Jack Hurst, a first year Mathematics student at Pembroke, achieved the highest ever total score on TV show Countdown since it began in 1982.

In an eight day winning streak, he scored 946 points overtaking the 930 of the previous record holder, Andrew Hume, an economics student at Warwick.

Hurst will appear in the grand finale in December to contest for a 20 volume gold-leafed Oxford dictionary. He has been reported, however to be aiming for the second place prize of £1000, which he considers preferable to the dictionary set.

Jack Hurst was an ardent follower of the TV show, which involves anagrams and number games, since childhood, as reminisced to Varsity, “I remember my Grandma and Grandad telling me and my brother not to be so rowdy whilst we were watching,” he said, adding, “we would both go mental and cheer the contestants on like it was a football game- we were only pre-teens at the time.”

A few years ago, Jack, discovering two websites c4countdown.co.uk and apterous.org, entered the online ‘countdown scene’.

 Apterous.org, founded by Cambridge post-graduate Charlie Reams, allows people to play countdown against each other. Charlie Reams informed Varsity that there are currently 2000 members on apterous.org, and five million rounds have been played since the site started two years ago.

Jack told Varsity, “The more I played on apterous the better I kept getting, so I realised that I would eventually be able to get on the show and do quite well. I kept practising hard and learning long lists of high probability words with the aim of going on the show one day.”

 Commenting on Jack’s recent performance on the TV show, Charlie said, “He's the Cristiano Ronaldo of Countdown right now.”

Talking about his time on the show, Jack says he was treated very well and the people on and off set were lovely.

He told Varsity of  a particular round which had to be edited for the TV version:

“There was one round where the selection [for the anagram round] was DTCEIASHF, and within about 10 seconds I realised you could spot a very rude 8, and I broke out with laughter. At the end of the round I declared my word [SHITFACE] and Jeff asked Susie to check it and she said "Yes, it’s a rude or obnoxious person." The audience erupted with laughter! Unfortunately this was far too obscene to be broadcast.”

Asked about his future ambitions he told Varsity, “I have no long-term ambitions just yet. I am currently just focused on trying my best to win the finals and then doing ok in my degree.”