Ireland's first Countdown winner impresses with eight wins in a row

The first Irish person to win Channel 4's Countdown accepted the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy yesterday.

Thirty-six-year-old Mark Murray from Blanchardstown in Dublin won the coveted award on the popular gameshow with 105 points.

He opened the show impressively with the nine-letter word 'elongates' and went on to become an 'Octochamp' after notching up eight consecutive wins.

Mark, who livesin the UK, won a trophy, a laptop and a 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary.