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 six 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...)

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• ...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?

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• 2020: Nick MacCarthy-Morrogh beat Issa Khalifeh with scores of 107 – 27.
• 2019: Brendan Whitehurst beat Laurence Dunkling with final score 107 – 52.
• 2018: Chris Thorn beat Ann Duckworth in a game that ended 83 – 58.
• 2017: Dave Ryan beat Sam Wickham, by a score of 89 – 42.
• 2014: Priscilla Munday beat Sam Hodkin with a score of 101 – 40.
• 2013: Chris Davies beat David Williams in a 108 – 58 game.
• 2012: Mark Murphy beat Robert Coyne, scoring 83 – 73.
• 2011: Ken Alden beat Dave Roome with scores of 90 – 47.
• 2008: David O'Donnell beat Marjorie Hillman with final score 110 – 54.
• 2007: Amey Deshpande beat Gareth Evans in a game that ended 102 – 54.
• 2006: Keith Maynard beat Geraldine Ellis with a score of 102 – 49.
• 2005: Judith Young beat Jan Clark in a 80 – 70 game.
• 2003: Graham Nash beat Chris Wills in the Championship of Champions XI grand final.
• 2002: Geoffrey Lawrance beat Scott Hunter with a score of 90 – 75.
• 2001: Andy Porter beat Doug Barraclough with final score 46 – 28.
• 2000: John Snedden beat Peter Taylor, by a score of 58 – 26.
• 1997: Peter Sampson beat Glyn Chidley in a game that ended 53 – 42.
• 1996: Kenneth Michie beat Anne Hidden, scoring 63 – 49.
• 1995: John Wheeldon beat Martin Brown in a 58 – 37 game.
• 1994: Robin Benoy beat David Elias with scores of 51 – 45.
• 1992: Paul Perriman beat Gerry Ziff with a score of 68 – 38.
• 1991: Adam Simmons beat Michael Gregory with final score 39 – 34.
• 1990: Joan Orchard beat Pat Barnett in a game that ended 50 – 34.
• 1989: Tim Morrissey beat Jean Tweddell, scoring 63 – 60.
• 1986: Paul Comaish beat Leonard Cook in a 49 – 45 game.
• 1985: Darryl Francis beat Diana Mills, by a score of 51 – 18.

• A brief overview of Countdown and some of its records and terminology.
• The team: Nick Hewer, Rachel Riley, Susie Dent, and Colin Murray.
• The show's institutions: the conundrum, the pencam, and the Teatime Teaser.
• Luke Johnson-Davies, reigning series champion, and his series grand final against Sam 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 and Jeff Stelling, the show's former presenters.
• The highest ever score, Elliott Mellor's 152.
• Series 83, the current series of Countdown.

• Learn about this wiki and how to use it.
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• Apterous, an online game from the same people that run this site.
• The Countdown Page, Mike Brown's encyclopaedic record of Countdown scores and miscellany.
• The Countdown Database, detailed statistics and round-by-round details of over 5,700 episodes.
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