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Jack Welsby

From Countdown
Jack Welsby
Octochamp Statistics
Final positionSemi-finalist
Seeding2
Points total831
Conundrums solved4
Jack Welsby

Jack Welsby was an octochamp in Series 52.

Appearances

He won all 8 of his heats with some excellent performances, and relieved many viewers by beating Jon Stitcher in his first game. He only failed to score 100 points in two games, against Joseph Bolas and Alan Cusack.

Returning for the series finals, he comfortably beat David Thirlwall in the quarter-final, before facing Mark Tournoff in the semi. The game started evenly, but Tournoff built up a resounding lead with the nine VERONICAS. However, Welsby fought back with PALMATE and a difficult numbers game, taking it to a crucial conundrum, which Tournoff got.

He was invited back to the Championship of Champions XII and played Jon O'Neill in the first round, narrowly beating him with help from words such as SENARII, TAUTENED and AMOEBAS. However, he came unstuck against Paul Howe in the quarter-final, as Howe spotted the impressive BURGONET to go into the conundrum with a 11 point lead.

Appearances on other Quiz Shows

Outside of Countdown, Welsby has enjoyed a notable quizzing career; firstly, he featured as the team captain of the Durham University team that reached the semi-finals of the 1998-99 series of University Challenge - that team also had future Mastermind champion Jesse Honey as another notable participant. He was also the joint winner (with David Stedman) of Series 34 on Fifteen to One. He later appeared in 2016 as the team captain of a team of London Underground enthusiasts on Only Connect who reached the second round before losing out the the eventual series runners-up the Cosmopolitans.

Other Information

Welsby was at one time a world record holder for visiting all London Underground stations in the fastest time, beating Robert Robinson. His time of 19 hours, 18 minutes and 45 seconds was later beaten by Geoff Marshall & Neil Blake (as a duo) after 2 years, 2 months and 2 days. Another holder of the aforementioned record also appeared on Countdown.

Episodes

# Date Type Contestant 1 Score Contestant 2 Presenters Guest Lex Max
3746 21/07/2004 P Jon Stitcher 73 – 110 Jack Welsby Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Peter Baldwin Susie Dent 132
3747 27/07/2004 P Jack Welsby 105 – 51 Mary Parke Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Peter Baldwin Susie Dent 121
3748 28/07/2004 P Jack Welsby 102 – 42 Eddie McNamee Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Peter Baldwin Susie Dent 118
3749 3/08/2004 P Jack Welsby 101 – 55 Carol Kemp Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Barry Cryer Alison Heard 120
3750 4/08/2004 P Jack Welsby 96 – 86 Joseph Bolas Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Barry Cryer Alison Heard 141
3751 5/08/2004 P Jack Welsby 112 – 72 Stewart Smeed Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Barry Cryer Alison Heard 133
3752 6/08/2004 P Jack Welsby 108 – 51 Mandy Combes Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Barry Cryer Alison Heard 126
3753 9/08/2004 P Jack Welsby 97 – 73 Alan Cusack Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Barry Cryer Alison Heard 129
3835 10/12/2004 QF David Thirlwall 58 – 93 Jack Welsby Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Rick Wakeman Susie Dent 116
3839 16/12/2004 SF Jack Welsby 73 – 88 Mark Tournoff Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Richard Digance Susie Dent 126
4116 1/06/2006 CP Jack Welsby 99 – 94 Jon O'Neill Des Lynam Carol Vorderman Ron Atkinson Susie Dent 134
4124 13/06/2006 CQF Jack Welsby 72 – 83 Paul Howe Des Lynam Carol Vorderman Kim Woodburn Susie Dent 118