Spoilers for Tuesday September 29th 2015 (S73 P61)

[Jordan F]

Thomas Carey has had a very good run on Countdown. Win or lose, it will end today, as he tries to become the third octochamp of this series. He's also fighting for the number one seed, with 110 points clinching it for him. He has just one more obstacle left, and it's apterite Lee Nixon. Can Thomas end his run on a high note, or can Lee begin a run of his own?

Join Jen for the recap later.

[Jack Worsley]

109 points will actually be enough for Tom to become the top seed, as he has solved more conundrums than Jonathan. Today is also the last episode using the proper dictionary, as the dodgy new entries came in after this recording block.

[Gavin Chipper]

109 points will actually be enough for Tom to become the top seed, as he has solved more conundrums than Jonathan. Today is also the last episode using the proper dictionary, as the dodgy new entries came in after this recording block.

It will be quite hard for him to stay as number one seed then. With most random combinations of nine letters now valid, we'll regularly see scores of 230.

[Gavin Chipper]

Well done Tom by the way. Did you know you needed the conundrum to be number one?

[Thomas Carey]

Well done Tom by the way. Did you know you needed the conundrum to be number one?

Yep, knew the score I had to get. Thought I had an easy run until that shocking nine miss, so that put even more pressure on the conundrum as I knew I was nine points off Jonathan (and also the all-conundrums thing is cool).

[Jack Worsley]

Well played Tom and congrats on becoming number one, despite the surprising (to say the least) miss in round 11. I worried that you would implode mentally after that but you kept your cool. Your run has been fantastic and octochampdom is fully-deserved, as you've had some tricky opponents. Right now, it would be difficult to pick a winner between you and Jonathan, while potentially having other great players in the final will make this series finals well worth watching.

Hard luck, Lee. You came up against the wrong man and you could easily have won a few yourself on another week.

[lee nixon]

Yeah well done Thomas was a pleasure to play you.Annoyed at not seeing Idocrase and messed up an easy numbers round but really enjoyed it

[James Robinson]

A magnificent masterclass there, Tom. A superb run of 8 wins there, which included some great cameos from Adam, Brendan and Lee today.

8 centuries and 8 conundrums, along with just pipping Jonathan to the #1 seed spot by a single point is quite remarkable for someone just 17 years old

I certainly can't wait to be in the audience for the finals.

AKIMBO in round 10 and ISOPRENE in round 13.

3rd Numbers Alt.: (75 - 7 - 4) x 9 = 576
4th Numbers Alt.: (((25 x 4) - 6) x 10) + 2 = 942

[Graeme Cole]

On 11th November 1986, Harvey Freeman won his eighth game and solved his eighth conundrum out of eight. He set the record for the lowest ever total time for solving all conundrums in an octorun, which was 26 seconds.

Amazingly, that record was never beaten until today. Tom solved his eight conundrums in a total time of 17.75 seconds, according to the times on the wikicaps, breaking a 29-year-old record.

Honourable mentions: David Williams and Jonathan Rawlinson came close (29.5s and 30.25s), and Giles Hutchings and Innis Carson might have broken the record themselves had they not been thwarted by a difficult eighth conundrum.

Congratulations, Tom. I look forward to someone setting an even lower time in 2044.

[Jojo Apollo]

Very well done on becoming an octochamp, Thomas. An excellent set of games there, also congrats on the conundrum record.

[Heather Styles]

Yes, very well done, Thomas - truly impressive. I did wonder if you might have broken a conundrum speed record, so thanks for that stat, Graeme.

[Ben Wilson]

Congratulations, Tom. I look forward to someone setting an even lower time in 2044.

Oh, is that when Rob Foster's going to finally apply for the show?

Congrats Tom- awesome run of shows and amazing total. The finals are going to be a must watch, as is CoC XV, whenever that will be.

[Jon Corby]

Yep, congratulations Tom on a very impressive run and the conundrum record that we didn't really know existed beforehand but should have done (has anyone even asked that question before?).

Let's not sour the moment by bringing up Lee's disgusting attempt to fish for the 8 out of time in the last letters round.