Charlie Harrison

Charlie Harrison octochamp statistics
Final position	Runner-up
Seeding	2
Points total	953
Conundrums solved	8

Charlie Harrison in Series 93.

Charlie Harrison was an octochamp in and the runner-up of Series 93. At the time of his Series 93 appearances, he was a second-year mathematics undergraduate student at Emmanuel College, Cambridge but is originally from Sunderland. He is also an Apterite who has spent considerable time in the Top 20 in the Pro Ranks. He made his co-event debut at Co:London 2026, finishing 18th out of 56 participants. He is additionally a competitive Rubik's Cube solver who has won at UK championships which has led him to compete frequently against fellow Countdowner, Harry Savage.

Appearances

Series 93 heat games

On his first show and after a shaky introduction where he fell behind in Round 1, he eventually showcased his significant Apterous credentials by scoring a hefty 138 due in no small spot through his spotting of three nines: VALORISED, REFLATION and TIMECARDS. This left Harrison with the highest debut score of the series and he capped off his triumph with a speedy conundrum solve as part of a highly impressive start. While never scoring this highly again, he did secure seven further fantastic victories which were also all centuries. The further nine-letter words that he managed to spot were VERBALIST and ATROPHIES, with only ATTENDING being missed. Some other notable spots included GALOPS, AWFULISE, PESETAS, PINOTAGE, EGESTION, DEMURE, GEOTAXIS, AEROFOIL and TZIGANES.

After dispatching his last heat opponent, Colin Mitchell, he broke into the 900 club with a final tally of 953 to match Arthur Page's octotal. One memorable fact of Charlie's run was his matching of Ahmed Mohamed's stat for rounds maxed in an octorun with 94 out of 120. He also became just the fifteenth person to solve all eight conundrums in their preliminary games in a remarkable fifteen seconds, with only Patrick Thompson having a faster solve time. Colin Murray then nicknamed him "The T-Rex" as a nod to his dominant gameplay through his heats. As a final send off per a promise made by Murray, Charlie performed one final trick: the memorising and then solving of a Rubik's Cube blindfolded in the studio after the game was finished. Harrison achieved it in a remarkable 26 seconds to debatably one-up Savage's achievement, which had the memorisation time separate to the clock starting.

Series 93 finals

Unsurprisingly, he was not replaced as the second seed which led him into the quarter-final against seventh seed "The Dominator" Megel Barker. Barker actually played a very competitive game and was within range of Harrison up to the Origin of Words section. But after that, Harrison showed his superiority with the spot of the darrenic LOUCHEST and then DISCOVER in the last two letters rounds. This meant that the game was over before an easy final four-large numbers round, and Harrison put some polish on his victory by spotting his ninth conundrum in a row with PILFERAGE. With another century and eleven rounds maxed, Charlie therefore progressed to the semi-finals.

No. 3 seed "008" Luke Selway was waiting for him, but Harrison turned out to be at his best. The only that time Harrison dropped points was when he (and Luke coincidentally) were one away from the target in the third numbers round. The spots of TROPHIES, CASEOUS and TANGELO gave Charlie a 22-point-lead which was ultimately never relinquished by then, and it was further extended when he cracked the final numbers round. After solving his tenth conundrum in a row by spotting CALENDRIC which also gave Harrison his tenth century and his second-highest score of 128, he moved onto a hotly anticipated grand final against No. 1 seed Patrick Thompson.

In an absolute showstopper, "The T-Rex" and "The Gazelle" were both on fantastic form; they maxed out in the first eight rounds which also included the nine-letter words of OPERATING and SECTIONED, to make the scores 87 – 87 before the third numbers round. But Thompson took a crucial break when he cracked yet another four-large selection, whereas Harrison was just one away to give Patrick a ten-point lead. The maxes did not stop after that, resulting in the very crucial conundrum of ECCAUTHOR. Thompson though very quickly buzzed in with CARTOUCHE which was right to snap Harrison's unbeaten streak, his conundrum record and relegate Charlie to the runner-up position. Regardless, he finished with a very impressive 127 (the highest losing score of all time) and a fantastic points tally of 1,328 from eleven appearances while keeping his only-century scoring streak as well. Harrison also became the third series runner-up that was born in the 21st century, following Jamie Wing in Series 81 and Viraj Seelam in Series 88.

Championship of Champions XVII

Along with Thompson, Harrison will return to the show in January 2027 to take part in Championship of Champions XVII.

Preceded by Brett Davids

Series runner-up Series 93

ZoomDown

After his Series 93 run, Harrison participated in ZoomDown Series 6 where he defeated George Armstrong on a crucial conundrum in his first match.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
8776	27/05/2026	P	Kay Powick	39 – 138	Charlie Harrison	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Amber Gill	Susie Dent	159
8777	28/05/2026	P	Charlie Harrison	106 – 22	Graham Brown	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Amber Gill	Susie Dent	125
8778	29/05/2026	P	Charlie Harrison	121 – 48	David Puckridge	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Amber Gill	Susie Dent	125
8779	01/06/2026	P	Charlie Harrison	124 – 34	Diane Hughes	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	John Thomson	Susie Dent	136
8780	02/06/2026	P	Charlie Harrison	115 – 79	Lance Clarke	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	John Thomson	Susie Dent	126
8781	03/06/2026	P	Charlie Harrison	117 – 59	Keith Albans	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	John Thomson	Susie Dent	131
8782	04/06/2026	P	Charlie Harrison	112 – 37	Matthew Owen	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	John Thomson	Susie Dent	126
8783	05/06/2026	P	Charlie Harrison	120 – 46	Colin Mitchell	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	John Thomson	Susie Dent	131
8793	19/06/2026	QF	Charlie Harrison	120 – 86	Megel Barker	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Charlene White	Susie Dent	126
8797	25/06/2026	SF	Charlie Harrison	128 – 86	Luke Selway	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Oti Mabuse	Susie Dent	131
8798	26/06/2026	GF	Patrick Thompson	147 – 127	Charlie Harrison	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Oti Mabuse	Susie Dent	147

External Links

• Charlie Harrison's Blindfolded Rubik's Cube Solve on YouTube.
• 8 Countdown Conundrums in 15 Seconds on YouTube.