List of Countdown records

The following is a list of Countdown records compiled using The Countdown Corral, The Countdown Page, Countdown Update UK and automated and human research from this wiki. Much of the list is divided up into records from the 15 round era, the 9 round era and the 14 round finals, since the considerable differences between these formats make it almost impossible to compare the games like for like.

15 rounds

High scores

• The highest ever score was Julian Fell's 146 against Danny Hamilton. This is also the only time a contestant has found four nine letter words in a single game. The second highest ever score was 143 by Jack Hurst in Series 68. See the list of 15-round scores over 125.

• The highest score set by a challenger was 134 by Hamish Williamson. The highest score for a debutant was 124, set by Jonathan Coles. Williamson had already appeared once before in Series 40, so the matter of who holds the record for highest debut score is somewhat controversial.

• The highest ever total score over an octochamp's eight preliminary games was 946, set by Jack Hurst. The only other players to score over 900 are Andrew Hulme who scored 930, Kirk Bevins who scored 925 points, Julian Fell who scored 924, Craig Beevers who amassed 907, and Adam Gillard who achieved 903. The next highest total is 898 by Eoin Monaghan. Hurst, Hulme, Fell, Beevers, Gillard and Monaghan are the only players to have scored eight centuries in their eight games; see century for more details.

• The highest ever total over 11 games, the maximum possible in one series, was 1307 by Julian Fell, including the aforementioned scores of 146 and 138.

• The highest possible score was available in Episode 3967, when five niners and a number of other favourable rounds made for a possible 173. Only one of the nine letter words was found by the contestants, neither of whom managed to score a century. This is the only episode to date in which five nine-letter words have been available.

• The most nines found by one contestant in one game is four; Julian Fell found SALMONIDS, DEPORTING, INGATHERS and DEFLATION in his record-breaking game.

• The highest ever losing score was Matthew Shore's 117 against Mark Tournoff in the Championship of Champions XII. The game was poised 117 – 114 going into the conundrum SOLILOQUY which Tournoff solved, leaving Shore as the loser with 117 points. That was equalled in Series 68, when Chris Davies lost after a tie-break conundrum to David O'Donnell in episode 5644. A few other losing scores over 100 have been recorded: Terry Rattle lost with a score of 107 in Series 47, which was later beaten by David Williams's losing score of 113 – 111. Both Rattle and Williams lost to Chris Wills. Terry Rattle and Lesley Hines are the only two players ever to have lost on their début whilst scoring over 100, Lesley getting 104 in Series 61.

• The highest-scoring tie-break conundrum was between Andrew Swale and Tony Durrant in Series 58. After the regular conundrum NIGHTCLUB, the scores were neck and neck at 96 – 96, so a second conundrum VEGETABLE was necessary. Tony solved it to score 106 after the tie-breaker.

• While the all-time record score is 146, Jon O'Neill holds the record for the highest score with no nine letter words of 122, which also happened to be a perfect game. The highest with one nine is Jack Hurst's score of 133 and the highest with two is Chris Davies' 139. Hurst also has the highest score with three in his 143. Julian Fell achieved the highest score with four nines with his score of 146 in episode 3387 respectively. Nobody has ever found five nines in one game. If you ignore the nine-point bonus for nine-letter words altogether in order to combine these records, Jack Hurst's above score of 133 becomes 124, and is the record score under this system. Interestingly, Julian Fell's all-time record of 146 would only be worth 110.

• Kirk Bevins is so far the only player to get a maximum score in a 15 round game. He scored 126 out of a possible 126 on 4 March 2009. He then got the 2nd maximum in the show's history with his 130 on 1 February 2013.

• The largest winning margin ever was in episode 5264, where Tom Barnes beat Christine Buffrey by 112 points, 119 – 7, which was also notable for Buffrey's record-breaking low score, as you can see below. Only on 3 other occasions have games been won by over 100 points; episode 3349, where Julian Fell beat Carl McDermott by 109 points, 138 – 29, including three niners: VALORISED, REPULSION and ANTIPODES, and episode 5188, when Adam Gillard beat Mavis Riley by 102 points, with the score 125 – 23. By coincedence, both these records were set when Fell and Gillard were on their 8th preliminary match. The other one was when Graeme Cole beat Mike Linnell by 106 points, with the score 125 – 19.

Low scores

• The lowest ever score was set by Christine Buffrey, who scored only 7 points against Tom Barnes. See the list of 15-round scores under 30.

• The lowest recorded maximum in a 15-round game is 105, which included a numbers game in which no points were available and a series of difficult letters rounds. The Championship of Champions XI final had a maximum of 106, only one point more.

• The lowest winning score was 47, set by Andrew Greenway in Series 63.

• The lowest score in the finals of a series was 21, by David Butcher against Mark Deeks in Series 65.

9 rounds

High scores

• The highest ever score was 83, first achieved by Series champion Stephen Balment in episode 546. This score was made on Stephen's debut, and so it is also the highest debut score of the 9 round era. The score was equalled by Allan Saldanha in Series 33 against Darryl Francis. Saldanha won 83 – 24 in episode 1886, a feat made even more amazing as he was competing against the Series 6 champion.

• The highest ever score by a champion was Harvey Freeman's 82, later equalled by Lucy Roberts in episode 2641. Neither of the scores of 83 was made while Balment or Saldanha were the current champion.

• At least two contestants found two nine letter words in a nine round game. Jill Bright scored 81 in her second game. She got two nine letter words in rounds 1 and 2, but failed to solve the conundrum and could have beaten the highest ever score by 8 points. Similarly, John Snedden found two nine-letter words in Episode 2693 and scored 80 points before the conundrum, but also failed to break the high score record. See the list of 9-round scores over 75.

• The highest ever eight game total was 535, achieved by David Williams. This beat Harvey Freeman's total of 523 in Series 10. The highest ever total over the maximum eleven possible games in one series was 760, also set by Harvey Freeman. This includes 10 9 round games and a 14 round final.

• The highest losing score was 70. In the Championship of Champions IV, Tony Vick beat Steve Williams by a score of 80 – 70. Williams was leading 60 – 70 after 8 rounds but Vick got the conundrum to set up a 70 – 70 tie. A second conundrum was used to separate them, and it was Vick that spotted IMPOUNDED to win with a score of 80. In Series 4, Robert Richland beat Stuart Schofield by a score of 75 – 70 in episode 152.

• The highest known max score for a 9 round game is 106. This included three niners, EXTENSION, CRUDITIES/DIURETICS and GUARDIANS. The Richard Whiteley Gotcha episode actually also had a max of 106, but this is not usually considered to count because the rounds were set up to include certain words.

• The highest known 9-round score with no nine-letter words is 75 points; this record is shared by Harvey Freeman, achieving this score in Episode 466, and Richard Campbell, who got it in Episode 1504. If the 9-point bonus for nine-letter words were excluded, these would also have been the joint highest 9-round scores of all time.

• At least three contestants have got a perfect score in a 9 round game. Jenny Haldane scored 70 points out of 70 in her debut game against John Widdowson in Series 16, and Darren Shacklady scored 69 points out of 69 in his debut game against Tony David in Series 29. Allan Saldanha also scored 67 points out of 67 and achieved a perfect game in his Supreme Championship quarter-final against Joyce Cansfield.

• The highest score in the finals of a 9-round series was 79, by Mark Nyman against Ted Wiles in Series 3.

Low scores

• The record lowest scores belong to John Brooks and Sylvia Pitman, who failed to score a single point between them in Episodes 637 and 2343 respectively.

• The lowest known maximum score for a 9-round game is 59 points, shared by Episodes 1211 and 1999.

• The lowest score in the finals of a 9-round series was 10, by Denys Hollis against Derek Coombs in Series 20. However, Dictionary Corner mistakenly awarded Coombs points for an invalid word, so Hollis' correct score should have been 14, not 10.

14 rounds

• The highest ever score in a 14 round game was 115 by Harvey Freeman in the Championship of Champions III final against Series 9 winner David Trace. Trace was leading 107 – 105 going into the final conundrum, but couldn't get it and lost with 107 points. This is also the highest losing score in a 14 round game, and the third highest score. See List of 14-round scores over 100 for more details.

• The lowest score in a 14 round game was 36, by Joel Salkin against Nic Brown in the final of Series 14. The lowest 14-round winning score was 59, by Stuart Wood against John Rainsden in the final of Series 44.

• Freeman also holds the record for most 14 rounds games won, winning the final of Series 10, the final of the Championship of Champions III and the final of the Supreme Championship. The only player to play four 14 round games was Allan Saldanha, who played in the final of Series 15, two specials against Tim Morrissey and Gareth Williams, and the aforementioned Supreme Championship final against Harvey Freeman. He won the two specials and lost the two finals.

Other

• Harvey Freeman holds the record for the most wins on Countdown with 19 wins from 19 games, or 20 if his Countdown Masters game is counted. Just behind him is Allan Saldanha with 18 wins from 21 games — the most of any player. He played 11 games in Series 15, one game in the Championship of Champions IV, two specials against Tim Morrissey and Gareth Williams, a Masters game, and six games in the Supreme Championship. The second longest winning streak belongs to Don Reid who won 16 games in a row — 11 games in Series 25, three games in the Championship of Champions VII and two games in the Supreme Championship, before losing to fellow Series champion John Clarke on a crucial conundrum.

• Chris Wills holds the record for the most Countdown appearances since the introduction of the 15 round format. In 19 appearances he's scored 1,939 points; this is the highest ever total, though players who have played more games than Wills did so in the shorter format. For this reason, Wills also holds the record for the most airtime, with 855 minutes or 14 hours and 15 minutes. He averaged 104.5 points per game.

• In all forms out of Countdown, Nita Marr holds the record for the most defeats. In total she's lost six times: in the heats of Series 13, the finals of Series 13, the Championship of Champions IV, the Supreme Championship, a Masters game against Jenny Haldane and a special against Mike Brown.

• The longest word to come up in reverse order on the letters board was the niner DECANTERS in Episode 4523.