Eoin Monaghan

Eoin Monaghan octochamp statistics
Final position	Runner-up
Seeding	2
Points total	898
Conundrums solved	6

Eoin Monaghan

Eoin Monaghan was an octochamp in and the runner-up of Series 63. He was a 14-year-old student at the Abbey Christian Brothers' Grammar School in Newry from Banbridge, County Down.

Monaghan debuted on 15 September 2010 with a drubbing against fellow debutant, David Rayner. He spotted PORTIERE, HEPTAGON and FORAGERS before the first ad break. He then solved the conundrum in 0.5 seconds to win by 108 – 40.

Seven further challenges did nothing to stop Monaghan achieving strong scores like 121 and 120 as well as on the way to an amazing octotal of 898, the seventh highest in the original 15-round format. He also became only the fourth person after Julian Fell, Craig Beevers and Andrew Hulme to score eight consecutive centuries in all his heat games. His total aggregate winning margin over his eight preliminary games is 544, a record that stood for 2.5 years before being broken by Andy Platt.

Monaghan returned for the series finals as the No. 2 seed in December. His quarter-final declarations of IMAMATE, VIRAGOES and TOTALISED helped him garner 127 points against Niall Young's 45. He then beat Daniel Pati in his semi-final, despite the absence of nine-letter words and a conundrum that foxed both players. Monaghan was finally defeated by Jack Hurst in the grand final but still delivered a strong performance as he was only beaten on one letters round, one numbers round and a 0.25-second conundrum solve from the latter.

After his appearances on Countdown, a new production rule of prohibiting people under the age of sixteen from appearing on the show was enforced by the team. This effectively made Monaghan the last ever contestant under that age to appear on the show. He did not return for 30th Birthday Championship.

On 8 August 2016 and 2 January 2017, he appeared on University Challenge and represented Oriel College, Oxford.

In 2020, Monaghan appeared in the second Numberists series of ZoomDown and reached the quarter-finals.

Preceded by Nicki Sellars

Series runner-up Series 63

Followed by Adam Gillard

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
5111	15/09/2010	P	David Rayner	40 – 108	Eoin Monaghan	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Alastair Stewart	Susie Dent	119
5112	16/09/2010	P	Eoin Monaghan	105 – 66	John Shaw	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Alastair Stewart	Susie Dent	128
5113	17/09/2010	P	Eoin Monaghan	115 – 44	Pauline Wedell	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Alastair Stewart	Susie Dent	131
5114	20/09/2010	P	Eoin Monaghan	121 – 35	Dave Rudd	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dave Spikey	Susie Dent	130
5115	21/09/2010	P	Eoin Monaghan	100 – 16	Clive Myers	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dave Spikey	Susie Dent	125
5116	22/09/2010	P	Eoin Monaghan	120 – 60	Les Morrell	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dave Spikey	Susie Dent	129
5117	23/09/2010	P	Eoin Monaghan	116 – 61	Angela Monk	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dave Spikey	Susie Dent	133
5118	24/09/2010	P	Eoin Monaghan	113 – 32	Pete Hawksworth	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dave Spikey	Susie Dent	136
5173	10/12/2010	QF	Eoin Monaghan	127 – 45	Niall Young	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Amanda Lamb	Susie Dent	130
5177	16/12/2010	SF	Eoin Monaghan	108 – 77	Daniel Pati	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Paul Zenon	Susie Dent	122
5178	17/12/2010	GF	Jack Hurst	113 – 85	Eoin Monaghan	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Paul Zenon	Susie Dent	114