Clarke scores off pitch with quiz victory

Clarke Carlisle did his best to rescue the fading reputation of British footballers with victory in one of the country’s longest-running television quiz shows on Wednesday.

Readers of the nation’s newspapers have been bombarded by a daily diet of unsavoury relations regarding the infidelities of Chelsea duo John Terry and Ashley Cole, prompting numerous column inches about the dangers of entrusting large amounts of money to testosterone-fuelled young sportsmen with too much time on their hands.

But as the debate over whether footballers should be role models continues, Burnley defender Carlisle proved playing ‘the beautiful game’ need not mean the absence of a ‘beautiful mind’.

Millions of viewers saw Carlisle beat defending champion Adam Guest 89-55 to win Wednesday’s edition of Countdown, a quiz where contestants compete to form the longest possible word from random selections of letters and are challenged to solve maths puzzles, all within the space of 30 seconds.

Clarke, who back in 2002 was crowned ‘Britain’s Brainiest Footballer’ in another television quiz programme, may be a member of a Burnley side struggling to stay in the top flight of English football but there was no doubting his Premier League credentials as a contestant.

“I can’t say it’s better than winning a big football game – but it’s up there!,” said Clarke, who has been an “addict” of the show since he was a boy.

“It’s a lifelong ambition. I’m just delighted to be here,” added Clarke, who’d failed with a previous audition, during the programme.

Countdown host Jeff Stelling – also known in Britain for his work as a sports broadcaster – said: “Your team-mates can’t take the mickey out of you too much now.”

Clarke capped Wednesday’s win with the equivalent of a last minute goal when he buzzed in after just 16 seconds to answer the final round conundrum.

His victory means Clarke returns on Countdown in an episode to be broadcast on Thursday with contestants allowed to win a maximum eight games in a row before the most successful come back for the quarter-finals

Then-Notts County midfielder Neil MacKenzie, now with non-league Tamworth, is the only footballer to have previously appeared on Countdown, winning five games in 2008 before a last eight loss to series 59 champion Junaid Mubeen.

Countdown, based on the French ‘Des Chiffres et Des Lettres’ (Numbers and Letters) was the first show broadcast on Channel 4 upon its launch in 1982 and has since, curiously for a terrestrial station designed to be ‘edgy’, become a staple of its schedule.