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July's Featured Article Martin Gardner was an octochamp and semi-finalist in Series 49. Before appearing as a contestant on the show, Gardner had a prominent presence in the online Countdown community; he organised Countdown Advance (the forerunner to Hypercountdown on the Gevincountdown web forum, served as a moderator on this website, and ran the now-defunct Countdown fan site Countdown Update UK. After finding the address to send off for an application form on Ben Wilson's website, he applied for the televised show and was invited to an audition at the end of 2002. Although he failed his audition, Gardner was invited to the studios as a replacement contestant after John Davies became an octochamp, leaving one seat vacated on 14 May 2003. In this opening game Gardner achieved his highest televised score of 107, with offerings including the eight-letter words ATOMISER and ACONITES; Martin found no nine-letter words during his appearances on the show. Seven more victories followed, including three further centuries. Gardner returned to the series finals as #2 seed behind Davies, his forerunner in the heats. In his quarter-final, the eight letter word POTHEADS and conundrum SCOOPGREY helped Gardner to convincingly defeat Peter Jeffery by 101 points to 64. He faced David Wilson in the semi-final and went ahead after three rounds courtesy of the seven-letter word UPRATED. However, he was pegged back in the next round with MORGUES. Thereafter, David scored in every round apart from the conundrum and won the game 98-86. (more...) More Featured Articles... Did you know... ...that en route to posting the then lowest ever 15 round score on 16 May 2011, Christine Buffrey had areolaes ☓ disallowed for being invalid, using phantom letters, and being misdeclared as a six-letter word? ...that three Countdown contestants – Charlie Reams, Dave Dyer and Mark Murphy – have been bleeped for scoring with the word WANKER or WANKERS? ...that on 2 November 2011, Dictionary Corner guest Mark Durden-Smith was bleeped after stating that the longest word in round 3 was SHITFACE? ...that the target in round 5 on 05/05/05 was 505? ...that Countdown was almost hosted by Michael Jackson? Nominate an article Today in Countdown History edit  2024: Alex Call beat Chris Butterly with scores of 104 – 85. 2021: Jodine Lawrence beat Samuel Williams in a special "Black to Front" edition. 2020: Archana Desurkar beat Mike Sutton with a score of 91 – 89. 2019: Sarah Delap beat Joanna Colley with a score of 63 – 51. 2018: Dave Ashton beat Dan Martin with final score 84 – 49. 2014: Farhan Ahmed beat Aly Spencer in a 99 – 59 game. 2013: Jen Steadman beat Ross Lander, by a score of 119 – 82. 2010: Daniel Pati beat Stephen Crawford, scoring 97 – 60. 2009: Bob De Caux beat Christopher Harris in a game that ended 84 – 61. 2008: Mike Lambert beat Debbi Flack with scores of 107 – 75. 2007: Gay Black beat Peter Smith with a score of 83 – 78. 2004: Barbara Matthewman beat Christina Wood with final score 79 – 69. 2003: Debbie Haycock beat Peter Brinkley in a special episode. 2002: Priscilla Munday beat Michael Clarke, by a score of 89 – 86. 2001: Geraldine Hylands beat Mac McDonald, scoring 55 – 46. 1999: Angela Sheffield beat Bill Leslie in a 39 – 27 game. 1998: Neil Doherty beat Sandy Fergusson with scores of 47 – 37. 1997: Bhavin Manek beat Ann Mead with final score 59 – 17. 1996: Mark Tripp beat John Britten with a score of 60 – 24. 1993: Eugene McGoldrick beat Jane Atkins in a game that ended 61 – 21. 1992: Alan Payne beat Sandi Harja, by a score of 69 – 38. 1991: Tamsin Rawlins beat Jack Keane, scoring 37 – 30. 1990: Billy Ward beat Martin Jakes in a 43 – 35 game. 1990: Tony Vick played Stephen Deakin in the first leg of a Countdown Masters game.

Popular Articles edit  Template:Quicklinks Editors edit  Template:Editlinks Other Countdown websites edit  Template:Links Upcoming Countdown tournaments edit  The full list of FOCAL tournaments for 2025 is here. The next scheduled event is Countdown in Blackpool on 13 September. Almost all online tournaments are now held on Apterous: the list of ongoing tournaments is here.

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