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Craig Beevers
Craig Beevers is the champion of Series 57. He is only the second contestant to score centuries in all eight heat games, and also the second to score over 900 points. He scored three further centuries in his three appearances in the finals. He is known for his composed demeanour and incredible consistency, especially in the letters rounds.
Beevers' appearances began with a crushing victory over Baz Hunt, including impressive finds like TOEHOLD and EXTREMA. He continued to a seven further victories in an octochamp run that never looked in doubt, with further flourishes like ICEBOATS, TANDOORI, DOPAMINE and RUMINATED and a top score of 128. Solid performances on the numbers and seven solved conundrums saw Beevers' cruise to eight centuries and approach Julian Fell's long-standing points record of 924. However an unfortunate shortage of available nines left a maximum total of 985, one of the lowest ever, and Beevers did well to make 907 – percentage wise, the best octochamp run on record. Craig has the fourth highest octochamp total achieved to date.
Inevitably, Beevers returned for finals as top seed, beating Mikey Lear and fellow octochamp David Edwards without ever looking under serious pressure. The final, against Jeffrey Hansford, was a closer game – AMMONITE and SNIFTER handed Beevers a 15-point advantage going into the first break, and maximums in the next eight rounds left him with an unassailable lead of 23 with two to play. Hansford declared nothing on the final numbers game, but adopted his favoured tactic for the conundrum, buzzing as soon as RULEAGAIN was revealed and answering correctly to leave a final score of 105 – 82. Beevers had dropped just thirteen points in the whole game, taking his all-games total to 1236 – still some way short of Julian Fell's 1307.
Beevers opted out of Championship of Champions XIII, just as fellow Scrabble Grandmaster Stewart Holden had done for the previous Championship of Champions event.
Craig occasionally plays Countdown online on Apterous, and for a long time held the #1 human position.
Away from Countdown, Craig is a member of the Association of British Scrabble Players, and has been the Cleveland club Scrabble champion on three occasions. In the preamble chat with Des O'Connor, he stated his intention to be a future World Scrabble champion. He took his first step toward this on 21st October 2009, when he became the British champion, beating fellow former Countdown contestant David Webb.
Preceded by Nick Wainwright |
Series winner Series 57 |
Followed by David O'Donnell |
Episodes
# | Date | Type | Contestant 1 | Score | Contestant 2 | Presenters | Guest | Lex | Max | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4465 | 23/10/2007 | P | Baz Hunt | 48 – 108 | Craig Beevers | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Barry Norman | Susie Dent | |||
4466 | 24/10/2007 | P | Craig Beevers | 109 – 24 | Thomas Baldwin | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Barry Norman | Susie Dent | |||
4467 | 25/10/2007 | P | Craig Beevers | 103 – 33 | Chris Bibby | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Barry Norman | Susie Dent | |||
4468 | 26/10/2007 | P | Craig Beevers | 128 – 36 | Peter Watts | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Barry Norman | Susie Dent | |||
4469 | 29/10/2007 | P | Craig Beevers | 104 – 70 | Martin Larter | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Paul Zenon | Susie Dent | |||
4470 | 30/10/2007 | P | Craig Beevers | 118 – 71 | Stuart Hamilton | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Paul Zenon | Susie Dent | |||
4471 | 31/10/2007 | P | Craig Beevers | 120 – 57 | Allan Millington | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Paul Zenon | Susie Dent | |||
4472 | 1/11/2007 | P | Craig Beevers | 117 – 40 | Shemina Kirby | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Paul Zenon | Susie Dent | |||
4502 | 13/12/2007 | QF | Mikey Lear | 69 – 106 | Craig Beevers | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Henry Blofeld | Alison Heard | |||
4506 | 19/12/2007 | SF | David Edwards | 60 – 118 | Craig Beevers | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Pam Ayres | Alison Heard | |||
4508 | 21/12/2007 | GF | Craig Beevers | 105 – 82 | Jeffrey Hansford | Des O'Connor | Carol Vorderman | Pam Ayres | Alison Heard |