James Haughton

James Haughton Octochamp Statistics
Final position	Champion
Seeding	1
Points total	958
Conundrums solved	6

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, and also an Apterite.

Co-events and on screen

Haughton 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 high-scoring run, scoring centuries in all his games, spotting impressive nine-letter words and unravelling 6 conundrums correctly. He ultimately wrapped up his run with 958 points – the 5th-highest ever at the time – to become the second octochamp of the series and ultimately the number 1 seed.

Six months later, Haughton returned for the finals against number 8 seed David Law. Haughton thundered off into a 46-point lead after the opening three rounds by spotting two nines – NEFARIOUS and MONRADITE – and maxing the first numbers round. Another nine letter spot of the word UNROASTED helped him finish the game with 147 points – the third-highest score ever at the time – 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 then 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 ultimate show of the series, Haughton played against number 2 seed Jamie Wing. Both players scored in the first two letters rounds until Haughton solved the first difficult numbers round to take the lead. Haughton then extended the gap to 25 points by finding PERINEUM and beating Wing in a 6-small numbers game. Both players then matched each other in the remaining rounds prior to the conundrum, and hilariously made complex solutions on the final rather easy numbers game. Wing solved the conundrum to take his score to 95 and Haughton won the series with 110 points to receive the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy and thus remained unbeaten. Haughton amassed 1,328 points across his run of 11 wins – at the time, the second-highest ever accrued by a series winner after Zarte Siempre.

As a result of the following series being extended to December after a 14-week COVID-19 hiatus, Haughton is the longest-reigning series champion of Countdown, having retained the title for almost a full year.

Haughton returned just over three years later for Championship of Champions XVI in January 2023, where his first opponent was Stu Harkness. In an excellent and very close matchup, James slowly built up a sizeable lead with spots like MOUTHIE and GALLOPER. Harkness though pulled out an ace when he spotted VOCALISES and Haughton did not to all but wipe out James's lead. This eventually led the match to a crucial conundrum HYPESKILL which James quickly unscrambled to SYLPHLIKE to seal a hard-fought victory, earn his twelfth century, and preserve his unbeaten record into the quarter-finals.

Appearances on quiz shows

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, and in that year he was also on a winning team on Eggheads. He also partook in the 66th series of Brain of Britain in 2019.

Preceded by Dinos Sfyris

Series winner Series 81

Followed by Luke Johnson-Davies

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
7231	20/12/2019	GF	James Haughton	110 – 95	Jamie Wing	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tim Vine	Susie Dent	125
7925	05/01/2023	CP	Stu Harkness	97 – 111	James Haughton	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Richard Osman	Susie Dent	134