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 Yorkshire in Leeds, England, and is presented by Jeff Stelling and Rachel Riley. Until July 2005, Countdown 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 typically shown two-and-a-half days later on the same channel.

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, reviews of classic games 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.

Some two months have passed since my last update and once again quite a lot has happened in the world of Countdown. So, without further ado, let's cast our minds back to the cold days of January and the Championship of Champions.

At the time, there were still three qualifying games to play to decide the final eight, and these were duly taken by Jonathan Coles, Charlie Reams and (in spectacular fashion) Steven Briers, now restyled as the slightly shorter 'Steve'. You may recall that Steve suffered a shock defeat in the first quarter-final of his series, having returned as the number one seed. He certainly appeared to mean business this time around as he racked up the highest score of the contest thus far - an impressive 121 points. In fact, it would prove to be the highest score of the entire competition.

The quarter-finals were decided, then, and the first was a real humdinger between Steve (no rest for the wicked!) and lots of people's pre-tournament favourite, David O'Donnell. The scores were level until Round 8, when Steve pulled PESTICIDE out of the bag, which gave him an 18-point lead he was then to retain until the penultimate round. With the pre-conundrum scores at 118-100, David conceded defeat with a handshake (which actually took place mid-numbers game when it became obvious that both players had the target of 401 spot-on and the contest was effectively over) and he took a consolation prize of the conundrum to give him a very respectable losing score of 110.

The second quarter saw a repeat of the last grand final, with Junaid Mubeen taking on Charlie Reams for the second time. This time, it was Charlie's turn to be victorious - the crucial conundrum proved elusive to both of them, but the Series 59 runner-up's slightly better letters-round play saw him through. Quarter-final 3 was the most one-sided of the four games, with Jon Corby barely putting a foot wrong throughout the game, while Jonathan Coles got stuck on 52 for almost the whole of Part 3 - although he did unravel the quite-tough conundrum GETHERSIS in just three seconds.

The match between Kai Laddiman and Nick Wainwright was another close one, but it was all but sealed by Nick's spotting of the nine-letter DEUTERONS in Round 11, although Kai did manage to pull the score back to 91-94 by the end of the contest. So, four now remained in the frame for the honour of being the thirteenth Champion of Champions: Steve Briers, Nick Wainwright, Charlie Reams and Jon Corby. Who would it be?

The first semi-final looked like being a titanic battle between Steve and Nick, as it started with them both spotting EXACTAS for seven, and it was still all-level five rounds later. The first chink of light appeared between their scores on the following round when Steve pulled OARFISH out of the bag (or perhaps the ocean), but he blobbed a few minutes later by offering the hyphenated TOPLINE. Luckily for him, he was shortly back on form with CURABLE, although Nick then reduced the gap between them to just two points with a spot-on numbers game. Another great letters game declaration of LAZARET in Round 12 was ultimately enough to win Steve the game with the final score 87-82 in his favour, after they both failed to unjumble the football-esque conundrum FCRAVIOLA.

Plenty of risky wordplay seemed to be the order of the day in the other semi between Charlie and Jon, but the scores remained tantalizingly even throughout Part One. The second part saw Charlie pull ahead by virtue of two eights (WHISTLED and DOLOMITE), and another eight in Part Three SPIRITED him into a surely unassailable 24-point lead. So it proved, and unlike the previous day's game, this one was over before Jon had chosen his final numbers - and Charlie had already registered his century. Charlie was spot-on with his numbers game, but neither could get the conundrum: the final score a perhaps unrepresentative 110-76. At the end of the match, Jon and Charlie forwent the usual British handshake and instead indulged in a rather more touchy-feely hug; what viewers at home will have been unaware of is that they also walked on to the set hand-in-hand to great applause! Well, it makes a change, I suppose...

After that, what would the final bring? In the red corner, we had Charlie Reams, runner-up of the previous series, with 13 wins under his belt; in the blue corner, Steve Briers, quarter-finalist from Series 55, with 'just' 11 wins, but a higher average score. Seconds out... it was time for Round One. Steve was quick to deal the first blow, spotting OPULENT while Charlie could only manage LEPTON. Steve's lead would remain until the first round of Part Two, when he offered the unhyphenated REENACT (sadly, the hyphen is required), leaving Charlie's CATERAN to take the points. The scores were then level until Steve again triumphed with SNOOZED and he then followed it with seven more points on the numbers game after Charlie blobbed. The fourteen-point lead pulled out by the Sotonian then remained until Round 14, when Charlie declared nothing and Steve declared 869 (aka 5 away). A slightly controversial numbers game solution ensued (he thought 11 x 79 was 871, when he had in fact already reached his intended target of 869) - but no matter: Charlie's failure to declare meant it was all over anyway. Neither of them could unravel the conundrum (the appropriate ELITEBOUT), although Steve did have a last-gasp attempt with the plausible-sounding LIBOUETTE and Charlie couldn't resist offering the rather less plausible GANDISEEG in the clock's dying moments, in deference to it being offered as an incorrect conundrum solution by Richard Brittain two weeks previously. The final score, then: Charlie 67, Steve 88. Apparently, this could be the last Championship of Champions competition - after this run of 15 matches, let's hope not.

The following day, it was back to 'business as usual', although most of us were still getting used to the idea of Jeff and Rachel presenting, and the 'blueness' of the set. Returning champion Zoe Bowman kicked off proceedings, but she was despatched the following day by Lisa Thomson of Blairgowrie, the second of several female champions to grace the set already this series. After an opening score of 98, it looked like she might stay for a while, but in the event she was knocked out on the Friday by Mike Spellar, despite having led throughout the entire contest and just being pipped on the conundrum. Mike didn't last long in the champion's chair, however, and Janet Scowcroft soon took his place. After a couple of performances, Janet then found herself at the mercy of Kate Richardson from Manchester. Having got three wins under her belt, Kate then came up against Warwick University undergraduate Neil Zussman, and after Neil had beaten her by 92 points to 52, was it too soon to suggest we might have our first serious octochamp contender on our hands? Well, possibly a little bit premature, but after Neil had scored 111 in his third game, it looked rather more likely, although his next was one that threatened to bring his run to a sudden end. In what was the first match to require two conundrums since April of last year, Neil had to fight off an impressive challenge from Liverpool's Simon Greening, who put in what would under many circumstances have been a teapot-winning performance. His 86-76 needle-match out of the way, he then clocked up two consecutive centuries followed by scores of 81 and 97 before retiring until the finals with 758 points to his name.

The first game following an octochamp run can sometimes be an anticlimactic affair, but the one between Ann Abel (possibly the first contestant whose two names combine to form another one) and Brian Goulding was anything but. Although the standard of play was perhaps below that of Neil, it was a real ding-dong affair, with close scoring, several risky words offered, and of course a crucial conundrum. Ann ran out the winner and then went on to win again the following day against Catherine Gillespie before running into none other than... Kirk Bevins.

For the uninitiated (and there can't be too many left now), Kirk has been an active member of both the Internet and tournament scenes for many years now, and originally appeared on Countdown back in the days of Richard Whiteley (Series 51, to be precise). Although it is unusual to be allowed to appear again, exceptions are sometimes made, and the combination of Kirk's age at the time (just 17), the fact that he lost to an octochamp (Richard Pay), and the fact that he has improved a great deal in the meantime have all worked in his favour. And, boy, was his re-invitation worth it!

Kirk's run started with his 127-54 defeat of Ann, his sub-second solving of the conundrum leading to screams (yes, screams) of delight from the audience. Incidentally, 127 is the highest score ever achieved by a challenger, but there was much debate on C4 Countdown about whether it could be considered the highest debut score ever, by dint of Kirk's original appearance five years earlier. Any road up, this was then followed by the low point of his appearances: scoring 'only' 97 against Fiona Shaw from Spalding (the main reason for his missing the century was his one-away declaration on the final numbers round). His third game has already gone down in Countdown history, because he managed to achieve, without exception, the maximum points available on every round. I'm not sure if this has been achieved before, but it certainly seems unlikely, especially since the fifteen-round era of the show began, back in 2001. Having received that accolade, Kirk achieved his highest score in his next game - 130, courtesy mainly of three nine-letter words. He also became the first player to score a century before the end of Part Two, racking up 102 points by the second break. 130 is the eighth-highest score of all-time and had Kirk got the conundrum (that honour went to his hapless opponent Peter Bennett), he would have scored 140 (and thus the second highest of all-time). I would perhaps feel bad about pointing this out, but Kirk himself has confessed to trying to topple as many records as possible during his run. Three more games followed (with scores of 111, 114 and 106) - along with a frustrating gap for the Cheltenham Festival - and in the final game of his successful octochamp run, another record was there for the taking - Julian Fell's seemingly unbreakable 924 points from eight games.

Judging from the tension I and others felt watching the game (knowing he needed to get 114 points or more), Kirk knows how to play an audience, but I'm sure he was just focused on doing as well as possible, while being fully aware of the situation - and no doubt feeling tense himself! Come the end of the second part, it couldn't have been more beautifully poised: Kirk had 73 points, and therefore required 41 to reach his target. If he could average seven points per letters game, get the numbers spot-on and solve the conundrum, 925 and the record would be his! Possible, of course, especially under normal circumstances, but definitely not a certainty, especially under such pressure! Round 11 didn't go particularly well: although Kirk scored with DEMINE (he missed the possibly even more obscure MEHENDI), this meant he now needed an eight or nine in one of the remaining letters games. Luckily, fortune often favours the brave, and GRANULES popped up in the very next round - and it was nice to see challenger Rosie Owen sharing the spoils on that round, too, with LOUNGERS. A RAREBIT and a fantastic numbers game later and Kirk had 104 points. Would Rosie spoil the party? Would the 'Kirkulator' crack? Not a bit of it! GELDFLING was revealed, Kirk pressed after half-a-second and said "FLEDGLING" and the record was his. As many have said on the C4C forum: Awesome! It goes without saying that Kirk is now the number one seed for the series so far, and it would take a brave person to bet against him winning the series, even at this early stage. I think it's fair to say that a large part of Kirk's success is down to the practice he had done on Charlie Reams's fantastic website Apterous: indeed, he himself said as much when questioned by Phil Hammond about the secret of his success.

Following his eight win, it was time for Kirk to return to his day job (teaching in York) and it was the turn of Kezra Shakir from London and another York resident in the shape of Stephen Porritt to take up the Countdown challenge. Despite the initial indications of Round 1 (where Kezra offered MANTRA and Stephen had the modern slang MUNTER disallowed - for which Susie apologised), a pretty one-sided affair was played out, and Stephen won 93-33. His next game saw a confident, but not spectacular, victory against Jennie Foster, but how much further he will get remains to be seen. Whatever happens, he is of course guaranteed a new-style blue (could it be any other colour?) teapot for his troubles.

In Dictionary Corner, we've had two newcomers so far this series, in the shape of Kate Humble and Colin Murray (who seems to have really been enjoying it and playing along), as well as a number of returnees, including Paul Zenon (who reaches 53 appearances) and Alastair Stewart (who has now made 49). Brian Capron is scheduled to return today and we will soon be experiencing the delights of Jerry Springer in the Countdown studio - should be interesting!

Phew! After all that, I'm quite worn out, so I think it's time to take stock of your comments about the 'new' series. Many of the comments made previously have now either been taken on board (such as offered words no longer being put up after each round - a fact particularly upsetting to viewers with less than perfect hearing) or have become outdated (some examples are the fact that Jeff has definitely reduced his reliance on football references and the fact that Rachel now seems far more confident standing at the letters board). The main remaining criticism now seems to centre around the lack of involvement that the viewers feel with the programme these days. As well as the fact that the audience are no longer shown on camera, there has been no correspondence read out by Jeff, which has of course been a staple of the show for many years - even if some fast-forwarded through it! Still, a chink of light has recently appeared with the offering of a sought-after Countdown teapot for the author of the best limerick including one of the names Dent, Stelling or Riley - so get writing to countdown@channel4.com now! Hopefully, we will hear more in the way of viewer correspondence as the series unfolds, but I fear the reduction may be a conscious decision on the part of the producers to change Countdown slightly in an attempt to revive the viewing figures which were, admittedly, flagging. Personally, I think this may be a mistake, but only time will tell and I will be happy to be proved wrong if it means that Countdown survives, as I still enjoy it for the game, even if I feel it has lost of some of its more homely aspects. Most of the other emails I've received since my last update seem to revolve around things like Jeff's personality or the way that Rachel pronounces the letters: things which you probably either like or dislike, but either way, you either stick with them or change channels, depending on how much they annoy you. Let's face it, none of Richard, Carol or the two Deses were universally popular, and I think in time that most of us will get used to the new combination of presenters. Thanks then, in conclusion, to everyone who has written to me with their views, and thanks also to the many of you who added kind comments about this website - it's always nice to know that people are out there reading this! And please feel free to keep sending me your opinions: I always enjoy receiving them.

On a more important (and sadder) note, of course, is the recently announced news that the ITV Yorkshire studios (as they are now called) at Leeds are to be mothballed for the foreseeable future, which means that 192 people are threatened with redundancy and Countdown looks like it is on its way to Manchester. Whatever happens - and unfortunately I can't really see the decision being reversed in the current climate - it seems likely that the band of people that have been putting together the programme for so long will be irrevocably broken up, although the production team (the five staff who work permanently on the show) have apparently all been offered the chance to relocate across the Pennines. For anyone who wishes to add their name to a petition against the closure, one has been set up at the Number 10 website. It may not do any good, but you never know, every little helps - and it certainly can't do the good folks of YTV any harm. If you wish to sign (and any British citizen or resident can do so), please go here.

I can't complete this update without a quick mention of the latest 'real life' Countdown tournament, which took place at the end of January. It was the fifth Countdown in Lincoln event (more frequently and affectionately known as COLIN), and as always was capably run by Ben Wilson (with more than a little assistance from his mum Gill) and was won very deservedly by none other than recent Championship of Champions semi-finalist Jon Corby, so a big "well done" to him. For a full list of the results, please go here. Ben is also in the process of organising the next CONOT event, provisionally scheduled to take place in Nottingham at the end of May, so keep your eye on C4 Countdown for further announcements if you fancy taking part.

Before I sign off, a quick note on the latest happenings at The Countdown Page. The inevitable updating of all the usual areas has taken place, to account for the results of the last two months' games. On this occasion this includes, amongst other things, the addition of Kirk Bevins's high scores to the High Scores page, the entering of Steve Briers into the Hall of Fame, a new page containing the round-by-round details of the Championship of Champions final, and of course the amending of the Series 60 page to include the final score of every game to take place since the middle of January. I've also updated the Letters page to include the official Countdown letter distribution for the first time in a number of years, courtesy of Charlie Reams and ultimately the show's Art Director (and chief letter-shuffler) Demi Sampson. I'm still feverishly working on the 'Credits' section of the website, which I hope to publish in the not-too-distant future. For those that didn't read my previous missive, this will initially include details of the closing credits for every show from Series 21 onwards, which actually accounts for more than 75% of all the programmes ever broadcast. I'm certainly enjoying compiling it; I hope you enjoy reading it!

Well, finally, that's about it for now. As Spring has now officially sprung (about half-an-hour ago, in fact, as I write, if you want to be pedantic about it), I'm off to make the most of the weather on this glorious March day. I hope to be writing for you all again soon on Countdown-related matters. In the meantime, take care of yourselves, keep watching the show, and - if you wish - please remember to sign the petition to save the Yorkshire studios - and keep Countdown where it belongs - in Leeds!

See you next time.

Mike

To access full round-by-round recaps of recent games of Countdown, as compiled by members of the C4 Countdown forum, you can now visit cdb - The Countdown Database, the latest creation of master programmer Charlie Reams.

Countdown Contestants
ITV Yorkshire
LEEDS
LS3 1JS
(Please include a self-addressed envelope)

Countdown Tickets
ITV Yorkshire
LEEDS
LS3 1JS

---

(hits since 5 November 2000)