FOCAL regular Ian Wray reports back from our most recent gathering

27 eager participants congregated for the inaugural FOCAL event in Worcester, held on All Saints’ Day. Never Ever had I been to Worcester before, but now I Know Where It’s At. After a War Of Nerves with some of my 6 games played, I was truly in need of some Black Coffee (yes, ok, enough of the All Saints puns now)…

Our first-time event host was the local star and record-breaking Countdown series champ Tom Stevenson, who did an outstanding job. For us participants, performances ranged from the Bicester Times to the Worcester Times (yes, ok, enough of all puns now)……

A 3-time FOCAL event winner in 2025 already, Tom Cappleman scored a fine 61 points in round one, to top the standings in the early stages. Also a contender as always was Tom Carey, aka Maus, which promoted a newcomer to enquire with me if there was anyone in the room not named Tom.

Indeed, it was very refreshing to see some new participants at the event and this community is certainly very welcoming to new players. My own round 1 newbie opponent, Joanne, stunned me with the 8-letter word NICOTINE in the very first letters round. Joanne’s son also made his live event debut along with his mum, and enjoyed a lovely day, culminating in a dictionary corner appearance for the final.

It is always a great opportunity (albeit very daunting) to play against a Countdown series champion, and I had back-to-back such experiences, against Messrs Byrom & Latchford, taking the former to a crucial conundrum, but being overpowered by the latter’s max game.

Two-thirds of the way through proceedings, we were still missing a 9-letter word for our “Bristol style” classroom format setup. But, then, irony of ironies, PANTIHOSE, the very word that destroyed Jase Cullen’s potential record game on Countdown during his recent Octochamp run, turned out to be the first available maximum of the day, giving 18 points to myself and some others. Speaking of Jase, the current Countdown number 1 seed and recent Zoomdown series champion achieved a solid win against T-Cap during this game, in the penultimate round of the group stage.

In the final round of group games, the second and final 9-letter word of the day cropped up, this being RESUMABLE, which I wrote down, but annoyingly chickened out of declaring, which cost me the win in my own last game. This round also saw Maus end Jase’s unbeaten record on a crucial conundrum, to claim a 3rd place finish.

From the group phase, no player won all 6 games, so the top two 5-win players, Messrs Cappleman and Cullen, contested the final, over a 14-round format. After 4 even rounds, T-Cap broke through in Round 5 with FASCIA, but, in the very next numbers round, Jase’s 1-away solution from a 6 small choice gave him a 1-point edge. Round 7 in this format is a Conundrum, which Tom solved as WHIPSTOCK, to move 49-40 ahead at half-time.

In Round 11, Cullen’s risky 8 of MORENESS was disallowed, to extend Cappleman’s lead to 16 points. Jase selected 3 large in his last numbers game, but, to the disappointment of all in the room bar T-Cap, the easy target of 347 put Mr Cappleman into an unassailable position to take a 4th FOCAL event win of 2025. His final conundrum solve of BLACKPOLL meant that the Worcester event winner, with a score of 105-79 was Tom Cappleman!!

As always, it was a true pleasure to attend this event, and to meet many very welcoming, funny and smart people. Next and final stop for 2025, Milton Keynes, at the end of November.