Adam Dexter

Adam Dexter in Series 69...

...and nearly ten years later in Series 87.

Adam Dexter was a contestant in Series 69 and a semi-finalist in Series 87. At the time of his second appearance, he was an insurance claims handler from Kidderminster in Worcestershire. He has also been an Apterite since 2008 and has achieved a Top 50 rating on the Apterous Pro Ranks leaderboard.

Appearances on the programme

Series 69

Debuting up against eventual series champion Callum Todd, Dexter played a good game and remained close to the end. But he ultimately lost on the crucial conundrum of DOTSTIRED that Todd unscrambled to DISTORTED.

Series 87

Just under ten years later and with a few more years of practise on Apterous behind him, Dexter was allowed to return. He made his second debut coincidentally just two shows after Ronan Higginson made his mark. Adam began with a century against Shahid Chandna; this guaranteed him the teapot that he missed out on in his 2013 appearance. After racking up eleven maxes and with a fourth century in his sixth game, he was unseated in his seventh game by Graham Moonie-Dalton (a fellow returnee). But due to the lack of octochamps in Series 87, his six wins confirmed his qualification for the series finals.

His quarter-final led him straight back to Moonie-Dalton but unlike the last time they played, Dexter very much had the better of Graham by racking up ten maxes to earn his second highest score of 117 which also included a spot of TRIANGLES. Neither player solved the conundrum and with the match over, Adam progressed to the semi-finals and into battle with Ronan Higginson which coincidentally meant that the episode was a rematch of their ZoomDown Series 4 semi-final as well.

The first series semi-final of 2023 turned out to be a titanic encounter, with Adam recording a personal best of twelve maxes. Unfortunately, that also came attached with the unfortunate gambles of wolfman ☓ and epistema ☓; those being the crucial misses that gave Ronan enough daylight after the final numbers round, although both players did find ROGATIONS to boost their scores. After Higginson solved the conundrum quickly of turning SITONSAND to DISSONANT, it meant that Dexter bowed out with his third defeat with a still excellent final score of 98 from his semi-final. This also left him with a total of 913 points from his Series 87 games and a final points tally of 979 that includes his 2013 appearance. Higginson went on to win the series, meaning that Dexter suffered two defeats to eventual series champions.

ZoomDown

He also appeared in ZoomDown Series 4 where - despite narrowly missing out on being a tetrachamp to fellow Apterite Martin Thomas - he made it to the finals and won against Apterite Andres Sanchez, but lost against Apterite Ronan Higginson. This performance also allowed him to qualify for the ZoomDown Championship of Champions where he was overpowered by Elliott Mellor, although Dexter got the last word by unscrambling SPARECOCK to ROCKSCAPE after Elliott initially provided an incorrect guess. He returned for ZoomDown Series 5 which unfortunately was not quite as successful; he matched Steven Grady in the first fourteen rounds before losing when Steven spotted the conundrum of HEIGHTIST.

Other Tournament Highlights

Outside of Countdown and ZoomDown, he participated in an online tournament or two before attending COLIN 2010 where he finished in 26th place. He did better when he returned in COLIN 2012 and then appeared at CobliviLon later that year. One of his best unofficial co-event finishes was at Co:Brighton 2022, where he finished in the Top 10 and only lost one game all day.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
5780	30/09/2013	P	Callum Todd	83 – 66	Adam Dexter	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Katherine Grainger	Susie Dent	120
8028	30/05/2023	P	Shahid Chandna	63 – 112	Adam Dexter	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Cally Beaton	Susie Dent	158
8029	31/05/2023	P	Adam Dexter	97 – 40	Anne Findlay	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Cally Beaton	Susie Dent	127
8030	01/06/2023	P	Adam Dexter	123 – 41	Kendall Concannon	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Cally Beaton	Susie Dent	137
8031	02/06/2023	P	Adam Dexter	85 – 54	Matt Sole	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	138
8032	05/06/2023	P	Adam Dexter	100 – 40	Balal Anwar	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	134
8033	06/06/2023	P	Adam Dexter	110 – 68	Jenny Schwarz	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	120
8034	07/06/2023	P	Adam Dexter	71 – 81	Graham Moonie-Dalton	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	141
8047	26/06/2023	QF	Graham Moonie-Dalton	60 – 117	Adam Dexter	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Maggie Aderin-Pocock	Susie Dent	134
8048	27/06/2023	SF	Ronan Higginson	122 – 98	Adam Dexter	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Maggie Aderin-Pocock	Susie Dent	122