Getting data from MySql table with no refresh

Hello,
I have a code that counts down and when the countdown reaches 0 I want it to grab data from a MySql table and present it on the page without reloading.
I know my countdown works, but it is when I add the code to get the data from the PHP page it stops working. I know my PHP page works and grabs the correct data and presents it.
Here is the code I am currently using, row 40, 41 and 42 are the lines that I added to try and get the PHP data. Any ideas? Thanks.

<div id="countmesg">
</div>

<div id="checking">
</div>
<div id="name-data">
</div>


<script src="jquery.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">

$(document).ready(function() {
var delay = 10 ;
function countdown() {
setTimeout(countdown, 1000) ;
$('#countmesg').html("Auction ends in "  + delay  + " seconds.");
delay --;
if (delay < 0 ) {
$('#countmesg').html("Auction ended.");
delay = 0 ;
}
}
countdown() ;
});
</script>

<script type="text/javascript">

$(document).ready(function() {
var delay = 2 ;
function countdown() {
setTimeout(countdown, 100) ;
$('#checking').html("Checking in "  + delay  + " seconds.");
delay --;
if (delay < 0 ) {
$('#checking').html("Checking again....");
var name = 'tom';
$.post('cdown.php', {name: name}, function(data) {
$('div#name-data').text(data);
};
delay = 2 ;
}
}
countdown() ;
});
</script>

Code (markup):

 

Have you checked what the server response is? Any errors? Got a live link?

Just quickly reading your code and I can see you are doing a lot of work for nothing. Why not just use setInterval to call the countdown function rather than using all of this delay stufff?