Unbreakable (or almost) Countdown records

[Philip A]

A non-exhaustive of records which may never be broken, for various reasons (e.g. rule changes or simply too good);

- In 2006, Conor Travers made headlines by becoming the youngest ever series winner at the age of 14. In 2011, the age limit was increased to 16. This prevented a couple of players, notably Oliver Garner and Eoin Monaghan, from entering the 30th Birthday Championship to record in 2012 and air in 2013 (though Monaghan did later appear on University Challenge). The youngest ever contestant was 8 years old;

- Dylan Taylor, who competed in the first series to entirely use the current format featuring 4 numbers rounds, remarkably scored points in every numbers game he faced across his 15 appearances. He played 15 matches and therefore 60 numbers games, and scored points in all 60 them, meaning he lost none – he scored no fewer than 7 points in fact. Moreover, he scored maximum available points in 56 of them and was one away from the target in the other 4;

- In the 30th Birthday Championship in 2013, Conor Travers achieved 3 maximum scoring games in a row. He also maxed 14 rounds thereafter, and matched that with 14 maxed rounds in a special episode in 2020. It could have been 5 max games. He was also perfect on numbers games from the start of the 30BC up until final when Rachel beat both players in the first numbers game. It should be noted however that there were only 3 numbers games back then – a 4th numbers game would be added two weeks after the championship, replacing an 11th letters game;

- In 1991, Series 21 had the most games to end in a draw, with 4. When a game ended with the scores level, both players would return for another game the next day. One of these draws included an octochamp with 2 draws, therefore appearing on an unbreakable record of 10 consecutive shows. From Series 22 onwards, all tied matches would be decided by tie-break conundrums.

- Series 1 in 1982 ran for only 27 episodes, making it the shortest regular series (barring Champion of Champions). It had just 26 heats and a Grand Final (no quarter- or semi-). The next series had 16 finalists, which in fact was every contestant bar 2. Series 3 settled on 8 finalists which we have now (though the final 9 round series just had 4 finalists).

A reminder this list is not exhaustive.

[Fred Mumford]

As at the conclusion of Series 7 and Series 8, there was no such thing as an unbeaten contestant in the show's history to that point.

[Philip A]

Yeah because Darryl Francis lost in Series 1 and was allowed to return in Series 6 when he went all the way (first returnee to become series champion).