George Ford

From Countdown
Jump to navigationJump to search
George Ford
octochamp statistics
Final position Semi-finalist
Seeding 5
Points total 832
Conundrums solved 5
George Ford in Series 71...
...and in Championship of Champions XIV.
Rachel Riley left amazed by one of Ford's unorthodox numbers game solves.

George Ford was an octochamp in Series 71, and a participant in Championship of Champions XIV. As of his Series 71 appearances, he was a sixth-form student at the Sir Harry Smith Community College from Cambridgeshire. As of his Championship of Champions appearance, he was an undergraduate Mathematics student at the University of Exeter. He is also an Apterite.

Appearance on the show

Heat games

Ford made his debut with a controversial victory against Jonny Rye. In that game, Rye's offering of HEADWAYS was disallowed by Susie Dent. This has since been recognised as a mistake by the Countdown team. Ignoring the controversy, Ford emerged with a debut score of 102 – the first of seven centuries.

His next game proved to be the strongest of his heat game run, spotting CAPONIERS and by solving a numbers game with a method that went up to 97,500 and coming back down again.

Ford continued his unorthodox numbers solves throughout his heat game run, even managing to stump Rachel Riley on a few occasions. The remainder of Ford's octorun were relatively consistent with him spotting words like AGISTED, CONDUITS and AVIATOR. Ford also only dropped below 100 in one game, against Stewart Fraser.

Fraser was also the only contestant to beat Ford in a numbers game; however, Fraser wasn't as strong in the letters rounds and only managed to score five over all ten of the letters rounds. Despite the lack of nines present (only CAPONIERS from his second game), Ford finished his heat game run with a cumulative octotal of 832 – averaging 104 per game. Despite the strong score, Ford eventually qualified as the No. 5 seed for the finals that made him the highest-scoring octochamp with only one nine available. He was also the highest-scoring No. 5 seed in the show's history until his second opponent and future Series 92 octochamp, John Payne, beat it by two points.

Finals

Ford returned for his quarter-final against Mark Davies. Davies took an early lead when Ford blanked out in the first numbers round, but Ford retaliated in the next round by spotting PASSIVES. The lead then changed back once more when Davies spotted LACINESS, followed by another lead change in the next round when Ford found NEMATODE. From here on, Ford scored in every round up until the conundrum of THESKILOG that Davies unscrambled in just eight seconds to be GHOSTLIKE. Despite Davies' solve, it was Ford that took the game by 90 – 78.

Ford's quarter-final win saw him progress to the semi-finals, where he faced the seemingly invincible Dan McColm. Though Ford fought hard against McColm, pattie ☓ and ambroise ☓ along with brilliant word spots by McColm like RIBOSOME and ROUILLE meant that Ford's 2014 run had finally come to an end. But some consolation for Ford is that in this game, McColm didn't drop a single point to give him the tenth max game in the history of the show and the first in the new 15-round era.

Championship of Champions XIV

Ford returned to show in January 2016 for Championship of Champions XIV where he faced against fellow University of Exeter alumnus, Jen Steadman, in the first round. Steadman emerged victorious in the encounter by 126 – 99.

Appearances on other game shows

On 19 September 2019, Ford appeared on Eggheads.

Episodes

# Date Type Contestant 1 Score Contestant 2 Presenters Guest Lex Max
6017 23/10/2014 P Jonny Rye 92 – 102 George Ford Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Dave Myers Susie Dent 125
6018 24/10/2014 P George Ford 114 – 68 John Payne Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Dave Myers Susie Dent 132
6019 27/10/2014 P George Ford 101 – 61 Ita Moynihan Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Dave Myers Susie Dent 122
6020 28/10/2014 P George Ford 100 – 36 Kathy Richland Nick Hewer Rachel Riley John Inverdale Susie Dent 121
6021 29/10/2014 P George Ford 95 – 25 Stewart Fraser Nick Hewer Rachel Riley John Inverdale Susie Dent 124
6022 30/10/2014 P George Ford 107 – 56 Jonathan Lee Nick Hewer Rachel Riley John Inverdale Susie Dent 122
6023 31/10/2014 P George Ford 112 – 32 Sue Edgar Nick Hewer Rachel Riley John Inverdale Susie Dent 124
6024 03/11/2014 P George Ford 101 – 77 Tom Pettinger Nick Hewer Rachel Riley John Inverdale Susie Dent 118
6053 16/12/2014 QF Mark Davies 78 – 90 George Ford Nick Hewer Rachel Riley David Baddiel Susie Dent 122
6054 17/12/2014 SF Dan McColm 123 – 77 George Ford Nick Hewer Rachel Riley David Baddiel Susie Dent 123
6282 08/01/2016 CP George Ford 99 – 126 Jen Steadman Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Gloria Hunniford Susie Dent 137

External Links

Retrieved from "https://wiki.apterous.org/index.php?title=George_Ford&oldid=190035"