Innis Carson

Innis Carson octochamp statistics
Final position	Semi-finalist
Seeding	3
Points total	861
Conundrums solved	7

Innis Carson in Series 61...

...and again in the 30th Birthday Championship.

Innis Carson was an octochamp and semi-finalist in Series 61 and a participant in the 30th Birthday Championship. He was a Scottish undergraduate chemistry student at the University of Edinburgh.

Appearances on the show

Heat games

He made his debut in June 2009, and impressed with his high scores and rapid conundrum solves, his first 6 each being solved in under a second. His score of 861, made him the No. 3 seed of Series 61.

Finals

After dispatching Jeffrey Burgin in the quarters, he came up against the No. 2 seed, Chris Davies, and after beating him with INTENSE and SOLENOID, he had a 15 point lead with 2 rounds left, but he only got 1 away in the last numbers game, leaving it all hinging on the crucial conundrum EPITUSSLE, and with less than 5 seconds left, Davies unscrambled it to SLEEPSUIT, giving him the win by 102 – 97.

30th Birthday Championship

He returned to Countdown in 2013, as one of 41 contestants taking part in the 30th Birthday Championship. He received a bye to the first round, and won his first game against Series 64 runner-up Adam Gillard by a score of 116 – 91. He then played Series 60 champion Kirk Bevins in a phenomenal match, decided on a second conundrum, after both Carson and Bevins incorrectly guessed the first one.

Tournaments and Co-events

After filming the Countdown finals, he won the online Apterous Winter Closed 2009 Speed Demon tournament.

In May 2010, he attended and won his first unofficial Countdown tournament, Co:Lon 2010, and he returned to defend his title at Co:Lon 2011, but fared less well second time around. He then won the CobliviLon tournament in 2012, followed by winning COEDI on home turf in November 2012, where he set a new record for the highest score in a "live" (as opposed to online play) 9 round format game with a score of 99 in a preliminary game against Paul James. Carson continued an impressive streak in Countdown tournaments, winning COLIN XI and Co:Glasgow 2015 in 2015, and the inaugural Co:Leeds in 2016.

Appearances on quiz shows

In 2015, he appeared on Only Connect as part of the "Scientists" team, with fellow Apterite Ian Volante. Later, in 2017, he captained the University of Edinburgh team on University Challenge. The team went on to make the semi-finals of the series in 2018.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
4847	25/06/2009	P	Clive Brooker	68 – 106	Innis Carson	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tim Vine	Susie Dent	132
4848	26/06/2009	P	Innis Carson	115 – 57	Martyn Brewer	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tim Vine	Susie Dent	121
4849	29/06/2009	P	Innis Carson	111 – 61	Duncan MacPhail	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Matt Le Tissier	Susie Dent	119
4850	30/06/2009	P	Innis Carson	108 – 43	Trudi Harding	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Matt Le Tissier	Susie Dent	121
4851	1/07/2009	P	Innis Carson	102 – 43	Allan Barnes	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Matt Le Tissier	Susie Dent	139
4852	2/07/2009	P	Innis Carson	94 – 47	Mike Moran	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Matt Le Tissier	Susie Dent	127
4853	3/07/2009	P	Innis Carson	115 – 70	Danny Marsh	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Matt Le Tissier	Susie Dent	129
4854	6/07/2009	P	Innis Carson	110 – 67	Chris Bergman	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Donal MacIntyre	Susie Dent	123
4949	14/12/2009	QF	Innis Carson	111 – 70	Jeffrey Burgin	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Rory McGrath	Susie Dent	131
4952	17/12/2009	SF	Chris Davies	102 – 97	Innis Carson	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Rory McGrath	Susie Dent	118
5629	25/01/2013	30B1	Innis Carson	116 – 91	Adam Gillard	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Margaret Mountford	Susie Dent	137
5645	18/02/2013	30B2	Innis Carson	102 – 112*	Kirk Bevins	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dr Phil Hammond	Susie Dent	120

* includes 10 points from a tie-break conundrum