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FOCAL is the voluntary organisation responsible for organising the vast majority of unofficial Countdown tournaments since 2016. The organisation's name is an acronym for Finals Of the Co-event Annual League. Perhaps coincidentally, "focal" also means "word" in the Irish language.
Players play in events across the British Isles throughout the year, with the top 8 highest ranked players at the end of the year receiving free entry into the finals event in Birmingham, held alongside a normal tournament that is open to everyone. 2016's FOCAL Champion was Series 66 champion Jack Worsley, 2017's champion was Rob Foster, 2018 Jonathan Wynn and 2019 Callum Todd. All events are hosted on a Saturday, with the exception of the 'hangover' event, held on the Sunday in Lincoln as secondary events.
The organisation was the brainchild of Series 78 champion and former .co.mk organiser Zarte Siempre in mid-2015. The incumbent FOCAL chairman is Series 69 champion Callum Todd. The previous chairmen were Siempre in early 2016 and 2017, Mark Murray in late 2016 and Jeff Clayton from 2016 to 2021.
Current standings for the year and many other details can be found at the FOCAL website. (more...)
- ...that en route to posting the then lowest ever 15 round score on 16 May 2011, Christine Buffrey had areolaes ☓ disallowed for being invalid, using phantom letters, and being misdeclared as a six-letter word?
- ...that three Countdown contestants – Charlie Reams, Dave Dyer and Mark Murphy – have been bleeped for scoring with the word WANKER or WANKERS?
- ...that on 2 November 2011, Dictionary Corner guest Mark Durden-Smith was bleeped after stating that the longest word in round 3 was SHITFACE?
- ...that the target in round 5 on 05/05/05 was 505?
- ...that Countdown was almost hosted by Michael Jackson?
- 2025: John Pakenham beat Phil Whitman with scores of 97 – 76.
- 2024: Tricia Dadd beat Caroline Hofman with scores of 111 – 49.
- 2023: Ben Bazzard beat Richard Hendron with scores of 93 – 72.
- 2020: Chris Johnston beat Des Cooper in a game that ended 93 – 65.
- 2019: Andy Evans beat David Lee with scores of 112 – 50.
- 2018: Robin Johnson beat Danielle Watson in a 99 – 24 game.
- 2017: Phil Peel beat Nick Bryant-Nichols, scoring 97 – 26.
- 2014: Michael McDowell beat Elisabeth Jardine, by a score of 73 – 52.
- 2013: Ritch Greenwood beat Taz Bhuta with final score 70 – 56.
- 2012: Liam Shaw beat Rosie Maclennan with a score of 72 – 60.
- 2009: Jeffrey Burgin beat Richard Moody in a game that ended 73 – 55.
- 2008: Junaid Mubeen beat Darren Stibbs with scores of 106 – 49.
- 2007: David Von Geyer beat Sheila Storey in a 88 – 69 game.
- 2006: Gordon Dimmack beat Sabrina Verjee, scoring 80 – 68.
- 2003: Bonnie White beat Matt Blason with final score 94 – 55.
- 2002: Joyce Dunkley beat Roger Ordish with a score of 74 – 66.
- 2001: Ian McMenzie beat Linda Smith in a game that ended 85 – 56.
- 2000: Bernard Mitchell beat Frank McDonnell with scores of 61 – 40.
- 1998: Vicky Smith beat Peter Preston Igweke in a 56 – 45 game.
- 1997: Maria Boyes beat Simon Pryde in the second Series 36 semi-final.
- 1996: Dennis Fearon beat Satbir Gupta in the first Series 32 semi-final.
- 1995: Sue Renwick beat Ben Cooke in the third Series 30 quarter-final.
- 1992: Wayne Summers beat Fiona Davies in the Series 24 grand final.
- 1991: Chris Waddington beat David Webb in the first Series 22 semi-final.
- 1990: Fiona Willis beat Gordon Foy in the fourth Series 20 quarter-final.
- 1990: Roger Wales played Mike Percik in the second leg of a Countdown Masters game.
- 1989: Richard Evans beat Chris Tesseras, by a score of 48 – 45.
- 1989: Peter Scott played Derek Rutter in the first leg of a Countdown Masters game.
- A brief overview of Countdown and some of its records and terminology.
- The team: Colin Murray, Rachel Riley and Susie Dent since the first episode of Series 87.
- The show's institutions: the letters and numbers, the conundrum, the Countdown clock and its music, Dictionary Corner and the Teatime Teaser.
- Patrick Thompson, the reigning series champion and his series grand final against Charlie Harrison.
- The latest Championship of Champions grand final between James Haughton and Ahmed Mohamed.
- The 30th Birthday Championship grand final between Conor Travers and Jack Hurst.
- The show's former permanent presenters: Richard Whiteley, Des Lynam, Des O'Connor and Carol Vorderman, Jeff Stelling, Nick Hewer and Anne Robinson.
- The highest ever score: 154, achieved by Tom Stevenson on 29 September 2022 and Cillian McMulkin on 31 January 2023.
Everyone can edit the Countdown Wiki, just register and then click the edit link at the top of any page (except this one!) and start editing. Here are some useful links:
- Learn about this wiki and how to use it.
- Episode style guide - if you want to help us edit the episode pages, this style guide gives comprehensive help.
- Suggest a featured article which will in turn be featured on the Main Page.
- Apterous, an online game from the same people that run this site.
- Beat The Clock: Words & Maths, a Countdown-inspired Android app created by Series 63 champion Jack Hurst.
- The Countdown Database, detailed statistics and round-by-round details of over 7,800 episodes.
- FOCAL, regular in-person events that anyone can enter.
- c4countdown, Countdown's main online forum, populated by many past octochamps.
- Quantum Tombola, a numbers game solver designed by Series 65 champion Graeme Cole.
- A mobile version of the above.
- Greem, a website listing nearly all Co-event scores until early 2020.
- The Countdown Page, the original site of Countdown stats, created by Mike Brown.
- Online tournaments on Apterous.
- In-person tournaments organized by FOCAL.
- Next scheduled event is Countdown in Dublin on 10 October 2026.
