Our Reading host Fiona Titcombe reports back from our most recent tournament in London

Countdown returned to the capital on 12 April, with a well attended event expertly hosted by Phil Stanton, ably assisted by Sam Prouse – thank you both for your efforts!

As has become traditional for CO:Events, several of us started the day with a parkrun. With so many London parkruns to choose from, there were lots of different events attended, but a few of us joined Maus for his 100th run at Ingrebourne Hill – congratulations to him on his milestone!

The venue, at the O2 centre in Finchley Road is excellent – easy to access on public transport, and well placed for shops and restaurants, and they were super helpful in promoting and generally ensuring the event ran smoothly.

The date of CO:LON coincided with the premiere of the new season of Doctor Who, and Phil had made the most of it, with conundrums, prizes and event music tapping into the theme.

Once settled in, Phil explained the format and ran through a practice game so that everyone could familiarise themselves with the interface and process.

We played seven 9-round games of Countdown in the Bristol format, where everyone plays the same selections from a screen at the front, two games before lunch (during which we enjoyed cake in celebration of Sean Fletcher’s birthday) and five after. Four nine letter words were available from the selections. A highlight was the six tiebreak conundrums between Adam Latchford and Tass, with Tass finally solving DOORLICCE to take the game (Adam set a co-event record by having 15 crucial conundrums over his seven games!). After the heat games, there were three players on an impressive 6 wins – Ronan, Maus and T-Cap, with T-Cap just missing out on a place the grand final on points difference.

After clearing the tables and chairs, we all gathered to watch the eagerly anticipated final between Ronan and Maus. Both players missed the max from the scramble MEDOQIDUS which must have stung a bit! Maus went for MUDDIES, but Ronan declared mosqued x which, unluckily for him, was recently removed from the countdown dictionary. Rounds 5 and 6 gave us two further 9 letter maxes making for a high scoring final. Going into the conundrum, Maus was still seven points ahead, making for a nail-biting 30s where both players failed to solve ZONALCHAI, meaning Maus squeaked to victory! Kudos to Kate Scranage who offered the correct solution of CHALAZION from the audience!

We were delighted to have seven newbies at the event, one who had been on TV over 30 years ago, one just three months ago, one filming very soon, and everything in between! Lovely to meet you all, and hope we see you again at another event soon!

After the event, around 30 of us enjoyed food at Pizza Express, where even the bill settled nicely!

Thank you to Phil for another successful and very well run event. Hope to see you all soon at one of our future events!