Harry Savage

From Countdown
Harry Savage
octochamp statistics
Final position Champion
Seeding 1
Points total 939
Conundrums solved 6
Harry Savage in Series 88.
Harry Savage holding the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy after winning Series 88.

Harry Savage was an octochamp in and the champion of Series 88. He is the third series champion that was born in the 21st century. Originally from Southampton, he was a final-year biology student at Hertford College, Oxford at the time of his appearances. He is also an Apterite and outside of Countdown, he is a competitive Rubik's Cube solver – he competed at the UK and World Championships in different categories and held Guinness World Records in the sport as well.

Appearances

Heat games

Savage first appeared on 2 August 2023 when notably being asked by Colin Murray, to solve a Rubik's Cube pre-gameplay as he managed to do so in 10.5 seconds. He later won with 122 points to Hywel Jones' 59 points. He followed this up with seven more excellent performances, which were also all centuries with a low of 105 and a high score of 130.

Of particular that note throughout his heats, he found six nine-letter words: MERITABLE, CERATOPID, ERADICATE, INCLOSURE, ORIGINATE and HORTENSIA. Some other notable spots included TOHUNGA, WOODSIA, DUODENA, BOWHEAD and SAURIAN – owing to his octorun on the show, the latter Susie Dent then christened Savage with his nickname as "Thesaurus" (following the solitary two octochamps in Series 87 during Murray's tenure as full-time presenter, he became the third octochamp to get given a nickname).

After his last heat game where he maxed thirteen rounds, scored his personal best and restricted Sandra Ring to under thirty points – he became the first contestant to win six games in a single filming day since Paul Erdunast in Series 74. His octotal of 939 made him the 32nd member of the 900 club, placed him equal on points with Sam Cappleman-Lynes and made him the provisional number one seed. He also provided one final party piece by solving a Rubik's Cube blindfolded in the studio after the game was finished, in which he amazingly managed to do so in twenty seconds.

Finals

Savage ultimately returned for the series finals on 14 December 2023 as the number one seed to play against number eight seed, David Edwards. He immediately got off to a flyer by spotting his seventh nine-letter word of DOVETAILS. He then continued to build up a commanding lead but Edwards did nick some points off him with BENZOATE. Savage though powered his way to a ninth century and capped it off with a challenging conundrum solve of turning PUBORPORT into TURBOPROP, which consigned Edwards to his second defeat and booked Savage's semi-final place.

Early on, Savage actually fell behind in his semi-final against Paul O'Brien but then showed a cutting edge thanks to spots like SOSATIE and EVIRATES – though the majority of his lead was due to a couple of numbers round misfires from his opponent. All of this meant that Savage was perfectly in the clear with a tenth century on the bounce after the final numbers game and after neither player cracked the conundrum, it meant that Savage progressed to the grand final albeit with his lowest score to date.

The grand final against Viraj Seelam had Savage behind by his largest margin at one point when Seelam cracked a trademark six-small numbers selection in Round 6. But Savage clawed his way back by the second commercial break and then struck a killer blow with COMPANIES along with the darrenic of GAWKIER in the next round. After on, he held on to confirm his status as series champion before the last numbers round and after neither player turned the apt of MEGASTTAR into STRATAGEM. Savage then lifted the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy with an eleventh century to his name, a xicount total of 1,266 and his unbeaten record still intact for now.

ZoomDown

Prior to his TV debut, Savage was a contestant in ZoomDown Series 2. He won his first three games which included a max game against Tracey Mills in his third heat but fell short of tetrachampdom thanks to current Countdown producer, Damian Eadie. But he still qualified for the series finals and won his quarter-final against Noel McIlvenny but lost his semi-final to eventual series champ, Rob Foster, who himself scored a max game.

His performances also saw him invited back for the Championship of Champions where his preliminary game saw him defeat Graeme Cole by just one point, before once again facing Rob Foster in the quarter-finals. Again, he unfortunately lost on a crucial conundrum that Foster solved to eliminate him from the competition.

Preceded by
Ronan Higginson		 Series winner
Series 88		 Followed by
Arthur Page

Episodes

# Date Type Contestant 1 Score Contestant 2 Presenters Guest Lex Max
8074 02/08/2023 P Hywel Jones 59 – 122 Harry Savage Colin Murray Rachel Riley John Thomson Susie Dent 135
8075 03/08/2023 P Harry Savage 119 – 52 Julie Quinn Colin Murray Rachel Riley John Thomson Susie Dent 147
8076 04/08/2023 P Harry Savage 119 – 30 David Byrne Colin Murray Rachel Riley Edith Bowman Susie Dent 131
8077 07/08/2023 P Harry Savage 121 – 79 Helen Ingelbrecht Colin Murray Rachel Riley Edith Bowman Susie Dent 157
8078 08/08/2023 P Harry Savage 105 – 51 Stephen O'Mara Colin Murray Rachel Riley Edith Bowman Susie Dent 125
8079 09/08/2023 P Harry Savage 108 – 74 Sam Hughes Colin Murray Rachel Riley Edith Bowman Susie Dent 133
8080 10/08/2023 P Harry Savage 115 – 47 Michael Cameron Colin Murray Rachel Riley Edith Bowman Susie Dent 123
8081 11/08/2023 P Harry Savage 130 – 21 Sandra Ring Colin Murray Rachel Riley Edith Bowman Susie Dent 134
8170 14/12/2023 QF Harry Savage 118 – 58 David Edwards Colin Murray Rachel Riley Marcus Brigstocke Susie Dent 145
8174 20/12/2023 SF Harry Savage 104 – 70 Paul O'Brien Colin Murray Rachel Riley Christopher Biggins Susie Dent 125
8176 22/12/2023 GF Harry Savage 105 – 77 Viraj Seelam Colin Murray Rachel Riley Christopher Biggins Susie Dent 133
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