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October's featured article Julian Fell was the champion of Series 48, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest Countdown contestants of all time. A Cambridge University student at the time of recording, Fell matched or broke multiple Countdown records. He scored at least a century in all of his eight heat games, and became only the third contestant to solve all eight of his preliminary round conundrums. His final heat game against Carl McDermott marked the first time a player had even won by more than 100 points. Fell's octochamp total of 924 points went unbeaten for more than six years, before Kirk Bevins amassed 925 en route to winning Series 60. Fell's semi-final against Danny Hamilton remains the only time a contestant has found four nine-letter words in a single game. Although Fell failed to unravel the conundrum THEIRCOPY in this game, he had amassed 146 points. This score remained the highest ever achieved in a single game at that time which was later matched a decade later by Conor Travers but never exceeded until Zarte Siempre smashed it with a score of 150 in January 2019, which was then bettered by Elliott Mellor, who scored 152 in May 2019, then by Tom Stevenson with 154 in October 2022. In the series final against Grace Page, Fell immediately gained an 18-point advantage with the nine-letter word MANTICORE. He extended this lead with LEOPARDS in round 2 and ZODIAC in round 6, but Page reduced the deficit with the darrenic KNITWEAR in round 9. This ended a run of 59 consecutive rounds in which Fell's various opponents had been able to prevent him from scoring. Page reduced her arrears to 14 points in the final numbers game, which Fell failed to solve. He returned to form for the conundrum APIMOMENT and became series champion with a score of 112 points to 88. Fell returned for the Championship of Champions XI as the favourite. In his first match against Series 42 semi-finalist Terence O'Farrell, Fell gained a 14 point lead across the first two letters games and scored in all 15 rounds to win comfortably, 118 – 64. His quarter-final pitted him against Graham Nash, champion of Series 43. Both contestants had offerings disallowed – formica ☓ for Nash and gambiers ☓ for Fell – but otherwise scored point-for-point across the first 14 rounds. Trailing by one point going into the conundrum, Fell was beaten to the buzzer and Nash won the game 120 – 109. Despite losing, Julian maintained his streak of scoring a century in every game. Julian's final appearance on Countdown came in a special against Chris Wills, which he won 100 – 92 on a crucial conundrum. As such, 100 was Julian's lowest ever score on Countdown. (more...) More featured articles... Did you know... ...that the target for the last numbers game of the Championship of Champions VIII grand final was 100? ...that on 23 January 1990, Bob Holt became the first known contestant to choose four large numbers (outside of the Countdown Masters)? ...that exactly six years later, two tie-breaker conundrums were required to separate Sean Carey and Kenneth Michie? ...that on 21 July 2004, a Teatime Teaser with the answer MUTINEER was immediately followed by a letters round where MUTINEER was the longest available word? ...that the word TORTURING has been featured as a conundrum no fewer than four times, with each occasion featuring a series finalist, and on one occasion, featured two series finalists? Nominate an article Today in Countdown history edit  2019: Paul Nixon beat Martyn Willmore with final score 126 – 45. 2018: Mike Daysley beat Tealin Glenn in a game that ended 110 – 87. 2017: Eoin Jackson beat Jaysal Patel in a 79 – 52 game. 2016: Ikenna Oguguo beat Lucy Westwood, scoring 109 – 62. 2014: Ellen Baker beat Sharif Nashashibi, by a score of 77 – 71. 2013: Callum Todd beat Ben Hendry with scores of 103 – 74. 2012: Tia Corkish beat Adam Flinn with a score of 91 – 64. 2011: Jayne Wisniewski beat Kate Bronsdon with final score 96 – 56. 2008: Kai Laddiman beat Jeff Francis in a game that ended 95 – 86. 2007: Matthew Green beat David Hughes in a 93 – 64 game. 2006: Andrew Blades beat Vincent Harris, scoring 93 – 54. 2003: Philip Whitnall beat Jim Critchley with scores of 84 – 60. 2002: Neil Evans beat Mike Brown with a score of 89 – 76. 2001: Ronald Holt beat Daphne Champkins, by a score of 84 – 68. 2000: Murray Cooper beat Clare Wright with final score 53 – 50. 1997: Dan Southwell beat Bill Skinner in a game that ended 58 – 34. 1996: Darren Shacklady beat Satbir Gupta in the fourth Championship of Champions VIII quarter-final. 1990: Keith Pottage played Malcolm Erridge in the third leg of a Countdown Masters game. 1989: Mark Cooper beat Mandi Hale in a 48 – 32 game. 1989: Joyce Cansfield played Chris Beith in the second leg of a Countdown Masters game. 1983: Allan Simmons beat Ted Wiles with scores of 41 – 35.

Popular articles edit  A brief overview of Countdown and some of its records and terminology. The team: Colin Murray, Rachel Riley, and Susie Dent. The show's institutions: The conundrum, the pencam, and the Teatime Teaser. Ronan Higginson, the reigning series champion, and his series grand final against Cillian McMulkin. The most recent Championship of Champions Final between James Haughton and Ahmed Mohamed. The 30th Birthday Championship final between Conor Travers and Jack Hurst. Richard Whiteley, Des Lynam, Des O'Connor, Carol Vorderman, Jeff Stelling, Nick Hewer and Anne Robinson - the show's former permanent presenters. The highest ever score: 154, achieved by Tom Stevenson in Episode 7860 and Cillian McMulkin in Episode 7943. 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 7,800 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 Series 65 champion Graeme Cole. A mobile version of the above. Greem, a website listing nearly all Co-event scores. The Countdown Page, the original site of Countdown stats, by Mike Brown. Upcoming Countdown tournaments edit  The full list of FOCAL tournaments for 2023 is here. The next scheduled event is Countdown in Edinburgh on 7 October 2023. Almost all online tournaments are now held on Apterous: the list of ongoing tournaments is here.

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