Paul Howe

Paul Howe was a contestant in series 54 who first appeared on 4th February 2006, only a few days after his games were recorded. He went on to become an Octochamp including a score of 113 against Alan Patient, which gave him a total point total over 800 for his eight games. In the quarter-final he beat Keith Maynard in spectacular fashion, leading 50-0 after 5 rounds, the biggest ever recorded lead after the first numbers game. This set up a clash with #1 seed Conor Travers. Both players scored the maximum in every letters round, the only time this has ever happened, but both players struggled with two difficult numbers game, which allowed Travers to take a 14-point lead into the conundrum. Travers solved the conundrum and won the game 124-100. 100 is the second highest losing score during the finals stages of a series - Nicole Hutchings got 105 against Stewart Holden in Series 51. His score is however the highest losing score in a semi-final.

Howe was invited back to the Championship of Champions XII where he beat John Mayhew in the first round. At the time, Mayhew had never been beaten and Howe remains the only player ever to beat him. In the semi-final he narrowly beat Jack Welsby thanks to words like BURGONET but Howe's winning streak ended against the unbeaten Mark Tournoff. Howe held the Series 52 champion to a crucial conundrum which Tournoff solved to maintain his unbeaten run. Howe only ever lost to two people, both of whom were series champions - Conor Travers and Mark Tournoff.

Before appearing on the show, he had attended the first Countdown tournament, COLIN 2005 and CoBris 2005, then subsequently COLIN 2006, CoBris 2006, COLIN 2007 and COLIN 2009. He also achieved the 3rd place result in CoNot 2008 and 2nd place in CoNot 2009.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
4027	4/02/2006	P	Keith Reading	83 – 102	Paul Howe	Des Lynam	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Richard Digance	Susie Dent
4028	6/02/2006	P	Paul Howe	109 – 72	Judith Shade	Des Lynam	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Richard Digance	Susie Dent
4029	7/02/2006	P	Paul Howe	95 – 77	Darren Wilks	Des Lynam	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Richard Digance	Susie Dent
4030	8/02/2006	P	Paul Howe	93 – 56	Alison Campbell	Des Lynam	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Richard Digance	Susie Dent
4031	9/02/2006	P	Paul Howe	105 – 49	Terence Reilly	Des Lynam	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Richard Digance	Susie Dent
4032	10/02/2006	P	Paul Howe	107 – 61	Michael Jones	Des Lynam	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Carol Thatcher	Susie Dent
4033	11/02/2006	P	Paul Howe	113 – 42	Alan Patient	Des Lynam	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Carol Thatcher	Susie Dent
4034	13/02/2006	P	Paul Howe	91 – 47	Clare Hughes	Des Lynam	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Carol Thatcher	Susie Dent
4109	23/05/2006	QF	Keith Maynard	49 – 118	Paul Howe	Des Lynam	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Richard Digance	Susie Dent
4110	24/05/2006	SF	Conor Travers	124 – 100	Paul Howe	Des Lynam	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Richard Digance	Susie Dent
4117	2/06/2006	CP	John Mayhew	87 – 117	Paul Howe	Des Lynam	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Ron Atkinson	Susie Dent
4124	13/06/2006	CQF	Jack Welsby	72 – 83	Paul Howe	Des Lynam	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Kim Woodburn	Susie Dent
4125	14/06/2006	CSF	Paul Howe	88 – 99	Mark Tournoff	Des Lynam	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Kim Woodburn	Susie Dent