Ben Hocking

Ben Hocking octochamp statistics
Final position	Semi-finalist
Seeding	3
Points total	862
Conundrums solved	5

Ben Hocking, ten years after his first appearance in Series 92.

Ben Hocking was a contestant in Series 72, and an octochamp and semi-finalist in Series 92 from Mevagissey in Cornwall. As of his first appearance, he was an undergraduate Business Management student at Bath Spa University and administrative assistant at the Eden Project.

As of his second set of games, Hocking ran and hosted his own Formula 1 podcast, Late Braking, and also worked as a client success manager until mid-2024 before fully committing his time to said podcast. He is also an Apterite, and made an appearance on ZoomDown Series 4 in November 2021.

Appearances

Series 72

Ben made his debut in 2015 where despite spotting REACTIONS for a nine, he fell short against incumbent champion Neil Stephenson who would himself notably go on to lose (in the following episode) to the eventual series runner-up Tracey Mills despite Stephenson holding a 22-point lead with only four rounds to go.

Series 92

Heat games

However, just over 10.5 years later, Hocking came back for another go and kicked off with a victory and a teapot while maxing 13 rounds in the process against Abby Scott. He followed that up with seven further triumphs, with six additional centuries among them. His fourth game saw the only nine-letter-word spot in his heats of DOMINATES, but it is worth noting that he only had two others available; those being the rather obscure PRECISIAN and TELOPHASE respectively. In keeping with the runs done by John Payne and Brett Davids, he had to face some difficult opponents during his heats but avoided a crucial conundrum in every instance.

After getting past Steve Thurlow in his last preliminary with a seventh century to his name, Ben joined the 800 club with an octototal of 862 and settled in as the provisional No. 2 seed for the finals. As a final nod to his achievements, he was christened "The Trick-or-Treat" by Colin and Rachel; his run was made all the more impressive given that he only had 999 points available to him across his heats (this to note is an unusually small eight-game possible points total in the 15-round format).

Finals

Hocking ultimately returned as the third seed for the finals and was put up against Ricky Cohen. Fortunately for the former, he lived up to his reputation with some excellent spots in MELODICA and HEROISED, as well as his taking advantage of a handful of errors from Ricky. This all meant the match was over before the final numbers round, which Hocking also solved to obtain an eighth century. Although neither of them solved the conundrum of PLUMBSEAS, the match was officially done, and with his maxing of 12 rounds, Hocking marched onward into a semi-final against No. 2 seed Dr. Brett Davids.

With little on paper between Davids and Hocking, the match turned into a proper Clash of the Titans. Both of them traded blows early on with Hocking spotting the darrenic FAINTEST, and Davids quickly striking back with UNPAIRED. A crucial moment came when Brett spotted LIONHEADS for nine which Ben missed and an 18-point gap was thus held by Davids up until the final six-small numbers round. However, Hocking cracked it while Davids did not, to force the crucial conundrum of SUMENIGMA. But after neither of them turned it into MAGNESIUM, and despite scoring an impressive 108, Hocking's time on Countdown was over for the second time. He finished with 1,078 points from ten appearances to add to the 74 he scored back in Series 72.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
6068	20/01/2015	P	Neil Stephenson	107 – 74	Ben Hocking	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tim Wonnacott	Susie Dent	123
8586	20/08/2025	P	Abby Scott	68 – 114	Ben Hocking	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Russell Watson	Susie Dent	116
8587	21/08/2025	P	Ben Hocking	97 – 74	Colin Jones	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Russell Watson	Susie Dent	131
8588	22/08/2025	P	Ben Hocking	110 – 60	Becky Kitchen	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Russell Watson	Susie Dent	124
8589	25/08/2025	P	Ben Hocking	113 – 97	Peter Jones	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Pat Nevin	Susie Dent	133
8590	26/08/2025	P	Ben Hocking	100 – 74	Charlotte Langham	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Pat Nevin	Susie Dent	119
8591	27/08/2025	P	Ben Hocking	111 – 83	Malcolm Major	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Pat Nevin	Susie Dent	120
8592	28/08/2025	P	Ben Hocking	114 – 33	Paul Kramer	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Pat Nevin	Susie Dent	133
8593	29/08/2025	P	Ben Hocking	103 – 47	Steve Thurlow	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Pat Nevin	Susie Dent	123
8669	15/12/2025	QF	Ben Hocking	108 – 61	Ricky Cohen	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Christopher Biggins	Susie Dent	120
8672	18/12/2025	SF	Brett Davids	116 – 108	Ben Hocking	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Christopher Biggins	Susie Dent	145