Arthur Page

Arthur Page octochamp statistics
Final position	Champion
Seeding	1
Points total	953
Conundrums solved	3

Arthur Page in Series 89.

Arthur Page holding the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy after winning Series 89.

Arthur Page was an octochamp in and the champion of Series 89. He is the fourth series champion to be born in the 21st century; and the second, since Richard Whiteley's passing. He is also an Apterite. At the time of his appearances, he was a Year 12 A-Level student at Dr. Challoner's Grammar School from Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, studying Biology, Chemistry, German, and Maths.

Appearances

Series 89 Heat games

Debuting against fellow Apterite Alex Robertson, Page unseated the one-time winner by a score of 97 points to 46. He achieved his first century the next day, and followed this with the highest score of the series so far with 137 points, which included the nine-letter-word spots of DIAGNOSED and PENUMBRAS. The further nines he was able to pick out were MODALISES, SUIVANTES, PRENTICES and POLARISES, which were in the midst of other impressive word spots like WAIRUAS, SUBERATE, TONTINE and OROGENIC. He also stood out by his wide variety of numbers round choices instead of sticking to a specific option.

Of particular note, in his 7th game against another Apterite in James Cook, only the missed conundrum OSPREYCOG stopped Page from achieving a maximum-scoring game. He followed this by securing Octochampdom with a score of 120 against challenger and returning contestant Ben Furness, bringing his total to a very impressive 953. This took him to the top of the seed table at the expense of Mark Finnerty, while also becoming the only member of the 900 club in the series; Colin Murray finished things off by anointing him with his nickname 'A5'.

His run marked a number of achievements; he was only the 6th contestant ever to surpass 125 points three times in a row, and his run completed a full line-up of octochamps for the Series 89 finals while making him the almost certain No. 1 seed for those games. He also is the highest scoring octochamp who didn't score centuries in every game, beating the 11-year old record previously held by Series 69 semi-finalist Glen Webb.

Finals

Page did indeed return for the series finals on 20 June 2024 as the No.1 seed, playing against No. 8 seed and second-time series finalist Isabelle Heward. Page proved to have lost none of the form from his heat games, cruising through the match while maxing 12 rounds in the process. He finished with 123 to confidently march onto the semi-finals, giving him an eighth century which included another 9-letter word spot of URANOLITE, and this was despite a rather unfortunate miss on the conundrum GOTLAYOUT; Page's attempt of autology ☓ missing the first T which would've given 10 more points.

No 4 seed Jessica Pratesi ultimately turned out to be Arthur's sternest test so far; despite some excellent spots from Page such as GWEILOS and CONDUIT and taking an initial 14-point lead at the start of the game, two critical misfires in round 11 with rankage ☓ and a mistake on the final 4L numbers round, meant Pratesi kept within range, and ultimately be only two points behind to force a crucial conundrum BEYONCEID. Arthur though was the one to buzz in first with OBEDIENCY which was correct; this meant he thus marched onto the grand-final of the series, having maxed 10 rounds, and secured his ninth century albeit with his lowest score since his first heat game.

Opponent Michael Calder sat waiting for him, fresh off of two giant-killing victories against Toby Byfield and Mark Finnerty. But Arthur ultimately proved far too much for Calder to handle, not losing any rounds to the latter and eventually racing off to a very dominant victory, which was certified after the brilliant final letters round spot of TABLESIDE. With neither player cracking the conundrum SUDIIDENT, it meant Arthur thus lifted the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy with a tenth century under his belt, and an impressive Xicount total of 1,299 from his eleven appearances; this also just bested Dan McColm's total for the most of all-time without scoring centuries on each occasion.

Preceded by Harry Savage

Series winner Series 89

Other Information

Page is also an accomplished chess player.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
8273	15/05/2024	P	Alex Robertson	46 – 97	Arthur Page	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Sunetra Sarker	Susie Dent	144
8274	16/05/2024	P	Arthur Page	105 – 35	Lesley Hayler	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Sunetra Sarker	Susie Dent	121
8275	17/05/2024	P	Arthur Page	137 – 37	Sam Lawrence	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Sunetra Sarker	Susie Dent	149
8276	20/05/2024	P	Arthur Page	128 – 10	Wayne Dewsbury	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Pat Nevin	Susie Dent	135
8277	21/05/2024	P	Arthur Page	135 – 43	Jim Horan	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Pat Nevin	Susie Dent	143
8278	22/05/2024	P	Arthur Page	114 – 23	Bekk Kennedy-Escott	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Pat Nevin	Susie Dent	132
8279	23/05/2024	P	Arthur Page	117 – 76	James Cook	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Pat Nevin	Susie Dent	127
8280	24/05/2024	P	Arthur Page	120 – 53	Ben Furness	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Pat Nevin	Susie Dent	124
8299	20/06/2024	QF	Arthur Page	123 – 51	Isabelle Heward	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Greg Rusedski	Susie Dent	135
8303	26/06/2024	SF	Arthur Page	102 – 90	Jessica Pratesi	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Marcus Brigstocke	Susie Dent	134
8305	28/06/2024	GF	Arthur Page	121 – 61	Michael Calder	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Marcus Brigstocke	Susie Dent	144