An 11-year-old boy has become the youngest winner of Countdown's Octochamp title in 20 years. Kai Laddiman from Broad Oak, East Sussex, beat Richard Pascoe, a market research manager from Leeds, by 105 points to 55 on Monday. This was his eighth win in a row, earning him the game show's Octochamp crown and making him the second youngest to do so in the programme's 26-year history. Kai trounced his opponent after spotting the nine-letter word 'thirteens' in the last round. He then took six seconds to solve the conundrum, rearranging the anagram 'nicejoint' to form the word 'injection'. He grinned happily, sighed with relief and gave a big thumbs-up after winning. "It felt brilliant to win, it was so amazing. I wasn't expecting to go that far. I thought I could, but I didn't think I would." Kai's victory propelled him to the number two position on the series leaderboard and earned him a place in the series final in December.
