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Philip Aston

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Philip Aston in Series 78.

Philip Aston was the runner-up of 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 ultimately returned for these finals as #7 seed; he then went on to achieve the first upset of the finals stages by overcoming #2-ranked Toby McDonald, a fellow Apterite, by just seven points in their highly anticipated quarter-final. Aston followed this victory up with a semi-final triumph over Dougie Mackay, the highest-scoring seven-time winner in Countdown history; in this game, his unravelling the nine-letter word MONRADITE in the second letters round helped him prevail 98 – 76. This win brought Aston to the series grand final — a rematch of his heat game against Zarte Siempre.

There, in the highly anticipated match, he fought an even more fierce battle than he did before and opted for a safer numbers choice with one large in the form of a cross instead of his preferred "capital T" selections. Siempre took the lead once again when he spotted REPUSHED (which Philip discounted) in the fourth letters round but that was taken away when his declaration of superking ☓ was disallowed, allowing the score to even out at 90 – 90. Ultimately, it came down to the crucial conundum USEDLOGIC and with Siempre correctly buzzing it in 10 seconds, Aston's run came to an end in yet another defeat. However, his score of 118 proved to be the second-highest losing score in the history of Countdown (and the highest ever in a Grand Final) and if any consolation, far less painful than his original match.

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.

Preceded by
Bradley Horrocks
Series runner-up
Series 78

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 Alastair Stewart Susie Dent 151
6769 22/02/2018 P Philip Aston 123 – 40 Sylvia O'Brien Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Alastair Stewart Susie Dent 154
6770 23/02/2018 P Philip Aston 110 – 41 John Eadie Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Alastair Stewart Susie Dent 115
6771 26/02/2018 P Philip Aston 94 – 75 Mick Armstrong Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Alastair Stewart Susie Dent 135
6772 27/02/2018 P Philip Aston 116 – 49 Derek Matthews Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Myleene Klass Susie Dent 137
6773 28/02/2018 P Philip Aston 113 – 30 Jenny Coote Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Myleene Klass Susie Dent 126
6774 1/03/2018 P Philip Aston 97 – 121 Zarte Siempre Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Myleene Klass Susie Dent 135
6848 15/06/2018 QF Toby McDonald 97 – 104 Philip Aston Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Helen Fospero Susie Dent 123
6852 21/06/2018 SF Philip Aston 98 – 76 Dougie Mackay Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Paul Zenon Susie Dent 132
6853 22/06/2018 GF Zarte Siempre 128 – 118 Philip Aston Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Paul Zenon Susie Dent 136