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List of Countdown records

From Countdown

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 grand finals, since the considerable differences between these formats make it almost impossible to compare the games like for like. This is particularly difficult when comparing the classic 15-round format to the current one, where differences of just a few points per game are to be expected.

New 15-round format

High scores

  • The highest score set by a challenger was 148, set by Stu Harkness. The highest score for a debutant was 140, set by Dan Byrom. Harkness had already appeared once before in Series 57, so the matter of who holds the record for highest debut score is somewhat controversial.
Mellor, Higginson, Boynton, Johnson-Davies, Stevenson, Taylor, Byrne, Siempre, Byrom, Hutchings, Haughton, Steadman, O'Connor, McMulkin, Cappleman-Lynes, Savage, Cappleman, Mohamed, Carey, Wynn, Read, Murray, Robin McKay and Toby McDonald are the only players to have scored eight centuries in their run of eight games. Andy Platt scored eight centuries in his run, but half were in the old format and half in the new format. His total was 889.
  • The highest ever total over 11 games, the maximum possible in one series, was 1,435 by Series 87 champion Ronan Higginson.
  • The highest possible score, also the highest in any daytime Countdown game, was 175, in episodes 6745, 7341 and 7945, with all these episodes having five nines available. These and the highest-maxing old 15-rounder are the only games to date in which five nines have been available.
Only four players have lost on their debut whilst scoring a centuryCiaran McCarthy with 104 in Series 70, Adam Curran with 100 in Series 73, David Wevill with 101 in Series 85, and Niall Cusack with 100 in Series 88.
  • The highest-scoring game with a tiebreak conundrum was the game mentioned above between Adrian Fletcher and David Wevill in Series 85. After the regular conundrum TOPPOETRY, the scores were neck and neck at 101 – 101, so a second conundrum LETQUARRY was necessary. Fletcher solved this to score 111 after the tiebreaker.
  • Elliott Mellor holds the record for the highest score with no nine-letter words of 126. The highest with one nine is Dan McColm's score of 137 and the highest with two is Elliott Mellor's 143. If you ignore the nine-point bonus for nine-letter words altogether in order to combine these records, Dan McColm's above score of 137 becomes 128, and is the record score under this system. Both Tom Stevenson and Cillian McMulkin's all-time record scores of 154 would be worth 127.

Low scores

  • The lowest maximum score for an episode was 110 in Episode 6423.

Other

Old 15-round format

High scores

  • 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 run of eight games. Andy Platt scored eight centuries in his run, but half were in the old format and half in the new format. His total was 889.
  • The highest ever total over 11 games, the maximum possible in one series, was 1,307 by Series 48 winner Julian Fell, including the aforementioned score of 146.
  • The highest possible score was 173, when five nines were available. Only one of the nine-letter words was found by the contestants (oddly by the losing contestant), neither of whom managed to score a century. The other four nines were all found by Dictionary Corner. This and the three highest-maxing "new" 15-rounders are the only games to date in which five nines have been available.
Only two players lost on their debut whilst scoring a centuryTerry Rattle with 107 in Series 47, and Lesley Hines with 104 in Series 61.
In the 30th Birthday Championship, no fewer than eight matches ended with the defeated contestant scoring 100 or more. They were: Mark Deeks (losing to Jack Hurst 108 – 103), Nick Deller (losing to Mark Tournoff 101 – 100), Chris Davies (losing to David O'Donnell 127 – 117), Innis Carson (losing to Kirk Bevins 112 – 102), Jack Worsley (losing to Jon O'Neill 122 – 104), Jonathan Rawlinson (losing to Jack Hurst 116 – 105), Jon O'Neill (losing to Conor Travers 120 – 102) and Jack Hurst (losing to Conor Travers 146 – 111).
  • The highest-scoring game with a tiebreak conundrum was between Chris Davies and David O'Donnell in the second round of the 30th Birthday Championship. After the regular conundrum PATRANGME, the scores were neck and neck at 117 – 117, so a second conundrum BAGOGLORY was necessary. O'Donnell solved it to score 127 after the tiebreaker.
  • 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 max game. The highest with one nine is Jack Hurst's score of 133 and the highest with two is Chris Davies' 139. Conor Travers found three nines in his 146 point game, whilst Julian Fell achieved the same total with four nines in Episode 3387. Nobody has ever found five nines in one game, largely because this has only been possible once. 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 equal all-time record score of 146 would only be worth 110. Conor Travers's 146 would be worth 119.

Low scores

Other

9-round format

High scores

  • 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 ten 9-round games and a 14-round grand final.
  • The highest known max score for a 9-round game is 106. This included three nines, 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.

Low scores

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

Other

  • The longest for which the contestants have remained on equal scores is probably Episode 1734, in which the score was tied from the beginning up until a second tiebreak conundrum finally separated them.

14-round format

Other

  • Conor Travers holds the record for the most wins on Countdown with 21 wins from 22 games (22 games is the most of any player). In these, Travers scored 2,466 points – this is the highest ever total. Travers also holds the record for the most rounds played, with 327. Just behind him is Zarte Siempre with 20 wins from 21 games.
Including special episodes and Countdown Masters games, Freeman's streak is broken, so this record would be 16 wins, jointly held by Don Reid and Graham Nash.
Debbi Flack holds the record for the most consecutive defeats, with four in a row – in her seventh heat game of Series 59 against Mike Lambert, her quarter-final of Series 59 against Kai Laddiman, her first-round match of Championship of Champions XIII against Steve Briers and her special episode against Claudia Tyson.
  • The longest word to come up in reverse order on the letters board was the nine DECANTERS in Episode 4523. Neither contestant spotted it, but Carol Vorderman did and additionally commented on its perfect reverse ordering.
  • The numbers game that has been furthest away from being solvable occurred in Round 8 of Episode 2722. It featured the six small numbers 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 7 and the closest reachable value was 378, 596 away from the target of 974.
  • The numbers game with the lowest starting numbers appeared in Round 9 of Episode 6307. The small numbers were 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, making the highest target achievable with them 108.