Richard Heald

Richard in his quarter-final.

Richard Heald was an octochamp in Series 53.

Heald opened his account with a convincing victory over Amy McMaster on 2 June 2005, completing his run with 4 centuries. Despite scoring 795 points in total, this was only good enough to be #4 seed in the series finals. A nailbiter of a quarter-final saw Heald and Ross Allatt level on 90 points apiece going into the conundrum, which Heald unscrambled on 16 seconds to take a hard-earned semi-final place. Here he faced #1 seed John Brackstone in a match that again went to a crucial conundrum. This time Heald lost out after Brackstone took 10 seconds to unscramble RIPEROOTS.

Heald may have been the reserve contestant for Championship of Champions XII as a nameplate with his name on was seen on the monitor next to the tile-shuffling table to the side of the audience, but this is unconfirmed.

Heald was the last octochamp to be crowned with Richard Whiteley as the presenter.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
3938	2/06/2005	P	Amy McMaster	58 – 92	Richard Heald	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Peter Baldwin	Susie Dent	125
3939	3/06/2005	P	Richard Heald	115 – 36	Michael Chidwick	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Peter Baldwin	Susie Dent	136
3940	6/06/2005	P	Richard Heald	93 – 58	Anne Hardy	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Peter Baldwin	Susie Dent	116
3941	7/06/2005	P	Richard Heald	104 – 58	Ross Gibson	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Peter Baldwin	Susie Dent	117
3942	8/06/2005	P	Richard Heald	89 – 73	Beryl Lawford	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Peter Baldwin	Susie Dent	120
3943	9/06/2005	P	Richard Heald	104 – 57	Karen Pearson	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Barry Norman	Susie Dent	118
3944	10/06/2005	P	Richard Heald	102 – 57	Alan Hicks	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Barry Norman	Susie Dent	117
3945	13/06/2005	P	Richard Heald	96 – 84	Paul Lyne	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Barry Norman	Susie Dent	116
3956	29/06/2005	QF	Richard Heald	100 – 90	Ross Allatt	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Philip Franks	Susie Dent	117
3957	30/06/2005	SF	Richard Heald	75 – 89	John Brackstone	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Philip Franks	Susie Dent	119