Ronan Higginson

Ronan Higginson was a contestant in Series 87. He is an A-Level Student from Ramsgate in Kent. He is also an Apterite who has reached No. 1 on the Apterous pro rank leaderboard.

Appearances on the programme

Higginson made his TV debut on 17 May 2023, against five-game winner Jonathan Seal. Having spotted two nine-letter words, Higginson won with a strong 132 points to Seal's comparatively impressive 98 points. These two scores helped make the highest joint score in a heat game, a record that hadn't been beaten in 9 and a half years.

ZoomDown

Prior to appearing on the show, Higginson participated in episodes 81 and 82 of ZoomDown, triumphing against fellow Countdown alumni Philip Aston but losing to Tom Cappleman. He later appeared in ZoomDown Series 4, winning two games before losing on a crucial conundrum to Ahmed Mohamed. But after tetrachamp Adam Beach was unable to participate in the series finals, Higginson qualified for the finals as number 8 seed.

In the quarter-finals of ZoomDown Series 4, Higginson caused an upset when he defeated number 1 seed Brendan Whitehurst on a crucial conundrum, winning with 99 points to Whitehurst's 88. He then went on to beat number 5 seed Adam Dexter with 112 – 81, thus making a spot in the grand final against Rachael Montgomery. However, Rachael gained the lead when Ronan had coatage ☓ disallowed and also got to one away on the numbers round that followed, whereas Rachael got the target spot on. He did eventually claw back with COWRIES - forcing a crucial conundrum - but Ronan had buzzed incorrectly with scramload ☓ with only 0.8 seconds left, thus resulting in him taking the runner-up spot.

Despite this loss, his success in the series had him qualify for the ZoomDown Championship of Champions. He had been drawn to play against Conor Travers, and both had started pretty well in the first quarter of their game by maxing the first three rounds. However, two disallowed words and Conor's words like OSTEOID and APRONFUL helped him secure one of many 14 max games throughout the tournament. The scoreline was left 125 – 86 in Conor's favour, helping him progress onward to win the series.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
8019	17/05/2023	P	Jonathan Seal	98 – 132	Ronan Higginson	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Annie MacManus	Susie Dent	143
8020	18/05/2023	P	Ronan Higginson	110 – 64	Brian Cookson	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Annie MacManus	Susie Dent	124
8021	19/05/2023	P	Ronan Higginson	126 – 12	Greg Raine	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Annie MacManus	Susie Dent	133