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 Graeme Cole was champion of Series 65. On his Countdown début against Liam Herringshaw, he immediately gained an eight point lead and spotted the nine-letter word RECOMBINE in the third letters round. Cole also scored 30 out of 30 on the numbers rounds, and won with 112 points. He outplayed Steven Hatton in his second game and found three further perfect numbers solutions to win 105 – 49. In Cole's third game, his opponent Aidan Turnbull kept apace in the early stages and this was the first of three consecutive games in which he fell short of a century. In the first seven rounds of Cole's sixth game, he amassed 62 points without reply including the niner NURSEMAID. He again scored 30 points on the numbers rounds and unravelled the conundrum IVYLEAVES in 2½ seconds. His final score of 125 was four points short of the maximum possible score in the game, and one point short of the highest score of the series. Cole concluded his octochamp run with scores of 91 – 41 and 95 – 59, and with an eight game total of 813 points he qualified for the series finals as #2 seed.
In his quarter-final match against Nikki Roberts, Cole spotted the niner DRAGLINES and again scored 30 out of 30 on the numbers. With a further 10 points for the apt conundrum EIGHTWINS, he won comfortably by 113 points to 61. In his semi-final against Paul Keane, Cole once again went behind early in the match but recovered with the word CAPRINE and took the lead with EXHAUST in round 8. Scoring 10 points in the second numbers round and spotting the eight letter word OCCULTED late in the game helped Cole to a 96 – 71 victory. In the series final. he faced #4 seed Carl Williams. Both players scored 43 points across the first five rounds, before Williams went ahead with ERECTION in the sixth. Five rounds later, Cole went three points into the lead, and he extended the gap to 10 points in round 14. Williams unscrambled the crucial conundrum TIMEUPLAD to force the game to a tie-breaker second conundrum. Cole unravelled VAANGELIS and became the 65th Countdown series champion, and the last to be crowned during Jeff Stelling's spell as presenter.
Cole returned to the Countdown studios for a special episode against Edward McCullagh in July 2012, to decide the overall champion of 2011. Six months later, Cole took part in the 30th Birthday Championship. After receiving a bye to the first round proper, he lost his only match against the Series 66 champion Jack Worsley by a score of 104 – 98, despite achieving the maximum possible score across the first 13 rounds. Today, Cole is an active contributor to the online Countdown community, using his skills as a software developer to provide data analysis on the c4countdown forum. (more...)
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| Today in Countdown history
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- 2025: Tim James beat Simon Higson, with scores of 88 – 38.
- 2024: Isabelle Heward beat Michael Douglas, with final score 85 – 77.
- 2023: Dan Spinks beat Dave Butler, with the game finishing 67 – 66.
- 2020: Iain Campbell beat Stuart Williamson with scores of 88 – 35.
- 2019: John Ashcroft beat Chris Krelle in a 86 – 67 game.
- 2018: Zarte Siempre beat Jonathan Stoneman with a score of 128 – 23.
- 2017: Karl Bates beat Alan Lewis with final score 65 – 63.
- 2014: Joe Hammill beat Jay Preller, by a score of 90 – 65.
- 2013: Philip Jarvis beat Anthony Josephson in a game that ended 84 – 24.
- 2012: Michael Taiwo beat Ben Rollett, scoring 93 – 75.
- 2009: Kirk Bevins beat Barrie Robinson with scores of 111 – 39.
- 2008: Barry Smith beat Helen Saddler in a 109 – 55 game.
- 2007: Jean Webby beat Richard Murrin with a score of 87 – 45.
- 2006: Tony Foran beat Yvette Campbell with final score 90 – 64.
- 2003: Keith Johnson beat Alice Keaveney in a game that ended 81 – 37.
- 2002: Brenda Jolley beat Michael Clewett, by a score of 101 – 64.
- 2001: Heather Jenkins beat Gordon Taylor, scoring 39 – 28.
- 2000: Russell Gaines beat Eric Birtwell with scores of 59 – 30.
- 1998: Colin Campbell beat Keith Burton in a 46 – 37 game.
- 1997: Simon Kirkwood beat Helen Wyatt in a game that ended 32 – 29.
- 1996: David Acton beat Paulinus Barnes with a score of 70 – 35.
- 1995: Chris Rogers beat Bridget Rose, by a score of 79 – 25.
- 1992: Rodney Crawshaw beat Chris Eatough, scoring 49 – 35.
- 1991: Lew Schwarz beat Penny Downer with scores of 44 – 40.
- 1991: Ian Bebbington played Andrew Guy in the third leg of a Countdown Masters game.
- 1990: Michael Wareham beat Keith Gorst with final score 52 – 20.
- 1990: Marianne Croll played Peter Tatlow in the second leg of a Countdown Masters game.
- 1989: Vicki McCarthy beat Jeanie Holmes in a 32 – 31 game.
- 1987: David Reid beat Stephen Rooney with a score of 60 – 50.
- 1986: Debbie Kingshott beat Andrew Fisher, by a score of 54 – 47.
- 1985: Peter Hillman beat Valerie Johnstone in a game that ended 50 – 48.
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- 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 conundrum, the Countdown clock and its music, Dictionary Corner, the pencam and the Teatime Teaser.
- Jase Cullen, the reigning series champion and his series grand final against Brett Davids.
- 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, 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.
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| 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:
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- 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.
- 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.
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| Upcoming Countdown tournaments
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The full list of FOCAL tournaments for 2026 is here.
The next scheduled events are those making up the Countdown in Rugby double-header: Co:Rugby 2026: Warm-Up (13 March), and Co:Rugby 2026 (14 March).
Almost all online tournaments are now held on Apterous: the list of ongoing tournaments is here. |
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