Champion of Champions
Graham returned three years later for the C of C. He was one of several unbeaten players, including Ben Wilson, Chris Wills and Julian Fell. Only one of them could remain unbeaten.
Graham's match against David Ballheimer was a comfortable enough win for him, although his second round match was anything but.
Graham and Julian Fell matched each other round for round, including the nine letter word ORGANISED / GRANDIOSE. Graham held a one-point lead going into the final round, and it was he who spotted the crucial conundrum to win the match 120 - 109. This tied the highest scoring match in history (229 total points)
Graham's semi-final was another excellent game. Tom Hargreaves came close to beating him, but when Graham offered CLEARINGS and Tom offered RESCALING, Tom's word was ruled invalid which gave Graham an extra 18 points. Indeed Graham went on to win by 21 points, setting up a final with Series 47 unbeaten champion Chris Wills.
The final was a low scoring affair, not helped by poor letters selections and difficult numbers games. Chris took the lead with GAMBADE but Graham pegged him back with PENSIVE and when Chris had MISTLE disallowed, Graham took a six point lead. This lead remained until the final conundrum where Chris could solve it and win by four points. OVERSPADE was revealed and the full 30 seconds ticked away - neither contestant could solve it. As the clock ran out, Graham raised his arms and shouted with joy. He had just won Champion Of Champions 11, 15 wins out of 15.
Read more about this topic: Graham Nash (Countdown)
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