{"id":618617,"date":"2026-09-08T21:46:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T21:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/618617\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T21:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T21:46:16","slug":"countdown-brainbox-austen-makes-it-three-wins-from-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/618617\/","title":{"rendered":"Countdown brainbox Austen makes it three wins from three!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ardara man Austen Allen is showing no signs of slowing down on Channel 4\u2019s Countdown after storming to his third consecutive victory today by a huge 69-point margin.<\/p>\n<p>The hospital worker chalked up another impressive score of 107 points on Tuesday, comfortably defeating opponent Brian, who finished on 38.<\/p>\n<p>It means Austen has now broken the 100-point barrier in each of his three appearances on the long-running letters and numbers game show.<\/p>\n<p>After a superb 108-point victory on Friday, Austen returned on Monday and produced another excellent performance, beating Chloe 108-57, before making it three wins from three today.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-648737 in-content-img not-prose w-full\" height=\"629\" width=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/countdown-brainbox-austen-makes-it-three-wins-from-three.jpeg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>That gives the Donegal contestant an impressive 323 points across his opening three games.<\/p>\n<p>Austen can continue returning as champion for up to eight heat victories, with a contestant who completes the full unbeaten run earning the coveted title of Countdown octochamp.<\/p>\n<p>The Ardara man showed off the depth of his vocabulary again today, producing a series of strong seven and eight-letter words.<\/p>\n<p>Among his successful offerings were SULKERS, MIGRATED, PTOMAINE, REUNITES and URINATED.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-sans font-semibold text-xl md:text-[30px] leading-9 text-primary w-full\">\n        You may also be interested in\n    <\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/news\/tragedy-as-womans-body-recovered-from-sea-off-fanad-648748\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Tragedy as woman&#039;s body recovered from sea off Fanad\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/tragedy-as-woman-039-s-body-recovered-from-sea-off-fanad.jpg\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"Tragedy as woman's body recovered from sea off Fanad\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/news\/fully-funded-construction-training-programme-opens-for-jobseekers-648652\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Fully funded construction training programme opens for jobseekers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/fully-funded-construction-training-programme-opens-for-jobseekers.jpg\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"Fully funded construction training programme opens for jobseekers\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>He also found PENSIVE, GODETIA and HAIRNET during another commanding display in the letters rounds.<\/p>\n<p>Austen picked up eight points with MIGRATED after Brian\u2019s attempted seven-letter word GRAFTER was ruled out because there was only one R available.<\/p>\n<p>The numbers proved another strong suit for the Donegal man.<\/p>\n<p>Austen came closest to the first target of 917, reaching the number exactly while Brian could only manage 924.<\/p>\n<p>When the target was 378, Austen reached 375 to take the points.<\/p>\n<p>He then opted for a tricky combination of four large numbers and two small numbers and successfully hit a target of 619 exactly, with Brian reaching 616.<\/p>\n<p>Both contestants later managed to hit another maths target of 666.<\/p>\n<p>Brian did have the final say when it came to the famous Countdown conundrum.<\/p>\n<p>Presented with the letters SPICEHUNT, he successfully unravelled them to find the nine-letter answer PUNCHIEST.<\/p>\n<p>It was not enough to trouble Austen, however, who had already built an unassailable lead and finished the programme with another century score.<\/p>\n<p>Donegal viewers will now be watching closely to see just how far his impressive run can go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ardara man Austen Allen is showing no signs of slowing down on Channel 4\u2019s Countdown after storming to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":["post-618617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}