Ryan Taylor

Ryan Taylor

Ryan Taylor was an octochamp and finalist in Series 61.

Appearances on the programme

Heat games

His first game was against Jeremy Baker, who Ryan thought was Michael Fish when he walked into the green room and genuinely believed he was going to be a guest in dictionary corner. Ryan managed to beat Jeremy in a nervous first appearance on Countdown, opening with SWEATING ("convenient" - he added) and risking BENZINE in the final letters round to ensure a lead of 21 points going into the final numbers round, meaning Ryan had won which he clearly acknowledged with a huge sigh of relief on show for all to see. The revelation that the conundrum BONFIREUP (on 5th November) was in fact IBUPROFEN drew an extremely funny face out of Jeremy Baker.

Next up was scrabble player, Chris Civil, who Ryan feared would be his downfall (although Chris is the only person to visit the east coast of Wales, so maybe not). An opening round spot of FILAGREE (which he had learnt the night before in the hotel) settled him down until the last third of the contest. The last third proved uncomfortable as Chris clawed points back but Ryan held on to win 76-54 in a low scoring affair.

Ryan was back after the weekend and was in high spirits, with two wins under his belt but this time he was under the watchful eye of series 60 champion Kirk Bevins, series 58 runner up Richard Priest, 3 time winner Konstadinos Sfyris and forumite and left hander Howard Somerset. Playing in front of these four people only spurred Ryan on and he comfortably beat Geoff Morris (playing in pink) by 43 points, although largely due to Geoff's disallowed words. Also on this occasion, Ryan managed to crack a joke that rivalled some of dictionary corner guest Tim Vine's jokes (it certainly got more laughs).

Tuesday was Ryan's day of reckoning, as he had known well in advance that if he win his first 3 games he would be against apterite and forumite Lesley Hines, a challenge that Ryan was uneasy about. After a drink and countdown related chat with Lesley the night before, it was time to be serious. Ryan tried to make it clear that they had played twice before and Lesley had not won, Lesley was not buying any of this psychological battle. The titles rolled, Ryan took his superstitious deep breath (which Rachel Riley laughed at) and the customary lean back in the chair (which didn't swing). After opening an 8 point lead in round 1 with a spot of MODERATE and Lesley's disallowed DEMENTOR^, Ryan eased down, only to be pegged back to a 3 point lead after round 2. Spots of MARINADES and 9's from the selection SADITRONE from both contestants lead to a high scoring game. It was not until round 9 when Lesley trumped Ryan with QUANGO that the 3 point lead turned into a 3 point deficit (the first time Ryan had trailed any opponent). 3 points behind became 11 after Lesley excellently picked out INSANELY whilst Ryan tried to fudge an 8 before settling on a disallowed 7. With an 11 point deficit to claw back Ryan dug deep and beat Lesley in the remaining 2 letter rounds with BOLETE and PICTURE to regain the lead. The 3rd easy numbers round did not separate the two and it was Ryan's first crucial conundrum. As the clock ticked down with no contestant being able to solve it, Ryan breathed a huge sigh of relief and was ecstatic with his 4th victory yet felt for Lesley as she lost with a score of 104. Kirk Bevins made a cameo with the conundrum spot of RAINSWEPT (which Ryan had also learnt the PAINTERS stem the night before, although not learnt it well enough)!

After the drama of the previous game Ryan went on to play David Woodward and soundly ran out the winner with a score of 105-36 (although still with no conundrum solve which host Jeff Stelling liked to mention and Ryan did not).

In Ryan's sixth game he faced another apterite in the form of Martyn Simpson, who had beaten Ryan the last time they had played on apterous (but had a winning record of 16-1) so this comforted Ryan, slightly. They were always close games though and anything could happend. However with Martyn missing a triple nine ROSTERING/RESTORING/RESORTING in round 9 and Ryan spotting one of them, it pretty much ended the contest. Ryan went on to solve the conundrum WITHDRAWN after 27 seconds (much to his relief) to win the game with his highest score of 123-68. I think Martyn was still hoping that they would cut what he said in his introduction to save his job, casuing him to miss some words.

Lucy Bolton faced Ryan next and witnessed Ryan's comprehensive sixth victory and as such went into the game hoping to just not finish with 0. Unbeknown to Ryan, he had been on a honeymoon with Lucy before and so these two were no strangers. Lucy battled bravely and had it not been for some gambling on words and the decision to not put an S on HEPATIC, Ryan would have lost, yet he rode his luck and grinded out his 7th victory 89-76. Ryan had performed well enough to have the chance of becoming an octochamp and would once again be watched by Kirk Bevins in the audience for his 8th game. Ryan's 7th game however was perhaps overshadowed by Tim Vine's uncharacteristic behaviour which brought controversy to the game of Countdown, not for the first time. Tim Vine was a clear admirer of Lucy and wished for Ryan to lose (a point he didn't wish to keep quiet). The distasteful banter shared by Ryan and Tim Vine sparked outrage from the Edinburgh Countdown Club watching on from the audience. In the end after much cut footage (including quite a serious stare out between Tim and Ryan) Ryan emerged the bigger man, not only had he ousted Tim as the funny man of Countdown at the start of the week, he had now ousted his love.

On the Monday, with the controversy behind him, Ryan distinctively wore a question mark tie (praised in fan mail - although laughed at by his accompanying guest Rebecca Daykin, who Ryan bought a sausage roll for, which was followed by extreme feelings of guilt by Rebecca due to her epic love of pigs, micro pigs in particular). Ryan's opponent would be Canadian Ryan Vickers (Vic) a game show fanatic! Ryan used the usual pre-match routine of mind games, discussing apterous and his previous 7 victories to unsettle Vic. Ryan Taylor lead 14-0 after 2 rounds (the mind games had worked) and increased this lead with spots of TENUTO, NODDIES and IMPLORES before being titled an octochamp with an 8th victory of 103-51 (his fourth century in his run). Ryan qualified for the finals of series 61 as seed #4 behind "the big three" of Hulme, Davies and Carson.

Series finals

Ryan played Brian Selway in the fourth quarter-final (which was the tallest finalist versus the shortest). Despite trailing after the first four letter rounds Ryan comfortably beat Brian 91-71 to devastate Brian (and his fans back home in Honiton) to book his place against the number one seed Andrew Hulme in the semi-final. Despite Brian looking disappointed Ryan and Brian shared a very limp handshake to reconcile their friendship.

Ryan, cheered on by his 7-strong team of Yorkshire lads (with chants of "come on Ryan" and "get your t**t out") was relaxed for this semi final, too relaxed in fact. Despite opening round 1 with PUDENDA (learnt from Craig Beevers on the forum just days before) he fell behind, and never managed to regain ground on Andrew. Ryan didn't beat Andrew in any round of the semi final as Andrew reeled off spots of POLEAXE, LABIATE and DEFROST to leave Ryan licking his wounds. The final score was 95-48 to Andrew and Ryan's dreams of series 61 champion (however little they may have been) were convincingly ended. There was just time though for 3 time winner Konstadinos Sfyris to solve the unsolved semi final conundrum. Cue the appearance of Ryan's faithful followers who were sat next to Dinos who said "Is it TUNESMITH Jeff?" in a lovely Sheffield accent. Countdown mug won!

Outside of Countdown

Ryan had appeared on Channel Five's revival of 'Going For Gold' in December 2008, and despite winning the rehearsal, he lost in round 2, succombing to "Brain of Derbyshire" Iwan.

Ryan continues to deliver papers to his natives of Coniston and neighbouring village Ganstead where he has acquired celebrity status, so much so that he now does ater dinner speaking. In addition to his important duty of paper delivering, Ryan enjoys quizzing (often winning the Haven Arms Sunday pub quiz and Constable Arms monthly pub quiz) as well as completing jigsaw puzzles, shouting at the television and indulging in heavy drinking on Saturdays.

Ryan is due to appear on BBC One's 'The Weakest Link' in 2010.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
4922	5/11/2009	P	Jeremy Baker	76 – 97	Ryan Taylor	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dr Hilary Jones	Susie Dent
4923	6/11/2009	P	Ryan Taylor	76 – 54	Chris Civil	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Dr Hilary Jones	Susie Dent
4924	9/11/2009	P	Ryan Taylor	93 – 50	Geoff Morris	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tim Vine	Susie Dent
4925	10/11/2009	P	Ryan Taylor	106 – 104	Lesley Hines	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tim Vine	Susie Dent
4926	11/11/2009	P	Ryan Taylor	105 – 36	David Woodward	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tim Vine	Susie Dent
4927	12/11/2009	P	Ryan Taylor	123 – 68	Martyn Simpson	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tim Vine	Susie Dent
4928	13/11/2009	P	Ryan Taylor	89 – 76	Lucy Bolton	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Tim Vine	Susie Dent
4929	16/11/2009	P	Ryan Taylor	103 – 51	Ryan Vickers	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Amanda Lamb	Susie Dent
4950	15/12/2009	QF	Brian Selway	71 – 91	Ryan Taylor	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Rory McGrath	Susie Dent
4951	16/12/2009	SF	Ryan Taylor	48 – 95	Andrew Hulme	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Rory McGrath	Susie Dent