Martin Hurst

Martin Hurst octochamp statistics
Final position	Champion
Seeding	1
Points total	830
Conundrums solved	6

Martin Hurst in Series 35...

...and again in Series 75!

Martin Hurst was a contestant in Series 35, an octochamp in and the champion of Series 75, and a participant in Championship of Champions XV. He is also an Apterite. He is no relation to other Hursts who have been on the show to date.

Appearances on the programme

Heat games

Hurst first appeared as a 17-year-old in 1997, losing to quarter-finalist Robert Jones. He didn't watch the show again regularly for over 18 years and after a few months of casual viewing, he re-applied as a contestant in March 2016.

Hurst returned to Countdown in August 2016. On his "second début", he recovered from a disastrous start after scoring zero points in his first three letters rounds to beat Natalie Matale by a score of 54 – 102, including getting the nine OLEANDERS. In his third heat game of his octochamp run, he reduced Arnold Solomon to the second-lowest recorded score in the 15-round era of 7 – as well as joining a select club of Countdowners to have won a televised game by more than 100 points – before scoring the series high of 130 in his fourth game. In his fifth game, he was level with Simon Cookson before the conundrum, but it was Hurst who unravelled VILASINGH first to win by a score of 83 – 73 in a game with only 110 points available. He ran off three more victories to become an octochamp with 830 points and five centuries, and retained the number 1 seed position for the finals.

Finals

In the finals, Hurst achieved two more centuries to comfortably defeat both Tom Stephens in the quarter-finals and Andrew Fenton in the semi-finals. In the Grand Final, he and his opponent Andrew Macleod matched each other in the first eight rounds until Hurst won the third numbers game, where he chose his specialist 6 small. Macleod then played two back-to-back invalid words and, after the 13th round, Hurst built an unassailable lead and became the Series 75 Champion.

Championship of Champions XV

Hurst returned for the Championship of Champions XV in January 2019, facing fellow Apterite and series champion Tom Chafer-Cook in the sixth game of the preliminary round. Both players put in a strong effort with the nine-letter words ROYALISED and ELASIPODS, but a numbers mistake for Hurst and a few winning letters declarations by Chafer-Cook meant that the latter took the game 129 – 89.

Co-events

Prior to his 2016 TV appearance, Hurst made his Co-event debut at Countdown in St Albans 2016. He also attended COLON 2017, finishing in 8th.

Preceded by Paul Erdunast

Series winner Series 75

Followed by Stephen Read

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
2022	6/06/1997	P	Robert Jones	57 – 46	Martin Hurst	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Tom O'Connor	Rob Scriven	83
6419	25/08/2016	P	Natalie Matale	54 – 102	Martin Hurst	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tanni Grey-Thompson	Susie Dent	137
6420	26/08/2016	P	Martin Hurst	95 – 80	Alan Gillies	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tanni Grey-Thompson	Susie Dent	144
6421	29/08/2016	P	Martin Hurst	111 – 7	Arnold Solomon	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Gloria Hunniford	Susie Dent	127
6422	30/08/2016	P	Martin Hurst	130 – 36	Tom Law	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Gloria Hunniford	Susie Dent	156
6423	31/08/2016	P	Martin Hurst	83 – 73	Simon Cookson	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Gloria Hunniford	Susie Dent	110
6424	1/09/2016	P	Martin Hurst	107 – 59	Yvonne Endacott	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Gloria Hunniford	Susie Dent	125
6425	2/09/2016	P	Martin Hurst	98 – 48	Damon Wingfield	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Gloria Hunniford	Susie Dent	123
6426	5/09/2016	P	Martin Hurst	104 – 48	Owen Polley	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Michael Whitehall	Susie Dent	147
6487	15/12/2016	QF	Martin Hurst	102 – 52	Tom Stephens	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tim Rice	Susie Dent	131
6491	21/12/2016	SF	Martin Hurst	100 – 64	Andrew Fenton	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Carol Kirkwood	Susie Dent	122
6493	23/12/2016	GF	Martin Hurst	96 – 85	Andrew Macleod	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Carol Kirkwood	Susie Dent	134
6985	9/01/2019	CP	Tom Chafer-Cook	129 – 89	Martin Hurst	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dr Linda Papadopoulos	Susie Dent	142

External Links

• Article on Martin and his series 75 victory