The Countdown Page

Countdown is a UK TV words and numbers game, based on the French original, "Des Chiffres et Des Lettres", and was the first programme broadcast on Channel 4, on November 2nd, 1982. It is produced by ITV Studios in Manchester, England, although until the middle of 2009, almost every edition was made in the Yorkshire Television studios at Leeds. The programme is presented by Jeff Stelling and Rachel Riley. Until July 2005, it was hosted by the late Richard Whiteley. It was presented by Des Lynam from October 2005 to December 2006 and by Des O'Connor from January 2007 to December 2008. Carol Vorderman appeared in almost every edition of the show from November 1982 before leaving at the end of 2008. Countdown is currently aired on Channel 4 from Monday to Friday at 3.25 p.m. with repeats an hour later on Channel 4+1 and two-and-a-half days later (at approx. 5 a.m., again on Channel 4).

Welcome to the Countdown Page, one of the most extensive archives of Countdown results (and certainly the oldest) on the Web.

Apart from the final scores of almost every show, there is much more to explore, including round-by-round details of Grand Finals, a list of series champions in the Hall of Fame, over twenty-five Countdown Experiences written by former contestants and the names of all the celebrity guests to have appeared in Dictionary Corner. If your thirst for knowledge is still not satisfied, you will also find links to lots of other Countdown sites.

Contributions for the programme and opinions you wish to direct to the production team should be emailed to the official Countdown email address. For details of how to apply to appear on the programme, please click here. For information on applying for audience tickets, please click here.

If you have any information you would like me to add to this page or if you have any other comments or questions about the site or Countdown, please mail me. Your correspondence is always appreciated, but while I endeavour to read every email I receive, I cannot promise to reply to everyone individually.

If you would like to chat to others about Countdown (or just read their comments), please visit the C4 Countdown forum.

At the time of my last update back in April, Peter Zyss was sitting in the champion's chair, ready to take on his next challenge from Ned Walker. Happily for Peter, he won that game, but then lost his eighth match against Claudia Tyson, who then went on to do something similar herself - losing in her seventh game to Chris Jones. Despite increasing his final score, Chris lost in his very next game to Nicki Sellars, who, like Claudia, was also knocked out in her seventh game by Lee Graham. To continue the theme, Lee also lost his seventh game (against Gwen Robinson) and ended his run as number six seed. There was then a short gap before we had another long-runner in the shape of Danny Pledger, who became only the second (and final) octochamp of the series. Dominic Travers won five games towards the end of the series, but it wasn't enough for him the make the finals, while Scott Gillies remained undefeated at the end of the last preliminary game and would have to wait until the start of Series 63 to continue his quest.

The finals of Series 62 began on the 10th of June, and on the face of it, they didn't exactly run true to form. Closer examination of their average game scores, however, revealed a different (and more accurate) story. As expected, number one seed Oliver Garner saw off Claudia Tyson's challenge with relative ease, scoring a series-topping 123 points in the process. The 'surprises' began in the next game, when number seven seed Nicki Sellars beat number two seed Danny Pledger by 100 points to 60 - although an examination of their averages showed they were actually pretty evenly matched, at 79 points per game each. The third quarter-final between Dave Wilkinson (number three seed, average 77 points) and Lee Graham (number six seed, average 90 points) was close - although it didn't require a crucial conundrum - but it was the higher-averaging Lee who won the day. The fourth quarter-final saw number four seed Peter Zyss (average 77) pitted against number five seed Craig Chittenden (average 95). This match is historically a close one and it proved to be so again, as there was deadlock until the first numbers game. By Round 8, Craig had pulled out a small lead, but Peter cancelled that out by getting a nine in the following round with BLATHERED. Unfortunately, the effort of getting a nine seemed to have sapped Peter's strength, and he then remained stuck on 61 points for a couple more rounds. A victory on the final numbers game sealed the win for Craig and it was a case of 'higher average score wins the game' once more.

The first semi between Oliver and Craig saw the number one seed clock up another century, while Craig languished on 69 points. The second turned out to be a rematch between heat protagonists (who have actually turned into firm friends) Lee and Nicki. Lee's slightly higher average score might have indicated that he would win the game by a narrow margin, but as with all statistics, you should never set too much store by them, and despite a late rally from Lee in the third 'half', the game was easily Nicki's, and she ran out the winner by 89 points to 51.

The stage was set for the grand final between Oliver and Nicki, and surely Oliver was odds-on to win. But would it turn out that way? By the first break, Oliver had trumped Nicki on two letters games (with MAESTRO and MOIETY) and the numbers, and was leading 36-13. A successful risking of TAMPONED in Round 6 saw Nicki recover by eight points, and both players taking a chance on VOIDNESS in the following round saw the scores at 44-29 in Oliver's favour. The New Malden schoolboy's offering of TAWNIER put him 22 points ahead by the second break and after the Teatime Teaser of RIOTTRAP, we were back for the final third of the contest. Nicki obviously felt it was time to start taking some more chances in a bid to get ahead, but in Round 11 her 'risk-ometer' proved to be badly calibrated, as she went for ORALIZE - sadly, only ORALISM and ORALIST are listed. The gap of 28 then remained static, which by the end of the letters meant that Oliver was in an unassailable position. This didn't stop him scoring ten points on the final numbers game and unravelling BEDISCLUE in twelve seconds, while Nicki could only sit and admire his efforts. The final score was 107-62, with Oliver a worthy winner of the series and Nicki doing a brilliant job to make it to the last game with some great Countdown play. Hopefully it won't be the last we see of either contestant on our screens.

As is typical, there wasn't any respite for Countdown fans, and Series 63 started the following Monday, with the incumbent Scott Gillies in the champion's chair. He duly went on to become an octochamp and scored 122 points in his game against Judith Hunt. His total of 810 points puts him top of the leader board in the series so far. Since Scott's temporary retirement, Ryan Loughborough has registered six wins, while Richard Harris has won five. Current champion Tom Rowell has won just two games at the moment, but Countdown's now regular summer break means that we are being made to wait to see what happens to him next.

Talking of the 'summer break', this has meant we have been treated to another two of the special editions recorded earlier this year. At the end of July (the week of the Goodwood Festival), we were treated to a game between high-scoring losers Micheal Harris and Lesley Hines. Micheal had won one game in Series 61 before being drubbed by Andrew Hulme, who scored 133 points on his debut to Micheal's still impressive losing score of 101, while Lesley lost to Ryan Taylor by two points later in the series, but scored a very respectable 104 in the process. The result seemed to indicate that Lesley had been putting in more practice than Micheal in the intervening period, but who knows if that was the case. Whatever the reasons, her score of 105 points meant that Lesley could finally take home a Countdown teapot and put her previous defeat to rest.

On Monday of last week, the game was between two 'young stars' of Countdown: Kai Laddiman, the youngster who impressed so much with his maturity on Carol Vorderman's last series and went on to become an octochamp and Championship of Champions contestant, and Dinos Sfyris, who won three games during Series 57 before being narrowly defeated. Since then, Dinos has upped his game considerably, so it looked like being a close match. And so it proved. After a shaky start, with them both offering BRAVADOES for nine and having it turned down by Susie, the game soon developed into a tight affair, and it wasn't until Dinos spotted the niner SLEEPSUIT (which some of you will remember as Chris Davies's semi-final-winning conundrum in Series 61) in Round 9 before much daylight appeared between their scores. A failed gamble on TOUSHE in the first letters game of Part Three allowed Kai to recover some ground, but the sixteen-point lead was enough for Dinos to claim victory without the need for a crucial conundrum - a good thing for the young man from Sheffield, as Kai duly unravelled MISTYPOOP in eleven seconds. A brilliant game to watch, with lots of humour and friendliness - even if we were prevented from seeing the paper-throwing contest at the end courtesy of Channel 4's keenness to advertise upcoming programmes - how dare they!? Series 63 proper resumes on Monday, but there will be another Special aired in just over a week's time, featuring Series 59 finalists Junaid Mubeen and Charlie Reams.

In terms of Dictionary Corner guests since my last missive, we have had no fewer than eight newcomers: Dave Spikey, John Parrott, Colin Jackson, Aled Jones, Gino D'Acampo, Shobna Gulati (who bravely stood in at short notice for two shows when the booked guest's arrival was delayed), Andrew Castle and Sharron Davies. Those making a reappearance were: Ken Bruce, Kate Humble, Doctors Hilary Jones and Phil Hammond, Jon Gaunt, John Inverdale, Paul Zenon (for finals week) and Tim Vine. One wonders whether we will ever see the likes of Keith Barron, Philip Franks or Richard Digance in the Corner again - only time will tell!

Away from our screens, there have been two Countdown tournaments in the past four months, the main one being the inaugural Co:Lon event, which took place in London in May and was won by Series 61 semi-finalist Innis Carson, who travelled all the way down from Edinburgh to take part and competed with Oliver Garner in a very entertaining final, hosted by Kirk Bevins with Charlie Reams in Dictionary Corner. The second event was a much smaller affair, held in Leicester at the end of July to celebrate ex-contestant Jeff Clayton's 'milestone' 25th birthday. Hosted by Jeff with assistance from the other attendees, the main event at the COLEI Summer Special consisted of an eight-player knockout, which culminated in Series 58 runner-up Richard Priest narrowly defeating Series 60 champion Kirk Bevins by 101 points to 98. The next CO-event (COLEI3) takes place on October 16th and details of how to take part can be found at the C4 Countdown site.

Well, that just about wraps up another Countdown Page update. All of the usual sections of the site have been brought up to date, including the Series pages and the Special Guest pages, and of course Oliver Garner's name has been added to the Hall of Fame. You can also see full details of the series final, as well as catching up on all the different vitamins that Vitabiotics have been advertising by checking out the Sponsors page (yes, really!).

The next recap of all things Countdown-related will probably be with you after the series finals have aired in December and will hopefully feature some new material for you to enjoy. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of the summer - and autumn - and I'll look forward to chatting to you again at Christmas!

Until then, take care.

Mike

To access full round-by-round recaps of recent games of Countdown, as compiled by members of the C4 Countdown forum, please go to cdb - The Countdown Database, created by Series 59 finalist Charlie Reams.

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