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, an octochamp in and the runner-up of Series 86, and a participant in Championship of Champions XVI. He is also an Apterite. As of his first set of appearances, he was studying history, politics and Irish language at University College Dublin. As of his second set of appearances, he was a civil servant from Booterstown in Dublin. In addition, he was referred to as Ed although his nameplate read "Edward".

Appearances on the show

Series 71

Byrne made his initial debut in November 2014, winning his first game on a crucial conundrum before losing his second game on another crucial.

Series 86

But after years of practising on Apterous and participating in Co-events, he was allowed to return less than a decade later.

Byrne began his second run by scoring a century over Paul Harcourt. His octorun was not halted this time, after winning a further seven games without scoring below 104. He joined the 900 club, with 969 points to his tally (at the time, it was the fifth highest octotal of all time). He also became the second octochamp within the first eighteen episodes of the series and achieved the then-highest score of 2022, having racked up 143 points in Anne Robinson's last episode. Clips of his seventh game were shown on Celebrity Gogglebox on 15 July 2022.

Byrne was the last octochamp to be crowned with Anne Robinson as the presenter.

Quarter- and Semi-Final

Byrne returned in December for the finals where he comfortably dispatched No. 7 seed, Steven Etherington, in his quarter-final with his ninth century.

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

Grand Final

In the grand final, both players started level. But Stevenson eventually established a commanding 33-point lead with word spots like RODENTIAL and UNTIMELY. But later in the game, Byrne became the first player to beat Stevenson on a letters round with the word spot of IDEOGRAPH which also brought him back to striking distance. After that, Byrne unfortunately could not close the gap any further as Stevenson's series victory was confirmed before the final round. In the conundrum round, Byrne incorrectly guessed the answer before Stevenson correctly solved it with under 0.5 seconds to spare.

Championship of Champions XVI

Byrne came back in January 2023 for 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 career in style with a complex solution to the last numbers round and gaining the last word by unravelling ONSCREENI to RECENSION to become the first person of solving a conundrum in the tournament.

Co-events

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

Appearances on other TV/game 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