Christine Smith

Christine Smith octochamp statistics
Final position	Quarter-finalist
Seeding	5
Points total	739
Conundrums solved	4

Christine Smith in Series 91, 19 years after her first appearance.

Christine Smith was a contestant in Series 55 and an octochamp in Series 91. As of her first appearance, she was from Chesterfield in Derbyshire. As of her second appearance, she was an amateur photographer and retired nurse while living near Holmfirth in West Yorkshire.

Appearances

Series 55

Christine made her debut (as one of two new contestants, the day after Steven Briers became an octochamp) in a very close fought game against Phil Matthams, managing to impressively max ten rounds in the process. But with the scored tied when going into the conundrum, it was Phil who turned GPARADISE into DISPARAGE to send Christine home after a very valiant performance.

Series 91

Heat games

Over eighteen years later, Christine returned for a second time and managed to get her teapot with a very close fought victory against Isaac McIlwrath after neither of them solved the conundrum of DULCETSID despite Isaac being agonisingly close. She followed this up with seven more victories which included three centuries and no further crucial conundrums, to become the first octochamp of the series and 2025 despite not spotting any nine-letter words on the way. Her eighth game was marked by the debut of substitute arithmetician, Dr Tom Crawford – eventually, she became the first octochamp whose octorun spanned across two artithmeticians since Steve Hyde in March 2022.

It was later noted that at 79 years of age, she was the oldest octochamp in the show's history.

Finals

Having celebrated her eightieth birthday before coming back, Amy Berry was waiting for her in the fourth quarter-final. Unfortunately for Christine, Amy was on top form and built up a formidable fifty-point lead to end the match before the final numbers game although Christine did solve it to claw back some points. After neither of them cracked another difficult conundrum, Christine's second stint on the show came to an end. Her overall points tally is 886, adding the 86 from her 2006 appearance.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
4235	15/11/2006	P	Phil Matthams	96 – 86	Christine Smith	Des Lynam	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Keith Barron	Susie Dent	123
8452	13/02/2025	P	Isaac McIlwrath	72 – 75	Christine Smith	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Les Dennis	Susie Dent	122
8453	14/02/2025	P	Christine Smith	108 – 70	John Matthews	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Les Dennis	Susie Dent	123
8454	17/02/2025	P	Christine Smith	108 – 62	Pam Hill	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Colin Jackson	Susie Dent	123
8455	18/02/2025	P	Christine Smith	85 – 29	Tessa Kirk	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Colin Jackson	Susie Dent	135
8456	19/02/2025	P	Christine Smith	70 – 57	Martin Wild	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Colin Jackson	Susie Dent	133
8457	20/02/2025	P	Christine Smith	110 – 31	Andy Hopper	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Colin Jackson	Susie Dent	153
8458	21/02/2025	P	Christine Smith	86 – 60	Finn Mullan	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Colin Jackson	Susie Dent	126
8459	24/02/2025	P	Christine Smith	97 – 13	Bill Elliott	Colin Murray	Dr Tom Crawford				Lucy Summers	Stephen Fry	Susie Dent	124
8545	24/06/2025	QF	Amy Berry	101 – 61	Christine Smith	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Bob Harris	Susie Dent	125