Neil Zussman

Neil Zussman octochamp statistics
Final position	Semi-finalist
Seeding	5
Points total	758
Conundrums solved	6 (+1 tiebreaker)

Neil Zussman in the 30th Birthday Championship.

Neil Zussman with Susie Dent during his original run in 2009.

Neil Zussman was an octochamp in Series 60 and a quarter-finalist in the 30th Birthday Championship.

Zussman started off with a win over Kate Richardson and followed it up with a thrashing over Kevin Pidduck. The next game was of a very high standard, with Zussman leading 101 – 94 going into the crucial conundrum. However, he avoided losing with a century by buzzing in after half a second with HAMBURGER. His next game was just as dramatic as professional DJ, Simon Greening, came back from twenty points behind in the last two rounds before Zussman again scraped through on a second conundrum. His next two games featured scores of 101 and 108, before dropping down to 81 although it wasn't a crucial conundrum that time. He finished his run with 97 points.

Zussman was the first octochamp to be crowned with Jeff Stelling and Rachel Riley as presenters.

He returned to the finals as No. 5 seed where he defeated the No. 4 seed Shane Roberts, before meeting No. 1 seed Kirk Bevins in the following day. After Bevins found SUBSPACE, Zussman pulled the game back level with POLITEST and with the two players remaining evenly matched up to the conundrum, Bevins solved the conundrum AMSPECIAL in half a second to end Zussman's run.

Zussman returned to Countdown in 2013 as one of 41 contestants taking part in the 30th Birthday Championship. After receiving a bye to the first round, he won his first match against Series 65 semi-finalist Paul Keane by a score of 99 – 81. He then beat Series 44 semi-finalist Dave Hoskisson in Round 2. He finally succumbed to the Series 66 runner-up Jonathan Rawlinson, who dropped only 1 point from a max game.

He made his Co-event debut at COHUD in 2012.

On 8 October 2012, he appeared on Only Connect with James Hall.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
4758	16/02/2009	P	Kate Richardson	54 – 92	Neil Zussman	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Kate Humble	Susie Dent	117
4759	17/02/2009	P	Neil Zussman	92 – 37	Kevin Pidduck	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Kate Humble	Susie Dent	119
4760	18/02/2009	P	Neil Zussman	111 – 94	Anita Fairhurst	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Kate Humble	Susie Dent	118
4761	19/02/2009	P	Neil Zussman	86* – 76	Simon Greening	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Kate Humble	Susie Dent	127
4762	20/02/2009	P	Neil Zussman	101 – 55	Matthew Meads	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Kate Humble	Susie Dent	115
4763	23/02/2009	P	Neil Zussman	108 – 87	Heather Chidgey	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Graham Cole	Susie Dent	141
4764	24/02/2009	P	Neil Zussman	81 – 77	Rick Warburton	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Graham Cole	Susie Dent	119
4765	25/02/2009	P	Neil Zussman	97 – 48	Sheila Box	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Graham Cole	Susie Dent	118
4840	16/06/2009	QF	Shane Roberts	35 – 82	Neil Zussman	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dr Phil Hammond	Susie Dent	115
4841	17/06/2009	SF	Kirk Bevins	98 – 88	Neil Zussman	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dr Phil Hammond	Susie Dent	128
5631	29/01/2013	30B1	Paul Keane	81 – 99	Neil Zussman	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Mark Foster	Susie Dent	131
5647	20/02/2013	30B2	Dave Hoskisson	75 – 90	Neil Zussman	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dr Phil Hammond	Susie Dent	117
5648	21/02/2013	30BQF	Jonathan Rawlinson	118 – 53	Neil Zussman	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dr Phil Hammond	Susie Dent	119

* includes ten points from a tie-break conundrum