Jack Welsby

Jack Welsby octochamp statistics
Final position	Semi-finalist
Seeding	2
Points total	831
Conundrums solved	4

Jack Welsby

Jack Welsby was an octochamp in Series 52.

Appearances

He won all 8 of his heats with some excellent performances, and relieved many viewers by beating Jon Stitcher in his first game. He only failed to score 100 points in two games, against Joseph Bolas and Alan Cusack.

Returning for the series finals, he comfortably beat David Thirlwall in the quarter-final, before facing Mark Tournoff in the semi. The game started evenly, but Tournoff built up a resounding lead with the nine VERONICAS. However, Welsby fought back with PALMATE and a difficult numbers game, taking it to a crucial conundrum, which Tournoff got.

He was invited back to the Championship of Champions XII and played Jon O'Neill in the first round, narrowly beating him with help from words such as SENARII, TAUTENED and AMOEBAS. However, he came unstuck against Paul Howe in the quarter-final, as Howe spotted the impressive BURGONET to go into the conundrum with a 11 point lead.

Appearances on other Quiz Shows

Outside of Countdown, Welsby has enjoyed a notable quizzing career; firstly, he featured as the team captain of the Durham University team that reached the semi-finals of the 1998-99 series of University Challenge - that team also had future Mastermind champion Jesse Honey as another notable participant. He was also the joint winner (with David Stedman) of Series 34 on Fifteen to One. He later appeared in 2016 as the team captain of a team of London Underground enthusiasts on Only Connect who reached the second round before losing out the the eventual series runners-up the Cosmopolitans.

Other Information

Welsby was at one time a world record holder for visiting all London Underground stations in the fastest time, beating Robert Robinson. His time of 19 hours, 18 minutes and 45 seconds was later beaten by Geoff Marshall & Neil Blake (as a duo) after 2 years, 2 months and 2 days. Another holder of the aforementioned record also appeared on Countdown.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
3746	21/07/2004	P	Jon Stitcher	73 – 110	Jack Welsby	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Peter Baldwin	Susie Dent	132
3747	27/07/2004	P	Jack Welsby	105 – 51	Mary Parke	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Peter Baldwin	Susie Dent	121
3748	28/07/2004	P	Jack Welsby	102 – 42	Eddie McNamee	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Peter Baldwin	Susie Dent	118
3749	3/08/2004	P	Jack Welsby	101 – 55	Carol Kemp	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Barry Cryer	Alison Heard	120
3750	4/08/2004	P	Jack Welsby	96 – 86	Joseph Bolas	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Barry Cryer	Alison Heard	141
3751	5/08/2004	P	Jack Welsby	112 – 72	Stewart Smeed	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Barry Cryer	Alison Heard	133
3752	6/08/2004	P	Jack Welsby	108 – 51	Mandy Combes	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Barry Cryer	Alison Heard	126
3753	9/08/2004	P	Jack Welsby	97 – 73	Alan Cusack	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Barry Cryer	Alison Heard	129
3835	10/12/2004	QF	David Thirlwall	58 – 93	Jack Welsby	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Rick Wakeman	Susie Dent	116
3839	16/12/2004	SF	Jack Welsby	73 – 88	Mark Tournoff	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Richard Digance	Susie Dent	126
4116	1/06/2006	CP	Jack Welsby	99 – 94	Jon O'Neill	Des Lynam	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Ron Atkinson	Susie Dent	134
4124	13/06/2006	CQF	Jack Welsby	72 – 83	Paul Howe	Des Lynam	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Kim Woodburn	Susie Dent	118