c4countdown

Jamie Weisenberg wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2024 5:01 pm Who is the best ever contestant on TV Countdown that isn't involved/is completely oblivious of the professional scene ? By professional, I mean Apterous, CO-events, ZoomDowns etc ..

Scott Mearns, Harvey Freeman, Allan Saldanha.

Jon O'Neill wrote: ↑Fri May 17, 2024 11:54 am

Jamie Weisenberg wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2024 5:01 pm Who is the best ever contestant on TV Countdown that isn't involved/is completely oblivious of the professional scene ? By professional, I mean Apterous, CO-events, ZoomDowns etc ..

Scott Mearns, Harvey Freeman, Allan Saldanha.

I think the question was about contestants of the post-Apto era, though doubtless those three would still do alright today. Darryl Francis hammered most of us when he turned up on the Countdowners daily thread a couple of years back

Darryl Francis has been on Apterous. Also being a Scrabbler seems a bit of a loophole here.

I think the Scrabbling is fine, although I will say I'm garnering more respect toward the people who do well sans Apterous.

Today's contestant Arthur is pretty good .. only 16 years old. 5 more to go for octo.

^^^Probably best saved for the daily spoilers thread.

Best not for ability but watchability was Hansford
His final against Craig Beevers was legendary

I just looked at Ronan's wiki page https://wiki.apterous.org/Series_87
Some insane stats from this guy!

- Lowest score is 110. Has any series champ done better than that?
- Highest score of 150 which was in the GF!
- Maxed 2 games in a single series (Has any other player done this?)
- Insanely high Octo score.

For me, this is the most impressive set of stats for a series Champ. Fair to say he has a shot at GOATdom in his CoC.

Yeah, I'd definitely say Ronan has had the best individual series. But the curse of the 1000 club may yet get him in the CoC!

JackHurst wrote: ↑Sat May 25, 2024 10:19 am - Lowest score is 110. Has any series champ done better than that?

Luke Johnson-Davies 112, Tom Stevenson 116, Zarte 111

116?!

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sat May 25, 2024 11:59 am116?!

Yep, that was in the grand final too. 117 in his octorun. Scoring in every round will do that for you

Who is the most decorated player on apterous ? Like say the Michael Phelps of apterous.

Here is my top 10 of the best Countdown Contestants from different decades

1980s
1.Harvey Freeman * series 10 champion COC III and Supreme Champion
2.Allan Saldhana * Series 15 runner up and supreme champion runner-up one of the best youngsters after Mark Nyman to appear on Countdown
3.Mark Nyman * The first youngster to appear on Countdown at 16 years old despite not winning his series and was the first COC winner.... .then went on to be a producer and occasionally presided in dictionary corner arguably one of best scrabblers in the world.
4.Darryl Francis
5.Joyce Cansfield**the first ever series champion and first ever COC runner up*
6.Clive Spate
7.David Trace
8.Brian Hudson
9.Tim Morrissey
10.Hilary Hopper

HM: Michael Wylie** Stephen Balment Ian Bebbington and Julian Hough

1990s
1.Scott Mearns * scored a max in his audition but went on to win series 41 and the Championship of Champions X one of the best numberists and wordsmiths
2.Kate Ogilvie * female series champion for 26 years up until recently
3.Damian Eadie* sometime lexicographer when he could be arsed.. and our current producer that has no plans to retire as of yet
4.Richard Saldhana
5.Gareth Williams
6.Pete Cashmore **
7.Natascha Kearsey* the only female to win COC
8.Andrew Perry
9.Huw Morgan
10.Andy Bodle

HM:Barry Grossman Richard Saldanha Huw Morgan Darren Shacklady Verity Joubert and David Acton

2000s
1.Conor Travers* The youngest series champion at 14 years old and the first recipient of the Richard Whiteley memorial trophy, the winner of the 30BC and achieving 3 max games in the process
2.Julian Fell
3.Kirk Bevins *The first max game achieved in the history of 15-round televised Countdown
4.Tom Hargreaves
5.Ben Wilson
6.Stewart Holden
7.Innis Carson
8.Andrew Hulme
9.Chris Wills
10.Chris Davies

HM : Mark Tournoff Junaid Mubeen Charle Reams Jon O'Neill* who did brilliantly in the 30BC and achieving a max game, Ben Wilson Graham Nash Richard Priest John Mayhew * the last series champion during the Richard Whiteley era Andrew Hulme and David O'Donnell

2010s
1.Elliott Mellor * One of the best contestants not be crowned as a series champion, the first ever member of the 1000 club and the current record holder that still stands to this day
2.Jack Hurst* Former record holder in the old 15 rounds and one of the most exciting talents who introduced me to apterous and designer of the android Countdown app.
3.Zarte Siempre* most improved player and one of the greatest of all time
4.Jen Steadman * Current female record holder and the greatest female of all time despite not winning her series
5.Callum Todd aka Bundy..........one of the best giant killers the lower beating the higher seed despite only having 7 wins but was crowned as series 69 champion
6.Edward McCullagh* one of my personal favourites always a pleasure to play !
7.Dylan Taylor * One of the greatest male contestants despite not winning his series, a former record holder that no longer stands to this day
8.Jack Worsley* Series 66 champion who held the top of pro-ranks on apterous for ages and one of the best Co:eventers
9.Giles Hutchings * Record holder for one series in the new 15R format
10.Dan McColm * Series 71 Champion and the first max game to be achieved in the "new" 15-round format.

HM: Eoin Monaghan Oliver Garner Adam Gillard Andy Platt Tom Cappleman, James Haughton,Peter Lee ** Paul Nixon,Stephen Read, Antionette Ryan, Ann Dibben, Bradley Horrocks aka Brahag Jonathan Rawlinson David Barnard ** Dinos Sfyris and Paul Erdunast.

2020s
1.Ronan Higginson* One of the best players of all time who blew away his opposition in ruthless fashion and bagging two max games along the way and red hot favourite to win COC XVII if it goes ahead.
2.Matt O'Connor*most improved player despite not winning his series......... Rachel Riley's favourite contestant and mine too...... again always a pleasure to play against, and inspired to me to reapply for Countdown and I did exactly that !
3.Dan Byrom
4.Luke Johnson-Davies * Series 82 Champion and the second max game in the "new" 15-round format
5.Ahmed Mohammed
6.Harry Savage * Mr Rubiks Cube........who got a max game against me......how dare he !
7.Tom Stevenson* Series 86 champion the first max game in a heat game in the new 15-round format, and naturally the highest-scoring max of all time topping Luke Johnson-Davies' previous high of 136 points. 154 points is shared with Cillian McMulkin who was the series 87 runner up but dropped only one point from a max game on GUNMETAL.
8.Arthur Page
9.Adam Latchford
10.Viraj Seelam

HM: Cillian McMulkin Florence Cappleman Lynes Sam Cappleman Lynes Steve Hyde Rhys Jones Tim James and Stu Harkness

**No longer with us

2010s best player other than 30BC is surely Zarte with 20 wins out of 21, never falling below 100 after his defeat, first player to score 150 (could have been 158, could have been 168), knocking out the strongest opponent drawn in the first round of CoC XV and never falling behind in any of his last 5 matches. Either way he is much higher than 7th in my view. Hurst is also higher.

Philip A wrote: ↑Mon Jul 28, 2025 8:17 pm 2010s best player other than 30BC is surely Zarte with 20 wins out of 21, never falling below 100 after his defeat, first player to score 150 (could have been 158, could have been 168), knocking out the strongest opponent drawn in the first round of CoC XV and never falling behind in any of his last 5 matches. Either way he is much higher than 7th in my view. Hurst is also higher.

The positions are changed, Dylan is demoted to 7th, but Elliott for me is the best player of 10s as he is the founding member of the 1000 club

There are a lot of random choices in general. Richard Saldanha is one that jumps out.

Maybe I'll do one for the decades - with each person's decade defined by when they made their most recent "debut".

I'll start with 1980s. Chronological order though - I'm not ranking them (for now).

1. Joyce Cansfield
2. Mark Nyman
3. Clive Freedman
4. Helen Grayson
5. David Trace
6. Harvey Freeman
7. John Clarke
8. Nic Brown
9. Allan Saldanha
10. Tim Morrissey

So that's 6 out of 10 in common with Tracey. Hilary Hopper from her list was probably closest to making mine.

I'll do 90s now. Chronological again.

1. Chris Waddington
2. Wayne Summers
3. Don Reid
4. Andrew Perry
5. Darren Shacklady
6. Chris Rogers
7. David Acton
8. Natascha Kearsey
9. Kate Ogilvie
10. Scott Mearns

Just 4 in common with Tracey here!

00s (chronological):

1. Graham Nash
2. Chris Wills
3. Julian Fell
4. Paul Gallen
5. Mark Tournoff
6. Jon O'Neill
7. Conor Travers
8. Steve Briers
9. Craig Beevers
10. Kirk Bevins

Some difficult choices. Left out David Williams, David O'Donnell, Innis Carson, Chris Davies among others. Jono justified by his 30th BC run, and Craig's individual series was stand-out for the time. Just 4 in common with Tracey again.

10s now. It gets harder here because 900+ octochamps winning series get more and more common and it can become hard to distinguish between them!

1. Jack Hurst
2. Edward McCullagh
3. Jack Worsley
4. Jonathan Rawlinson
5. Dylan Taylor
6. Callum Todd
7. Dan McColm
8. Zarte Siempre
9. Elliott Mellor
10. James Haughton

This was quite a difficult list. There were maybe 4 or 5 players that went straight in and the others were much harder. To justify some of them - Ed McCullagh at the time I think had the highest percentage of max in a series so for his day it was a really great performance. Jack Worsley isn't included on the basis of Apterous and CO-events. As well as winning his series (though not the best ever performance), he made the QFs in the 30BC and put in a great game against Conor Travers in that special. Rawlinson made the SF of the 30BC. Callum Todd doesn't necessarily have the best results on paper, but is remembered for winning what is still possibly considered the most competitive single series.

This time there are 8 in common with Tracey!

9-round era:
1: Harvey Freeman, the only two-time series champion (Series 13 and 33, the supreme title).
2: Allan Saldanha, one of the best never to win a series, and twice, also a very charitable gentleman!
3: Mark Nyman, again, never won his series but was the first ever CoC and went on to be the Countdown producer.
4: Scott Mearns, series winner and COC X winner, also had a dab hand for 4L and 6S.
5: Kate Ogilvie, the best female player in the 9-round era without a doubt, and the last of her sex to win a series until just last year.

HM: Wayne Summers, Natascha Kearsey, Clive Spate.

15-round era:
1: Conor Travers, the youngest champ ever, the 30th anniversary champ, and only lost once on TV, probably the winningest champion of all time, and unarguably the best contestant ever.
2: Zarte Siempre, series winner, CoC XV winner, only lost once (to Dylan Taylor) on TV, the first to score 150 in a game, and an all around legend!
3: Dylan Taylor, Best contestant to never win his series, without a doubt, his legend still lives on in the co-events!
4: Ronan Higginson, pretty much steamrolled the competition, scored over 1,000 in his preliminary run, and then scored the highest grand final total ever of 150. Surely the favourite to win COC XVII.
5: Elliott Mellor, first to be a grandmaster (score over 1,000 points in prelim games), was unlucky not to win his series.

HM: Jack Worsley, James Haughton, Tom Stevenson, Jack Hurst, Ahmed Mohamed.