THE clock, the conundrum and the famous letters board were all there when maths wizard Rachel Riley brought Countdown to a Chelmsford school.
The Essex girl spent the day at Westlands Primary School, running a maths masterclass and then holding a special version of the hit Channel 4 TV show on which she is the co-host and letters and numbers queen.
As well as getting into the spirit of Countdown, pupils and staff at the Beeches Road school dressed in wild and wacky clothing to raise funds for the Sick Children's Trust.
Rachel, who lives in Thorpe Bay, told the Chronicle: "I've done school visits before but never when everyone has been dressed up like this – it's fantastic.
"The children have been lovely. They have given me a tour of the school and shown me their work.
"I ran a masterclass with a group of the children and gave them a few tips on how to do the numbers game."
Despite most of them never having seen the TV show, a team of four pupils beat teams of teachers, parents and teaching assistants to take the Countdown crown.
"I'm so pleased we won," said Jordon Bretton, 10, "especially as I have beaten my mum, who was in the parents' team!"
Katie McCarthy, 11, said: "I've seen Countdown a couple of times. It was fun and exciting to hold it here, especially with Rachel herself."
Terese Bylov, 11, added: "The word game is quite tough. I watched a couple of episodes of Countdown on YouTube this morning to gen up. I thought it looked quite hard then."
The fourth member of the winning team was Daisy Maslin, 10, who took part in Rachel's masterlcass.
She said: "Rachel taught us a few tricks on how to multiply with nine which really paid off as I got the right number on the number round really quickly both times this afternoon."
Morgan Neville, 9, showed Rachel around the school. She said: "Rachel really liked our wildlife garden. When we went into the early years classroom, the children all wanted to give her a cuddle. It was so sweet."
Rachel was invited to the school by outgoing deputy head teacher, Ian Bowyer, who met her at an event run by the Sick Children's Trust, of which he is a great supporter.
Ian and his family, whose daughter Evie, 5, has the rare Crouzon Syndrome and has had to spend long periods of time in Great Ormond Street Hospital, have benefited from the trust, which provides accommodation close to inner city hospitals.
The Countdown day raised £420 for the trust, which goes towards Ian's £3,000 target for this year. He is running the London Marathon next month for the third and final time, dressed as Peppa Pig, Evie's favourite TV character.
