Philip Aston

Philip Aston in Series 78.

Philip Aston was a contestant in Series 78. He is also an Apterite.

Aston made his Countdown début on 21 February 2018, scoring a century and restricting incumbent champion Jill Thwaites to the joint-lowest score for a daily champion in the 15-round era. Aston followed this up by achieving 123 points, the then highest score of the series, against Sylvia O'Brien, then achieved four more wins, all but one of which was a century. Aston's conundrum speed, in particular, was exceptional; on three occasions, he buzzed in with a correct answer on 0.5 seconds or faster. His run ended in his seventh game, however, when he encountered fellow Apterite and previous Series 69 player Zarte Siempre. Though the game saw a high-quality letters performance, Aston dramatically lost form in the last three numbers rounds, allowing Siempre to ultimately prevail 121 – 97.

With six preliminary wins and 760 points, Aston has the highest-ever preliminary point total for a non-octochamp, surpassing Series 57 contestant Steve Baines' longstanding record of 758 (despite Aston playing only seven heats compared to Baines' eight). After his defeat, Siempre said on-screen that Aston “absolutely deserves to be in the finals.” Aston is currently in 7th position with less than 17 shows remaining.

Aston made his online tournament debut in the sixth edition of AptoSOS against the event's organiser Matt Morrison, where he lost his only game by four points. He later had better success in the Double Elimination Tournament in 2018, reaching the 6th round stage.

Aston is also a tournament Scrabble player. Prior to appearing on the show, Aston made his tournament Scrabble debut at Swindon in 2016, where he won 2 games out of 7 and finished 17th out of 18 competitors in the second division. He bettered this performance in Nailsea, finishing 6th out of 20 competitors in the second division with 4 wins out of 7 and winning a “ratings prize”. He can be seen on “Word of the Week” videos on the Mind Sports Academy website.[1]

Aston also participates in quizzes on Apterous. In 2017, he won Andy Platt’s Pointless quiz and was one of four winners of Sam Prouse’s Christmas Pub Quiz.

His father, Simon, won £8,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in November 2005.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
6768	21/02/2018	P	Jill Thwaites	27 – 107	Philip Aston	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Alastair Stewart	Susie Dent	151
6769	22/02/2018	P	Philip Aston	123 – 40	Sylvia O'Brien	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Alastair Stewart	Susie Dent	154
6770	23/02/2018	P	Philip Aston	110 – 41	John Eadie	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Alastair Stewart	Susie Dent	115
6771	26/02/2018	P	Philip Aston	94 – 75	Mick Armstrong	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Alastair Stewart	Susie Dent	135
6772	27/02/2018	P	Philip Aston	116 – 49	Derek Matthews	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Myleene Klass	Susie Dent	137
6773	28/02/2018	P	Philip Aston	113 – 30	Jenny Coote	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Myleene Klass	Susie Dent	126
6774	1/03/2018	P	Philip Aston	97 – 121	Zarte Siempre	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Myleene Klass	Susie Dent	135