James Haughton

James Haughton in Series 81.

James Haughton holding the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy after winning Series 81.

James Haughton was an octochamp in and the champion of Series 81. He's a Maths PhD Student at the University of Manchester.

The Apterite began attending Co-events in 2018, and after rapid improvement, he won his first FOCAL event, CoNuT in 2019 — all prior to his run on the show in July of the same year, in which he began his run with a strong début score of 118 and a spot of the nine-letter word ROUTINISE. He then continued a strong run, scoring centuries in all his games, spotting impressive nine-letter words and getting 6 conundrums correct. He ultimately wrapped his run with 958 points to become the second octochamp of the series.

6 months later, Haughton returned for the finals against number 8 seed David Law. Haughton thundered off into a 46 point lead spotting two nines NEFARIOUS and MONRADITE and maxing the first numbers round. Another nine letter spot of the word UNROASTED helped him to finish the game with a strong 147 points – the third-highest score ever – therefore booking a spot in the semi-finals. Law did add an S to Haughton's offering of SAILING, though, denying Haughton from eclipsing the current highest-ever score of 152.

Haughton then battled Morgan Sauer in the semi-final. Although both players missed deceptive 4-large games under pressure, Haughton scored in every round except the conundrum and added yet another 18 points to his total with MEDIATION to advance to the Grand Final.

In the grand final, Haughton played against the Human Dictionary Jamie Wing. Both players scored in the first two letters rounds until Haughton scored in the first numbers round to take the lead. Both players then played nip and tuck, and hilariously made complexed solutions on the final rather easy numbers game. However Wing solved the conundrum to take his score to 95 and Haughton won the series with 110 points to obtain the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy and thus remains unbeaten. Haughton amassed 1,328 points, the second-highest ever accrued by a series winner, throughout his run.

Outside of Countdown, Haughton previously appeared on University Challenge where he represented the University of Manchester in 2015. In 2017, he was a semi-finalist on Mastermind. He also partook in the 66th series of Brain of Britain in 2019.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
7118	16/07/2019	P	James Haughton	118 – 41	Patrick Coombes	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Michaela Strachan	Susie Dent	158
7119	17/07/2019	P	James Haughton	103 – 50	Darren Rampton	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Rory Bremner	Susie Dent	120
7120	18/07/2019	P	James Haughton	133 – 31	Sonia Elston	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Rory Bremner	Susie Dent	156
7121	19/07/2019	P	James Haughton	125 – 20	Ryan Williams	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Rory Bremner	Susie Dent	144
7122	22/07/2019	P	James Haughton	134 – 30	Iain Sime	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Rory Bremner	Susie Dent	150
7123	23/07/2019	P	James Haughton	114 – 30	Rob Payne	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Rory Bremner	Susie Dent	143
7124	24/07/2019	P	James Haughton	118 – 51	Katrina Bond	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Rory Bremner	Susie Dent	133
7125	25/07/2019	P	James Haughton	113 – 16	Frank Coma	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Paul Sinha	Susie Dent	130
7225	12/12/2019	QF	James Haughton	147 – 60	David Law	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	166
7229	18/12/2019	SF	James Haughton	113 – 79	Morgan Sauer	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	131