Nick Wainwright

Nick Wainwright Octochamp Statistics
Final position	Champion
Seeding	3
Points total	726
Conundrums solved	3

Nick Wainwright in his game against Eileen Organ.

Nick Wainwright in his game against Steve Briers.

Nick Wainwright in the 30th Birthday Championship.

Nick Wainwright was an octochamp in and the champion of Series 56, as well as a semi-finalist in Championship of Champions XIII and a participant in the 30th Birthday Championship. He has also been an Apterite since 2008.

He first appeared in May 2007, beating Rob Waters and seven others on his way to becoming an octochamp. He reached the grand final, coming from behind to beat Anita Freeland on a crucial conundrum and become the champion of series 56. Surprisingly, Wainwright did not get a century until his 9th game, after his octochamp run had finished, although he scored 99 twice in a row. 726 is the lowest total for an octochamp who went on to win the Series. Overall in 11 games, he averaged 93.3 points per game.

Wainwright returned for the Championship of Champions XIII as one of the favourites, beating Steve Baines by 20 points on a crucial conundrum, and then beating Kai Laddiman in a close, tense game. The game was always close, even when Wainwright got DEUTERONS for nine Laddiman could still win. However, when both players scored on the final numbers game, Wainwright avoided a crucial conundrum, which was just as well for him as Laddiman buzzed in in less than two seconds with TRACKSUIT.

In the semi-final, Wainwright faced the impressive Steve Briers who'd scored 121 and 118 in his two previous games. This was also a close game, with neither player taking a commanding lead at any point. Wainwright took the points on the 6-small numbers game, but still went into the last numbers game trailing by 5 points. He elected not to choose six-small ones again and when both players got ten points, it was a crucial conundrum. However neither player could solve it, and Wainwright lost by just 5 points. He won 13 games in a row before his only defeat; the longest winning streak of any player in the tournament, noting that Junaid Mubeen and David O'Donnell both lost after 12 consecutive winning games.

He returned to Countdown in 2013, as one of 41 contestants taking part in the 30th Birthday Championship. He lost his only match against Series 28 runner-up Wayne Kelly by a score of 105 – 68.

Wainwright also competed in the unofficial CORED 2007, CoBris 2007, COLIN 2008, COLIN 2009 and COLIN 2010, CoNot 2008, Co:Lon 2010 and Co:Lon 2011 tournaments, and was the winner of the online Apterous Winter Closed 2009 Flight A tournament.

Preceded by Richard Brittain

Series winner Series 56

Followed by Craig Beevers

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
4348	7/05/2007	P	Rob Waters	94 – 99	Nick Wainwright	Des O'Connor	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Richard Digance	Susie Dent	124
4349	8/05/2007	P	Nick Wainwright	90 – 64	Sue Faulkner	Des O'Connor	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Richard Digance	Susie Dent	131
4350	9/05/2007	P	Nick Wainwright	91 – 65	Matthew Dixon	Des O'Connor	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Richard Digance	Michael Wylie	140
4351	10/05/2007	P	Nick Wainwright	76 – 33	David Senior	Des O'Connor	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Richard Digance	Michael Wylie	122
4352	11/05/2007	P	Nick Wainwright	99 – 83	Eileen Organ	Des O'Connor	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Richard Digance	Michael Wylie	118
4353	14/05/2007	P	Nick Wainwright	99 – 46	Michala Stabbins	Des O'Connor	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Ricky Tomlinson	Susie Dent	136
4354	15/05/2007	P	Nick Wainwright	91 – 88	Michael Lord	Des O'Connor	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Ricky Tomlinson	Susie Dent	133
4355	16/05/2007	P	Nick Wainwright	81 – 58	Helen Miller	Des O'Connor	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Ricky Tomlinson	Susie Dent	141
4378	18/06/2007	QF	Nick Wainwright	104 – 74	Vivienne Mead	Des O'Connor	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Jo Brand	Susie Dent	124
4381	21/06/2007	SF	Jean Webby	74 – 107	Nick Wainwright	Des O'Connor	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Jo Brand	Susie Dent	134
4382	22/06/2007	GF	Nick Wainwright	89 – 85	Anita Freeland	Des O'Connor	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Jo Brand	Susie Dent	116
4737	16/01/2009	CP	Nick Wainwright	105 – 85	Steve Baines	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Andrew Sachs	Susie Dent	118
4744	27/01/2009	CQF	Kai Laddiman	91 – 94	Nick Wainwright	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Paul Zenon	Susie Dent	128
4745	28/01/2009	CSF	Steve Briers	87 – 82	Nick Wainwright	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Paul Zenon	Susie Dent	119
5616	8/01/2013	30BP	Wayne Kelly	105 – 68	Nick Wainwright	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dave Myers	Susie Dent	120