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Mark Murray
Mark Murray octochamp statistics | |
---|---|
Final position | Champion |
Seeding | 1 |
Points total | 902 |
Conundrums solved | 6 |

Mark Murray was a contestant in Series 41, an octochamp in and the champion of Series 70 (making him the first series winner born in the Republic of Ireland), and a quarter-finalist in Championship of Champions XIV. As of his first appearance, he was from Botley, Oxfordshire, but born in Dublin. As of his Series 70 and Championship of Champions appearances, he was a collection specialist for an energy company, from Bristol. He is also an Apterite and briefly, a former chairperson of FOCAL.
Contents
Appearances on the programme
Heat games
Murray first appeared in Series 41, losing to eventual quarter-finalist, Sanjay Mazumder. Fifteen years later, he returned for Series 70, becoming an octochamp and the 11th contestant to score eight consecutive centuries in their prelims. At the time of his run, his cumulative total (902) was the highest-scoring octochamp whose run had included a crucial conundrum. He had three altogether, in his matches against Bobby Johnson, Ciaran McCarthy and Peter Steggle. Because of this and McCarthy's century, many consider Murray to have had the hardest ever octochamp run on the show. This record was beaten by Ahmed Mohamed's 927-point octochamp run in Series 84.
Finals
Despite the array of difficult opponents, Murray was the clear number one seed for the finals and saw off the challenges of Andy Gardner in the quarter-finals, Neil Green in the semi-finals, and Andy Naylor in the grand final to win the series.
Championship of Champions XIV
Murray returned in 2016 for Championship of Champions XIV, facing off against Series 71 runner-up, Antoinette Ryan, in a game self-styled as "Battle of the Leprechauns", in which Murray emerged victorious 125 – 88. In the quarter-final, he came up against another Series 71 contestant in series champion, "Cool Dan McColm". In the battle of the two series winners of 2014, "Cool Dan" won a tense match 112 – 99.
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
In January 2017, Murray also made a spoof appearance in Episode Cats75, paired with Sean Lock and Stephen Mangan. He was introduced as Sean's mascot nephew "Donny". Unbeknownst to the rest of the panel, he was brought in to play the game for Sean. Murray helped Sean achieve the maximum score in the first two rounds, whispering the solutions to him and declaring the answers as his own. The panel soon figured this out, so he went backstage. Murray returned for the conundrum, solving DENTPOOPS, where his true identity was revealed shortly before that.
Outside of Countdown
Away from Countdown, Murray has partaken in Scrabble tournaments. He has also appeared on a few other quiz shows with varying success, including The Weakest Link, 100% and BrainTeaser.
After his Countdown appearances, he participated in ZoomDown Series 2.
Co-events
In 2005, Murray entered the first ever Co-event, CoBris 2005, and subsequently CoBris 2006 and CoBris 2007. In 2015, he revived Countdown in Bristol as a co-host, along with veteran Jeff Clayton to create CoBris 2015. This proved to be popular enough to encourage him to repeat with CoBris 2016, 2017 and 2018. He reached his first grand final at CO:LON:2 in 2018, becoming runner-up to Oliver Garner.
Preceded by Callum Todd |
Series winner Series 70 |
Followed by Dan McColm |
Episodes
# | Date | Type | Contestant 1 | Score | Contestant 2 | Presenters | Guest | Lex | Max | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2630 | 27/10/1999 | P | Sanjay Mazumder | 65 – 25 | Mark Murray | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Marc Freden | Mark Nyman | 73 | ||
5902 | 10/04/2014 | P | Bobby Johnson | 96 – 115 | Mark Murray | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Michael Whitehall | Susie Dent | 145 | ||
5903 | 11/04/2014 | P | Mark Murray | 108 – 42 | Chris Newbury | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Michael Whitehall | Susie Dent | 120 | ||
5904 | 14/04/2014 | P | Mark Murray | 120 – 104 | Ciaran McCarthy | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Michael Whitehall | Susie Dent | 137 | ||
5905 | 15/04/2014 | P | Mark Murray | 100 – 26 | Jim Sales | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Louise Minchin | Susie Dent | 132 | ||
5906 | 16/04/2014 | P | Mark Murray | 115 – 48 | David Jameson | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Louise Minchin | Susie Dent | 135 | ||
5907 | 17/04/2014 | P | Mark Murray | 112 – 95 | Peter Steggle | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Louise Minchin | Susie Dent | 123 | ||
5908 | 18/04/2014 | P | Mark Murray | 122 – 86 | Mike Wilson | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Louise Minchin | Susie Dent | 133 | ||
5909 | 21/04/2014 | P | Mark Murray | 110 – 69 | Simon Pinder | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Louise Minchin | Susie Dent | 133 | ||
5940 | 13/06/2014 | QF | Mark Murray | 95 – 63 | Andy Gardner | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Mark Foster | Susie Dent | 120 | ||
5944 | 25/06/2014 | SF | Mark Murray | 89 – 64 | Neil Green | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Mark Foster | Susie Dent | 134 | ||
5946 | 27/06/2014 | GF | Mark Murray | 105 – 70 | Andy Naylor | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Jon Culshaw | Susie Dent | 137 | ||
6285 | 13/01/2016 | CP | Antoinette Ryan | 88 – 125 | Mark Murray | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | John Inverdale | Susie Dent | 140 | ||
6289 | 19/01/2016 | CQF | Dan McColm | 112 – 99 | Mark Murray | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Naga Munchetty | Susie Dent | 145 | ||
Cats75 | 13/01/2017 | S | Stephen Mangan, Mark Murray & Sean Lock |
45 – 22* | Noel Fielding, Fay Ripley & Rachel Riley |
Jimmy Carr | Rachel Riley | The Brett Domino Trio | Susie Dent | 80 |
External Links
- 800 club members
- Series winners
- Returning contestants
- Contestants in Series 41
- Contestants in Series 70
- Contestants in 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
- Contestants in Championship of Champions XIV
- Teapot owners
- Octochamps of the 15 round era
- Finalists
- Contestants on other game shows
- Contestants on ZoomDown
- Contestants with eight consecutive prelim centuries