Oliver Garner

Oliver Garner Octochamp Statistics
Final position	Champion
Seeding	1
Points total	802
Conundrums solved	3

Oliver Garner: A 15-year-old prodigy.

Oliver Garner holding the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy.

Oliver Garner was an octochamp in and the champion of Series 62. He was 15 years of age during his time on the show.

Heat games

Garner made his debut in the second heat game of Series 62, beating Jan Parker on a crucial conundrum CONDOLING. His second, third and fourth games all featured centuries, before he got 99 in his fifth game against Keith Bush. In his sixth game he scored 115, the highest score in any heat game of the series, thanks to the nine-letter word PETITIONS, despite the fact that his opponent solved the conundrum TOOTHCOMB before he did. He won his seventh game comfortably, but came up short in the first few rounds of his eighth heat against Mark Goodliffe, and was down 34 – 13 by the time of the first break. Despite this, he beat Goodliffe with DEBONE, DIATOM and a perfect second numbers game to set up a final crucial conundrum FORTYDIME. After one second, he solved DEFORMITY to win by 6 points and become an octochamp, and also scrape into the 800 club with a cumulative score of 802.

Finals

Garner returned as #1 seed for the finals. In his quarter-final, he beat Claudia Tyson, finishing with the series high score of 123 after spotting a nine (MISROUTED) and solving the conundrum SAINTPITA. He played another favourite Craig Chittenden in the semi-final and won 105 – 69 in a game less close than had been expected. Finally, Garner came up against Nicki Sellars in the grand final. He opened an early lead with MAESTRO in round one and held up his lead all the way through, finishing off by getting the conundrum BEDISCLUE to score another century and win the series. Garner is the second youngest series champion after Conor Travers, and remains unbeaten by anyone.

Due to a legislative change made some months after his appearance, people under 16 years of age are no longer allowed to appear on Countdown. This effectively makes Garner the last prodigy to win a series.

Garner did not return for the 30th Birthday Championship, thus preserving his unbeaten record.

Off the screens

In May 2010, he attended his first unofficial Countdown tournament, Co:Lon 2010, where he finished runner-up to Innis Carson. He also made an appearance at Co:Lon 2011.

He is also a competitive Scrabble player and, as of May 2017, is ranked among top 30 Scrabble players in the ABSP ratings.

Garner is an active participant in Parkrun events. As of 2020, he holds the second fastest known time of any Apterite for a 5-kilometre parkrun, with a personal best of 15 minutes 54 seconds.

Preceded by Chris Davies

Series winner Series 62

Followed by Jack Hurst

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
4955	12/01/2010	P	Jan Parker	72 – 84	Oliver Garner	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Brian Capron	Susie Dent	116
4956	13/01/2010	P	Oliver Garner	105 – 22	Troy Ramsey-Axelsson	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Brian Capron	Susie Dent	126
4957	14/01/2010	P	Oliver Garner	113 – 67	Andy Hewitt	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Brian Capron	Susie Dent	129
4958	15/01/2010	P	Oliver Garner	114 – 67	Garry Brough	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Brian Capron	Susie Dent	119
4959	18/01/2010	P	Oliver Garner	99 – 48	Keith Bush	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	John Stapleton	Susie Dent	129
4960	19/01/2010	P	Oliver Garner	115 – 48	Wendy Trigg	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	John Stapleton	Susie Dent	132
4961	20/01/2010	P	Oliver Garner	91 – 67	Daphne Lord	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	John Stapleton	Susie Dent	112
4962	21/01/2010	P	Oliver Garner	81 – 75	Mark Goodliffe	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	John Stapleton	Susie Dent	115
5057	10/06/2010	QF	Claudia Tyson	75 – 123	Oliver Garner	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	John Inverdale	Susie Dent	138
5061	16/06/2010	SF	Oliver Garner	105 – 69	Craig Chittenden	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Paul Zenon	Susie Dent	120
5063	18/06/2010	GF	Nicki Sellars	62 – 107	Oliver Garner	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Paul Zenon	Susie Dent	120