Zarte Siempre

Zarte Siempre octochamp statistics
Final position	Champion
Seeding	1
Points total	967
Conundrums solved	6

“Areola?”

Zarte Siempre, five years later in Series 78.

Zarte Siempre holding the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy after winning Series 78.

Zarte Siempre was a contestant in Series 69, an octochamp in and the champion of Series 78 and the winner of Championship of Champions XV. From Dadford, Buckinghamshire, he was a freelance marketing manager at the time of his second run on the show. Siempre has been a long-time member of Apterous and c4countdown, and is the innovator of FOCAL and former organiser of the Co-event, Countdown in Milton Keynes.

Siempre is known for his dapper attire, composed demeanour, contagious sense of humour and consistently high-scoring gameplay. His comedic abilities and contributions to the Countdown circuit on and off-screen, as well as the show’s sixth grand slam winner, earn him a reputation as one of the most popular and most successful contestants in history. As of 2018, Siempre holds three Michelin stars – two more than Marcus Wareing.

On-screen

Series 69

Siempre made his televised debut on 24 July 2013, delivering a convincing 118 – 76 defeat to Rory Coleman. Four more victories followed, including a top score of 137 (at the time, the joint eighth-highest score ever) before losing at the hands of eventual runner-up and fourteenth Champion of Champions, Dylan Taylor. In his heats, Siempre averaged 109.33 points per game, the then-highest ever average for a non-octochamp. He didn't make the finals despite scoring 656 points, 48 points higher than the number eight seed Gemma Church, but he only amassed five wins compared to Church's six. Notably, during his third game, Siempre's declaration of AREOLA caused non-stop laughter in the studio for 15 minutes. This blooper was televised in an episode of It'll Be Alright on the Night.

Series 78

As a result of his unfortunate decisive matchup, Siempre eventually returned to the programme nearly five years later in Series 78 for another chance to make the finals. In his first return appearance, on 1 March 2018, he powered past fellow Apterite, Philip Aston, to end Aston's run in his seventh game. This time, Siempre's octorun was not halted as he racked up seven further victories, all with scores well over a century, including – for the second time ever – a run of three consecutive totals over 125. Siempre's cumulative score of 967 points made him the standout number one seed, as well as the then second-highest scoring octochamp of all time behind only Dylan Taylor himself. The studio audience was dominated by many fellow Apterites and Co-event players during his run.

Finals

Three months later, in his quarter-final match against Jan Pask, Siempre amassed 124 points and won by 105, the biggest winning margin ever recorded in any finals match. Siempre thus advanced to the semi-finals to take on number four-ranked Phil Davies. This match was very close – Siempre's first-round offering of disagreer ☓ was invalid, so Davies gained a seven-point lead which he maintained through the second commercial break. Ultimately, however, Siempre recovered with two further letters round spots to confirm his victory after the final numbers round. He then zoomed off to the green room to change his trousers and dress as a snooker player, before hysterically laughing at Philip Aston dramatically declaring GAYNESS in his semi-final.

Epic finale

In the ultimate show of the series – a rematch against Philip Aston – Siempre took an early eight-point lead with REPUSHED, but then lost it after having superking ☓ disallowed. The scoreline was 118 – 118 (the highest ever in a grand final) going into the crucial conundrum USEDLOGIC. Siempre answered with GLUCOSIDE in 10 seconds to seal victory and setting a new record for the then-highest score ever achieved in a grand final in the process, until Ronan Higginson smashed it with 150 in Series 87. His cumulative points total across his 11 shows in the series is 1,331 points, which was the highest ever xicount total achieved by a series winner until Series 82 champion Luke Johnson-Davies bettered it with 1,384.

Championship of Champions XV

Siempre returned to Championship of Champions XV in January 2019, where he faced Paul Erdunast in the first round for a highly-anticipated match between the two highest-scoring xicounts of the tournament. The game was decided only by the letters rounds – Siempre took the lead with RELEASOR, but Erdunast levelled the scoreline with his finding of AUTODYNE. However, Erdunast fell eight behind again after his invalid play of noshiest ☓ lost to Siempre’s SHOOTIES. With neither player unravelling the crucial conundrum AMRESTIVE (the answer, TIMESAVER, is no longer a valid word), Siempre won the match with a score of 113 to Erdunast’s 105.

Siempre then faced fellow octochamp, Tom Carey, in the last quarter-final. Here, Siempre showed no sign of slowing down in a game with four nine-letter words available – Siempre and Carey found LARCENOUS in Round 1, but Siempre quickly thundered into a 36-point lead with BLOWSIEST and DIVAGATED beating Carey’s BLOWIEST and DIVAGATE in Rounds 4 and 5 respectively to storm to 82 points out of 82, the highest ever score after six rounds. Despite Carey clawing back with his play of TIRAMISUS in Round 12, Siempre maxed the final letters round, solved the last numbers round and the conundrum to win with a score of 150, the then-highest ever achieved in the history of Countdown (until Elliott Mellor bettered it by two points exactly four months later). The players’ combined score of 272 is also the highest ever. His win set up a "threematch" between him and Philip Aston – only the second proper threematch ever, after Natascha Kearsey vs Pete Cashmore. Here, Siempre scored 106 points – his lowest score since returning to the show – but it was enough as he maxed every letters round and Aston had maderiser ☓ disallowed to fall behind yet again. Siempre is the first contestant ever to beat the same player three times.

Siempre’s grand final match was against Series 77 runner-up Bradley Horrocks. Once again, Siempre took the lead with an opening-round spot of HEDARIM and won the third numbers round (this time picking three large). Before the final numbers round, Siempre became the fifteenth Champion of Champions, and in doing so joined Harvey Freeman, Nic Brown, Don Reid, Scott Mearns and Graham Nash in an elite band of grand slam winners. His cumulative score across his entire Countdown career is 2,472 points, more than any other contestant, and is the second contestant after Conor Travers to win 20 games on the show.

On 22 December 2019, Siempre appeared in a documentary entitled TV's Greatest Game Shows on Challenge, which included a clip of him solving the conundrum OOHSONUMB in his Championship of Champions XV grand final.

Off-screen

His contributions to Apterous have included organising the long-running Aptotude League series, the Apterous Masters in 2015, 2017 and 2018 (also becoming runner-up of the 2015 and 2017 tournaments), and, until 2017, an Apterous version of the Belgian reality television game show De Mol (The Mole), famed for irritating anyone who wanted to play a spot of Saturday night Apterous. He also won the Apterous Simulation of a Series 6 in 2018.

On 5 January 2020, Siempre featured in The People's Playlist on BBC Three Counties Radio.

Countdown tournaments

His Co-event career began when he attended CobliviLon in 2012, winning three games out of six, finishing in 18th place. In 2013, he was the overall victor in Group B at Countdown in Leamington Spa, and co-hosted CobliviLon with Amie Bateen.

2014 saw him come runner-up to Series 63 champion Jack Hurst at COLIN X, before winning his first event, CoMultiLon, in August, after the grand final against James Robinson was cancelled – with Siempre having the most points throughout the day, he was declared the winner. Later that evening, he won the inaugural Apterous Ring Of Fire tournament, having seen off Jamie 'Laverty' McNeill. He has since won Countdown in St Albans 2016 and CoBris 2017.

In 2015, he launched his own Co-event, Countdown in Milton Keynes, in Buckinghamshire and later that year founded FOCAL. At Countdown in Milton Keynes 2018, he introduced 10-letter conundrums for the first time.

In February 2019, Siempre participated in the second Countdown Marathon, a 26.2-hour tournament in support of Mark Watson's Comedy Marathon, losing to Mark Deeks.

Preceded by Tom Chafer-Cook

Series winner Series 78

Followed by Mike Daysley

Preceded by Dylan Taylor

Champion of Champions Championship of Champions XV

Followed by Ahmed Mohamed

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
5739	24/07/2013	P	Rory Coleman	76 – 118	Zarte Siempre	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	130
5740	25/07/2013	P	Zarte Siempre	114 – 34	Ian Talbot	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	127
5741	26/07/2013	P	Zarte Siempre	103 – 49	Brenda Widger	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	123
5742	29/07/2013	P	Zarte Siempre	137 – 41	Michelle Furnell	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dan Walker	Susie Dent	143
5743	05/08/2013	P	Zarte Siempre	103 – 26	Sam Wheeler	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dan Walker	Susie Dent	124
5744	06/08/2013	P	Zarte Siempre	81 – 120	Dylan Taylor	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dan Walker	Susie Dent	121
6774	01/03/2018	P	Philip Aston	97 – 121	Zarte Siempre	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Myleene Klass	Susie Dent	135
6775	02/03/2018	P	Zarte Siempre	111 – 64	Keith Howkins	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Myleene Klass	Susie Dent	124
6776	05/03/2018	P	Zarte Siempre	118 – 70	Donal Casey	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Myleene Klass	Susie Dent	124
6777	06/03/2018	P	Zarte Siempre	128 – 23	Jonathan Stoneman	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Liz Bonnin	Susie Dent	132
6778	07/03/2018	P	Zarte Siempre	130 – 62	Patrick Gray	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Liz Bonnin	Susie Dent	144
6779	08/03/2018	P	Zarte Siempre	130 – 39	Dave Burch	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Liz Bonnin	Susie Dent	145
6780	09/03/2018	P	Zarte Siempre	118 – 29	Steve Shingleton	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Liz Bonnin	Susie Dent	123
6781	12/03/2018	P	Zarte Siempre	111 – 65	Anthony Jenkin	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Liz Bonnin	Susie Dent	125
6847	14/06/2018	QF	Zarte Siempre	124 – 19	Jan Pask	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Helen Fospero	Susie Dent	133
6851	20/06/2018	SF	Zarte Siempre	112 – 88	Phil Davies	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Helen Fospero	Susie Dent	123
6853	22/06/2018	GF	Zarte Siempre	128 – 118	Philip Aston	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Paul Zenon	Susie Dent	136
6984	08/01/2019	CP	Paul Erdunast	105 – 113	Zarte Siempre	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Kate Humble	Susie Dent	131
6991	17/01/2019	CQF	Tom Carey	122 – 150	Zarte Siempre	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	168
6992	18/01/2019	CSF	Philip Aston	73 – 106	Zarte Siempre	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	129
6994	22/01/2019	CGF	Zarte Siempre	116 – 83	Bradley Horrocks	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	123