FOCAL Chair George Armstrong reports back from the newest event on the FOCAL roster

On a weekend including the Great North Run and the Manchester Derby at Old Trafford, it might seem like playing Countdown in a roomy church hall with copious amounts of tea, coffee and chocolates wouldn’t really compare, but nothing’s ever that black and white.

Some of the group started the weekend in Manchester for one of two birthday celebrations for players past and present, so not all of us were firing on all cylinders come 11am on Saturday. Despite that, seven out of a potential 17, including myself against Tom Carey, managed to get a max 9 round game in Round 1 (33 players total but only one player can max a head to head game!),. Although with my reward being a Round 2 tie against fellow max gamer Zohaib Rehan, a man who had already won 5 events this year, I’d began to wish I’d lost… A bit of a battering ensued as I missed NUMERATOR, chickened SANATIVE, and was easily beaten to the conundrum EFFICIENT (ironic!).

With two 9 round games down by midday, that marked an opportune time to break for lunch – and for host Matt to run home to grab another HDMI cable! I was happy enough with half a BLT and a warmish Scotch pie purchased from the nearby Morrisons, until a large birthday cake appeared! Not for either of Friday night’s celebrators, but rather for Sam Stock, whose birthday was the following day. That also makes him technically a year older than me for the next 20-odd days, so happy birthday old man!

Round 3 also saw a shift in format, from 9 rounders as the players got their bearings and as the table started to sort players better by ability, to 15 rounders akin to the TV show. I grabbed myself two more wins; First against Fiona Titcombe thanks in part to NEOLOGIST for 18 points and Kane Oliver who had me on the rocks after I declared PEARLIZE which was invalid. Something can be pearlized, meaning to have a smooth or glossy exterior resembling the eponymous pearl, but you apparently can’t pearlize something. Also in that game was a selection of LIBEDAYRL, giving maxes of BLEARILY, BRIDALLY, and RELIABLY, which Kane and I both missed. Doesn’t seem worth mentioning… yet…

Those two games put me on 3/4 wins, setting up a Round 5 with MSR. After going 8-0 down in Round 1 – I had PUTTERED and REPITTED written down and I went for the wrong one, MSR then recanted a tale from CO:Stockport last year, in which he was picking the letters, and saw VENTOUSE in the first 8. Not knowing if it took an S on the end, he picked vowel to preserve it. Cut to Round 4 of this game… NUVOSETEX… Well I think I’ve spotted an 8! Then a later round gave us all RIBOLAYEL. A somewhat similar selection with two 8’s available (no D for BRIDALLY this time). MSR mustn’t have been paying attention, as he only had 7. That helped me on my way to another win, but definitely more by luck than judgement. Round 5 also saw an unbeaten Zohaib edge out Dylan Taylor in a game that almost certainly would have a bearing on the Final given the calibre of those two.

Round 6, and just like in Round 2, I’m rueing being somewhat good at this, as a game against Jack Worsley awaited. I’d never beaten Jack before, and if not for me risking either TUNNELED and ECOTAGES, both of which were invalid, I’d have finally gotten that elusive victory. Jack’s 4-point victory was enough to see him sneak into the top two, aptly by 4 points, at the expense of Dylan who settled for the bronze trophy.

Before the final, Matt has one more shake up up his sleeve. The players finishing in 4th-7th were going to take each other on for a Play Off trophy. And how were we to decide who wins the trophy? Supernundrums! A word which given my general lack of ability when I comes to those filled me with dread. I’d finished in 5th place, meaning I was giving them a go. 4th place Stephen Read took on 7th place Jase Cullen, before I went head to head with Tom Stevenson. Both myself and Stephen won (I’m as shocked in my conundrumming ability as you are), so it was me and Stephen in the Play Off Final. I’d solved 8 out of the 9 conundrums, and couldn’t work out which of the possible letters would fit with the ones I’d solved, when Stephen buzzed in with the correct answer. Turns out he only had 6 of the 9 solved, but using the letters he had he was able to deduce the answer, which I didn’t know even once I’d been told it. Luck or judgement again eh…

Onto the final, and with Jack risking MEGAMIX in Round 1, Zohaib took an early 6 point lead, which he later extended with VIBRATO, before unscrambling MICHELLES for SCHLEMIEL in no time at all to claim win #6 for 2026. Although a strong showing as ever from Jack, playing his first event since winning CO:Stockport in 2025.

Thanks as always to the other 32 of you who turned up – our events are nothing without the continued support we get from you all, and of course to host Matt and cohost Beachy. Next up, we’ve our second of two trips across the Irish Sea this year for Dublin, before Durham and the FOCAL Finals/Open in Milton Keynes? Wanna come?…