John Clarke (Series 11)

John Clarke was the winner of Series 11 and a defeated semi-finalist in Championship of Champions III and the supreme championship.

Clarke started his run on 26 March 1987, late in the series, and had time for only five victories before the finals started, including four scores over 60. Under the rules of the time, he was offered the opportunity to compete in the finals rather than continue in the next series, and as he was #1 seed anyway, he opted to enter the finals.

A high-scoring 74-56 victory over Maurice Sobell put him through to the semi-finals, and a comfortable 48-19 defeat of James Wilkie set up an "all star" final with #2 seed David Reid. Impressive finds of MARRIAGE and OUTRIDER gave Clarke a 97-61 victory, with only an unsolved final conundrum LOCALTIES denying him the century.

He returned in June for Championship of Champions, where he drew Series 12 octochamp Jon Marsh. Clarke comfortably emerged the winner with a score of 61 to 29. In the semi-final he faced the legendary Harvey Freeman and delivered a creditable performance in defeat, with Freeman scoring one of the narrowest victories of his unbeaten career.

Nine years later, John would return to the studios for the supreme championship. In his group, he beat Derek Coombs, Andy Bodle and (by way of a sudden-death conundrum) the previously unbeaten Don Reid to reach the series quarter-finals. There, he beat the recently-crowned champion of champions Chris Rogers 59-41, but lost once again in the semi-final to Harvey Freeman, 65-48.

John's impressive Countdown record of having played 18 games and won 16, coupled with the fact that his only defeats were at the hands of the imperious Harvey Freeman, mean John's name invariably comes up in discussions concerning the greatest Countdowner of all time.

Preceded by Harvey Freeman

Series winner Series 11

Followed by Stephen Balment