Christine Smith

Christine Smith octochamp statistics
Final position	Quarter-finalist
Seeding	5
Points total	739
Conundrums solved	4

Christine Smith, 19 years after her first appearance, in Series 91.

Christine Smith was a contestant in Series 55 and an octochamp and quarter-finalist in Series 91. As of her first appearance, she was from Chesterfield in Derbyshire. As of her second stint on the show, she was an amateur photographer and retired nurse, living near Holmfirth in West Yorkshire.

Appearances

Series 55

Christine made her debut in a very closely fought game against Phil Matthams, managing to impressively max 10 rounds in the process. Unfortunately, with the scored tied going into the conundrum, it was Phil who turned GPARADISE into DISPARAGE to send Christine home despite a very valiant performance.

Series 90

Heat games

A little over 18 years later, Christine returned for a second time, and managed to get her teapot with a very closely-fought victory against champion Isaac McIlwrath after neither of them solved the conundrum DULCETSID, despite Isaac being agonisingly close. She followed this up with seven more victories, which included three centuries and no further crucial conundrums, to become the first octochamp of the series with a score of 739, and that was despite not spotting any nines on the way. Her eighth game was marked by the debut of temporary arithmetician Dr Tom Crawford who witnessed Christine become the provisional No. 1 seed for the end-of-series finals, albeit with about 4 months of shows still left to go. It was noted that at 79 years old, Christine was the oldest octochamp in the show's history.

Finals

Having celebrated her 80th birthday before coming back, No. 4 seed Amy Berry was waiting for her in the last quarter-final. Unfortunately for Christine, Amy was on top form, and built up a formidable 50-point lead to end the match before the final numbers game, although Christine did solve it to claw back some points. After neither of them cracked another difficult conundrum, it marked the end of Christine's second stint on the show, with a final Series 91 points tally of 800 to add to the 86 from her Series 55 appearance.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
4235	15/11/2006	P	Phil Matthams	96 – 86	Christine Smith	Des Lynam	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Keith Barron	Susie Dent	123
8452	13/02/2025	P	Isaac McIlwrath	72 – 75	Christine Smith	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Les Dennis	Susie Dent	122
8453	14/02/2025	P	Christine Smith	108 – 70	John Matthews	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Les Dennis	Susie Dent	123
8454	17/02/2025	P	Christine Smith	108 – 62	Pam Hill	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Colin Jackson	Susie Dent	123
8455	18/02/2025	P	Christine Smith	85 – 29	Tessa Kirk	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Colin Jackson	Susie Dent	135
8456	19/02/2025	P	Christine Smith	70 – 57	Martin Wild	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Colin Jackson	Susie Dent	133
8457	20/02/2025	P	Christine Smith	110 – 31	Andy Hopper	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Colin Jackson	Susie Dent	153
8458	21/02/2025	P	Christine Smith	86 – 60	Finn Mullan	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Colin Jackson	Susie Dent	126
8459	24/02/2025	P	Christine Smith	97 – 13	Bill Elliott	Colin Murray	Dr Tom Crawford				Lucy Summers	Stephen Fry	Susie Dent	124
8545	24/06/2025	QF	Amy Berry	101 – 61	Christine Smith	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Bob Harris	Susie Dent	125