Tom Stevenson

Tom Stevenson Octochamp Statistics
Final position	-
Seeding	1
Points total	1,000
Conundrums solved	8

Tom Stevenson in Series 86.

Tom Stevenson was an octochamp in Series 86, from Burford, Shropshire. At the time of his appearance, he was a media, culture and English literature student at the University of Worcester. He is also an Apterite who was formerly under the names Spike Guthrie and Spike Nard, and has reached the top 10 in the Apterous pro rank leaderboard. He also participated in Series 1 and 2 of ZoomDown prior to his appearances on Countdown.

Stevenson made his TV debut on the episode after Alan Young become an octochamp himself, kicking off with a hefty 120 points against Mike Oliver, which he repeated in his second episode. In his fourth episode, he scored a max game, and broke the record for the highest ever score on the show with 154, surpassing Elliott Mellor's three-year-old record by two points. In his eighth appearance, Stevenson won with 124 points, bringing his total score to a very round 1,000, and also became only the thirteenth person to solve all eight conundrums in their preliminary matches on the show.

Amazingly, he became the first contestant to never lose a single round in the heat matches, as well as the first to never score zero points in a single round in the heats. For those reasons, his octorun is considered to be one of the most consistent in Countdown history. He is also the fourth member of the 1,000 club, after Mellor, Luke Johnson-Davies and Luke Boynton.

Stevenson returned for the series finals on 15 December 2022. He started out in the first quarter-final against the eighth seed, Lewis Castling-Morey. Stevenson started off strongly, kicking off the finals with an impressive 121 points to qualify for the semi-finals where he faced Joe Dobinson. He also continued to score in every round, making it 135 in a row as of his quarter-final match.

In the first semi-final, Dobinson proved to be Tom's toughest opponent so far, as he matched Tom in the early rounds before Stevenson eventually carved out a 24-point lead. With Rounds 10 to 14 being maxed out by Tom and Joe, during which both players found WINTEROUS for 9, Tom officially maintained his unbeaten record before the final round was played. He finished the game with a flourish by solving his tenth conundrum from ten to qualify for the final with 129 points, and he also kept up his masterful scoring streak by making it 150 rounds in a row as of the end of this match.

In 2020, Stevenson was a contestant on the BBC Radio 2 music quiz PopMaster, winning a Bluetooth speaker.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
7857	26/09/2022	P	Mike Oliver	58 – 120	Tom Stevenson	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Eve Muirhead	Susie Dent	136
7858	27/09/2022	P	Tom Stevenson	120 – 61	Sean Mowat	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Eve Muirhead	Susie Dent	135
7859	28/09/2022	P	Tom Stevenson	119 – 10	Sara Woolridge	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Eve Muirhead	Susie Dent	124
7860	29/09/2022	P	Tom Stevenson	154 – 28	Lauren Bowley	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Eve Muirhead	Susie Dent	154
7861	30/09/2022	P	Tom Stevenson	117 – 39	Andy Keeble	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Eve Muirhead	Susie Dent	145
7862	03/10/2022	P	Tom Stevenson	117 – 37	Steve Robinson	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Pat Nevin	Susie Dent	122
7863	04/10/2022	P	Tom Stevenson	129 – 57	David Clerkin	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Pat Nevin	Susie Dent	135
7864	05/10/2022	P	Tom Stevenson	124 – 41	Ben Timi Nuga	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Pat Nevin	Susie Dent	139
7915	15/12/2022	QF	Tom Stevenson	121 – 44	Lewis Castling-Morey	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Vick Hope	Susie Dent	125
7919	21/12/2022	SF	Tom Stevenson	129 – 95	Joe Dobinson	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Neil Delamere	Susie Dent	135

External links

• Article on Stevenson's achievement on BBC News