Tom Carey

Tom Carey octochamp statistics
Final position	Semi-finalist
Seeding	1
Points total	923
Conundrums solved	8

Maus in Series 73.

Thomas Carey or Tom Carey, sometimes known as Maus, was an octochamp and semi-finalist in Series 73 and a quarter-finalist in Championship of Champions XV. As of his Series 73 appearances, he was a sixth form student from Bingley, West Yorkshire. As of his Championship of Champions appearances, he was a maths student at Queens' College, Cambridge. He has also been an Apterite since 2011 and is known for wearing a tea cosy on his head.

His reluctant grandfather is Wilf Carey. Off-screen he is ex-forces (a very tough man), but he doesn't like to talk about it.

Appearances on the programme

Heats

During his octochamp run, Maus became only the eighth person and first mouse in Countdown history to solve all eight of his conundrums in his heats, with a combined time of 17.75 seconds, breaking Harvey Freeman's record which had stood since 1986 (the record still stands to this day). This helped him accrue his total of 923 points in his eight wins, of which he scored a century in all of them. Not only is he the first mouse to compete on Countdown, he is Countdown's nicest rodent, the first mouse to become an octochamp.

Finals

Carey returned for the finals as the number one seed. In his quarter-final, he overcame five-time winner Matty Artell where Carey impressively spotted TARIQAT. His word knowledge continued to shine in the semi-final, but blanking in the first two numbers rounds and losing 18 points to Matthew Tassier's play of OUTBRAVES in the final letters round put Carey 10 points behind before the crucial conundrum. Carey buzzed in, but answered incorrectly, sealing victory for Tassier in a dramatic upset to the seedings.

Championship of Champions XV

Carey returned to Countdown in January 2019 for Championship of Champions XV (appearing this time under the shortened name of Tom), where he faced Stephen Read in the first round. The game was very close from start to finish. After falling behind early on, he took the lead with findings of OILSEED, STUDIOS and GAIATRIS. Read then clawed to nine points behind with his play of PIPEMAN, but Carey won the game thanks to unravelling a crucial conundrum in a second and a quarter to progress to the quarter-finals where he played against Zarte Siempre. Here, Carey's run ended in disaster as his plays of BLOWIEST and DIVAGATE lost to Siempre’s plays of BLOWSIEST and DIVAGATED respectively, putting him to 36 points behind after five rounds. Carey clawed back with TIRAMISUS in Round 12, but it wasn’t enough as Siempre went on to win with a record-breaking score of 150. Carey's score of 122 in the quarter-final is the second highest losing score in Countdown history, although it did also ensure a record joint score of 272.

2020 Christmas special

Carey returned to Countdown on 21 December 2020 for a special episode. He took on Series 78 contestant George Armstrong, in the first of three specials and also the first episode hosted by Colin Murray. Carey took an eight-point lead in the first round, and won another two letters rounds before eventually emerging victorious with 122 points to Armstrong's 110.

Off-screen

Co-events

He has taken part in a number of Co-events, making his debut at CoLei4 in 2011, and finished as runner-up in both COHUD 2015 and Countdown in Leeds 2016. He won his first event at CoWat 2017, beating Hazel Drury in the grand final, and has won numerous tournaments since.

Apterous

Carey has been the organiser of the annual Apterous Masters tournament since 2019, and also won the 2018 tournament.

ZoomDown

Carey was one of the team members of ZoomDown, and also competed as a contestant in Series 1 (in the very first episode), Series 2, the special GoatZDown series (reaching the quarter-finals), and Series 3.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
6210	17/09/2015	P	Colin White	47 – 120	Thomas Carey	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	132
6211	18/09/2015	P	Thomas Carey	122 – 25	Billy Richardson	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	135
6212	21/09/2015	P	Thomas Carey	118 – 52	Alwyn Davies	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	129
6213	22/09/2015	P	Thomas Carey	109 – 100	Adam Curran	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Ranulph Fiennes	Susie Dent	131
6214	23/09/2015	P	Thomas Carey	116 – 37	Mary Fox	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Ranulph Fiennes	Susie Dent	121
6215	24/09/2015	P	Thomas Carey	119 – 80	Brendan Duke	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Ranulph Fiennes	Susie Dent	130
6216	28/09/2015	P	Thomas Carey	109 – 41	Chris Selman	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Ranulph Fiennes	Susie Dent	116
6217	29/09/2015	P	Thomas Carey	110 – 62	Lee Nixon	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Ranulph Fiennes	Susie Dent	131
6271	15/12/2015	QF	Thomas Carey	124 – 87	Matty Artell	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	David Baddiel	Susie Dent	136
6275	21/12/2015	SF	Thomas Carey	94 – 104	Matthew Tassier	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tim Rice	Susie Dent	153
6983	07/01/2019	CP	Tom Carey	106 – 87	Stephen Read	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Kate Humble	Susie Dent	131
6991	17/01/2019	CQF	Tom Carey	122 – 150	Zarte Siempre	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	168
S47	21/12/2020	S	Tom Carey	122 – 110	George Armstrong	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley					Rory Bremner	Susie Dent	137