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Graeme Cole

From Countdown
Revision as of 09:08, 4 March 2013 by Crispy (talk | contribs) (Started to rewrite prior to FA status.)
For the Dictionary Corner guest, see Graham Cole.
Graeme Cole on the blue set used since 2009.

Graeme Cole was champion of Series 65. He began his octochamp run on 7 June 2011, in the second episode of Countdown's 65th series. In Cole's début game against Liam Herringshaw, he immediately gained an eight point lead and held this advantage by spotting the nine-letter word RECOMBINE in the third letters round. Herringshaw reduced the deficit with VENIALLY in round 6, before Cole's consecutive offerings of RAGOUTS, EUCHRING and PINATA extended his lead to 21. In round 12, the darrenic word LORICATE widened this gap further. Although Herrigshaw beat Cole on the conundrum, the match was already over and Cole won by 112 points to 93, including 30 out of 30 on the numbers rounds. Cole outplayed Steven Hatton in his second game with words such as PASTORIE and CAUDATE, and three more perfect numbers solutions.

In Cole's third game, his opponent Aidan Turnbull kept apace for the first three letters rounds, but then had caulder ☓ disallowed and failed to solve the first numbers game. This meant he trailed by 17 points at the first commercial break. He fought back in round six with PALLETED, but in the very next round Turnbull's invalid offering farter ☓ allowed Cole to gain a 20 point lead. This was followed by a dominant final part for Cole, scoring eight points with the word POETISES, continuing his 100% numbers record, and solving the conundrum ACTEDSTEP to win 99 – 57. Round 5 of his game against James Hall ended his perfect numbers record and, although a comfortable victory, this was the second game in which Cole narrowly missed out on a century. Similarly, his game against Graham Moonie-Dalton included the niner GRAINIEST but finished 94 – 75, with Cole just short of a three-figure score.

Cole accumulated 813 points with a high score of 125, just one point below the highest score of the series set in Mark Deeks' final heat game. Cole's aggregate was 11 points behind Deeks', and he qualified for the series quarter-finals as #2 seed.

Cole returned in December for the finals. He didn't face too much competition in his quarter- and semi-finals against #7 seed Nikki Roberts and #3 seed Paul Keane, seeing both off with spots such as DRAGLINES and OCCULTED. But the final offered a different prospect altogether.

He faced the surprise finalist Carl Williams in a game which saw Cole behind for 5 rounds in the middle, before taking the lead in round 11, which he extended to 10 thanks to his 1 away offering in the last, impossible numbers round. As the time for the final, crucial conundrum ran out, Cole was just seconds away from winning, but Williams unscrambled TIMEUPLAD in the 26th second to force the game to a 2nd conundrum. However, Cole quickly fought back to turn VAANGELIS to GALVANISE, and become the new Countdown champion in Jeff Stelling's final show as presenter.

He returned to the studios in July 2012, to take part in a special episode against Series 64 champion, Edward McCullagh, which he lost 107 – 71, meaning that he lost his unbeaten record on the show.

He returned to Countdown 6 months later, as one of 41 contestants taking part in the 30th Birthday Championship. After receiving a bye to the first round, he lost his only match against the Series 66 champion Jack Worsley by a score of 104 – 98, despite maxing the first 13 rounds.

He is also an Apterite who took part in the Apterous Masters 2011 tournament.

After his octochamp run, Cole made his CO-event debut at Co:Lon 2011, which he then followed up with COLIN 2012, CO:REA, COHUD,CobliviLon and COEDI.

Preceded by
Edward McCullagh
Series winner
Series 65
Followed by
Jack Worsley

Episodes

# Date Type Contestant 1 Score Contestant 2 Presenters Guest Lex Max
5280 7/06/2011 P Liam Herringshaw 93 – 112 Graeme Cole Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley Shobna Gulati Susie Dent 132
5281 8/06/2011 P Graeme Cole 105 – 49 Steven Hatton Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley Shobna Gulati Susie Dent 126
5282 9/06/2011 P Graeme Cole 99 – 57 Aidan Turnbull Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley Shobna Gulati Susie Dent 119
5283 10/06/2011 P Graeme Cole 92 – 57 James Hall Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley Shobna Gulati Susie Dent 116
5284 13/06/2011 P Graeme Cole 94 – 75 Graham Moonie-Dalton Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley Jon Culshaw Susie Dent 124
5285 14/06/2011 P Graeme Cole 125 – 19 Mike Linnell Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley Jon Culshaw Susie Dent 129
5286 15/06/2011 P Graeme Cole 91 – 41 Justin Maelzer Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley Jon Culshaw Susie Dent 118
5287 16/06/2011 P Graeme Cole 95 – 59 Gary Hendricks Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley Jon Culshaw Susie Dent 116
5393 9/12/2011 QF Nikki Roberts 61 – 113 Graeme Cole Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley David Lloyd Susie Dent 129
5397 15/12/2011 SF Graeme Cole 96 – 71 Paul Keane Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley Jon Culshaw Susie Dent 119
5398 16/12/2011 GF Carl Williams 95 – 105* Graeme Cole Jeff Stelling Rachel Riley Jon Culshaw Susie Dent 125
S35 30/07/2012 S Graeme Cole 71 – 107 Edward McCullagh Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Mark Foster Susie Dent 119
5633 31/01/2013 30B1 Graeme Cole 98 – 104 Jack Worsley Nick Hewer Rachel Riley Mark Foster Susie Dent 118
* includes 10 points from a tie-break conundrum