Callum Todd

Callum Todd.

Callum Todd during his semi-final game...

...and again in the Championship of Champions XIV.

Callum Todd solving the conundrum in Episode 6775.

Callum Todd was the champion of Series 69, the first non-octochamp series winner since Series 46 when only a maximum of six heat wins were allowed, and a quarter-finalist in Championship of Champions XIV. He is also an Apterite and a member of c4countdown. As of 1 July 2021, he is the incumbent chairperson of FOCAL. During his finals he defeated three members of the 900 club, meaning he has had one of the most difficult series-final runs in the history of Countdown.

Appearances on the programme

Heat games

After scraping through his first 3 games, Todd joined Apterous and greatly improved his performances in his next 4 shows before controversially losing to Abdirizak Hirsi on a tie-break conundrum in his 8th game. However, his 7 wins and 747 points were enough to see him qualify for the finals as the No. 7 seed.

Finals

In his quarter-final, Todd played against record-breaking female octochamp Jen Steadman, and after falling behind early on, he turned it around to win by 3 points in a 108 – 105 game on an unsolved crucial conundrum. His semi-final saw him take on the No. 3 seed, Glen Webb, and despite his 6 small numbers games letting him down, he managed to put in a convincing 107 – 82 victory to take him into the Grand Final against Dylan Taylor, who set the then-highest ever cumulative score in Countdown history.

Triumphal finale

Todd went behind in the first round, but equalised immediately, and both contestants maxed the next 12 rounds prior to the crucial conundrum IHURTPALM, which Todd solved in 4.5 seconds to win the final with a score of 126 – 116. The final also saw him score his highest total on the show and become the first finalist ranked in the lower half of the seed table to win a 15-round series.

Championship of Champions XIV

Todd's next televised Countdown appearance was in Championship of Champions XIV at the start of 2016, where, in the preliminary round, he squared off against Series 70 semi-finalist Samir Pilica. Todd opened an early lead in this episode by outclassing Pilica on the first two numbers games and spotting the darrenic word TOASTIER. Hereafter, he held onto this lead consistently, scoring in all but one of the remaining letters rounds and spotting the conundrum ROMANYIPS in fairly short order. This performance gave him a winning score of 127, bettering his previous personal best by 1 point, to Pilica's 88, bringing him into the quarter-finals and setting up a rematch with his Series 69 opponent Jen Steadman. Unfortunately for Todd, history did not repeat itself and he lost 107 – 85, infamously declaring SRSLY.

2020 Christmas Special

Todd returned to the show four years later on 22 December 2020 to take part in the second of three Christmas specials against Jack Hurst. Both players started level until Hurst pulled away and Todd slowed down, until picking up pace in the later rounds and ultimately signed off by solving the conundrum to finish with 100 points to Hurst's 125 points.

In the audience

Todd reappeared during Episode 6095 on 26 February 2015, solving the conundrum TRIGLYPHS. On 2 March 2018, during Episode 6775, he was once again the audience member that solved the conundrum HAVENOCAT. He then appeared again during Episode 7229 on 18 December 2019, solving the conundrum LASSIERIP.

Co-events

In 2016, Todd hosted his first Co-event, the inaugural Leeds tournament Countdown in Leeds 2016. In 2021, he became the chair of FOCAL.

YouTube

In 2019, Todd launched the Focal Talk podcast along with Series 81 contestant, Paul Anderson. In 2020, Todd was the winner of the ZoomDown Hyper Special and in 2021, the ZoomDown GoatZDown Special.

Preceded by Giles Hutchings

Series winner Series 69

Followed by Mark Murray

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
5779	27/09/2013	P	Ritch Greenwood	58 – 70	Callum Todd	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Katherine Grainger	Susie Dent	125
5780	30/09/2013	P	Callum Todd	83 – 66	Adam Dexter	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Katherine Grainger	Susie Dent	120
5781	1/10/2013	P	Callum Todd	79 – 55	John Blaker	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Katherine Grainger	Susie Dent	121
5782	2/10/2013	P	Callum Todd	101 – 40	Breda Sexton	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Michaela Strachan	Susie Dent	133
5783	3/10/2013	P	Callum Todd	103 – 74	Ben Hendry	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Michaela Strachan	Susie Dent	122
5784	4/10/2013	P	Callum Todd	108 – 61	Lucy Bryden	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Michaela Strachan	Susie Dent	133
5785	7/10/2013	P	Callum Todd	114 – 77	Chris Allum	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Michaela Strachan	Susie Dent	123
5786	8/10/2013	P	Callum Todd	89 – 99*	Abdirizak Hirsi	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Michaela Strachan	Susie Dent	135
5834	13/12/2013	QF	Jen Steadman	105 – 108	Callum Todd	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dan Walker	Susie Dent	133
5838	19/12/2013	SF	Callum Todd	107 – 82	Glen Webb	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Richard Madeley	Susie Dent	138
5839	20/12/2013	GF	Dylan Taylor	116 – 126	Callum Todd	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Richard Madeley	Susie Dent	134
6283	11/01/2016	CP	Callum Todd	127 – 88	Samir Pilica	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	John Inverdale	Susie Dent	137
6288	18/01/2016	CQF	Jen Steadman	107 – 85	Callum Todd	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Naga Munchetty	Susie Dent	125
S48	22/12/2020	S	Callum Todd	100 – 125	Jack Hurst	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley					Rory Bremner	Susie Dent	153

* includes 10 points from a tie-break conundrum

External Links

• Article on Callum and his Series 69 victory