Hello and...

[Charlie Reams]

Welcome! This is a private forum for those who attended the Series 60 finals, and can't be seen by anyone else. So you can use it to congratulate Kirk for his win or berate Jono for his haircut without fear of the dreaded spoilerzzz.

So I'll start by saying: well done to Kirk and hard luck to the others. That semi-final in particular will surely go down in history as one of the most nail-biting games ever played. And amazing work (as usual) from those behind the scenes, securing Dr Phil (who was at the top his game) and organising everything so smoothly. A great few days. Can't wait for the new series!

[Ben Wilson]

Agreed, well done Kirk and commiserations to Neil, Jimmy et al. This was one of the best finals stages ever and certainly a worthy one to mark the end of the Leeds era/start of the Stelling/Riley era.

[Ben Hunter]

That semi-final in particular will surely go down in history as one of the most nail-biting games ever played.

My heart was racing at the crucial conundrum. Everyone knows how quick both Neil and Kirk can be with some of their conundrums so it could have easily gone either way (although the more obscure conundrums that are set in finals naturally gave Kirk a slight advantage).

[Craig Beevers]

Was a fun couple of days, glad I've never had to go to a crucial conundrum. Can't imagine what it'd be like if you don't see it within the first few seconds and you have time to think/panic.

Letters and numbers were a touch flat I thought, although there was a nice range of 9s that came up.

[Phil Reynolds]

A few more pics that can't be revealed in the public forum yet for obvious reasons.

[Jimmy Gough]

Congratulations again to Kirk - a great and worthy champion and commiserations to Neil who was quality and probably a worthier finalist than myself

[Naomi Laddiman]

Once again, well done Kirk and commiserations to Jimmy and Neil . What a fantastic day we had, with some excellent games being played - my heart was in my mouth during the semi-final. Although it felt strange being there without Kai, I'm really glad Cal and I went along, and it was great to see some old faces again as well as meeting new ones.
Oh, and Charlie, IMHO beardless is definitely the way to go - not a 'Shaggy' in sight!

[Craig Beevers]

These are the photos I took, unsorted, unpruned and uncorrected but merely heavily shrunk from 3888x2592. All from Wednesday afternoon onwards.

http://craigbeevers.me.uk/countdownphotos.html

Will do something more productive with them later.

[Phil Reynolds]

Although it felt strange being there without Kai, I'm really glad Cal and I went along

You were there? I thought you weren't going! I'm gutted that I didn't realise otherwise I'd have said hello.

[Naomi Laddiman]

Although it felt strange being there without Kai, I'm really glad Cal and I went along

You were there? I thought you weren't going! I'm gutted that I didn't realise otherwise I'd have said hello.

Yes Phil, we were there - sitting with Kirk, Charlie etc. having lunch when you all came over! We should have introduced ourselves, sorry!

[Callum Laddiman]

I really enjoyed it up in Leeds and it was a brilliant experience. Hoping to go up sometime when it is located in Manchester. Well done Kirk and commiserations to Jimmy. Well battled. Also well done to Neil, Julie, James, Hamish, Cate and Shane.

[Philip Jarvis]

I had a fantastic day out - well done to Kirk and commiserations to Jimmy and Neil. It just shows the level of skills of some of the players on this forum with 3 out of 4 semi-finalists being members.

Also, I can't wait to see Hamish Williamson on his debut (I won't do a spoiler in case you didn't all hear what happened). He seemed a decent chap when I was talking to him afterwards, although I don't think he was very impressed when I asked when was the last time he had an haircut. He didn't mention anything to the production crew, but apparently, it's his 61st birthday on Fri 1 May. Whoever is starting the spoiler off on that day might want to mention this.

It was great to meet you all. I think I managed to get to chat with most of you. I felt a bit out of place at first, being so much older (and "taller" according to reports from Matt Morrison) than most of you. But it was good to put faces to the menagerie of avatars.

Overall a great day out and I hope I might have a chance to have another go myself in either the next or one of the future series. If I do get on, I just hope I'm not up against any other member of this forum.

Finally, many thanks to Kate Horton for the lift home in her taxi, courtesy of Channel 4.

[Phil Reynolds]

The talk about the snooker championships elsewhere on the board reminds me of a spooky coincidence. Back in the 80/early 90s I used to follow televised snooker tournaments fairly keenly, and I vividly remember coming home from the pub one night in 1984 for the Benson & Hedges Masters coverage and seeing Kirk Stevens's nail-biting 147 break against Jimmy White, which was only about the second or third maximum break ever seen on TV. Highlights from the break were endlessly repeated in the weeks following, but since then I hadn't seen the whole thing until a couple of weeks ago when the thought popped into my head that maybe it was on YouTube somewhere. Of course it is and so I spent a happy 20 minutes or so reliving the excitement (and remembering all over again why a man with a tightly fitting white suit and a mullet was so damn sexy). I think Jimmy White went on to win the match but that moment belonged to Kirk Stevens, before the shame that was to come his way the following year (his on-screen confession to being addicted to cocaine was another of the most memorable television moments from that period).

Anyway, so the very next day after I watched that YouTube clip, I'm sitting in the studio in Leeds, and Jeff says, "Welcome to the series final, and it's Kirk versus Jimmy..." and I did the biggest double-take of all time.

[Kirk Bevins]

The talk about the snooker championships elsewhere on the board reminds me of a spooky coincidence. Back in the 80/early 90s I used to follow televised snooker tournaments fairly keenly, and I vividly remember coming home from the pub one night in 1984 for the Benson & Hedges Masters coverage and seeing Kirk Stevens's nail-biting 147 break against Jimmy White, which was only about the second or third maximum break ever seen on TV. Highlights from the break were endlessly repeated in the weeks following, but since then I hadn't seen the whole thing until a couple of weeks ago when the thought popped into my head that maybe it was on YouTube somewhere. Of course it is and so I spent a happy 20 minutes or so reliving the excitement (and remembering all over again why a man with a tightly fitting white suit and a mullet was so damn sexy). I think Jimmy White went on to win the match but that moment belonged to Kirk Stevens, before the shame that was to come his way the following year (his on-screen confession to being addicted to cocaine was another of the most memorable television moments from that period).

Anyway, so the very next day after I watched that YouTube clip, I'm sitting in the studio in Leeds, and Jeff says, "Welcome to the series final, and it's Kirk versus Jimmy..." and I did the biggest double-take of all time.

And to break Julian's record, I'd have been aiming for a 147 break as well...

[Neil Zussman]

Well done to Kirk and Jimmy. Two top players, and both worthy finalists, as much it pains me to say that.
It was a great day, nice to have an opportunity to meet so many countdown legends, past present and future.
The thing I'm most annoyed about, in hindsight, is that most people I've spoken to don't seem to realise just how good Kirk is. In the words of my housemate: 'If he's one of the best players ever, he should be almost unbeatable. But even I beat him a few times during the episode I watched.' (He only watched Kirk's second match during the octochamp run, annoyingly Kirk's worst performance.) So they won't realise how well Jimmy and I had to play to almost beat him, which is a bit of a shame from a personal 'I want to get congratulated by complete strangers' kinda way.

The talk about the snooker championships elsewhere on the board reminds me of a spooky coincidence. Back in the 80/early 90s I used to follow televised snooker tournaments fairly keenly, and I vividly remember coming home from the pub one night in 1984 for the Benson & Hedges Masters coverage and seeing Kirk Stevens's nail-biting 147 break against Jimmy White, which was only about the second or third maximum break ever seen on TV. Highlights from the break were endlessly repeated in the weeks following, but since then I hadn't seen the whole thing until a couple of weeks ago when the thought popped into my head that maybe it was on YouTube somewhere. Of course it is and so I spent a happy 20 minutes or so reliving the excitement (and remembering all over again why a man with a tightly fitting white suit and a mullet was so damn sexy). I think Jimmy White went on to win the match but that moment belonged to Kirk Stevens, before the shame that was to come his way the following year (his on-screen confession to being addicted to cocaine was another of the most memorable television moments from that period).

Anyway, so the very next day after I watched that YouTube clip, I'm sitting in the studio in Leeds, and Jeff says, "Welcome to the series final, and it's Kirk versus Jimmy..." and I did the biggest double-take of all time.

Couldn't you have watched Neil Robertson play, you bastard?

[Craig Beevers]

I've uploaded better quality, full size versions of my photographs in readiness for tomorrow. Same place as before:

http://craigbeevers.me.uk/countdownphotos.html

I've tried to balance the colours better so everyone looks less orange... obviously people have different monitors but hopefully it looks about right.

[Kirk Bevins]

I've uploaded better quality, full size versions of my photographs in readiness for tomorrow. Same place as before:

http://craigbeevers.me.uk/countdownphotos.html

I've tried to balance the colours better so everyone looks less orange... obviously people have different monitors but hopefully it looks about right.

Nice one. Can I save some and put them on my facebook please?

[Craig Beevers]

Yea sure.

[Charlie Reams]

Moving to public forum...