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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, as well as the 2020–22 FOCAL season page on this wiki. (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: Ciaran McCarthy beat Mark Baker with scores of 105 – 75.
- 2024: Alex Call beat Clare Harris with scores of 93 – 35.
- 2023: Sunil Parmar beat Lorraine Conway with scores of 89 – 75.
- 2022: Joseph Bartram beat Niall Waters with a score of 79 – 60.
- 2019: Sarah Delap beat Stuart Kilpatrick in a game that ended 73 – 72.
- 2018: Dave Ashton beat Kim Wilson with scores of 87 – 36.
- 2017: Ben Leyburn beat Sarah Holey with a score of 105 – 72.
- 2014: Trevor Noah and Sean Lock beat Jon Richardson and David Baddiel by 37 – 31.
- 2013: Natalie Corriette beat Stephen Hiley in a 84 – 56 game.
- 2011: Carl Williams beat Campbell Ure, scoring 62 – 59.
- 2008: Suzanne Perkins beat Mike Lambert, by a score of 89 – 65.
- 2007: Natalie Underwood beat Danny Baker with final score 72 – 47.
- 2006: Richard Brittain beat Claudia McQue in a game that ended 94 – 83.
- 2003: Julian Fell beat Chris Wills in a special episode.
- 2002: Tony Bearn beat Bryan Thirkell with scores of 96 – 72.
- 2001: Geraldine Hylands beat Billy Armstrong with a score of 59 – 51.
- 2000: Michele Backman beat Sybil Thomson in a 59 – 26 game.
- 1997: Bhavin Manek beat Clive Scott, scoring 58 – 31.
- 1996: Mark Tripp beat John Smith, by a score of 50 – 41.
- 1995: Chris Colsmann beat Surya Ahamed with final score 45 – 44.
- 1994: Isabelle Heward beat Paul Henderson in a game that ended 54 – 50.
- 1991: Barbara Kent beat Carl Meeson with a score of 43 – 31.
- 1990: Billy Ward beat Malcolm Stern in a 53 – 43 game.
- 1990: Tony Vick played Stephen Deakin in the third leg of a Countdown Masters game.
- 1989: Diane Pratesi beat Margaret Budden with scores of 57 – 45.
- 1989: John Widdowson played Vicki McCarthy in the second 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 Warrington on 12 September 2026.
