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Jon Stitcher

From Countdown
Jon Stitcher

Jon Stitcher was a contestant in Series 52. He was from Hoylake, Merseyside.

He managed to string together three victories in total, demonstrating consistency by always winning by slim margins, never scoring outside the 80s, and having all of his victories come down to crucial conundrums. In his fourth game, Stitcher found himself up against Jack Welsby (who, at the time, held a world record). Welsby proved too strong for him, winning by a margin of 37 points despite Stitcher leading at the halfway stage after finding the nine-letter word DISLOCATE. Notably, an amusing coincidence at the start of this part of the programme saw a Teatime Teaser with the answer MUTINEER immediately followed by a letters round with the selection NTEUMRIEK – the longest possible word being MUTINEER! Stitcher established something of a reputation for misspelt or simply non-existent declarations – some of his more 'creative' offerings include busline ☓, girates ☓, facinated ☓ and carots ☓.

His sister, Jenny Bradley, appeared on the show in Series 70 in 2014.

After Countdown

Following his appearances on the programme, Stitcher played in JOLT, one of the first online tournaments, where he reached the grand final and faced a crucial conundrum against Julian Fell. He also attended CoBris 2005 where he came third out of 20, and COLIN 2006, where he came sixth out of 33.

Stitcher is now a professional poker player, and is also the founder of the Online Quiz League.

Appearances on other game shows

He expanded his repertoire by appearing on BrainTeaser, and the ITV game show The Krypton Factor in February 2009. On 24 October 2014, he appeared on and won his heat of Fifteen to One, defeating the legendary Dag Griffiths in the process and becoming only the second person after David Stainer to win both a Countdown teapot and a Fifteen to One winner's trophy. Eileen Taylor and Tom Rowell have since matched this feat. He later appeared on three episodes of series 11 of Only Connect in 2015, as part of the Athenians team, and played against Ned Pendleton in his first game and both Innis Carson and Ian Volante in his second game. On 20 September 2016, he appeared on The Chase where he was part of a team which beat Mark Labbett to take home an equal share of £36,000. During the show, Labbett commented that Stitcher had been on more quiz shows than he had. His next quiz show appearance was Mastermind on 12 January 2018, but he lost his heat. He then appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on 2 January 2019, walking away with £1,000 after selecting a wrong answer to a £16,000 question. Also in 2019, Stitcher appeared on Very Hard Questions on More4. In 2020, he appeared on Brain of Britain on BBC Radio 4, winning his heat with no studio audience present. On 25 March 2022, he appeared on Eggheads on Channel 5, as part of the O.Q. Elite team.

Episodes

# Date Type Contestant 1 Score Contestant 2 Presenters Guest Lex Max
3743 16/07/2004 P Ian McLennan 73 – 85 Jon Stitcher Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Geoffrey Durham Susie Dent 150
3744 19/07/2004 P Jon Stitcher 80 – 79 Dora Stavrinos Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Peter Baldwin Susie Dent 133
3745 20/07/2004 P Jon Stitcher 88 – 79 Norman Haikney Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Peter Baldwin Susie Dent 120
3746 21/07/2004 P Jon Stitcher 73 – 110 Jack Welsby Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Peter Baldwin Susie Dent 132