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December's featured article Chris Davies was the champion of Series 61. He was a musician and charity shop volunteer from Greasby in Merseyside, whose hobbies included solving his Rubik's cube. On his Countdown début, Davies immediately impressed with obscure words including PERINEA and FORAMINA, quickly despatching Scrabble player and three-time champion Ed Rossiter. His second game against Matt Shepherd included further exceptional letters round offerings, such as DEHISCE, PUEBLOS and OESTRONE. However, Davies scored just 7 out of a possible 30 points across the three numbers rounds and, although a comfortable victory, this was the only game all series in which he failed to score a century. His next two heat games were won with scores of 110 and 113 points, and in his fifth match against Ross Mackenzie two niners and four eight-letter words helped Davies to a total of 139, the highest score ever achieved in a heat game. This was followed by wins of 121 – 57, 103 – 42 and 105 – 53 to secure octochamp status. Davies returned for the finals as #2 seed behind Andrew Hulme, who had amassed an aggregate score of 930 points across his eight heat games – the highest total ever at the time of broadcast. In his quarter-final game against Steve Wood, the words RELLENOS and RANDOMISE helped Davies to a 43-point lead after just five rounds and a final score of 108 points to 61. In his semi-final, Davies played Innis Carson and after twelve rounds only seven points separated the two players. In round 13, Carson beat Davies with the word SOLENOID, opening up a fifteen point lead with just two rounds to go. Carson missed the numbers target in round 14 whereas Davies found a perfect solution, but he still needed to solve the crucial conundrum EPITUSSLE to win. After 25.5 seconds, Davies doubtfully offered SLEEPSUIT — and exclaimed "Oh my God!" as this was revealed to be correct. In the grand final Davies faced #1 seed Hulme, who frequently equalled but never bettered him. TETRODE, DIARISES and the conundrum ARTLEPOOL gave him the title of series champion by 117 – 86. Davies was the first champion to be crowned following production of Countdown being relocated to Granada Studios in Manchester. On 11 January 2010, as reigning Countdown champion Davies appeared on the Channel 4 reality television series Celebrity Big Brother to play a five round game against a group of housemates, as part of a shopping budget task. In March 2010, he played against Series 60 champion Kirk Bevins in a special episode to decide the overall champion of 2009, a match which Davies lost by 77 points to 81. He returned to Countdown in 2013 to participate in the 30th Birthday Championship. Davies won his first round game against Series 43 semi-finalist David Williams, before losing to Series 58 champion David O'Donnell 127 – 117 on a tie-breaker conundrum. This performance was the equal highest losing score in the history of Countdown. (more...) More featured articles... Did you know... ...that on the Christmas Day 1997, a Countdown Christmas special pitted Richard Whiteley against Carol Vorderman? ...that between 1998 and 2001 inclusive, a Countdown grand final was broadcast on Christmas Day? ...that the Series 39 grand final marked the start of this run, and its conundrum YULETIDER went unsolved by both contestants? ...that the Series 46 grand final marked the end of this run, and its conundrum SANTASITS had two solutions? Nominate an article Today in Countdown history edit  2019: Luke Johnson-Davies beat Zach Hart with a score of 139 – 26. 2018: Mark Jeary beat Amy Nott with scores of 77 – 67. 2017: Phil Abbott beat Claire Molyneux in a game that ended 90 – 58. 2016: John Shaw beat Joel Trenchard in a 73 – 47 game. 2014: Antoinette Ryan beat Matt Willock, by a score of 112 – 54. 2013: Rod Chatfield beat Bea Hill, scoring 90 – 80. 2012: Sohail Virdi beat Cerianne Lovell with final score 85 – 82. 2011: Phyllis Styles beat Christina King with a score of 102 – 60. 2008: Martin Bishop beat Lee Simmonds in the second Series 59 quarter-final. 2007: Lynn Collier beat Phil Dobbins with scores of 77 – 67. 2006: Robin Brown beat Keith Shergold in a game that ended 100 – 37. 2005: Rosemary Ilsley beat Robin Sutherland, by a score of 96 – 91. 2003: Lynda House beat Brian Bottomley, scoring 70 – 56. 2002: Geoff Mills beat Stan Grosvenor with a score of 82 – 39. 2001: Paul Ryan beat Eleanor Grafton in a 95 – 57 game. 2000: Sid Sears beat Matthew Turner with final score 51 – 46. 1997: Kate Stannett beat Arthur Heal in a game that ended 55 – 38. 1996: Gareth Williams beat Wayne Kelly with scores of 59 – 55. 1990: Roy Bendall played Maurice Binks in the third leg of a Countdown Masters game. 1989: Ash Haji played Peter Evans in the second leg of a Countdown Masters game. 1987: Stephen Deakin beat David Stevens, by a score of 42 – 39. 1986: Michael Stephenson beat Jem Stephenson, scoring 55 – 23. 1985: Julian Hough beat Philip Godfrey with a score of 58 – 36. 1984: John Wallace beat Barry Passfield in a 54 – 51 game. 1983: Esther Byers beat Pamela Barrie with final score 54 – 26.

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 Lincoln on 27 January 2024. Almost all online tournaments are now held on Apterous: the list of ongoing tournaments is here.

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