Dan McColm

Dan McColm octochamp statistics
Final position	Champion
Seeding	1
Points total	942
Conundrums solved	6

Dan McColm in Series 64.

Dan McColm holding the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy.

Dan McColm in the Championship of Champions XIV.

Dan McColm was a contestant in Series 64, an octochamp in and the series champion of Series 71, and the runner-up of Championship of Champions XIV. As of his Series 64 game, he was a Modern Languages undergraduate at the University of Durham, and by the time of his second set of shows in Series 71, he was doing a masters degree in Linguistics and English Language at the University of Edinburgh. When his CoC games were broadcast, he was studying for a Ph.D, again at Edinburgh. He is also an Apterite and a member of C4Countdown.

Appearances on the programme

Heat games

McColm's Countdown career began in Series 64, when he was defeated in a close contest against future quarter-finalist Ned Pendleton. However, this wasn't an entirely bad thing, as he was allowed to return in Series 71 (less than four years later), leaving his mark as one of the greatest octochamps in the show's entire history.

McColm's incredible octochamp run started off with a relatively close game against one-time winner, primary school teacher Gary Mehaffy from Nixon's Corner. McColm started off by finding SULCATE, giving him a 7 point lead. However, a tough battle between the two and McColm offering the invalid word annatos ☓ saw Mehaffy equalise in round 7. Despite the close first half, the game was pretty one-sided fro this point on, with McColm ending his not-technically-a-début début with an extremely impressive 13 maxes and 113 points. He then went on to win a further 7 games, including 6 more centuries and – for the first time ever – a run of three consecutive scores above 125, offering words like NANOTUBE, TERATOMA, PERORATE and perhaps the greatest 9 spot in the history of Countdown – INAMORATO. McColm also took advantage of this being the first ODO-dictionary series, offering modern words such as WHATEV, and solving the conundrum PHOTOBOMB in just a second. McColm's score of 137 in his sixth game is the highest ever for a game with only one nine available, and this along with his 4 nines and impeccable numbers and conundrum performance landed McColm with a cumulative score of 942.

Finals

After defeating Paul Worsley in the quarter-finals, he defeated the #5 seed, George Ford in the semi-final with a perfect game. McColm then went on to face #2 seed Antoinette Ryan. In a close contest, in which McColm dropped behind for the first time by two points, McColm steamrolled to victory and became series champion after solving the conundrum LETHALITY in just four seconds.

Championship of Champions XIV

"Cool Dan", as he became known on the show, returned in 2016 for Championship of Champions XIV, coming up against another series winner, Paul James of Series 67, in the last 16. Cool Dan won this match 106 – 69, solving the conundrum TOMBOYISH in a second. Another series winner laid waiting in the quarter-finals in Series 70 champion Mark Murray. In a very tense battle of the 2014 champions, Cool Dan won 112 – 99 to set up a semi-final against Jen Steadman. In a thrilling match, the spot of ROSMARINE in round 7 proved crucial for McColm, who would win the match 125 – 117, with further brilliance including GENIUSED. In the final against Series 69 runner-up Dylan Taylor, and after finding himself 25 points behind after 6 rounds, McColm pegged him back thanks to the nine METACONID. They would remain 7 points apart (notably with McColm spotting ROSMARINE a second time) up until the crucial conundrum, where after 1.5 seconds, Taylor unravelled NICETASTY to become the fourteenth Champion of Champions.

Co-events

McColm made his Co-event début at COLIN 2012, before finishing as the runner-up at both CO:REA in April and COHUD in June of the same year. He eventually won his first Co-event at Leeds in 2018, beating Zarte Siempre in the final.

Preceded by Mark Murray

Series winner Series 71

Followed by Tom Cappleman

Preceded by Charlie Reams

Champion of Champions runner-up Championship of Champions XIV

Followed by Bradley Horrocks

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
5212	24/02/2011	P	Ned Pendleton	89 – 66	Dan McColm	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Mark Foster	Susie Dent	118
6007	8/10/2014	P	Gary Mehaffy	70 – 113	Dan McColm	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tony Jacklin	Susie Dent	131
6008	9/10/2014	P	Dan McColm	92 – 70	Ben Hodgson	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tony Jacklin	Susie Dent	127
6009	10/10/2014	P	Dan McColm	112 – 37	Daisy Stemple	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tony Jacklin	Susie Dent	119
6010	13/10/2014	P	Dan McColm	116 – 47	John Vivian	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Richard Arnold	Susie Dent	128
6011	14/10/2014	P	Dan McColm	129 – 58	Samantha Cooper	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Richard Arnold	Susie Dent	131
6012	15/10/2014	P	Dan McColm	137 – 53	Harry Jarrett	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Richard Arnold	Susie Dent	139
6013	16/10/2014	P	Dan McColm	126 – 44	Antony Aston	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Richard Arnold	Susie Dent	130
6014	20/10/2014	P	Dan McColm	117 – 51	Stephen Whieldon	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Richard Arnold	Susie Dent	121
6050	10/12/2014	QF	Dan McColm	109 – 60	Paul Worsley	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Arlene Phillips	Susie Dent	121
6054	17/12/2014	SF	Dan McColm	123 – 77	George Ford	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	David Baddiel	Susie Dent	123
6056	19/12/2014	GF	Dan McColm	117 – 87	Antoinette Ryan	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	David Baddiel	Susie Dent	129
6284	12/01/2016	CP	Dan McColm	106 – 69	Paul James	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	John Inverdale	Susie Dent	122
6289	19/01/2016	CQF	Dan McColm	112 – 99	Mark Murray	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Naga Munchetty	Susie Dent	145
6291	21/01/2016	CSF	Jen Steadman	117 – 125	Dan McColm	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Naga Munchetty	Susie Dent	146
6292	22/01/2016	CGF	Dylan Taylor	121 – 104	Dan McColm	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Naga Munchetty	Susie Dent	154