Ben Wilson
| Ben Wilson octochamp statistics | |
|---|---|
| Final position | Champion |
| Seeding | 1 |
| Points total | 570 (from 6 games) |
| Conundrums solved | 5 (out of 6) |
Ben Wilson (born 22 March 1983) was a viscount in and the champion of Series 46, the first in the 15-round format. He was also a quarter-finalist in Championship of Champions XI and a participant in the 30th Birthday Championship. He is an Apterite and a moderator on c4countdown, and is most notable for launching the first ever Co-event – COLIN (Countdown in Lincoln), in 2005.
Appearances on the show
Heat games
Ben debuted on 6 November 2001. He defeated namesake of Peter Wilson by 101 – 70, before winning five more games (only six wins were needed in the first 15-round series, due to the format being introduced late in the year) and becoming one of only five viscounts in Countdown history. He famously declared SEXPOT in his third game.
Finals
He returned for the series finals as the No. 1 seed in December.
In his quarter-final, he beat fellow Lincoln resident of Simon Cartwright.
In his semi-final, he beat Scotland's Paul Ryan by 101 – 80 after a close and tense game.
Grand final
In the Christmas Day final against Steve Sandalls, the scores were level until Round 9 but Ben built up a lead of seventeen points over the next two rounds with an excellent numbers game of six small and the word spot of BONNIES.
A series of poor rounds like MACE, missing GYRATED and making a mistake on the final numbers game put Wilson one point behind when going into the conundrum. But he was able to solve the conundrum in five seconds to become the 46th series champion, and the first ever in the 15-round era. Aged eighteen at the time, Ben had the distinction of being the first ever series champion of Countdown to have been born after the show's debut on Channel 4.
Championship of Champions XI
Wilson returned for Championship of Champions XI.
His first opponent was Northern Ireland's Geraldine Hylands in the first round. Wilson scraped through, winning by 94 – 91.
He was then ultimately beaten in his quarter-final by Tom Hargreaves by 131 – 98. At the time, that game set the record for the highest aggregate score in a 15-round game (229) and 98 still remains as one of the highest losing scores of all time. The aggregate record was not broken until the following tournament when Mark Tournoff beat Matthew Shore by 124 – 117.
In the audience
Wilson returned on 17 December 2003 as the audience member who solved the conundrum, after neither player were able to unscramble it.
30th Birthday Championship
Wilson returned in 2013, as one of 41 contestants that took part in the 30th Birthday Championship.
He faced a tough draw in the preliminary round, facing Conor Travers. In the match, Wilson took a six-point lead with STOTTY in the second round but lost his lead to Travers' word spot of FLORUITED and lost by 117 – 91.
After Countdown
Since his appearances on Countdown – Wilson has gone on to become deeply involved in the world of online Countdown by being amongst the first to play Countdown over MSN Messenger, organising COOT 3 and one of the original moderators of c4countdown.
Wilson is the organiser of COLIN – the first annual Co-event (in 2011, he played in his own tournament), as well as the several CONOT events. He also visited the Edinburgh Countdown Club in late-2003, CoBris 2005, CoBris 2007, CoLei 2008, CoLei2, Co:Lon 2010, the CoLei Summer Special, Co:Lon 2011, CobliviLon and COEDI. In March 2007, he was the winner of the first ever CoRed tournament.
Away from Countdown – Wilson took up Scrabble after his penultimate Countdown appearance and won his first tournament, Peterborough, in March 2008. Since 2012, he has not played a Scrabble tournament.
In 2019, Wilson took over from Stewart Holden as the compiler of the Countdown Desk Calendar.
| Preceded by John Rawnsley |
Series winner Series 46 |
Followed by Chris Wills |
Episodes
| # | Date | Type | Contestant 1 | Score | Contestant 2 | Presenters | Guest | Lex | Max | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3117 | 06/11/2001 | P | Peter Wilson | 70 – 101 | Ben Wilson | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Vanessa Feltz | Clare Pemberton | 114 | ||
| 3118 | 07/11/2001 | P | Ben Wilson | 102 – 49 | Jeanette Littlejohn | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Vanessa Feltz | Clare Pemberton | 152 | ||
| 3119 | 08/11/2001 | P | Ben Wilson | 98 – 60 | Bob Bride | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Vanessa Feltz | Clare Pemberton | 121 | ||
| 3120 | 09/11/2001 | P | Ben Wilson | 90 – 80 | Mike Nicholson | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Vanessa Feltz | Clare Pemberton | 130 | ||
| 3121 | 12/11/2001 | P | Ben Wilson | 86 – 72 | Pearl Norman | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Nigel Rees | Phiona Stanley | 122 | ||
| 3122 | 13/11/2001 | P | Ben Wilson | 93 – 76 | John Hadley | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Nigel Rees | Phiona Stanley | 123 | ||
| 3146 | 17/12/2001 | QF | Ben Wilson | 83 – 68 | Simon Cartwright | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Denis Norden | Tania Styles | 122 | ||
| 3150 | 21/12/2001 | SF | Paul Ryan | 80 – 101 | Ben Wilson | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Denis Norden | Tania Styles | 131 | ||
| 3152 | 25/12/2001 | GF | Steve Sandalls | 75 – 84 | Ben Wilson | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Geoffrey Durham | Clare Pemberton | 117 | ||
| 3394 | 10/01/2003 | CP | Ben Wilson | 94 – 91 | Geraldine Hylands | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Martin Jarvis | Susie Dent | 122 | ||
| 3400 | 20/01/2003 | CQF | Tom Hargreaves | 131 – 98 | Ben Wilson | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Eric Knowles | Susie Dent | 144 | ||
| 5618 | 10/01/2013 | 30BP | Ben Wilson | 91 – 117 | Conor Travers | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Dave Myers | Susie Dent | 126 | ||
