Main Page
Home of 20,064 articles about Channel 4's daily game show Countdown.
Quick Links: Series 94 | Series 93 | COC16 | 30BC | Specials | All series | Episodes | Contestants | Guests | Events | Techniques | Terminology | Community | ZoomDown
Discussions: Leave suggestions for this page here | Active talk pages | Proposals | Talk pages with unresolved issues
Scott Mearns from Montrose in Scotland was champion of Series 41 and Championship of Champions X. A student at Leeds University when he appeared, Mearns foreshadowed his form on the programme by passing his audition with a 100% score. Famously wanting to "put Montrose on the map", Mearns became an octochamp with an aggregate score of 510, before running out victorious in three relatively tight finals games to win the series. He later returned for the five game Championship of Champions X, wherein he was seeded to automatically reach the semi-final. He defeated Series 39 octochamp Terry Knowles and champion Kate Ogilvie to win the mini-series and claim the title of Countdown's tenth Champion of Champions. Along the way, Mearns demonstrated his prowess with the 6 small selection in numbers rounds. He is arguably one of the best players to have not contested the Supreme Championship nor the 30th Birthday Championship.
He first appeared on Countdown in the very first game of Series 41, beating incumbent champion Bobby Johnson by 80 points to 12 in a phenomenal debut performance that included the nine letter word SERRATING. Johnson had amassed his 12 points by the end of round two and failed to score again throughout the rest of the contest, including having compense ☓ disallowed. Mearns unravelled the conundrum VIPERWEED in little more than a second, offering a preview of what was yet to come. His next five games featured scores of 50+, peaking at 76 in his third heat game against Sarah Houchin. Mearns suffered an uncharacteristically low score in his his penultimate heat game, beating William Brewer 34 – 30, but he outplayed Lesley Millar 61 – 27 to become the first octochamp of Series 41, averaging 63.75 points a game. Having secured the third-highest total of the nine round era, Mearns entered the series finals as #1 seed. (More...)
- ...that in Series 30, Ben Cooke beat Sue Renwick 60 – 26 in her sixth heat game but lost against her in the third quarter-final by 56 – 24, a record rematch score difference of 66 points?
- ...that due to five episodes of Countdown being recorded in a day, a slight ailment caused Rachel Riley to appear to lose her voice for three weeks during Series 62?
- ...that Sweyn Kirkness faced three numbers rounds in which it was impossible to score any points – round 5 of his third heat, his fifth heat, and his quarter-final?
- ...that Series 59 champion Junaid Mubeen (pictured) had previously appeared on the show ten years earlier as a fourteen-year-old boy?
- 2023: Scott McKechnie beat Tricia Lowther with scores of 90 – 68.
- 2022: John Aziz beat Jite Ighorodje with a score of 98 – 68.
- 2021: Jeremy Slaney beat Anna Sanders, with the game finishing 110 – 19.
- 2020: Pete Reynolds beat David Fisher, scoring 94 – 50.
- 2018: Joe Wilkinson and Victoria Coren Mitchell beat Kevin Bridges and Sean Lock by 46 – 36.
- 2017: Noel McIlvenny beat Gary Shacklady with a score of 92 – 44.
- 2016: Natalie Matale beat John McDonald with final score 65 – 51.
- 2015: Jonathan Wynn beat Chris Roy in a 100 – 30 game.
- 2012: Sean Lock, Rachel Riley, and Clarke Carlisle beat Jon Richardson and Joe Wilkinson by 50 – 41.
- 2011: Dave Taylor beat Pat Bourne, scoring 81 – 74.
- 2010: Peter Godwin beat Matt Cecil, by a score of 86 – 65.
- 2009: Paul Varlaam beat Richard Savaker with scores of 94 – 34.
- 2007: Grant Woods beat Steve Baines in a game that ended 93 – 86.
- 2006: Carolyn Kennedy beat Margaret Hunter with a score of 63 – 53.
- 2004: Roy Thearle beat Marcus Alderton with final score 107 – 42.
- 2000: David Williams beat Tony McGill in a 78 – 29 game.
- 1999: Rory Dunlop beat Alix Lee, scoring 59 – 50.
- 1998: Vic Foster beat Chris Evans with scores of 65 – 45.
- 1995: Graham Cross beat Alec Robertson, by a score of 59 – 56.
- 1994: Andrew Wilson beat Colin Dickson in a game that ended 42 – 40.
- 1993: Claire Abdy beat Peter Franklin with a score of 58 – 35.
- 1992: Peter Wilson beat Sallyanne Steatham in a 55 – 46 game.
- 1990: Roy Bendall beat Jim Harvey, scoring 50 – 40.
- 1990: Christine Jones beat George Head in a Countdown Masters game.
- 1989: David Ware beat Ann Rutter with scores of 40 – 38.
- 1989: David Reid played Tim O'Kane in the fourth leg of a Countdown Masters game.
- 1988: Andrew Loheide beat Ivy Adamson with final score 39 – 37.
- 1987: Kevin Nelson beat Mark Preston in the third Series 13 quarter-final.
- 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.
The full list of FOCAL tournaments for 2026 is here.
The next scheduled event is Countdown in Warrington on 12 September.
Almost all online tournaments are now held on Apterous: the list of ongoing tournaments is here.
