Cillian McMulkin

Cillian McMulkin Octochamp Statistics
Final position	TBC
Seeding	TBC
Points total	944
Conundrums solved	7

Cillian McMulkin in Series 65...

...and 12 years later in Series 87.

Cillian McMulkin was a contestant in Series 65 and an octochamp in Series 87. At the time of his first appearance, he was living in Belfast, but as of his second appearance, he was living in Omagh, County Tyrone. He is a Risk Analyst, and has also been an Apterite since 2009; achieving a top 20 position in the Apterous pro rank leaderboard.

Appearances on the programme

Series 65

Debuting midway through Jeff Stelling's last series, McMulkin fell 14 points short of victory to eventual octochamp Dave Taylor, but did have the last word by solving the conundrum.

Series 87

However, just under 11 and a half years later and with years of practice on Apterous now under his belt, he was allowed to return; this time starting his run against seven-time winner Peter Burke in an all-Ireland affair. McMulkin would not be beaten this time, winning 66 – 107 to deny Burke's octochampdom and kick off with a century. He followed this with seven more sensational performances, which were also all centuries.

Of particular note, in his fifth victory, McMulkin equalled the current record for the highest-ever score of 154, sharing it with Tom Stevenson, and dropped one point with only GUNMETAL eluding him. His seventh game also tied for the highest possible score ever recorded in a game of Countdown, matching the 175 of Episode 6745 and Episode 7341.

After his last game, which saw him spot a seventh nine SIGNATURE and drop only one point for the second time in his heats, Cillian secured octochampdom with a total of 944 points to become the first one of the series and of 2023; this also made him the 30th member of the 900 Club. McMulkin will almost certainly return for the series finals in June.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
5321	31/08/2011	P	Dave Taylor	99 – 85	Cillian McMulkin	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	John Inverdale	Susie Dent	143
7939	25/01/2023	P	Peter Burke	66 – 107	Cillian McMulkin	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Stephen K. Amos	Susie Dent	134
7940	26/01/2023	P	Cillian McMulkin	109 – 51	Cheryl Perkins	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Stephen K. Amos	Susie Dent	130
7941	27/01/2023	P	Cillian McMulkin	124 – 43	Amy Perryman	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Stephen K. Amos	Susie Dent	135
7942	30/01/2023	P	Cillian McMulkin	101 – 61	Toby Rogers	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Justin Moorhouse	Susie Dent	121
7943	31/01/2023	P	Cillian McMulkin	154 – 69	Chris Davies	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Justin Moorhouse	Susie Dent	155
7944	01/02/2023	P	Cillian McMulkin	112 – 45	Jon Sluckis	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Justin Moorhouse	Susie Dent	124
7945	02/02/2023	P	Cillian McMulkin	116 – 33	Ron Squire	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Justin Moorhouse	Susie Dent	175
7946	03/02/2023	P	Cillian McMulkin	121 – 35	Alison Adams	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Justin Moorhouse	Susie Dent	122