Mark Goodliffe

Mark Goodliffe Octochamp Statistics
Final position	TBC
Seeding	TBC
Points total	816
Conundrums solved	4

Mark Goodliffe in Series 62...

...and 13 years later in Series 88!

Mark Goodliffe was a contestant in Series 62 and 88, and an octochamp in Series 89. He was from London and is also a qualified chartered accountant, and will almost certainly return for the end-of-series finals. At the time of his first appearance in 2010, he was a finance director. As of his return, he was a non-executive director and former chief financial officer.

Appearances

Series 62

Goodliffe first appeared on 21 January 2010 against eventual series winner Oliver Garner, where he lost his only match on a crucial conundrum by 75 points to Garner's 81, and this was despite being 26 points ahead at one stage.

Series 88 and Series 89 Heat games

As a result of the unfortunate above matchup, Goodliffe returned to the show just under 14 years later, winning his first match against 5-time winner JJ Burrows with 93 points to Burrows' 81 points. After 3 further wins, including a personal best of 117 points in his 2nd game, Goodliffe was placed aside for the series finals of Series 88, and returned to Countdown in January 2024.

He immediately picked up where he left off by powering his way to octochampdom with four more victories; of particular note, his last three games were all centuries and included the nine-letter word spots of REACTIONS, ABSENTERS and REPOSTING. He also did very well to recover from a 17-point deficit in his final heat against challenger Laura Gilbert as a reverse-card of his match against Oliver Garner. This helped him finish with an octotal of 816 points, thus becoming the first octochamp of the series.

Outside Countdown

Outside of Countdown, Goodliffe is a twelve-time winner of The Times Crossword Championships, with a remarkable ten-year undefeated run spanning 2008 to 2017. He is also a former UK Sudoku Champion.

Goodliffe is well known alongside Simon Anthony, who represented the UK at the World Sudoku Championships, for their YouTube channel Cracking the Cryptic. On this channel they demonstrate (and occasionally live-stream) challenging paper-and-pencil puzzles, mainly Sudoku but also cryptic crosswords. The channel has been active since 2017, but grew in popularity during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. It now boasts over 500,000 subscribers.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
4962	21/01/2010	P	Oliver Garner	81 – 75	Mark Goodliffe	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	John Stapleton	Susie Dent	115
8166	08/12/2023	P	JJ Burrows	81 – 93	Mark Goodliffe	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Bob Harris	Susie Dent	137
8167	11/12/2023	P	Mark Goodliffe	117 – 41	Nicola Lawson	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Marcus Brigstocke	Susie Dent	122
8168	12/12/2023	P	Mark Goodliffe	94 – 38	Paul Woodward	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Marcus Brigstocke	Susie Dent	120
8169	13/12/2023	P	Mark Goodliffe	95 – 89	Jill Davies	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Marcus Brigstocke	Susie Dent	133
8177	02/01/2024	P	Mark Goodliffe	91 – 58	Dan Morrell	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Babatunde Aléshé	Susie Dent	135
8178	03/01/2024	P	Mark Goodliffe	116 – 43	Sharon McIvor	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Babatunde Aléshé	Susie Dent	133
8179	04/01/2024	P	Mark Goodliffe	105 – 58	Julie Acheson	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Babatunde Aléshé	Susie Dent	147
8180	05/01/2024	P	Mark Goodliffe	105 – 82	Laura Gilbert	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Babatunde Aléshé	Susie Dent	134

External Links

• Cracking the Cryptic on YouTube