Spoilers for Friday 23 December 2022 - Series 86 Grand Final

[Philip A]

This is the last Countdown of 2022 and it’s the Grand Final, between the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds: Tom Stevenson, who is currently unbeaten and has not failed to score in a single round so far; and Edward Byrne, who previously appeared in 2014 and is vying to become the second Ireland-born series champion. The winner of this match takes the series!

Colin Murray is host for the 118th time, and he’s putting his jumpers away for this final while suited and booted for the occasion.

[Adam S Latchford]

All the stats in the world become irrelevant now - best of luck to both players in what should be an exciting final. Dan vs matt was the best final I've ever seen - let's hope this tops it

[Ronan M Higginson]

Well thank you very much both Philip you absolute twat...

here we are, after 128 heats, 16 returning contestants, 19 Apterites and EIGHT presenters, we have arrived at the Series 86 Grand Final! Just 2 people left competing to get their hands on the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy...

Will save the overall stats until later on, but should be a great game.

[Ryan Lam]

Well Apterous is down at the moment sadly, on what's my 25th Birthday, but oh well, things happen. Have fun watching this wherever you are, and may the best player win!

[Ronan M Higginson]

Well Apterous is down at the moment sadly, on what's my 25th Birthday, but oh well, things happen. Have fun watching this wherever you are, and may the best player win!

Happy Birthday Ryan!

[Philip A]

R1: PROWLER
R2: BULWARK
R3: (75*100-50)/25-7=291

[Rhys Benjamin]

Not sure why Rachel thought they'd do 4L 284 + 7 when Philip's way above (also my way) was more obvious.

[Philip A]

I think it’s easy to go with the method your brain sees first in 30 seconds.

R4: MOVIES
R5: RODENTIAL. Ooh, that could be pivotal.
R6: 25*8+75+9-100/50=282

[Philip A]

R7: ENCASE (distracted by en faces x which is two words). ABSENCE is an excellent find.
R8: MATINESS
R9: 6*9*10-7+(8-3)=538

[Rhys Benjamin]

And this is why Colin is such a good host, teasing "big big news" after the break. Can't imagine anyone else, even RW, doing so.

[Ronan M Higginson]

R1: Poorer
R2: Walker
R3: 291
R4: Misdone
R5: Rodential
R6: 282
R7: Encase
R8: Instates
R9: 538

[Philip A]

4 years, Colin.

[Philip A]

R10: MUSLINET. I like UNTIMELY
R11: IDEOGRAPH.

Ed’s not out of this yet! He’s the first to be Tom in any round.

[Philip A]

R12: ORGIAST
R13: ARMIGER. MARRIAGE vg

[Philip A]

R14: 5,000 handy here. (50*100-75)/5-4=981

[Philip A]

Commiserations, Ed, but nice come back with the 9. Many congratulations, Tom (and great conundrum solve). Both wonderful characters who have played fantastically well, and we’ll see what more you have in store in January.

[Rhys Benjamin]

Well that conundrum was fun.

[Ryan Lam]

Fyi, Apterous came back up just after R10. Man, even though we didn't get the audience we so wanted, at least I got to play along with people on my Birthday. Thank you to Tom and Edward for giving such a brilliant show on my 25th (thanks to Tal and Ronan for wishing me one too!) and I'll write my review afterwards!

[Ronan M Higginson]

What a final, huge congratulations to Tom and glad you beat Ed, most undeserving series champion ever.

[Johnny Canuck]

Dude. That grand final was, like, totally minacious, y'know?

[Ray Wilding]

R8: matiness x not valid

MATINESS is fine, it just doesn't redirect for whatever reason. https://premium.oxforddictionaries.com/ ... s#matey__6

[Philip A]

R8: matiness x not valid

MATINESS is fine, it just doesn't redirect for whatever reason. https://premium.oxforddictionaries.com/ ... s#matey__6

Cheers, was relying on ODP while Apto was undergoing an update.

[Graeme Cole]

Congratulations Tom, and commiserations to Ed. Great game, worthy of the final.

R14: ((50*5-4)*100-75)/25 = 981. Got it in the 30s. I'm pretty sure both players would have beaten me in the rest of the game, but, hey, I got that one.

[Andres Sanchez]

Absolutely a tough game, both in playing and watching.

POOLER/PRONER
TALKER (BULKWARE?)
292 (75/25)*100-8
MOVIES
RODENTIAL
283 25*9+50+8
SEANCE (ENFACES?)
MANTISES (MATTINESS?)
9*6*10-3+(8-7)
MUSTILY
RAPHIDE
RITTAGS
MIRAGE (MIRAGER?)
980 (50-(75/75))*4*5
thought of it but chickened

Not gonna care abt scoring against others but definitely lost my nerves in playing along. Think I was also really fucking stoked to see who won it. Absolutely wonderful play you two, I can't wait to see you two in the CoC.

[Jojo Apollo]

Awesome game, very well done chaps. Many congrats to Tom on becoming series champ and Ed on becoming series runner-up. Looking forward to seeing both in the champ of champs.

[Toby McDonald]

Huge congratulations Tom, and commiserations Ed. Very well played by both. Looking forward to seeing both of you and everyone else for Champion of Champions! Should be a fantastic tournament.

Nice to see the proper prize presentation after 3 years too. Have they still got the laptop/tablet prizes, or did they just forget to mention them?

[Ryan Lam]

Turns out I might have been a bit tipsy for my 25th Birthday when this aired for I fell asleep in my timezone after the show aired finished. I thank all of you once again for wishing me one and it's rare to have two years in a row where the Grand Final airs on my Birthday, you could say it's a treat! It's a shame Apterous went down when this was on. I was so hoping there would be a lot of us commenting along with Tom (who I'm sure would have turned up), but sometimes things happen like I mentioned and we've just got to live with it. Nevermind, let's hope something like this doesn't happen again for the Series 87 Grand Final in June 2023.

Letters: You know this is going to be some Final when both Tom and Edward have the invalid word of baulker in R2 and which meant that the former's record of scoring points every single round finally got broken! Oh well, it was hard to maintain it all the way to be fair. Tom has a nine in R5, and it's RODENTIAL. Oh man, this looked like a fatal blow to Edward and things didn't get better for him for he had another invalid word, befaces in R7. However, things went better in R8 when he tied Tom with INSTATES. After the second Teatime Teaser, Tom beats him with UNTIMELY in R10. Could this be Edward's untimely end? No it's not, guess what? He beats Tom with IDEOGRAPH in R11! Tom has finally had to concede defeat in a round!! And it took 160 rounds to get here, that says A LOT!! The game's not over yet, if anything it reminded me about how France came back when they played Argentina last week in the World Cup!

Numbers: 4 Large for a start as per my predictions since Edward is definitely not going to give Tom an easy time by the looks of it and both score perfectly in R3, and later on in R6 as well! Rachel, what a showoff with your complicated method both times, yes, thank you but I don't think that was necessary. 6 Small then ensued in R9 as Tom goes out for the last time in a while but it turned out to be easy. Finally, came the all important R14. Tom needs to just match or beat Edward to clinch the top spot. He does when the former scenario happens to become the Grand Champion!! (However, I was so hoping for Rachel to really show off this time for the exact solution, where was she when we needed her? )

Conundrum: Let's have some fun one last time in the year before we end the show and see if Edward can make this a double-century game. He buzzes in at the last second and gives an incorrect answer! Ah, Tom wants to have shot, so he'd better have a faster reaction time than Quinn yesterday. He does and goes with MINACIOUS. "WHAT??!!" as he exclaims as he anyhow guesses and it turns out to be the actual answer!! Oh my word, that was so lucky! (I had Manicious, so close but wrong! Think this is the closest I've ever got to a correct Grand Final Answer of all the times I've failed to solve them.)

My predictions were way off again here. I thought Tom would win against Edward with a margin of 15 points with a crucial conundrum, but not only was the margin off at 25 points, a crucial conundrum never happened. Edward, you were marvellous and came back so much stronger after eight years. I agree with Colin, if Tom didn't participate with you and barring any other player that is as strong or comparable to him, you would have most likely become Series Champion, but hey, being relegated to Runner-up is not bad considering the circumstances. You played well and have been a great sport. What's more, being the first such person of that status to attend a Prize Presentation since Jamie Wing at the end of Series 81 in 2019 is nothing short of a victory of a return to normalcy in the studio and I hope you were proud to have been part of that moment.

Tom, look at this, you're now the second highest Xicount to-date just behind Luke Johnson-Davies by a mere eight points! Your journey to where you are has been nothing short of incredible. From the time you joined the community as a 15-year-old in 2017 when I first got to know you, to playing Countdown along on a regular basis, then applying to be on the show and breaking a record which I think will stand in a very long time. You're truly an inspiration for the next generation of people who want to be on the show. Being crowned Champion at a young age of 20 is something you can be proud of for the rest of your life, for no one can take that away from you and all your effort paid off. You can definitely say you're the "Greatest of All Time" in your own right in terms of not losing a single round in your Preliminaries!

What a Series this has been, a record eight presenters and celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the show! Well, we're not going to see our five-time winner Peter Burke return just yet to the Champion seat in the New Year, for as it's been advertised multiple times now, the next Countdown Champion of Champions is on from 02 January 2023! Congratulations to Tom and Edward who have secured their spaces in there as mentioned by Colin after the second Teatime Teaser which is unexpected given that by convention, they would have had to wait for another three years! We are definitely going to be seeing a lot of those people whose names have been inscribed on the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy beforehand and let's see if Tom can be crowned a Countdown "immortal" next year as per what Colin mentioned. By the way, if you're bored next week without the show, there's always Christmas Only Connect (P.S. Don't be fooled by the Continuity Announcer saying there's episodes everyday, only Monday to Wednesday's episodes are new), University Challenge and of course The Big Fat Quiz of 2022 on Boxing Day to keep your brain active on the last week of the year. And of course, if you're interested in the Catsdown Special and missed it hours after this show, you can always catch up! Here's me wishing all of you in advance, a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone here! Stay healthy and cheers to a brighter year ahead!

Progress:
QF1 (15 December): Tom Stevenson (#1) vs Lewis Castling-Morey (#8) (121- 44)
QF2 (16 December): Edward Byrne (#2) vs Steven Etherington (#7) (105 - 34)
QF3 (19 December): Quinn Bartlett (#3) vs Daren Barnes (#6) (108 – 73)
QF4 (20 December): Alan Young (#4) vs Joe Dobinson (#5) (83 - 99)
SF1 (21 December): Tom Stevenson (QF1 Winner) vs Joe Dobinson (QF4 Winner) (129 - 95)
SF2 (22 December): Edward Byrne (QF2 Winner) vs Quinn Bartlett (QF3 Winner) (107 - 73)
GF (23 December): Tom Stevenson (SF1 Winner) vs Edward Byrne (SF2 Winner) (116 - 91)

[Philip A]

Looks like the best conundrum was saved ‘til last: MINACIOUS is not on Ascension mode on Apterous, possibly due to it being a rare word. Expect more toughies at the CoC.

[Marc Meakin]

So has Tom got the points record for his 11 game run?

[Rhys Benjamin]

The wiki's down, so we'll get back to you on that one.

https://wiki.apterous.org/Xicount

[Gavin Chipper]

Great game by both, great series etc.

Not sure why Rachel thought they'd do 4L 284 + 7 when Philip's way above (also my way) was more obvious.

I thought the same actually. I was surprised none of the three of them went for what was essentially the standard method solve, just 298-7. For a 4-larger 298 might as well be in the selection!

I also thought it was slightly weird when Ed seemed to be thinking about a 9, and Susie said something along the lines of "You made the right decision - there wasn't a 9 - that we could find anyway" rather than just asking him what his freaking word was.

[Steve Hyde]

So has Tom got the points record for his 11 game run?

No, fell slightly short of Luke Johnson-Davies on that count. He'll have to settle for the individual episode score, consecutive rounds unbeaten and first player to solve all 11 conundrums records!

[Tracey Anne Mills]

Great game by Tom and Edward, and a really entertaining final, Congratulations to Tom Stevenson a very worthy series winner, commiserations to Edward Byrne a worthy runner up both should be proud of what they have achieved in series 86, good luck to them both in The Champion of Champions.

[Patrick Thompson]

Great final and both players deserved an Oscar for not giving away they had their respective 9s.

[Tom S]

Many thanks folks for all of the kind comments about the final, and glad that me and Ed put on an enjoyable match! It's been a great series to have been a part of.

Thought I'd give a bit of an insider of the proceedings from the final.

When sitting in the chair, I tend to become much more unconfident about certain words compared to being at home. I knew that there was a car called a Prowler, but couldn't recall coming across it when playing beforehand. Still, it seemed plausible enough, so I went for it.

I wasn't going to go for Baulker unless Ed went for it (was going for Butler otherwise).

R3 was a bit strategic. I hadn't really decided what I was going to go for until it was my turn to pick, but thought I would go for 4 large to create the impression that I was comfortable going with it. I did actually see my solution fairly early on, but wanted to create the impression that I was struggling with it so that Ed didn't think that it was an easy solve.

Saw Rodential straight away, but again wanted to keep the impression that I hadn't found a 9.

I did know that I had 282, but hadn't had enough time to double check that I hadn't used a number twice.

Similar situation as the Rodential round in Round 7 with Absence, except for the fact that I saw it later on during the 30 secs...The "I'll try" comment might have been down to the fact that I could have doubted the spelling...

Had Mantises for the majority of the 30 secs in R8, but saw Instates at the last sec which I was more confident of because I couldn't remember if it was Mantises or Manti!

Definitely thought that going for 6 small in Round 9 was risky, but I wanted to create an aura of confidence that I didn't have!

Was nowhere near getting Ideograph- not even sure if I'd have gone for it even if I had seen it (unless pushed). Did see Graphed, though, and loosely pondered the invalid "Phagroid". Was an excellent spot on Ed's part.

Felt like there was longer than 7 in the Agistor/Orgiast round and the audio didn't pick up me saying "oh good" when the final E came out in the Marriage round

Felt like Ed had the 981 during the 30 seconds, whereas I was stuck in 980 for the majority- trying to figure out whether 980 was 196 x 5 or 195 x 4!
Ed did get the solution afterwards.

The conundrum was a genuine guess. I wasn't even going to buzz, although the buzz may have been down to the fact that Colin had asked me whether my finger was on the buzzer....

Can confirm that I won a Macbook Air, and Ed won an Ipad.

Tom