WORDS are usually never a conundrum for Highworth Countdown fan, Pat Elkington.

But the numbers game and a bright 19-year-old saw her off the programme.

Pat, 68, appeared on the Channel 4 tea-time quiz show last Thursday, but failed to knock the young contestant off his perch.

Pat, who's retired and a former secretary, has been watching the popular game show starring Richard Whiteley and mathematician Carol Vorder-man for 12 years and admitted it was easier playing at home than it was in the studio.

"It is quite nerve-racking going into the studio for the first time in front of a couple of hundred people.

"Neither of us got the final conundrum, which turned out to be oven proof, but it is difficult to figure out the word when it's made up from two words."

Husband, Bryan, 73, was in the audience wishing her luck, but he is no stranger to television, having appeared on the quiz 15-to-1 several years ago. Despite losing, Pat walked away with a Countdown mug, t-shirt, an Oxford dictionary and the electronic word game. She will continue to watch the show.

Countdown was the first programme to appear on Channel 4 on its launch in 1982.