Countdown winning contestant is charged with stabbing rival at tournament

A man will appear before Preston Crown Court today (14 October) after being charged with stabbing another man.

John Cowen was arrested on 14 September at the Countdown in Blackpool 2024 event, which has former winners of the popular gameshow playing against each other.

According to the Lancaster Guardian, the tournament where the alleged stabbing took place was being held at the Wainwright Club on Blackpool's Hornby Road.

The 30-year-old Cowen allegedly attacked his opponent and police were called to the scene on the September Saturday morning, with a man in his 20s taken to hospital for treatment.

A spokesperson for Lancashire Police said: "We were called at 11:35am on 14 September 2024 to a report of an assault on Hornby Road in Blackpool.

John Cowen during an appearance on Countdown. (Channel 4)

"Officers attended, and a man in his 30s was arrested on suspicion of section 18 assault and possession of a knife / bladed article.

"John Cowen, 30, was later charged with section 18 assault – wounding with intent and possession of a knife / bladed article in a public place.

"He was remanded and will appear at Preston Crown Court on 14 October."

Cowen first appeared on Countdown in 2017 and had the third highest total score in his series, winning eight consecutive episodes and appearing in several others.

The Morecambe maths champion missed out on joining the show's 800 Club during his run on Countdown, having appeared on 12 episodes of the Channel 4 show in total between 2017 and 2019.

Blackpool's Wainwright Club, where the alleged incident took place. (Google Maps)

He will today appear before Preston Crown Court on the charges of the alleged stabbing.

The Mirror reports that the alleged victim of the stabbing was a man who appeared on Countdown in 2015 named Thomas Carey.

They say that Carey, a Bingley man, had been studying for his A-Levels when he appeared on Countdown.

He has made a total of 13 appearances on the popular game show, winning 11 of those and making it to the semi-finals in 2015.

He was the first contestant since 1986 to win all eight of his conundrums, making his subsequent appearances in the Championship of Champions XV in 2019 and again for a Christmas special episode in 2020 where he defeated fellow Bingley bloke George Armstrong in a festive show where both men scored the nine-letter word 'planetoid'.

Countdown first aired in November 1982 and was the first programme to be shown on Channel 4, since then it has run for more than 80 series and racked up thousands of episodes.