Ian Kinsella

Ian Kinsella octochamp statistics
Final position	Semi-finalist
Seeding	5
Points total	812
Conundrums solved	3

Ian Kinsella in Series 93.

Ian Kinsella was an octochamp and semi-finalist in Series 93. At the time of filming, he was a musician from Newbridge in County Kildare. He is also an Apterite.

Appearances

Heat games

Ian made his debut in a relatively well-matched game against Simon Brayshaw but with a spot like SENHORITA and maxing the final five rounds (which also included spotting the conundrum of WAISTBAND), it gave Kinsella his first century of 108. He then followed this with seven further victories, of which three further centuries were achieved. He also spotted two further nines: DETOURING and ROMANISED.

He wrapped up with a personal low score of 86 in his eighth victory although he did hold his opponent, Gareth Griffiths, to a score of under thirty. After neither of them spotted the conundrum of OVEREATEN, Kinsella therefore became the fifth octochamp of Series 93 and racked up a final total of 812 points to eventually finish as the No. 5 seed.

Finals

Just over two months later, he returned to play No. 4 seed Daniel Face for the most evenly matched quarter-final of the series. Face drew first blood when he cracked the first numbers round although Kinsella was able to claw back some ground in the next one and then later, both of them pulled out a brilliant nine-letter word spot of ESTUARINE. A crucial moment came just after Origins of Words where Daniel took an ill-timed punt in ☓ optioners, while Kinsella wisely stuck with TROOPIES to take a five-point lead. This was preserved until the crucial conundrum of DAVESCENE, which neither of them unscrambled to EVANESCED. Kinsella therefore claimed his ninth victory and fifth century, to march onto the semi-final against Patrick Thompson.

Thompson proved to be Kinsella's toughest challenge; in spite of that, he kept pace for the first six rounds. After "The Gazelle" spotted REPUTABLE and cracked a trademark four-large numbers round to establish a daunting 28-point-lead, Ian did claw back a little after Thompson's gamble of ☓ notorni backfired. But after Patrick spotted EGOSURF in the final letters round, it was game over for Kinsella. And after an easy final numbers round with Patrick also spotting the very difficult conundrum of NEUROBICS in a flash, Kinsella's Series 93 run was over. He finished with ten rounds maxed yet again, a final score of 99 and a final points tally of 1,016 from ten games played.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
8741	08/04/2026	P	Simon Brayshaw	77 – 108	Ian Kinsella	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Levi Roots	Susie Dent	133
8742	09/04/2026	P	Ian Kinsella	127 – 44	Ethan Price	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Levi Roots	Susie Dent	153
8743	10/04/2026	P	Ian Kinsella	91 – 32	Nathan Charles	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Levi Roots	Susie Dent	134
8744	13/04/2026	P	Ian Kinsella	89 – 75	Margaret Worrall	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Ranvir Singh	Susie Dent	123
8745	14/04/2026	P	Ian Kinsella	99 – 54	Alan Giles	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Ranvir Singh	Susie Dent	137
8746	15/04/2026	P	Ian Kinsella	110 – 42	Louise Kempson	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Ranvir Singh	Susie Dent	132
8747	16/04/2026	P	Ian Kinsella	102 – 34	Rhys Cook	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Ranvir Singh	Susie Dent	127
8748	17/04/2026	P	Ian Kinsella	86 – 26	Gareth Griffiths	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Ranvir Singh	Susie Dent	135
8795	23/06/2026	QF	Daniel Face	102 – 107	Ian Kinsella	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Oti Mabuse	Susie Dent	132
8796	24/06/2026	QF	Patrick Thompson	138 – 99	Ian Kinsella	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Oti Mabuse	Susie Dent	145