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March's featured article Graeme Cole was champion of Series 65. On his Countdown début against Liam Herringshaw, he immediately gained an eight point lead and spotted the nine-letter word RECOMBINE in the third letters round. Cole also scored 30 out of 30 on the numbers rounds, and won with 112 points. He outplayed Steven Hatton in his second game and found three further perfect numbers solutions to win 105 – 49. In Cole's third game, his opponent Aidan Turnbull kept apace in the early stages and this was the first of three consecutive games in which he fell short of a century. In the first seven rounds of Cole's sixth game, he amassed 62 points without reply including the niner NURSEMAID. He again scored 30 points on the numbers rounds and unravelled the conundrum IVYLEAVES in 2½ seconds. His final score of 125 was four points short of the maximum possible score in the game, and one point short of the highest score of the series. Cole concluded his octochamp run with scores of 91 – 41 and 95 – 59, and with an eight game total of 813 points he qualified for the series finals as #2 seed. In his quarter-final match against Nikki Roberts, Cole spotted the niner DRAGLINES and again scored 30 out of 30 on the numbers. With a further 10 points for the apt conundrum EIGHTWINS, he won comfortably by 113 points to 61. In his semi-final against Paul Keane, Cole once again went behind early in the match but recovered with the word CAPRINE and took the lead with EXHAUST in round 8. Scoring 10 points in the second numbers round and spotting the eight letter word OCCULTED late in the game helped Cole to a 96 – 71 victory. In the series final. he faced #4 seed Carl Williams. Both players scored 43 points across the first five rounds, before Williams went ahead with ERECTION in the sixth. Five rounds later, Cole went three points into the lead, and he extended the gap to 10 points in round 14. Williams unscrambled the crucial conundrum TIMEUPLAD to force the game to a tie-breaker second conundrum. Cole unravelled VAANGELIS and became the 65th Countdown series champion, and the last to be crowned during Jeff Stelling's spell as presenter. Cole returned to the Countdown studios for a special episode against Edward McCullagh in July 2012, to decide the overall champion of 2011. Six months later, Cole took part in the 30th Birthday Championship. After receiving a bye to the first round proper, he lost his only match against the Series 66 champion Jack Worsley by a score of 104 – 98, despite achieving the maximum possible score across the first 13 rounds. Today, Cole is an active contributor to the online Countdown community, using his skills as a software developer to provide data analysis on the c4countdown forum. (more...) More featured articles... [edit] Did you know... ...that Jamie Ilett-Jones's score of 129 points on 8 September 2014 is the highest winning score posted by a challenger who went on to lose in their second game? ...that 13 December 2011 marked the first and, to date, only game of Countdown without a single L appearing in the letters rounds – possibly because four tiles were 'borrowed' for the conundrum MORSTELLA and its solution STEAMROLL? ...that Gino Corr (pictured) became the first ever contestant to score the maximum 10 points on a 4-large numbers round, in round 3 of the Series 19 grand final? ...that Tom Carey solved all eight conundrums during his octochamp run in a total time of 17.75 seconds, breaking Harvey Freeman's record of 26 seconds that stood for 29 years? Nominate an article [edit] Today in Countdown history 2020: Phil Hulme beat Thomas Fairfield in a game that ended 96 – 39. 2019: Jane Basford beat Mike Fuller with scores of 80 – 72. 2018: Mohsin Shabir beat Maria Frizelle with a score of 89 – 62. 2017: Lawrie Collingwood beat Gerry Carpenter with final score 100 – 39. 2015: Tom Cappleman beat Sharon Hagger, scoring 117 – 51. 2014: Cliff Lee beat Tom Dixon, by a score of 84 – 64. 2013: Andy Platt beat John Wiseman in a 112 – 25 game. 2012: Rajhoo Carooppunnen beat Gerri Kostrzewa in a game that ended 88 – 60. 2009: Stephen Porritt beat Tony Robinson with scores of 76 – 66. 2008: Tony Durrant beat Keith Brown with a score of 98 – 73. 2007: Sara Kingdom beat Steve Gallazzi with final score 82 – 50. 2006: Ian Alexander beat Barry Buckingham, scoring 100 – 33. 2003: Beth Sutton beat Andrew Tatham in a 67 – 62 game. 2002: Tony Harding beat Gordon Innes in a game that ended 80 – 79. 2001: Stuart Wood beat Neil Sparham, by a score of 44 – 35. 2000: Terence O'Farrell beat Melanie Brown with scores of 63 – 43. 1998: Jean Gallacher beat Alex Davis with a score of 50 – 32. 1997: James Martin beat Norman Metcalfe in the first Series 34 quarter-final. 1996: David Ligat beat Ged Coyle with final score 51 – 46. 1995: Andy Cusworth beat Ray Ewens, scoring 61 – 51. 1992: Phil Jordan beat Rodney Crawshaw in the second Series 23 quarter-final. 1991: Una Szewc beat Jacky Lawson, by a score of 49 – 42. 1991: Mike Willis played Pete Finley in the third leg of a Countdown Masters game. 1990: Gino Corr beat Peter Morris with scores of 43 – 37. 1990: Diane Pratesi played Jean Shaw in the second leg of a Countdown Masters game. 1987: Jim Deeney beat Steve Macdonald in a 52 – 42 game. 1986: Andy Keeble beat Dorothy Bailey in the second Series 8 quarter-final. 1985: Darryl Francis beat Adam Gilinsky in the second Series 6 semi-final.

[edit] Popular articles 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 Countdown clock and its music, Dictionary Corner, the pencam, and the Teatime Teaser. Fiona Wood, the reigning series champion, and her series grand final against Chris Kirby. The most recent Championship of Champions grand final between James Haughton and Ahmed Mohamed. The 30th Birthday Championship grand 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 on 29 September 2022 and Cillian McMulkin on 31 January 2023. [edit] Editors 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. [edit] Other Countdown websites 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 until early 2020. The Countdown Page, the original site of Countdown stats, by Mike Brown. [edit] Upcoming Countdown tournaments The full list of FOCAL tournaments for 2025 is here. The next scheduled events are those making up the Countdown in Rugby double-header: Co:Rugby 2025: Warm-up (21 March), and Co:Rugby 2025 (22 March). Almost all online tournaments are now held on Apterous: the list of ongoing tournaments is here.

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