Mark Finnerty

Mark Finnerty octochamp statistics
Final position	Semi-finalist
Seeding	2
Points total	876
Conundrums solved	5

Mark Finnerty in Series 89.

Mark Finnerty was an octochamp and semi-finalist in Series 89. He was a consultant psychiatrist from Newry in County Down, and his son Owen has been a contestant on Junior Mastermind in Ireland.

Appearances

Series 89 heat games

He made a shaky debut, albeit with a century against two-time winner Jan Scowcroft, only maxing out in three of the numbers rounds in the process. After that, he then racked up seven more consistent performances – those remaining heat wins also ended with century scores and with an average of nine rounds maxed per game.

With a high of 128 points, which also included the only nine-letter spot of his heats in PREDATION, and a low of 102 which was achieved twice, Finnerty has one of the most consistent runs of preliminary scores among non-Apterous subscribers. In fact, it was the second-highest non-Apto octotal during the Apterous era, with only Stephen Briggs having a higher score.

After wrapping up with 10-maxes in his last game and an eighth century to his name, Finnerty racked up a final tally of 876 points. This gave him an average of 109.5 per game, and set him up as the provisional number one seed – as a final note, those points were also the lowest total where all the scores were centuries, tallying just under the 882 that Toby McDonald achieved roughly six years prior.

Series 89 finals

Dr. Finnerty returned ultimately as the number two seed with fellow octochamp, Jack Harvey, as his opponent. The game turned out to be very close, with both players hitting the century mark, in part but not exclusively thanks to the nine-letter-word spots of STATIONED and MILKINESS from both of them. After Finnerty blanked on the final numbers round, the game went into a crucial conundrum, but after Harvey's guess of plentiest ☓ was ruled invalid, it meant 'Buzz Lightyear' progressed to the semi-finals by the skin of his teeth.

Number six seed Michael Calder lay in wait, and Finnerty, at first, had the advantage, racking up an 18-point lead by Round 7. However, after that, he failed to score in six of the next seven rounds to dramatically swing the game back in Calder's favour, and ultimately succumbed to his first and only defeat after blanking on the last numbers round. This, along with giving him his lowest score on the show of 56 points, also marked the first time he didn't hit the century mark – his final points total across 10 games came to 1,036 at an average of just under 104 points a game.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
8187	16/01/2024	P	Jan Scowcroft	72 – 102	Mark Finnerty	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Prue Leith	Susie Dent	137
8188	17/01/2024	P	Mark Finnerty	108 – 12	Georgina Heath	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Prue Leith	Susie Dent	133
8189	18/01/2024	P	Mark Finnerty	128 – 45	Alison Fairclough	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Prue Leith	Susie Dent	155
8190	19/01/2024	P	Mark Finnerty	105 – 53	Kevin Cornell	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Prue Leith	Susie Dent	142
8191	22/01/2024	P	Mark Finnerty	113 – 81	Mike Courtney	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	138
8192	23/01/2024	P	Mark Finnerty	113 – 32	David Finch	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	121
8193	24/01/2024	P	Mark Finnerty	102 – 20	Sharon Redrobe	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	131
8194	25/01/2024	P	Mark Finnerty	105 – 36	Matthew Cox	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	119
8300	21/06/2024	QF	Mark Finnerty	104 – 100	Jack Harvey	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Greg Rusedski	Susie Dent	162
8304	27/06/2024	SF	Mark Finnerty	56 – 78	Michael Calder	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Marcus Brigstocke	Susie Dent	136