Philip Aston

Philip Aston in Series 78...

…and again in Championship of Champions XV.

Philip Aston was the runner-up of Series 78 and a semi-finalist in Championship of Champions XV. He is also an Apterite.

Appearances on the programme

Heat games

Aston made his Countdown debut on 21 February 2018, scoring a century and restricting Jill Thwaites to the then joint-lowest score for a daily champion in the 15-round era. Aston followed this up by achieving 123 points against Sylvia O'Brien and then achieved four more wins, all but one of which was a century. In particular, Aston's conundrum speed was exceptional; on three occasions, he buzzed in with the correct answer in 0.5 seconds or faster (his fastest time was 0.25 seconds). But his run ended in his seventh game when he encountered fellow Apterite, Series 69 contestant and eventual series winner Zarte Siempre. Though the game saw a high-quality letters performance, Aston dramatically lost form in the last three numbers rounds in which he failed to score to ultimately allow Siempre prevail 121 – 97.

With six preliminary wins and 760 points, Aston broke the record for the highest preliminary points total for a non-octochamp that surpassed Steve Baines' long-standing record of 758 (despite Aston played seven heats compared to Baines' eight). Aston's record stood for more than 2.5 years until it was surpassed by Martyn Simpson in Series 82. After his defeat, Siempre said on-screen that Aston "absolutely deserves to be in the finals".

Finals

Aston ultimately returned for the series finals as the No. 7 seed. He went on to achieve the first upset of the finals stages by defeating fellow Apterite and No. 2 seed Toby McDonald, by just seven points in their highly anticipated quarter-final. Aston followed this victory up with a semi-final triumph over Dougie Mackay (the highest-scoring seven-time winner in the history of the show); in that game, Aston's spot of MONRADITE in the second letters round helped him prevail 98 – 76. Aston's eighth win brought him to the series grand final – a rematch of his heat game against Zarte Siempre.

In an epic final, Aston fought an even more fierce battle than he did before and opted for a safer numbers choice with one large in the form of a cross instead of his preferred "Capital T" selections. Siempre took the lead once again when he spotted REPUSHED (which Philip discounted) in the fourth letters round but that was taken away when his disallowed declaration of superking ☓ allowed the score to even out at 90 – 90. It then ultimately came down to the crucial conundrum and with Siempre buzzing in with the correct answer of GLUSOCIDE in ten seconds, Aston relegated to runner-up spot in his second defeat. Nonetheless, he achieved a personal best of thirteen maxes here and his score of 118 became the highest ever losing score in a Countdown grand final until Charlie Harrison bettered it with 127 just over eight years later.

Championship of Champions XV

Aston returned to Countdown in 2019, as one of sixteen participants in Championship of Champions XV. He encountered Noel McIlvenny in the last preliminary round of the tournament. Aston raced away to twenty points up by beating McIlvenny in the first, third and fourth letters rounds. Aston's lead was then cut to fourteen ahead after the hyphenated word of bluewing ☓ got disallowed. But he maintained the lead all the way to an unsolved conundrum (which he almost got right), thanks to perfection in the numbers rounds – including the use of the "937.5 trick" in the last numbers round – to book a place in the first quarter-final match against Jonathan Wynn. Aston succeeded his previous performance with an eighteen-point victory over Wynn, largely by virtue of AELUROIDS which Wynn did spot but sadly misspelt it as aleuroids ☓. Aston yet again faced Siempre (who scored the then record-breaking score of 150 in his CoC quarter-final) in the semi-final – only the second ever unforced "threematch" in Countdown history. Unfortunately – on his thirteenth and final show – a low-key Aston fell behind yet again and couldn't catch a break after his disallowed offering of maderiser ☓ put him 26 points down and his journey came to a crushing end with a low score 73 points (although he was only beaten in three rounds here). On the conundrum of CONTIINNU, he hilariously buzzed in with 0.25 seconds left with his final answer of BYE! Aston set even more unwanted records on Countdown by becoming the first ever contestant to lose to the same player three times and achieving the highest number of wins (10) without becoming an octochamp, series winner or Champions of Champions in the 15-round era.

Apterous

Aston made his online tournament debut in the sixth edition of AptoSOS. He won an online tournament for the first time by winning the Apterous Football League Cup in 2020, winning the final 108 – 87.

ZoomDown

On 4 May 2020, Aston appeared on ZoomDown. He beat Paul Nixon with thirteen maxes in the first game of the show, but lost the second to Hazel Drury. He reappeared in Series 2 in a "Formula 1 special", but lost his only game to James Rowan. Aston had another attempt in Series 3, beating Dinos Sfyris before losing to Ronan Higginson on a crucial conundrum.

Outside of Countdown

Aston has also been a tournament Scrabble player since 2016. He won the inaugural Bristol Open in Division B on 13 April 2019, his first tournament win in any division. Later, he came 40th out of 46 Division A players in the 2019 Mattel World Scrabble Championships in Torquay.

On 6 April 2020, two questions sent in by Aston got featured in an episode of Radio 4's Brain of Britain as part of the show's "Beat the Brains" section [1].

Aston's father, Simon, won £8,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on 19 November 2005 [2].

Aston is a passionate fan of Lewis Hamilton and has had many a discussion with Nico Rosberg, supporting Rhys Benjamin.

Preceded by Bradley Horrocks

Series runner-up Series 78

Followed by Martin May

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
6768	21/02/2018	P	Jill Thwaites	27 – 107	Philip Aston	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Alastair Stewart	Susie Dent	151
6769	22/02/2018	P	Philip Aston	123 – 40	Sylvia O'Brien	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Alastair Stewart	Susie Dent	154
6770	23/02/2018	P	Philip Aston	110 – 41	John Eadie	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Alastair Stewart	Susie Dent	115
6771	26/02/2018	P	Philip Aston	94 – 75	Mick Armstrong	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Alastair Stewart	Susie Dent	135
6772	27/02/2018	P	Philip Aston	116 – 49	Derek Matthews	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Myleene Klass	Susie Dent	137
6773	28/02/2018	P	Philip Aston	113 – 30	Jenny Coote	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Myleene Klass	Susie Dent	126
6774	1/03/2018	P	Philip Aston	97 – 121	Zarte Siempre	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Myleene Klass	Susie Dent	135
6848	15/06/2018	QF	Toby McDonald	97 – 104	Philip Aston	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Helen Fospero	Susie Dent	123
6852	21/06/2018	SF	Philip Aston	98 – 76	Dougie Mackay	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Paul Zenon	Susie Dent	132
6853	22/06/2018	GF	Zarte Siempre	128 – 118	Philip Aston	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Paul Zenon	Susie Dent	136
6987	11/01/2019	CP	Philip Aston	103 – 89	Noel McIlvenny	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dr Linda Papadopoulos	Susie Dent	122
6988	14/01/2019	CQF	Jonathan Wynn	92 – 110	Philip Aston	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dr Linda Papadopoulos	Susie Dent	132
6992	18/01/2019	CSF	Philip Aston	73 – 106	Zarte Siempre	Nick Hewer	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Jon Culshaw	Susie Dent	129