Junaid Mubeen
| Junaid Mubeen octochamp statistics | |
|---|---|
| Final position | Champion |
| Seeding | 3 |
| Points total | 790 |
| Conundrums solved | 7 |
Junaid Mubeen was a contestant in Series 39, an octochamp in and the champion of Series 59, and a quarter-finalist in Championship of Champions XIII. As of his first appearance, he was a secondary school student. As of his 2008 and Championship of Champions appearances, he was an Oxford mathematics PhD student. He is the author of Mathematical Intelligence: What We Have that Machines Don't, published in 2022.
He first appeared in September 1998 at 14-years-old, where he lost to Mike Jones on a crucial conundrum.
He returned just over a decade later after passing another audition and reeled off eight impressive wins, including a century on his debut.
Mubeen returned as the No. 3 seed in December 2008 and in his quarter-final, he gave one of the best performances of the series by scoring 124 out of a possible 127 which included the nine-letter spot of NOTARISED. Mubeen scored all maximums at the numbers and conundrum, and dropped just three points on the letters.
He then faced Martin Bishop in the second semi-final. Mubeen took the lead with SPATIAL and ROMAINE but Bishop got back into the game when Mubeen had precasted ☓ disallowed (the past participle of PRECAST is PRECAST). But when Bishop had somaine ☓ disallowed in the final letters game, Mubeen was beyond reach and topped off a good performance by taking the points from the final numbers and conundrum.
In the final, the game was very close: first of all, Reams missed STEMMED in the first round but Mubeen had slopers ☓ disallowed in the next round. The players scored in the next two rounds, before Mubeen decided to pick six small numbers. Reams declared nothing while Mubeen declared 929 but had miscounted and got no points. In the second half, Mubeen took the lead with ORGANDIE and extended it when Reams had aliener ☓ disallowed. Mubeen held onto this lead until the final numbers game where Reams made a tactical choice of four large, but it didn't work because both players got the target and put their pens down after twenty seconds. Mubeen had a fourteen-point lead when going into the conundrum, but it was Reams that solved ERACLOSES (CASSEROLE) and lost the final by just four points.
Mubeen returned for Championship of Champions XIII, taking out Tony Warren before encountering Charlie Reams again in the quarter-final. This time, he was not so lucky and lost on a crucial conundrum.
In August 2010, he returned to the show for a deciding match against Charlie Reams. After a brilliant start by Reams, Mubeen pulled into the game with thanks to the altered large numbers games; meaning that as they went into the conundrum, Reams' lead was down to ten points but Reams took the glory after unravelling KILLABAAA in half a second.
In 2009, Mubeen appeared at these Co-events: COLIN 2009 and CoNot 2009.
Outside of Countdown, he appeared on BrainTeaser (on the same episode as Joseph Bolas).
Mubeen is the first 15-round series champion that previously appeared on the show before the series that he won (the next being Kirk Bevins, who appeared in the following series) and the second in overall Countdown history after Darryl Francis.
| Preceded by David O'Donnell |
Series winner Series 59 |
Followed by Kirk Bevins |
Episodes
| # | Date | Type | Contestant 1 | Score | Contestant 2 | Presenters | Guest | Lex | Max | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2342 | 4/09/1998 | P | Mike Jones | 51 – 40 | Junaid Mubeen | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Barry Cryer | Anna Hall | 70 | ||
| 4673 | 22/09/2008 | P | Julie Rees | 42 – 100 | Junaid Mubeen | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Andrew Sachs | Susie Dent | 144 | ||
| 4674 | 23/09/2008 | P | Junaid Mubeen | 92 – 79 | Hazel Jones | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Andrew Sachs | Susie Dent | 129 | ||
| 4675 | 24/09/2008 | P | Junaid Mubeen | 121 – 67 | David Williams | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Keith Barron | Susie Dent | 134 | ||
| 4676 | 25/09/2008 | P | Junaid Mubeen | 106 – 49 | Darren Stibbs | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Keith Barron | Susie Dent | 117 | ||
| 4677 | 26/09/2008 | P | Junaid Mubeen | 106 – 72 | Tony McCreadie | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Keith Barron | Susie Dent | 139 | ||
| 4678 | 29/09/2008 | P | Junaid Mubeen | 94 – 55 | Gerard Doyle | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Keith Barron | Susie Dent | 122 | ||
| 4679 | 30/09/2008 | P | Junaid Mubeen | 74 – 62 | Jonathan Gilligan | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Barry Cryer | Susie Dent | 117 | ||
| 4680 | 1/10/2008 | P | Junaid Mubeen | 97 – 27 | Margaret Batters | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Barry Cryer | Susie Dent | 122 | ||
| 4728 | 8/12/2008 | QF | Neil MacKenzie | 57 – 124 | Junaid Mubeen | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Jo Brand | Susie Dent | 127 | ||
| 4731 | 11/12/2008 | SF | Junaid Mubeen | 96 – 56 | Martin Bishop | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Jo Brand | Susie Dent | 115 | ||
| 4732 | 12/12/2008 | GF | Junaid Mubeen | 88 – 84 | Charlie Reams | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Gyles Brandreth | Susie Dent | 118 | ||
| 4734 | 13/01/2009 | CP | Junaid Mubeen | 80 – 55 | Tony Warren | Jeff Stelling | Rachel Riley | Andrew Sachs | Susie Dent | 116 | ||
| 4742 | 23/01/2009 | CQF | Junaid Mubeen | 79 – 88 | Charlie Reams | Jeff Stelling | Rachel Riley | Alastair Stewart | Susie Dent | 128 | ||
| S29 | 16/08/2010 | S | Charlie Reams | 87 – 67 | Junaid Mubeen | Jeff Stelling | Rachel Riley | Gary Osborne | Susie Dent | 117 | ||
