Harry Savage

Harry Savage Octochamp Statistics
Final position	TBC
Seeding	TBC
Points total	939
Conundrums solved	6

Harry Savage in Series 88.

Harry Savage was a Octochamp in Series 88, and a final-year undergraduate biology student at Hertford College, Oxford, from Southampton at the time of his appearances. He is also an Apterite. Outside of Countdown, he is a competitive Rubik's Cube solver; he has competed at the UK and World Championships in different categories and holds/has held Guinness World Records in the sport as well.

Appearances

Heat games

Savage first appeared on 2 August 2023, notably being asked by the host Colin Murray to solve a Rubik's Cube in the opening and managed to do so in 10.5 seconds. He later won with 122 points, the highest score of the series so far, to six-time winner Hywel Jones's 59 points. He followed this up with seven more excellent performances, which were also all centuries, with a low of 105, and a high score of 130.

Of particular note throughout his heats, he found six 9-letter words; those being MERITABLE, CERATOPID, ERADICATE, INCLOSURE, ORIGINATE and HORTENSIA. Some other notable spots included TOHUNGA, WOODSIA, DUODENA, BOWHEAD and SAURIAN; the latter Susie later used to christen Savage with his nickname 'Thesaurus' owing to his performances on the show.

After his last heat game, which was also his sixth in a row in a single day of filming, in which he maxed 13 rounds, scored his personal best, and restricted his opponent Sandra Ring to under 30 points, Harry finished up with an octotal of 939. This made him the 32nd member of the 900 club, placed him equal on points with fellow Octochamp Sam Cappleman-Lynes, and made him the provisional No.1 seed. He also provided one final party piece by solving a Rubik's cube blindfolded in the studio after the game was finished, which he managed, amazingly, to do in 20 seconds. He will almost certainly return for the end-of-series finals in December.

ZoomDown

Prior to his TV debut, Savage was a contestant on the second series of ZoomDown. He won his first three games, which included a max game against Tracey Mills in his third heat but fell short of tetra-champdom thanks to current Countdown producer Damian Eadie. Regardless, he still qualified for the end-of-series finals, winning his first game against Noel McIlvenny but losing his semi-final to eventual series champ Rob Foster, who himself scored a max game.

His performances also saw him invited back for the ZoomDown Championship of Champions where his preliminary game saw him defeat Graeme Cole by just 1 point, before once again facing Rob Foster in the quarter-finals. Again, he, unfortunately, lost on a crucial conundrum which Foster solved, eliminating him from the competition.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
8074	02/08/2023	P	Hywel Jones	59 – 122	Harry Savage	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	John Thomson	Susie Dent	135
8075	03/08/2023	P	Harry Savage	119 – 52	Julie Quinn	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	John Thomson	Susie Dent	147
8076	04/08/2023	P	Harry Savage	119 – 30	David Byrne	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Edith Bowman	Susie Dent	131
8077	07/08/2023	P	Harry Savage	121 – 79	Helen Ingelbrecht	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Edith Bowman	Susie Dent	157
8078	08/08/2023	P	Harry Savage	105 – 51	Stephen O'Mara	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Edith Bowman	Susie Dent	125
8079	09/08/2023	P	Harry Savage	108 – 74	Sam Hughes	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Edith Bowman	Susie Dent	133
8080	10/08/2023	P	Harry Savage	115 – 47	Michael Cameron	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Edith Bowman	Susie Dent	123
8081	11/08/2023	P	Harry Savage	130 – 21	Sandra Ring	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Edith Bowman	Susie Dent	134