Tom Stevenson

Tom Stevenson octochamp statistics
Final position	Champion
Seeding	1
Points total	1,000
Conundrums solved	8

Tom Stevenson in Series 86.

Tom Stevenson holding the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy after winning Series 86.

Tom Stevenson was an octochamp in and the champion of Series 86, from Burford, Shropshire. He is the first ever series champion to be born in the 21st century. At the time of his appearances, he was a media, culture and English literature student at the University of Worcester. He is also an Apterite who was formerly under the names Spike Guthrie and Spike Nard, and has reached the top 10 in the Apterous Pro Rank leaderboard.

On-screen

Heat games

Stevenson made his TV debut on the episode after Alan Young become an octochamp himself, kicking off with a hefty 120 points against Mike Oliver, which he repeated in his second episode. In his fourth episode, he scored a max game, and broke the record for the highest ever score on the show with 154, surpassing Elliott Mellor's three-year-old record by two points. Five months later, Cillian McMulkin equalled Tom's 154 points score. In his eighth appearance, Stevenson won with 124 points, bringing his total score to a very round 1,000, and also became only the thirteenth person to solve all eight conundrums in their preliminary matches on the show.

Amazingly, he became the first contestant to never lose a single round in the heat matches, as well as the first to never score zero points in a single round in the heats. For those reasons, his octorun is considered to be one of the most consistent in Countdown history. He is also the fourth member of the 1,000 club, after Mellor, Luke Johnson-Davies and Luke Boynton.

Finals

Stevenson returned for the series finals on 15 December 2022. He started out in the first quarter-final against the eighth seed, Lewis Castling-Morey. Stevenson started off strongly, kicking off the finals with an impressive 121 points to qualify for the semi-finals where he faced Joe Dobinson. He also continued to maintain his unmatched record of scoring in every round.

In the first semi-final, Dobinson proved to be no walkover, as he matched Stevenson in the early rounds before Stevenson eventually carved out a 24-point lead. With Rounds 10 to 14 being maxed out by Stevenson and Dobinson, during which both players found WINTEROUS for nine, Stevenson officially maintained his unbeaten record before the final round was played. He finished the game with a flourish by solving his tenth conundrum from ten to qualify for the grand final with 129 points, and he also kept up his masterful scoring streak by making it 150 unbeaten rounds in a row as of the end of this match. In addition, Dobinson's score of 95 turned out to be the highest score of any of Stevenson's Series 86 opponents.

In the grand final against Edward Byrne, both players started level, until Stevenson eventually broke away with spots like RODENTIAL and ABSENCE to establish a sizeable 33-point lead. However, Byrne finally became the first contestant to beat Stevenson in a round by spotting IDEOGRAPH for nine to put himself back within striking distance. But Stevenson held his nerve and confirmed his victory after a difficult final four-large numbers round target was missed by both players.

He capped off his triumph with an unprecedented eleventh conundrum from eleven by unscrambling UNIMOSAIC to MINACIOUS, which he thought he made up, to claim the series win with his eleventh century and lifted the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy. Stevenson amassed an overall total of 1,366 points – at the time, the second-highest xicount total of all time behind only Luke Johnson-Davies.

Championship of Champions XVI

Stevenson returned to Countdown almost immediately in January 2023 for Championship of Champions XVI, where fellow unbeaten xicount, Adam Latchford, lay waiting for him. In Stevenson's toughest game yet, he quickly fell behind thanks in part to an amazing four large numbers round solve from Latchford, although Stevenson eventually took the lead after spotting SLANGIEST and a gamble from Latchford backfired. This lead to a crucial conundrum BETHECTOR, and Latchford buzzed in first correctly with BROCHETTE, meaning Stevenson suffered his only defeat on the show – this also lead to the end of his unique 100% conundrum record as well.

Outside Countdown

In 2020, Stevenson was a contestant on the BBC Radio 2 music quiz PopMaster, winning a Bluetooth speaker. He was on PopMaster for a second time in 2023, winning the "One Year Out" t-shirt. In 2024, he made an appearance on Pointless with his mother Ali.

ZoomDown

Prior to his appearances on Countdown, Stevenson participated in ZoomDown Series 1, losing his first game to Dinos Sfyris on a crucial conundrum.

He then appeared in Series 2, this time just squeezing into the finals as number eight seed with two wins and 349 points, but lost his quarter-final against number one seed and eventual winner, Rob Foster, on a crucial conundrum.

He returned in Series 5 towards the end of the heats, and kicked off with a century against three-time winner Phil Stanton to deny the latter tetrachampdom.

Preceded by Dan Byrom

Series winner Series 86

Followed by Ronan Higginson

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
7857	26/09/2022	P	Mike Oliver	58 – 120	Tom Stevenson	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Eve Muirhead	Susie Dent	136
7858	27/09/2022	P	Tom Stevenson	120 – 61	Sean Mowat	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Eve Muirhead	Susie Dent	135
7859	28/09/2022	P	Tom Stevenson	119 – 10	Sara Woolridge	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Eve Muirhead	Susie Dent	124
7860	29/09/2022	P	Tom Stevenson	154 – 28	Lauren Bowley	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Eve Muirhead	Susie Dent	154
7861	30/09/2022	P	Tom Stevenson	117 – 39	Andy Keeble	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Eve Muirhead	Susie Dent	145
7862	03/10/2022	P	Tom Stevenson	117 – 37	Steve Robinson	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Pat Nevin	Susie Dent	122
7863	04/10/2022	P	Tom Stevenson	129 – 57	David Clerkin	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Pat Nevin	Susie Dent	135
7864	05/10/2022	P	Tom Stevenson	124 – 41	Ben Timi Nuga	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Pat Nevin	Susie Dent	139
7915	15/12/2022	QF	Tom Stevenson	121 – 44	Lewis Castling-Morey	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Vick Hope	Susie Dent	125
7919	21/12/2022	SF	Tom Stevenson	129 – 95	Joe Dobinson	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Neil Delamere	Susie Dent	135
7921	23/12/2022	GF	Tom Stevenson	116 – 91	Edward Byrne	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Neil Delamere	Susie Dent	145
7926	06/01/2023	CP	Tom Stevenson	95 – 97	Adam Latchford	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Richard Osman	Susie Dent	136

External links

• Article on Stevenson's achievement on BBC News