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Jon O'Neill
Jon O'Neill was an octochamp from Series 53.
He started off with a narrow 20 point win over Steve Smith before scoring 96 against Peter Wallis. All of his next 5 games were centuries including a high score of 114 against Theresa Turrell. In his final game, he dropped to 94, but still qualified for the finals as #3 seed with 804 points.
In the quarter-finals, he played Judith Young which was a close game. The game hinged on O'Neill getting 209 from 75, 100, 25, 6, 10, 50, which involved O'Neill going up to 5075 and coming back down again. Both players scored in every round until the conundrum, where O'Neill failed to solve the conundrum IRONCASTS which was all that stood between him and a score of 100.
In the semi-final, he faced John Mayhew, #2 seed with 811 points. O'Neill led by 7 points going into round 13, where he was beaten by THEOREMS and trailed by 1 point going into his choice of numbers. Controversially, he didn't choose 4 large and went for just one large number. Both players scored 10 points and the lights were dimmed for a crucial conundrum (EROGENICC), but neither player could solve it and Mayhew won the game by a solitary point. It was the second conundrum of French origin in a row that O'Neill had failed to solve.
One year later, O'Neill was invited back to the Championship of Champions XII, and faced Series 52 octochamp Jack Welsby. O'Neill started badly missing AMOEBAS. O'Neill couldn't beat Welsby in any letters round, and uncharacteristically was beaten by Carol in both choices of 4 large numbers. O'Neill did get the conundrum PROFANITY but it was Welsby that won the game by just 5 points.
Since appearing on Countdown, O'Neill has played at a number of unofficial Countdown tournaments, including COLIN 2005, CoBris 2005, COLIN 2006, CoBris 2006, COLIN 2007, CoNot 2008, CoNot 2009, COLIN 2010, Co:Lon 2010, COLIN 2011, CoNot 2011 and Co:Lon 2011. He achieved 3rd place at CoBris 2007, 2nd place at COLIN 2008 and COLIN 2009, before winning his first event CoLei2 later in 2009. In 2008, he also appeared in the Countdown Online Masters via MSN Messenger, and lost 100 – 99 to Series 47 champion Chris Wills in the quarter-final.
In 2009, he became the first moderator of the Off-topic sub-forum on c4countdown.
His recent attendance (and of course, victory) at CoLei2 2009 has caused one c4c forum member to confess to another to have considered him to be the 'most attractive man in the room', a quality not diminished by Jon later putting an empty 'Celebrations' tin on his head. He has a face capable of carrying off such a jaunty appendage.
Episodes
# | Date | Type | Contestant 1 | Score | Contestant 2 | Presenters | Guest | Lex | Max | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3898 | 1/04/2005 | P | Steve Smith | 67 – 87 | Jon O'Neill | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Mitch Murray | Susie Dent | 143 | ||
3899 | 4/04/2005 | P | Jon O'Neill | 96 – 72 | Peter Wallis | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Nicholas Owen | Susie Dent | 120 | ||
3900 | 5/04/2005 | P | Jon O'Neill | 106 – 54 | William Moore | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Nicholas Owen | Susie Dent | 140 | ||
3901 | 6/04/2005 | P | Jon O'Neill | 102 – 46 | Ola Odutola | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Nicholas Owen | Susie Dent | 124 | ||
3902 | 7/04/2005 | P | Jon O'Neill | 101 – 61 | Gill Johns | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Nicholas Owen | Susie Dent | 133 | ||
3903 | 8/04/2005 | P | Jon O'Neill | 104 – 66 | Phil Squires | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Nicholas Owen | Susie Dent | 119 | ||
3904 | 11/04/2005 | P | Jon O'Neill | 114 – 43 | Theresa Turrell | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Julia McKenzie | Susie Dent | 132 | ||
3905 | 12/04/2005 | P | Jon O'Neill | 94 – 58 | Gary McEnaney | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Julia McKenzie | Susie Dent | 118 | ||
3955 | 28/06/2005 | QF | Judith Young | 74 – 90 | Jon O'Neill | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Philip Franks | Susie Dent | 121 | ||
3958 | 30/06/2005 | SF | John Mayhew | 89 – 88 | Jon O'Neill | Richard Whiteley | Carol Vorderman | Philip Franks | Susie Dent | 116 | ||
4116 | 1/06/2006 | CP | Jack Welsby | 99 – 94 | Jon O'Neill | Des Lynam | Carol Vorderman | Ron Atkinson | Susie Dent | 134 |