CAMBRIDGE FRESHER Jack Hurst might be the latest high-scoring champion on Channel 4 show Countdown – a longtime favourite with university students – but his high-achieving status doesn’t appear to have stopped him from having his own juvenile moments on the show.

Hurst (18) – who last month set a new all-time record for points scored by a single player over the maximum eight shows, with 946 – has admitted to a student newspaper at his alma mater that one of his eight programmes had to be edited for a TV audience after a word he suggested was deemed inappropriate for a daytime TV audience.

“There was one round where the selection was DTCEIASHF, and within about ten seconds I realised you could spot a very rude ’8′,” Hurst told Varsity, meaning that he had found an eight-letter word among the letters offered.

“At the end of the round I declared my word, and Jeff [Stelling, the show's host] asked Susie [Dent, from the show's 'Dictionary Corner'] to check it. And she said, ‘Yes, it’s a rude or obnoxious person.’

“The audience erupted with laughter – unfortunately this was far too obscene to be broadcast,” Hurst lamented.

A Channel 4 spokesperson explained that Countdown was “a daytime programme and this particular word was not deemed appropriate for a daytime audience so [it was] not included in the show.”

Ironically, however, the word in question – S***FACE – did not make use of the remaining letter D, which – as The Sun notes – could have been used to a word perhaps more usually attributed to a university student.