Due to persistent vandalism, account creation has been suspended. If you would like an account, please contact Charlie Reams on Apterous.
Tom Stevenson
Tom Stevenson octochamp statistics | |
---|---|
Final position | |
Seeding | 1 |
Points total | 1,000 |
Conundrums solved | 8 |
Tom Stevenson was an octochamp in and the champion of Series 86, from Burford, Shropshire. At the time of his appearances, he was a media, culture and English literature student at the University of Worcester. He is also an Apterite who was formerly under the names Spike Guthrie and Spike Nard, and has reached the top 10 in the Apterous pro rank leaderboard. He also participated in Series 1 and 2 of ZoomDown prior to his appearances on Countdown.
Stevenson made his TV debut on the episode after Alan Young become an octochamp himself, kicking off with a hefty 120 points against Mike Oliver, which he repeated in his second episode. In his fourth episode, he scored a max game, and broke the record for the highest ever score on the show with 154, surpassing Elliott Mellor's three-year-old record by two points. In his eighth appearance, Stevenson won with 124 points, bringing his total score to a very round 1,000, and also became only the thirteenth person to solve all eight conundrums in their preliminary matches on the show.
Amazingly, he became the first contestant to never lose a single round in the heat matches, as well as the first to never score zero points in a single round in the heats. For those reasons, his octorun is considered to be one of the most consistent in Countdown history. He is also the fourth member of the 1,000 club, after Mellor, Luke Johnson-Davies and Luke Boynton.
Stevenson returned for the series finals on 15 December 2022. He started out in the first quarter-final against the eighth seed, Lewis Castling-Morey. Stevenson started off strongly, kicking off the finals with an impressive 121 points to qualify for the semi-finals where he faced Joe Dobinson. He also continued to maintain his unmatched record of scoring in every round.
In the first semi-final, Dobinson proved to be no walkover, as he matched Tom in the early rounds before Stevenson eventually carved out a 24-point lead. With Rounds 10 to 14 being maxed out by Tom and Joe, during which both players found WINTEROUS for 9, Tom officially maintained his unbeaten record before the final round was played. He finished the game with a flourish by solving his tenth conundrum from ten to qualify for the final with 129 points, and he also kept up his masterful scoring streak by making it 150 unbeaten rounds in a row as of the end of this match. In addition, Dobinson's score of 95 was the highest losing score of any of Stevenson's opponents so far.
In the final, both players started level, until Tom eventually broke away. However, Byrne became the first contestant to beat Tom on a letters round by spotting IDEOGRAPH for nine. Tom later solved the conundrum MINACIOUS, which he thought he made up, to claim the series win and lifted the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy. Tom amassed an overall total of 1,356 points in his run, and thus remains unbeaten to this day.
Tom will return to Countdown in January 2023 for Championship of Champions XVI. He will take on Adam Latchford.
In 2020, Stevenson was a contestant on the BBC Radio 2 music quiz PopMaster, winning a Bluetooth speaker.
Preceded by Dan Byrom |
Series winner Series 86 |
Episodes
# | Date | Type | Contestant 1 | Score | Contestant 2 | Presenters | Guest | Lex | Max | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
7857 | 26/09/2022 | P | Mike Oliver | 58 – 120 | Tom Stevenson | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Eve Muirhead | Susie Dent | 136 | ||
7858 | 27/09/2022 | P | Tom Stevenson | 120 – 61 | Sean Mowat | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Eve Muirhead | Susie Dent | 135 | ||
7859 | 28/09/2022 | P | Tom Stevenson | 119 – 10 | Sara Woolridge | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Eve Muirhead | Susie Dent | 124 | ||
7860 | 29/09/2022 | P | Tom Stevenson | 154 – 28 | Lauren Bowley | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Eve Muirhead | Susie Dent | 154 | ||
7861 | 30/09/2022 | P | Tom Stevenson | 117 – 39 | Andy Keeble | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Eve Muirhead | Susie Dent | 145 | ||
7862 | 03/10/2022 | P | Tom Stevenson | 117 – 37 | Steve Robinson | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Pat Nevin | Susie Dent | 122 | ||
7863 | 04/10/2022 | P | Tom Stevenson | 129 – 57 | David Clerkin | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Pat Nevin | Susie Dent | 135 | ||
7864 | 05/10/2022 | P | Tom Stevenson | 124 – 41 | Ben Timi Nuga | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Pat Nevin | Susie Dent | 139 | ||
7915 | 15/12/2022 | QF | Tom Stevenson | 121 – 44 | Lewis Castling-Morey | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Vick Hope | Susie Dent | 125 | ||
7919 | 21/12/2022 | SF | Tom Stevenson | 129 – 95 | Joe Dobinson | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Neil Delamere | Susie Dent | 135 |