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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. He is also an Apterite and briefly, a former chairperson of FOCAL.
Contents
Appearances on the programme
Heat games
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 1 seed for the finals and saw off the challenges of Andy Gardner, Neil Green and Andy Naylor 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", 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.
Co-events
In 2005, Murray entered the unofficial Countdown tournament 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 Countdown Bristol 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Catsdown
In January 2017, Murray also made a spoof appearance on the first episode of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown Series 12, 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. 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.
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 |