List of Countdown records

The following is a list of Countdown records compiled using the Countdown Corral, The Countdown Page, Countdown Update UK and automated and human research of this wiki.

15 rounds

• The highest ever score was Julian Fell's 146 against Danny Hamilton. This is also the only time a contestant has got 4 nine letter words. Julian shares the record for the second highest score - 138 points, also repeated by Mark Tournoff in Series 52. See List of 15-round scores over 125.

• The highest ever score by a challenger was 123, set by Kevin Thurlow and later matched by Wendy Roe, both in Series 47.

• The lowest ever score was by Hazel Wheeler who scored only 13 points against David O'Donnell. See List of 15-round scores under 30.

• The lowest scoring winning word was LAP by Jon O'Neill against Gary McEnaney in episode 3905.

• The highest ever eight game score was 924 by Julian Fell. The only other player to score over 900 is Craig Beevers who got 907. The next highest is 890 by Conor Travers. Julian and Craig are the only players to get eight centuries in eight games, see century for more details.

• The highest ever total over 11 games, the maximum for one Series was 1307 by Julian Fell, including the aforementioned scores of 146 and 138.

• The most nines found by one contestant in one game is 4; Julian Fell found SALMONIDS, DEPORTING, INGATHERS and DEFLATION in his record-breaking game.

• The highest possible score was available in Episode 3967, when five niners and a number of other favourable rounds made for a possible 173. Only one of the nine letter words was found, and both players failed to score a century.

• The lowest recorded maximum in a 15-round game is 105, which included an impossible numbers game and a series of difficult letters rounds. The 11th Championship of Champions final only had a maximum of 106, just one point more.

• The highest ever losing score was Matthew Shore's score of 117 against Mark Tournoff in the Championship of Champions XII. The game was poised 117-114 going into the conundrum STARFRUIT which Mark solved, leaving Matthew as the loser with 117 points. A few other losing scores over 100 have been recorded, the first being Terry Rattle's score of 107 in Series 47, which was later beaten by David Williams who lost 113-111. Both Terry and David lost to Chris Wills.

• The highest ever score after 2 rounds was 36 by Julia Wilkinson. She made 122 before the conundrum and could have broken Chris Wills' record score of 129, but her opponent got the conundrum before she did.

• While the all-time record score is 146, Craig Beevers holds the record for the highest score with no nine letter words (120). The highest with one nine is Tom Hargreaves's score of 131, the highest with two nines is Mark Tournoff's 138. The highest with three and four nines are both scores held by Julian Fell, his score of 138 in episode 3349, and the aforementioned highest ever score. Nobody has ever got five nines in one game. Ignoring the nine-point bonus for nine-letter words altogether (to combine these records), Tom Hargreaves's score of 131 becomes 122, and is the record under this system. Interestingly, Julian Fell's all-time record of 146 would only be worth 110.

9 rounds

• The highest ever score was 83, first achieved by series champion Stephen Balment in episode 546. The score was made on Stephen's debut. The score was equalled by Allan Saldanha in Series 33 against Darryl Francis. Allan won 83-24 in episode 1886, which was even more amazing as it was against the Series 6 champion.

• The highest ever score by a champion was Harvey Freeman's 82, later equalled by Lucy Roberts in episode 2641. Neither of the scores of 83 was made while Allan or Stephen were the current champion.

• At least one contestant found two nine letter words in a nine round game. Jill Bright scored 81 in her second game. She got two nine letter words in rounds 1 and 2, but failed to solve the conundrum and could have beaten the highest ever score by 8 points. See list of 9-round scores over 75.

• The record lowest scores belong to Sylvia Pitman and John Brooks, who failed to score a single point between them in Episodes 2343 and 637 respectively.

• The highest ever eight game total achieve was 535 by David Williams, beating Harvey Freeman's mark of 523 in Series 10. The highest ever total over eleven games (one whole Series) was 760, also by Harvey Freeman. This includes 10 9 round games and a 14 round final.

• The highest losing score was 70. In the Championship of Champions IV, Tony Vick beat Steve Williams by a score of 80-70. Steve was leading 60-70 after 8 rounds but Tony got the conundrum to set up a 70-70 tie. For the first time ever a second conundrum was used to separate them, and it was Tony that spotted IMPOUNDED to win with a score of 80.

• Lester Mak holds the record for the shortest winning word. He scored points with RUN after his opponent had BRICE disallowed in Episode 2455.

14 rounds

• The highest ever score in a 14 round game was 115 by Harvey Freeman. This was the 3rd Championship of Champions final against Series 9 winner David Trace. David was leading 107-105 going into the final conundrum, but couldn't get it and lost with 107 points. This is also the highest losing score in a 14 round game, and the third highest score. See List of 14-round scores over 100 for more details.

Other

• In all forms out of Countdown, Nita Marr holds the record for the most defeats. She's lost six times, in the heats of Series 13, the finals of Series 13, the Championship of Champions IV, the Supreme Championship, a Masters game against Jenny Haldane and a recent special against Mike Brown.

• The longest word to come up in order was LOUNGED (7). The longest word to come up in reverse order was DECANTERS (9).

• Harvey Freeman holds the record for the most wins on Countdown, 19 wins from 19 games, 20 if the Countdown Masters game is counted. Just behind him is Allan Saldanha with 18 wins from 21 games - 21 games is the most of any player. He played 11 games in Series 15, one game in the Championship of Champions IV, two specials against Tim Morrissey and Gareth Williams, a Masters game and six games in Series 33. The second longest winning streak belongs to Don Reid who won 16 games in a row - 11 games in Series 25, three games in the Championship of Champions VII and two games in the Supreme Championship before losing to fellow Series champion John Clarke on a crucial conundrum.

• Chris Wills holds the record for the most Countdown appearances since the 15 round shows began. In 17 appearances he's scored 1767 points, the most ever, noting that players who've played more games than Chris played in the shorter format. For this reason, Chris also holds the record for the most airtime, 765 minutes or 12 hours 45 minutes. He averaged 106.81 points per game.