Adam Dexter

From Countdown
Adam Dexter in Series 69...
...and nearly ten years later in Series 87.

Adam Dexter was a contestant in Series 69 and a semi-finalist in Series 87. At the time of his second appearance, he was an insurance claims handler from Kidderminster in Worcestershire. He has also been an Apterite since 2008 and has achieved a Top 50 rating on the Apterous Pro Ranks leaderboard.

Appearances on the programme

Series 69

Debuting up against eventual series champion Callum Todd, Dexter played a good game and remained close to the end. But he ultimately lost on the crucial conundrum of DOTSTIRED that Todd unscrambled to DISTORTED.

Series 87

Just under ten years later and with a few more years of practise on Apterous behind him, Dexter was allowed to return. He made his second debut coincidentally just two shows after Ronan Higginson made his mark. Adam began with a century against Shahid Chandna; this guaranteed him the teapot that he missed out on in his 2013 appearance. After racking up eleven maxes and with a fourth century in his sixth game, he was unseated in his seventh game by Graham Moonie-Dalton (a fellow returnee). But due to the lack of octochamps in Series 87, his six wins confirmed his qualification for the series finals.

His quarter-final led him straight back to Moonie-Dalton but unlike the last time they played, Dexter very much had the better of Graham by racking up ten maxes to earn his second highest score of 117 which also included a spot of TRIANGLES. Neither player solved the conundrum and with the match over, Adam progressed to the semi-finals and into battle with Ronan Higginson which coincidentally meant that the episode was a rematch of their ZoomDown Series 4 semi-final as well.

The first series semi-final of 2023 turned out to be a titanic encounter, with Adam recording a personal best of twelve maxes. Unfortunately, that also came attached with the unfortunate gambles of wolfman ☓ and epistema ☓; those being the crucial misses that gave Ronan enough daylight after the final numbers round, although both players did find ROGATIONS to boost their scores. After Higginson solved the conundrum quickly of turning SITONSAND to DISSONANT, it meant that Dexter bowed out with his third defeat with a still excellent final score of 98 from his semi-final. This also left him with a total of 913 points from his Series 87 games and a final points tally of 979 that includes his 2013 appearance. Higginson went on to win the series, meaning that Dexter suffered two defeats to eventual series champions.

ZoomDown

He also appeared in ZoomDown Series 4 where - despite narrowly missing out on being a tetrachamp to fellow Apterite Martin Thomas - he made it to the finals and won against Apterite Andres Sanchez, but lost against Apterite Ronan Higginson. This performance also allowed him to qualify for the ZoomDown Championship of Champions where he was overpowered by Elliott Mellor, although Dexter got the last word by unscrambling SPARECOCK to ROCKSCAPE after Elliott initially provided an incorrect guess. He returned for ZoomDown Series 5 which unfortunately was not quite as successful; he matched Steven Grady in the first fourteen rounds before losing when Steven spotted the conundrum of HEIGHTIST.

Other Tournament Highlights

Outside of Countdown and ZoomDown, he participated in an online tournament or two before attending COLIN 2010 where he finished in 26th place. He did better when he returned in COLIN 2012 and then appeared at CobliviLon later that year. One of his best unofficial co-event finishes was at Co:Brighton 2022, where he finished in the Top 10 and only lost one game all day.

Episodes

# Date Type Contestant 1 Score Contestant 2 Presenters Guest Lex Max
5780 30/09/2013 P Callum Todd 83 – 66 Adam Dexter Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Katherine Grainger Susie Dent 120
8028 30/05/2023 P Shahid Chandna 63 – 112 Adam Dexter Colin Murray Rachel Riley Cally Beaton Susie Dent 158
8029 31/05/2023 P Adam Dexter 97 – 40 Anne Findlay Colin Murray Rachel Riley Cally Beaton Susie Dent 127
8030 01/06/2023 P Adam Dexter 123 – 41 Kendall Concannon Colin Murray Rachel Riley Cally Beaton Susie Dent 137
8031 02/06/2023 P Adam Dexter 85 – 54 Matt Sole Colin Murray Rachel Riley Jon Culshaw Susie Dent 138
8032 05/06/2023 P Adam Dexter 100 – 40 Balal Anwar Colin Murray Rachel Riley Jon Culshaw Susie Dent 134
8033 06/06/2023 P Adam Dexter 110 – 68 Jenny Schwarz Colin Murray Rachel Riley Jon Culshaw Susie Dent 120
8034 07/06/2023 P Adam Dexter 71 – 81 Graham Moonie-Dalton Colin Murray Rachel Riley Jon Culshaw Susie Dent 141
8047 26/06/2023 QF Graham Moonie-Dalton 60 – 117 Adam Dexter Colin Murray Rachel Riley Maggie Aderin-Pocock Susie Dent 134
8048 27/06/2023 SF Ronan Higginson 122 – 98 Adam Dexter Colin Murray Rachel Riley Maggie Aderin-Pocock Susie Dent 122
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