Edward Byrne

Edward Byrne octochamp statistics
Final position	Runner-up
Seeding	2
Points total	969
Conundrums solved	7

Edward Byrne in Series 71...

...and eight years later in Series 86!

Edward "Ed" Byrne was a contestant in Series 71, and an octochamp in and the runner-up of Series 86. He is also an Apterite. In his first appearance, he was studying history, politics and Irish language at University College Dublin. As of his second appearance, he was a civil servant from Booterstown in Dublin. In addition, although his nameplate read Edward, he was referred to as Ed. Notably, Byrne's appearances in his second run span Anne Robinson's final eight shows as presenter.

Appearances on the programme

Series 71

Byrne made his debut as a contestant in the near-end of Series 71 in 2014, winning his first game on a crucial conundrum and losing his second game to another crucial.

Series 86

However, after years of practising on Apterous and participating in Co-events, Byrne was allowed to return more than seven and a half years later, in 2022, to compete in Series 86, and began his second run by scoring a century over Paul Harcourt. His octochamp pursuit was not halted this time, after winning a further seven games without falling below 104. As well as becoming an octochamp on Anne Robinson's final episode against fellow civil servant Matt Greer (in which Byrne found back-to-back nine-letter words), he also joined the 900 club, with 969 points to his tally (at that point, the fifth highest of all time). He also became the second octochamp in the first 18 episodes of the series, and recorded the then-highest score of 2022, having racked up 143 points in Robinson's last show. Clips of the seventh game of his second run were shown on Celebrity Gogglebox on 15 July.

Finals

Qualifying for the finals ranked second, Byrne comfortably dispatched number seven seed Steven Etherington in the second quarter-final match, doing so with a ninth consecutive century, leading him to a confrontation with Quinn Bartlett in the second semi-final.

In the second semi-final, it started off close, with both players maxing out in the first three rounds. But Byrne then scored 27 unanswered points with spots like HERNIAS in Round 4 and PAEANS in Round 7, which he only grew with BASINET in Round 12 to confirm his victory before the last numbers game. A fiendish conundrum flummoxed both players, with Byrne incorrectly guessing megalator ☓ instead of GREMOLATA, but it mattered not, as he won with his tenth century, maxed 12 rounds, and set up a grandstand final against Tom Stevenson the next day.

Grand final

In the grand final, both players started level. But, Stevenson eventually established a commanding 33-point lead with spots like RODENTIAL and UNTIMELY. However, later in the game, Byrne became the first player to beat Stevenson on a letters round with a spot of IDEOGRAPH for nine, which also brought him back to close distance of Stevenson. Unfortunately, after that, Byrne could not close the gap any further, and Stevenson's victory was certified before the final round. During the conundrum, Byrne incorrectly buzzed in, while Stevenson correctly solved it with under half a second to spare to win the series, while Byrne took the runner-up spot. Byrne obtained an overall total of 1,272 points in his Series 86 run. With his Series 71 appearances, his overall total is 1,438 points.

Championship of Champions XVI

Byrne came back in January 2023 to take part in Championship of Champions XVI where he faced Series 84 champion Ahmed Mohamed. Mohamed immediately raced into a 24-point lead, with sanatives ☓ and rodeoes ☓ being the disallowed offerings from Byrne contributing to that gap. That lead only continued to grow throughout the game, but Byrne was able to sign off his Countdown appearances in style with a complex solution to a final four-large numbers round. He also gained the last word against Mohamed by unravelling ONSCREENI to RECENSION to be the first person to solve a conundrum in the competition.

Co-events

In 2015, he made his Co-event debut at CoBris 2015, and later that year, he organised and co-hosted the first Countdown in Dublin. In 2017, Byrne won his first Co-event, defeating James Robinson in the COLIN XIII: The Hangover grand final.

Appearances on other TV/quiz shows/competitions

In 2016, he participated in the Irish Open Scrabble tournament.

In 2020, he appeared on First Dates Ireland on RTÉ2.

In 2020 and 2021, he participated in Series 1, 3 and 4 of ZoomDown.

Preceded by Matt O'Connor

Series runner-up Series 86

Followed by Cillian McMulkin

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
6036	20/11/2014	P	Malcolm Fletcher	74 – 93	Edward Byrne	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Michael Whitehall	Susie Dent	135
6037	21/11/2014	P	Edward Byrne	73 – 88	Andrew Avery	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Michael Whitehall	Susie Dent	120
7797	04/07/2022	P	Paul Harcourt	50 – 112	Edward Byrne	Anne Robinson	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Christopher Biggins	Susie Dent	131
7798	05/07/2022	P	Edward Byrne	140 – 40	Sarah Booth	Anne Robinson	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Christopher Biggins	Susie Dent	142
7799	06/07/2022	P	Edward Byrne	117 – 42	Daniel Gittins	Anne Robinson	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Christopher Biggins	Susie Dent	125
7800	07/07/2022	P	Edward Byrne	115 – 33	Mark Redmond	Anne Robinson	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jenny Ryan	Susie Dent	124
7801	08/07/2022	P	Edward Byrne	115 – 51	Lucy Gross	Anne Robinson	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jenny Ryan	Susie Dent	131
7802	11/07/2022	P	Edward Byrne	104 – 56	Anthony Wilson	Anne Robinson	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jenny Ryan	Susie Dent	122
7803	12/07/2022	P	Edward Byrne	123 – 14	James Wright	Anne Robinson	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jenny Ryan	Susie Dent	132
7804	13/07/2022	P	Edward Byrne	143 – 58	Matt Greer	Anne Robinson	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jenny Ryan	Susie Dent	145
7916	16/12/2022	QF	Edward Byrne	105 – 34	Steven Etherington	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Vick Hope	Susie Dent	133
7920	22/12/2022	SF	Edward Byrne	107 – 73	Quinn Bartlett	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Neil Delamere	Susie Dent	121
7921	23/12/2022	GF	Tom Stevenson	116 – 91	Edward Byrne	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Neil Delamere	Susie Dent	145
7924	04/01/2023	CP	Ahmed Mohamed	121 – 76	Edward Byrne	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Richard Osman	Susie Dent	142