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Countdown:Featured article archives
This is a list of all the previous featured articles that have appeared on the Main Page. The current featured article can be found on the Main Page, see Template:Featuredarticle. Future articles are listed on Countdown:Featured articles.
June 2008
The Championship of Champions XI was a Championship of Champions tournament held in 2003. It featured contestants from Series 42 to Series 48, including 7 series champions although Stuart Wood was unable to make the recordings, and John Rainsden the Series 44 runner-up took his place. The tournament featured some excellent scores, most notably David Williams' losing score of 111 as Chris Wills beat him 113-111, the highest ever losing score at the time. Also of note were episodes 3400 and 3401, Ben Wilson vs. Tom Hargreaves and Julian Fell vs. Graham Nash. In both episodes the total of the two players' scores was 229, the highest ever joint total at the time. The final between Wills and Nash was a close affair, and matters weren't helped by two impossible numbers games. Wills beat Nash with GAMBADE but Nash struck back with PENSIVE and METALS. After round 14, a numbers game where it was impossible to get within ten, the scene was set for a crucial conundrum. The conundrum was OVERSPADE and neither player could find EAVESDROP during the thirty seconds. Nash punched the air and shouted "yes!" - he'd won the tournament unbeaten with a final score of 79-73.
May 2008
Countdown is a British game show presented by Des O'Connor and Carol Vorderman, and the subject of this wiki. It was the first programme aired on Channel 4, and over fifty series have been broadcast since its debut on 2 November 1982. With over 4,000 episodes, it is one of the longest-running game shows in the world. The programme was presented by Richard Whiteley for over twenty years, until his death in 2005. His position was taken over by Des Lynam, who retired from the show on December 22 2006 and was replaced by Des O'Connor on January 2 2007. A celebrity guest also features in every programme, and provides a brief interlude before the first advertisement break.
April 2008
Jon O'Neill was a contestant in Series 53, and at fifteen is one of the youngest people ever to become an octochamp. While proficient at the words, O'Neill was particularly noted for his astonishing ability at the "4 large" selection in the numbers game, and is often considered among the greatest of all time in the discipline. After eight convincing wins, he reached the series semi-finals, losing to eventual series champion John Mayhew, and in 2006 return for the Championship of Champions, where he was again defeated -- this time by Jack Welsby. O'Neill also holds the dubious honour of being the only person to attend all eight of the unofficial Countdown tournaments since their inception in 2005.
