan. In a close contest, in which McColm dropped behind for the first time by two points, McColm emerged the victor and series champion after solving the conundrum LETHALITY in just four seconds.

He made his CO-event debut at COLIN 2012, before finishing as the runner-up at both CO:REA in April and COHUD in June of the same year.

Preceded by Mark Murray

Series winner Series 71

Followed by Tom Cappleman

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
5212	24/02/2011	P	Ned Pendleton	89 – 66	Dan McColm	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Mark Foster	Susie Dent	118
6007	8/10/2014	P	Gary Mehaffy	70 – 113	Dan McColm	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tony Jacklin	Susie Dent	131
6008	9/10/2014	P	Dan McColm	92 – 70	Ben Hodgson	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tony Jacklin	Susie Dent	127
6009	10/10/2014	P	Dan McColm	112 – 37	Daisy Stemple	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tony Jacklin	Susie Dent	119
6010	13/10/2014	P	Dan McColm	116 – 47	John Vivian	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Richard Arnold	Susie Dent	128
6011	14/10/2014	P	Dan McColm	129 – 58	Samantha Cooper	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Richard Arnold	Susie Dent	131
6012	15/10/2014	P	Dan McColm	137 – 53	Harry Jarrett	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Richard Arnold	Susie Dent	139
6013	16/10/2014	P	Dan McColm	126 – 44	Antony Aston	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Richard Arnold	Susie Dent	130
6014	20/10/2014	P	Dan McColm	117 – 51	Stephen Whieldon	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Richard Arnold	Susie Dent	121
6050	10/12/2014	QF	Dan McColm	109 – 60	Paul Worsley	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Arlene Phillips	Susie Dent	121
6054	17/12/2014	SF	Dan McColm	123 – 77	George Ford	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	David Baddiel	Susie Dent	123
6056	19/12/2014	GF	Dan McColm	117 – 87	Antoinette Ryan	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	David Baddiel	Susie Dent	129