James Burley

James Burley octochamp statistics
Final position	Semi-finalist
Seeding	2
Points total	819
Conundrums solved	7

James Burley in Series 83.

James Burley was an octochamp in Series 83. He was a secondary school teacher from Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire at the time of filming.

Burley has partaken in both Scrabble tournaments – including an English-language tournament held in Germany – and Co-events; prior to his television debut, he participated in CoStAl and CO:BO 2018.

Burley began his Countdown journey in the second show of Series 83, where he unseated Paul Gaskell after solving a crucial conundrum in under 2 seconds. Burley then improved on his debut score of 84 the following day with a personal best of 127, before achieving six more wins which comprised of four more centuries and two scores in the 90s. En route to being crowned the first octochamp and 800 club member of 2021, he solved every conundrum but one and garnered a total of 819 points.

Burley is the first octochamp in Countdown history whose run has presided over four dictionary corner guests. He is also the second octochamp after Jack Worsley whose run has presided over a change of presenter, with Nick Hewer hosting his first six heat games and Colin Murray hosting his last two.

Five months later, Burley returned as the No. 2 seed to play the second quarter-final against No. 7-ranked six-time winner and fellow Apterite Tom Vincent. Burley stretched into a good lead early on with spots of REUSABLE and ANEROID, but Vincent narrowed his lead to three points before the second commercial break. However, Burley took further letters rounds off the opposition to ultimately confirm his spot in the second semi-final before the last numbers round. Burley next played against Adam Latchford in the semi-final, but Burley failed to recover from a slow start and was defeated, meaning the match ultimately did not remain true to the seeding. Burley garnered an overall total of 984 points in his run.

He has also appeared on the tail end of ZoomDown Series 3 and the first episode of Series 4, losing to Stu Harkness. However, he still made it to the quarter-finals despite losing against Paul Nixon with a 2 point gap.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
7415	5/01/2021	P	Paul Gaskell	70 – 84	James Burley	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Levi Roots	Susie Dent	132
7416	6/01/2021	P	James Burley	127 – 55	Edward Carter	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dr Phil Hammond	Susie Dent	156
7417	7/01/2021	P	James Burley	91 – 60	Peter Franklin Routh	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dr Phil Hammond	Susie Dent	132
7418	8/01/2021	P	James Burley	112 – 49	Seb James	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dr Phil Hammond	Susie Dent	145
7419	11/01/2021	P	James Burley	106 – 72	Mark Pettitt	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dr Phil Hammond	Susie Dent	133
7420	12/01/2021	P	James Burley	100 – 36	Andrew Brookes	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dr Phil Hammond	Susie Dent	156
7421	13/01/2021	P	James Burley	106 – 66	Roger Clarke	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Rory Bremner	Susie Dent	135
7422	14/01/2021	P	James Burley	93 – 48	Russ Evans	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Richard Arnold	Susie Dent	154
7533	18/06/2021	QF	James Burley	100 – 66	Tom Vincent	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Rufus Hound	Susie Dent	135
7537	24/06/2021	SF	James Burley	65 – 82	Adam Latchford	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Rufus Hound	Susie Dent	118