Countdown First For Hurst

Pembroke mathmo Jack Hurst has put in a storming performance to win the current series of Countdown.

He finished up with 113 points, comfortably beating 14 year-old runner up Eoin Monaghan who had to make do with the second place prize of £1,000.

Things looked friendly between the two fresh-faced brainboxes. Eoin and co-presenter Rachel Riley shared some banter over the likelihood of Hurst slipping up in the final rounds.

Main man Jeff Stelling chipped in too, telling the “exceptional” Jack “not to stand for it”.

Hurst managed to pull out his A-game as he had hoped, matching his younger rival point for point through most rounds and snatching extra points with words like ‘orgasmed’ and ‘mastoid’. He rounded off his victory by solving the final conundrum in a lightning quick three seconds.

Speaking exclusively to The Tab, Jack said “It’s really good to have won, but I don’t know if it’s sunk in yet. I sort of shut myself off from it so if I didn’t win I wouldn’t be too upset.”

“On the day I think I put in my best performance of the 11 shows I did, but I was very lucky to win. The semi final was really close: I’d expected to win, but then I found myself seven points behind and it was all a bit sticky.”

Hurst was also full of praise for runner up Monaghan, calling him “absolutely brilliant” and saying, “In any other series he would have won.”.

“On the day I thought it was 50-50, and Eoin had every chance of beating me,” he said. “Winning meant a lot to him but he took it really well.”

Monaghan and Hurst are in fact the only two contestants in the shows history to wrack up over 100 points every round.

When asked about his plans for the future, Jack revealed he’s got the Queen of Mean Anne Robinson in his sights.

“I’d thought about going on the Weakest Link actually: for the fun of it” he said. “But maybe I’ll wait until I’m not so busy!”