If someone manages to win eight games in a row they secure the title ‘octo-champ’ and the respect of all Countdowners across the land. // At the end of the six-month-long series the eight players with the best cumulative scores over their successful games (which inevitably include the few octo-champs that may emerge) are called back for the quarter-finals, semi-finals and then, the climactic tension-ridden grand final for which the hosts dress up even more smartly than normal.
These barren months are unsettling me, so I am finding different ways to measure the lost time: in haircuts, doctor’s appointments, Countdownoctochamps.
I won a show and that was all that mattered. I actually went on to win a second in a much more relaxed and confident manner, and when I was 21 points up in the third I thought I was destined to become an octo-champ.