Tim James

Tim James octochamp statistics
Final position	Runner-up
Seeding	3
Points total	781
Conundrums solved	3

Tim James in Series 91.

Timothy "Tim" James was an octochamp in, and the runner-up of Series 91. He was a betting shop market place manager, Apterite and University of East Anglia climate science graduate from Norwich.

Appearances

Series 91

Heat games

James marked his debut with a century against incumbent champ, Gary Fisher and followed that up with seven further victories, albeit not all comfortable – the best example of this was his needing of a crucial conundrum solve against returning contestant, Diane Pratesi, in his fourth match where he also mentioned that his brother appeared on the show 'a couple of years ago' – it was eventually clarified that this was Series 77 contestant, Dan Cartwright. He scored a personal best of 114 in his fifth game which also saw him spot the nine-letter word PONDERING, and finished his octochamp run by maxing 10 rounds alongside a third century against another returnee, Nanette Swain. This put James at the top of the seeding table at the time.

Finals

Ultimately coming back as the third seed, fellow Apterite and number six seed, Matt Fife, was waiting for him. In a seesaw battle where the lead changed hands a number of times, Fife beat James with MIAOWS and DAIGOU after two gambles backfired but James took maximum points on the second and fourth numbers games while Fife scored nothing. This left James with a five-point lead going into the conundrum but after neither of them turned NIGELVOID into EVILDOING, it was James who advanced into a 'Battle of the Tims' against number two seed, Tim Bridgstock, in the semi-finals.

In their semi-final, James originally fell behind although it could've been worse as Bridgstock did not stick an S on the end of COVERAGE which would've given a nine. And later on, James would strike back with his own nine-letter word spot of STROBILAE to establish a 16-point lead. He remained ahead for the rest of the match, officially sealing his progression to the grand final against Rhys Jones after Bridgstock blanked out in the last numbers round. After neither of them turned BARMYCOCO into MOBOCRACY, the victory was sewn up for James with his fourth century to date.

It was a very close grand final, with James actually drawing first blood after Jones blanked on a six-small numbers round. But unfortunately, after that, James made a few crucial missteps in outrager ☓, vagued ☓, warfield ☓ and he missed the final numbers target whereas Jones hit the bullseye. All of this meant that the game was over before the conundrum, which neither of them solved, and this left James as the runner-up with a still impressive score of 89 and a final total of 1,045 from 11 games (an average of 95 per appearance).

Preceded by Chris Kirby

Series runner-up Series 91

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
8461	26/02/2025	P	Gary Fisher	56 – 105	Tim James	Colin Murray	Dr Tom Crawford				Lucy Summers	Stephen Fry	Susie Dent	122
8462	27/02/2025	P	Tim James	93 – 45	Alan York	Colin Murray	Dr Tom Crawford				Lucy Summers	Stephen Fry	Susie Dent	123
8463	28/02/2025	P	Tim James	94 – 49	Rob Grant	Colin Murray	Dr Tom Crawford				Lucy Summers	Stephen Fry	Susie Dent	119
8464	03/03/2025	P	Tim James	87 – 70	Diane Pratesi	Colin Murray	Dr Tom Crawford				Lucy Summers	Jenny Powell	Susie Dent	131
8465	04/03/2025	P	Tim James	114 – 52	Lydia Hardy	Colin Murray	Dr Tom Crawford				Lucy Summers	Jenny Powell	Susie Dent	133
8466	05/03/2025	P	Tim James	91 – 54	Martin Chan	Colin Murray	Dr Tom Crawford				Lucy Summers	Jenny Powell	Susie Dent	123
8467	06/03/2025	P	Tim James	88 – 38	Simon Higson	Colin Murray	Dr Tom Crawford				Lucy Summers	Jenny Powell	Susie Dent	144
8468	07/03/2025	P	Tim James	109 – 57	Nanette Swain	Colin Murray	Dr Tom Crawford				Lucy Summers	Jenny Powell	Susie Dent	125
8544	23/06/2025	QF	Tim James	75 – 70	Matt Fife	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Bob Harris	Susie Dent	117
8547	26/06/2025	SF	Tim Bridgstock	77 – 100	Tim James	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Bob Harris	Susie Dent	143
8548	27/06/2025	GF	Rhys Jones	106 – 89	Tim James	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Bob Harris	Susie Dent	131