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Charlie Reams

From Countdown
Charlie Reams
Octochamp Statistics
Final positionRunner-up
Seeding1
Points total820
Conundrums solved5
Charlie Reams strikes fear into the heart of his enemy.

Charlie Reams, known not infrequently as Soo, was the runner-up of Series 59 and Championship of Champions XIII, and is one of the most important characters in the Countdown online community. One of the best players to not win a series, he created The Countdown Database which replaced The Countdown Corral after being asked to make a list of all the nines in the current series. Soo also runs this site and Apterous, and is also the head moderator on the C4countdown online forum.

Before appearing on Countdown in 2008, he went to COLIN in 2005, 2006 and 2008, winning the prize for the highest placed player never to have appeared on the show in 2008. He also appeared at CoBris 2006 and CoNot 2008.

After his spells in the unofficial tournament scene, Reams made his debut on the televised show on 15 October 2008 and scored 114, the highest debut score of the series. His next game against Darren Edwards was one of the biggest thrashings of all time, with Reams winning by 95. After slipping to 92 in his next game, he scored over 100 in three of his next four games, before a dramatic 8th game. Reams trailed from the start but managed to take a slim lead in round 11 with BEASTIE and then scored 7 points on a difficult final numbers game to go into the conundrum leading 63 – 52. He got the conundrum and completed his run with 73 points. His cumulative score was 820.

Reams returned for the finals in December 2008 as No. 1 seed. His quarter-final was a close and tense affair but he survived without a crucial conundrum, despite Patricia Jamieson beating him in the last numbers round. The semi-final was another close affair, this time against No. 4 seed 11-year old Kai Laddiman. Laddiman beat him in the first few rounds to take a 14 – 0 lead, but he made a comeback with IONIZES. Reams got closer on the following numbers game, and then beat Laddiman with SPRAINED, OUTRAGE, the second numbers game and SUNDIAL. This gave Reams an unassailable lead going into the conundrum AMBERNAIL, which neither player could solve but was found by Jo Brand in Dictionary Corner.

In the finalDes O'Connor's and Carol Vorderman's last show – the No. 1 seed faced the No. 3 seed Junaid Mubeen, and the game was very close. Reams missed STEMMED in the first round, but Mubeen had slopers ☓ disallowed in the next round. The players scored in the next two rounds, before Mubeen decided to pick six small numbers. Reams declared nothing while Mubeen declared 929 but had miscounted, thus failing to score. In the second "half", Mubeen took the lead with ORGANDIE and extended it when Reams had aliener ☓ disallowed. Mubeen held onto this lead until the final numbers, where Reams made a tactical choice of 4 large. Unfortunately the target was too easy to achieve, and both players put their pens down after 20 seconds. Mubeen thus won the final prior to the conundrum ERACLOSES, which Reams solved to bring the final scoreline 88 – 84 to Mubeen.

He was invited back for the Championship of Champions XIII, beating Peter Davies in the first round. In the second round, he played Mubeen again, a rematch of their series final. This time, Reams forced a crucial conundrum and was nine points ahead. Neither player could solve the conundrum LEGALSIRS so Reams just scraped into the semi-final. There he faced one of the favourites, Jon Corby. Reams demonstrated string form by spotting 5 eight letter words in a row, a Countdown record. Corby couldn't compete, and lost 110 – 76 after an unsolved conundrum.

In the final, he faced Steve Briers. Reams started with LEPTON while Briers had OPULENT for seven. Briers maintained this lead until he had reenact ☓ disallowed. Briers then took the lead, first with SNOOZED, then another seven points when Reams went wrong on the numbers. A seven, a six and a five for both players meant that Reams had to beat Briers on the final numbers game to force a crucial conundrum. However Reams declared nothing, and Briers declared 5 away. Briers had won the tournament, and just the conundrum remained. The conundrum was, appropriately, ELITEBOUT. Briers first buzzed on 29.75 seconds with a made-up wrong answer libouette ☓, then comically Reams buzzed in with GANDISEEG, referring to Richard Brittain's guess at the conundrum in the first round. The solution was OUBLIETTE.

In 2010, he returned to the studio for a deciding match against Junaid Mubeen, which was a special episode involving the 25, 50, 75 and 100 being replaced by 12, 37, 62 and 87 respectively. After a brilliant start by Reams, Mubeen pulled back into the game thanks to his success in the last two numbers rounds. Reams' lead was down to 10 points, but he claimed glory after unravelling KILLABAAA in half a second.

His own record of his experience on the show can be read on The Countdown Page here.

Reams has also attended unofficial tournaments after appearing on Countdown, including COLIN 2009, CoLei2, Co:Lon 2010 and Co:Lon 2011.

Reams appeared on Eggheads on BBC Two in 2018, and has also written a handful of questions for Only Connect.

Preceded by
Richard Priest
Series runner-up
Series 59
Followed by
Jimmy Gough


Preceded by
Mark Tournoff
Champion of Champions runner-up
Championship of Champions XIII
Followed by
Dan McColm

Episodes

# Date Type Contestant 1 Score Contestant 2 Presenters Guest Lex Max
4690 15/10/2008 P John McCarthy 69 – 114 Charlie Reams Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Ann Widdecombe Susie Dent 128
4691 16/10/2008 P Charlie Reams 126 – 31 Darren Edwards Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Ann Widdecombe Susie Dent 142
4692 17/10/2008 P Charlie Reams 92 – 54 David Wylie Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Ann Widdecombe Susie Dent 123
4693 20/10/2008 P Charlie Reams 106 – 60 Kathleen Carroll Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Ann Widdecombe Susie Dent 123
4694 21/10/2008 P Charlie Reams 115 – 88 Allan Harmer Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Brian Capron Susie Dent 128
4695 22/10/2008 P Charlie Reams 92 – 51 Paul Blake Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Brian Capron Susie Dent 121
4696 23/10/2008 P Charlie Reams 102 – 79 Anne Jenkin Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Brian Capron Susie Dent 131
4697 24/10/2008 P Charlie Reams 73 – 52 John Eva Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Brian Capron Susie Dent 132
4726 4/12/2008 QF Charlie Reams 82 – 69 Patricia Jamieson Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Dr Phil Hammond Susie Dent 124
4730 10/12/2008 SF Kai Laddiman 70 – 99 Charlie Reams Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Jo Brand Susie Dent 133
4732 12/12/2008 GF Junaid Mubeen 88 – 84 Charlie Reams Des O'Connor Carol Vorderman Gyles Brandreth Susie Dent 118
4739 20/01/2009 CP Peter Davies 66 – 85 Charlie Reams Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley Alastair Stewart Susie Dent 117
4742 23/01/2009 CQF Junaid Mubeen 79 – 88 Charlie Reams Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley Alastair Stewart Susie Dent 128
4746 29/01/2009 CSF Charlie Reams 110 – 76 Jon Corby Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley Paul Zenon Susie Dent 132
4747 30/01/2009 CGF Charlie Reams 67 – 88 Steve Briers Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley Paul Zenon Susie Dent 114
S29 16/08/2010 S Charlie Reams 87 – 67 Junaid Mubeen Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley Gary Osborne Susie Dent 117


Championship of Champions Runners-Up

I : Joyce Cansfield | II : Peter Evans | III : David Trace | IV : Tony Vick | V : Gino Corr | VI : Chris Waddington | VII : Damian Eadie | VIII : Kenneth Michie | IX : Pete Cashmore | X : Kate Ogilvie | XI : Chris Wills | XII : Mark Tournoff | XIII : Charlie Reams | XIV : Dan McColm | XV : Bradley Horrocks | XVI : James Haughton