Winning streak

Winning streak may refer to:

Winning streak (sports)

In sports, a winning streak refers to a consecutive number of games won. A winning streak can be held by a team, as in baseball, football, basketball, hockey, or by an individual, as in tennis. A winning streak that extends through a single season, i.e. every game in the season is won, is known as a perfect season.

The longest recorded winning streak in any professional sports is Pakistani Jahangir Khan's 555 consecutive wins in squash from 1981 to 1986. In the same sports, the Australian Heather McKay may hold a claim to an even longer winning streak, as she went unbeaten for 19 years, from 1962 to 1981. However, an official tally of her wins may not exist. In 2013, the Dutch wheelchair tennis player Esther Vergeer retired with an active 10-year-long winning streak of 470 matches, including a streak of 250 consecutive sets won.

A winning streak is not to be confused with an unbeaten streak, where teams can tie as well as win to maintain their streak. For example, if a football team wins four games in a row, plays a draw, wins three more, plays two draws in a row, and then loses, they had a 10-game unbeaten streak. Their longest winning streak in this sequence was four. If a sports league declares overtime losses different from regulation losses in that they are scored like ties (such as ice hockey leagues where there is both a 3-on-3 overtime and a shootout to break ties), an unbeaten streak (unlike a winning streak) continues if at the end of regulation, the game is tied. This is because losses in overtime and shootout are declared regulation ties, and teams accumulate one point for the draw. As such, if a team wins four consecutive games, then loses two consecutive games in overtime, then loses in a shootout, and then wins three consecutive games, that team has a ten-game unbeaten streak (seven wins and three ties at the end of regulation).

Winning Streak

Winning Streak is an Irish television game show, Europe's second longest-running after the UK's Countdown. Aired weekly in Ireland, five contestants play a number of games to win cars, holidays, and cash prizes up to €1,000,000. Broadcast on Saturday nights between September and June on RTÉ One, the game show is among the channel's most popular programmes, often ranking among the top five in the ratings. However, there was a significant drop in viewership in the 2008/2009 series. The game show began on 21 September 1990, and has been hosted by popular television personalities Mike Murphy (1990–2001) and Derek Mooney (2001–2008). Prize money for the show is funded by the Irish National Lottery, with entry to the game based on National Lottery scratchcards.

Mooney stepped down as the show's host at the end of the 2007–08 season. The 2008–09 season was rebranded Winning Streak: Dream Ticket and was co-hosted by Kathryn Thomas and Aidan Power. They were the first duo to host the programme and Thomas was the show's first permanent female presenter. Aidan Power stood down, after the 2008/09 season ended on 6 June 2009, because of his commitments to the RTÉ's youth-orientated programme, The Cafe, as well as presenting on The All Ireland Talent Show in early 2010. Marty Whelan stepped into Aidan's shoes, co-hosting the 2009/10 series with Kathryn, which aired from 12 September 2009 (reverting to its original name Winning Streak) until 29 May 2010. The twenty-first season, commenced on 4 September 2010, again with Kathryn Thomas and Marty Whelan at the helm. Kathryn was then replaced with Geri Maye, who was replaced by Sinéad Kennedy.