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Philip Aston
Philip Aston was a contestant in Series 78. He is also an Apterite.
Aston made his Countdown début on 21 February 2018, scoring a century and restricting incumbent champion Jill Thwaites to the joint-lowest score for a daily champion in the 15-round era. Aston followed this up by achieving 123 points, highest score of the series, against Sylvia O'Brien, then achieved four more wins, all but one of which was a century. Aston's conundrum speed in particular was exceptional; in these rounds, he would frequently buzz in on 0.5 seconds or faster. His run ended in his seventh game, however, when he encountered fellow Apterite and previous Series 69 player Zarte Siempre. Though the game was very close, especially on the letters, Siempre ultimately prevailed 121 – 97.
With six preliminary wins and 760 points, Aston has the highest-ever preliminary point total for a non-octochamp, surpassing Series 57 contestant Steve Baines' longstanding record of 758 (despite Aston playing only seven heats compared to Baines' eight). Only time will tell whether his preliminary success will be enough to qualify for the finals in June 2018.
Aston made his online tournament debut in the sixth edition of AptoSOS against the event's organiser Matt Morrison, where he lost his only game by four points. He later had better success in the Double Elimination Tournament in 2018, reaching the 6th round stage.
Aston is also a tournament Scrabble player. Prior to appearing on the show, Aston made his tournament Scrabble debut at Swindon in 2016, where he won 2 games out of 7 and finished 17th out of 18 competitors in the second division. He bettered this performance in Nailsea, finishing 6th out of 20 competitors in the second division with 4 wins out of 7 and winning a “ratings prize”. He can be seen on “Word of the Week” videos on the Mind Sports Academy website.[1]
Aston also participates in quizzes on Apterous. In 2017, he won Andy Platt’s Pointless quiz, and was one of four winners of Sam Prouse’s Christmas Pub Quiz.
His father, Simon, won £8,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in 2005.
Episodes
# | Date | Type | Contestant 1 | Score | Contestant 2 | Presenters | Guest | Lex | Max | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
6768 | 21/02/2018 | P | Jill Thwaites | 27 – 107 | Philip Aston | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Alastair Stewart | Susie Dent | 151 | ||
6769 | 22/02/2018 | P | Philip Aston | 123 – 40 | Sylvia O'Brien | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Alastair Stewart | Susie Dent | 154 | ||
6770 | 23/02/2018 | P | Philip Aston | 110 – 41 | John Eadie | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Alastair Stewart | Susie Dent | 115 | ||
6771 | 26/02/2018 | P | Philip Aston | 94 – 75 | Mick Armstrong | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Alastair Stewart | Susie Dent | 135 | ||
6772 | 27/02/2018 | P | Philip Aston | 116 – 49 | Derek Matthews | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Myleene Klass | Susie Dent | 137 | ||
6773 | 28/02/2018 | P | Philip Aston | 113 – 30 | Jenny Coote | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Myleene Klass | Susie Dent | 126 | ||
6774 | 1/03/2018 | P | Philip Aston | 97 – 121 | Zarte Siempre | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Myleene Klass | Susie Dent | 135 |