Main Page

Welcome to The Countdown Wiki Home of 16,968 articles about Channel 4's daily game show Countdown.

January's Featured Article The 30th Birthday Championship was an eight week long mini-series broadcast between 7 January 2013 and 1 March 2013, held to celebrate Countdown being broadcast on British television for 30 years. Series producer Damian Eadie posted details of the tournament on the c4countdown forum in September 2012, and over 200 former contestants expressed their interest in participating. This was whittled down to just 41, spanning 63 of Countdown's 67 series and including 15 series champions. The structure of the mini-series was nine preliminary games followed by a best-of-32 knock-out tournament. Early fallers included: Series 46 champion Ben Wilson, one of only five viscounts in the history of Countdown; and Nick Deller, a four-times winner in Series 28. Despite spending 12 years away from Countdown to focus on playing Scrabble, Deller lost to Series 52 champion Mark Tournoff by just one point. Notable moments in the first round proper included Series 60 champion Kirk Bevins scoring 130 points out of a possible 130, the second 15 round perfect game in the history of Countdown, and Series 63 champion Jack Hurst missing out on beating the show's highest ever score of 146, after the invalid declaration spousing ☓ gave him a total of 143. Round 2 included another perfect game as Series 54 champion Conor Travers beat Mark Tournoff with 119 out of 119. The second round also featured two consecutive tie-breaker conundrums – David O'Donnell unscrambled BAGOGLORY to defeat Chris Davies, and Kirk Bevins solved BARRYDICK to claim victory over Innis Carson. The quarter-finals saw Jonathan Rawlinson and Jack Hurst progress, and contained two more perfect games – Conor Travers achieved a second on the bounce, and Jon O'Neill amassed a perfect 122, the highest ever score with no nine-letter words. In the first semi-final, both Rawlinson and Hurst started with the nine-letter word CATENOIDS. Their scores remained level until round 11, when an invalid declaration by Hurst gave Rawlinson a six point lead. However, this proved insufficient when Hurst unravelled the conundrum TURNMOIST to qualify for the final. The second semi-final featured O'Neill and Travers, the men who had achieved perfect games in their quarter-final matches. Aptly, between them they gained maximum points with 28 of their 29 declarations, and Travers won with his third consecutive perfect game. Early in the tournament final, Travers gained an 18 point lead after Hurst missed the niner PONYTAILS. This was immediately followed by two further nines, the first known "ambulance" (9-9-9) in the history of televised Countdown. Travers was able to extend his lead late in the match and won with 146 points, equalling Countdown's highest ever score, set by Julian Fell in 2002. Travers' prize, a trophy which host Nick Hewer referred to as a "priceless piece of kryptonite", was presented by Marcel Stellman. (more...) More Featured Articles... Did you know... ...that Ned Pendleton is the only octochamp in Countdown history to have had his first two declarations disallowed, and is the only octochamp to have fallen behind in six of his eight heat games? ...that the largest deficit overcome in the first game of a contestant who went on to become an octochamp is 27 points, achieved by Steven Moir against Rita Willmott? ...that the largest deficit overcome in any game of a contestant who went on to become an octochamp is 40 points, achieved by Richard Pay (pictured) against Claire Whitaker? ...that this is also the highest deficit overcome by any contestant, ever? Nominate an article Today in Countdown History edit  2020: Richard Ayoade and Sean Lock drew with Jon Richardson and Katherine Ryan 44 – 44. 2020: Nick MacCarthy-Morrogh beat Nathan Piper, scoring 87 – 69. 2019: Brendan Whitehurst beat Linda Nowotarski, by a score of 104 – 62. 2018: Chris Thorn beat Todd Goodman with scores of 88 – 60. 2017: Sam Wickham beat Neil Schofield in a game that ended 90 – 74. 2015: Jon Richardson and Aisling Bea beat Reginald D. Hunter and Sean Lock by 62 – 34. 2015: Tracey Mills beat Keith Taylor with final score 97 – 37. 2014: Priscilla Munday beat Anthony Willis in a 94 – 28 game. 2013: Chris Wills beat Martin Bishop with a score of 102 – 99. 2012: Mark Murphy beat Cameron McClurg, scoring 76 – 42. 2009: Charlie Reams beat Junaid Mubeen in the second Championship of Champions XIII quarter-final. 2008: Marjorie Hillman beat David Reed, by a score of 100 – 46. 2007: Amey Deshpande beat Sylvia De Rozario with scores of 87 – 50. 2006: Keith Maynard beat Robert Biggins with final score 105 – 52. 2004: Eric Wright beat Julie Cope in a 78 – 70 game. 2003: Graham Nash beat Tom Hargreaves in the second Championship of Champions XI semi-final. 2002: Chris Wills beat Agnes Budis in a game that ended 92 – 52. 2001: Andy Porter beat Lou Marriott, scoring 58 – 15. 1998: Jamie Jones beat Ronald Allday with scores of 62 – 52. 1997: Peter Sampson beat Tony Killilea with final score 70 – 60. 1996: Kenneth Michie beat Sean Carey with a score of 65 – 55. 1995: John Wheeldon beat Barbara Roder in a 56 – 32 game. 1992: Paul Perriman beat Terry Kirk, by a score of 56 – 45. 1991: Adam Simmons beat Pat Geer in a game that ended 54 – 35. 1991: Michael Wareham played John Clarke in the third leg of a Countdown Masters game, which has not been broadcast. 1990: Joan Orchard beat Bob Holt with scores of 29 – 24. 1990: Harry Venet played Allan Simmons in the second leg of a Countdown Masters game. 1989: Jean Tweddell beat Ken Wotherspoon, scoring 43 – 33. 1986: Paul Comaish beat Dorothy Bailey with final score 42 – 24.

Popular Articles edit  A brief overview of Countdown and some of its records and terminology. The team: Anne Robinson, Rachel Riley, and Susie Dent. The show's institutions: the conundrum, the pencam, and the Teatime Teaser. Ahmed Mohamed, reigning series champion, and his series grand final against Florence Cappleman-Lynes. The most recent Championship of Champions Final between Zarte Siempre and Bradley Horrocks, which was won by Siempre. The 30th Birthday Championship final between Conor Travers and Jack Hurst. Carol Vorderman, Richard Whiteley, Des Lynam, Des O'Connor, Jeff Stelling, Nick Hewer and Colin Murray, the show's former presenters. The highest ever score, Elliott Mellor's 152. Series 85, the current series of Countdown. Editors edit  Everyone can edit the Countdown Wiki, just register and then click the edit link at the top of any page (except this one!) and start editing. Here are some useful links: Learn about this wiki and how to use it. Episode style guide - if you want to help us edit the episode pages, this style guide gives comprehensive help. Suggest a featured article which will in turn be featured on the Main Page. Other Countdown websites edit  Apterous, an online game from the same people that run this site. The Countdown Android App, Created by Series 63 champion Jack Hurst. The Countdown Database, detailed statistics and round-by-round details of over 7,700 episodes. FOCAL, regular in-person events that anyone can enter. C4Countdown, Countdown's main online forum, populated by many past octochamps. Quantum Tombola, a numbers game solver designed by Graeme Cole. A mobile version of the above. Greem, a website listing nearly all co-event scores. Upcoming Countdown tournaments edit  The full list of FOCAL tournaments for 2022 is here. The next scheduled event is Countdown in Lincoln on 29 January 2022. Almost all online tournaments are now held on Apterous: the list of ongoing tournaments is here.

Leave suggestions for this page here.

Refresh this page.