Gerry Buckley counts down on Channel 4 experience

Westmeath Examiner reporter, Gerry Buckley is set to appear on our television screens on May 18th after his recording for the very popular Channel 4 programme, Countdown.Earlier this week he recounted details of his 'thoroughly enjoyable experience' to the Westmeath Examiner.Gerry concedes that 'it has been a long-time ambition of mine to get through a Countdown audition. I managed that in Belfast at the end of February, where I hit a bit of form on the day. A few days later, I received a letter telling me I had been successful and inviting me to come to Leeds for a recording on Tuesday, 31st March. I was thrilled, to be honest.'Gerry had been in the Countdown audience in January, as the younger of his two daughters, Grace is on a six-month work experience stint with Norwich Union in nearby York, as part of her Actuarial Studies degree course in UCD. Gerry explains: 'I visited Grace for a short break and I took in a day"s recordings at the ITV studios. The champion then was a young chap called Kirk Bevins and he set all sorts of incredible scoring records for shows that went out in mid-March. Seeing him in full flow made me wary of even going ahead with an audition a month later! That day, I befriended another of the show"s best-ever players, Charlie Reams, whom I spotted in the audience. There is an inner sanctum of young lads who compete, more or less all day every day, online against each other. I kept in touch with Charlie in the interim by e-mail and he was very helpful. These lads are obsessed with Countdown - and good luck to them. I"m as young at heart and competitive as ever I was, but I"m gone too old to be obsessive about anything, or anybody.'There was an opportunity to vet a likely opponent in the previous day"s recordings and Gerry confesses to being 'quite intimidated' when he saw 17-year-old Jimmy Gough 'massacring all and sundry' on the Monday. That night in the nearby hotel provided by Channel 4, Gerry texted his other daughter, Pearlie, who had bought him three new shirts on a break in New York the previous week, especially for Countdown appearances, plural as she thought, 'instead of those horrible shirts you normally wear'. 'I asked her which one she wanted me to use, as I would almost certainly be filming only once,' Gerry jokes.And once, indeed, it was. In typically blunt style, Gerry is quick to point out that 'I lost to a better player, full stop. I wrote a column for the Westmeath Examiner recently about excuses in sport and how I hate post-match whinging. I was beaten fair and square by a player whom I subsequently learned from Charlie (Reams) is part of the inner sanctum I referred to earlier. It was a rotten draw to face Jimmy, but if you lose to Kilkenny in the Leinster hurling championship there"s no point in saying that you would have beaten Dublin or Laois, or those other Leinster luminaries, Galway or Antrim!'Charlie Reams had emphasised to Gerry to 'above all, enjoy the experience' and Gerry was glad not to suffer from nerves. However, he laughs when recalling an incident in the make-up room, which greatly amused nearby lexicographer, the seemingly demure Susie Dent. Gerry goes on: 'The woman who was powdering me up said "you"ve a great tan, luv", to which I replied "tan my a**e, that"s blood pressure"! The one thing I was determined not to do was panic, irrespective of what Jimmy was coming up with. I was on RTÉ"s Know Your Sport just under 20 years ago and I completely collapsed after missing a routine question at the start of the buzzer round, when I was well in contention.'Given that the show goes out next Monday, Gerry is not going into the minute detail of the contest, stating only that 'I lost with dignity and my only major regret is missing a far-from-difficult numbers game. To be honest, I"m really bulling over that'. A former accountant 'with no interest whatsoever in it as a career', it is still hardly surprising that Gerry refers to the numbers content of the show as 'my undoubted strong point in the comfort of my sitting room'. He says that overall he fared quite well at the letters content but that he was 'poor, as usual' at the closing conundrum round. 'The entire recording just flew by and did not seem anything like the 45 minutes it takes to complete on television,' he recalls.Gerry is fulsome in his praise of all personnel in front of and behind the cameras in the Countdown team at Leeds, picking out associate producer, Kate Horton for special praise. Incidentally, the entire team is moving to Manchester soon, with many jobs lost in the process. He refers to new host Jeff Stelling as being 'as nice a fellow as I"ve met in a long time and we clicked instantly off-air because of our mutual love of a wide range of sports'. In particular, Jeff quizzed Gerry about Gaelic Games. Having been to Croke Park for soccer internationals, the enormous popularity of the GAA in Ireland fascinated the Sky Sports anchor. Gerry gave him a copy of his book on the Hogan Cup, as Aston Villa manager Martin O"Neill features in it from his schooldays in Belfast in the early 1970s. Gerry states that 'Jeff was, unsurprisingly, very curious about "a sports nut" turning down the job as Club Secretary of Charlton Athletic in January 1980, which came up on my application form. This is still a sore point with me, even nearly three decades later and, frankly, I hoped he would not ask me about it on the show. Thankfully, he didn"t, but he did inadvertently bring up one very sensitive topic, but I pawned it off pretty well, I think.'Another soccer fanatic, well known as an Arsenal supporter, was the guest in "Dictionary Corner" for Gerry"s show. Comedian Rory McGrath is best known for his hilarious participation in the now-defunct BBC spoof sports quiz, They Think It"s All Over. Gerry found Rory to be 'a smashing fellow and highly intelligent to boot', adding that 'his funniest moment will not be screened, as he interjected very wittily when Susie had to redo a piece and he embarrassed her by saying "that"s much better now", which obviously meant another take.'While new maths wizard, Rachel Riley impressed Gerry on and off air, he concedes that he 'would love to have met her predecessor, Carol Vorderman, as, like Fr Dougal Maguire, I often woke up saying "consonant please, Carol"! My daughter Grace is absolutely sensational at the numbers games and has consistently beaten me at them for over a decade. Grace was in the audience and, as usual, she solved the games that Rachel didn"t in the ensuing shows to mine. A few years ago, I spoke at length to Kevin Duffy, her principal in Moate Community School, and to her maths teacher, Tom Lowry (a brother of former Westmeath football manager, Brendan). I said that we would drink a few pints together in Leeds when Grace was the mathematician on Countdown. I"ve amended that now - it will be in Manchester and I"ll be on Lucozade!'Overall, Gerry has 'nothing but the fondest of memories from the show - except for the missed numbers game'. As to an overall winner, he feels that 'Jimmy Gough will be there or thereabouts come the final stages, but I can"t see Kirk Bevins being beaten. Then again, I wrote an article for the Westmeath Examiner a few years ago about sporting shocks. I called it "Even Julian fell", alluding to the huge shock when the seemingly invincible Julian Fell was beaten in a Countdown semi-final.And you just never know what this life has in store for any of us, from day to day.'