c4countdown

Ben Wilson

Second dream, I'm running down a road in Lincoln as it's (apparently) the one time of year I actually can run, and it's some form of festival or open air market. At some point, my run takes me through a WWE event, where Mark Deeks is wrestling the Undertaker in a steel cage suspended over a concrete...

Ben Wilson

Caution: long post. Being laid up with covid has certainly had an effect on my psychological state with the hattrick of bizarre dreams as detailed below. First dream, I was tasked with watching a shop that was in the same place as the B&M in Lincoln (next to the river in the city centre), but wa...

Ben Wilson

Paul Worsley wrote: ↑Thu Oct 02, 2025 7:55 pm Patrick Murray, actor (Mickey Pearce, OFAH) 68. RIP.

Arguably, we need a new contender for the greatest living actor in a minor role in a sitcom.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Brenman ?

Ben Wilson

It starts off with me walking through the streets of Lincoln, many of which have passageways that are elaborately decorated but aren't used for anything, leading me to quip to Rachel Riley that the city has a lot of fancy dining rooms that aren't being used for anything. Well, one's being used for a...

Ben Wilson

Jamie Weisenberg wrote: ↑Sun Sep 14, 2025 3:50 pm
Mark Deeks wrote: ↑Sat Sep 13, 2025 5:29 pm
Which is why she's in the job. So I ask again, why do you think she's being fed answers?
The human brain cannot process complex solutions in just 30 seconds unless you're a young autistic math wiz.

[citation needed]

Ben Wilson

A very brief one a few nights ago where Fiona T banned the rest of the world from using the letter 'T.'

Ben Wilson

It's COLIN's 21st birthday in January, but did you also know that it's the tenth anniversary of FOCAL as well? :-) As such, an event like this deserves commemorating somehow, so the prize for the hangover event will be a calendar celebrating the 10 years of FOCAL. ...and that's where I need your hel...

Ben Wilson

Just curious.

Ben Wilson

Had an odd one last night where I was doing a Destination X style challenge that involved me parkouring down the side of a building (well, more 'falling semi-safely) into a bar in Barcelona, only to discover that I was the 7th arrival out of 9 people. Following that, I jump into a mini-steamroller a...

Ben Wilson

As sure as the sun rises in the east, the end of January will see the FOCAL season kick off in Lincoln! Yep, the event hosted by the man with the same initials as ‘Blackjack’ (and the same physique as Jack Black) is turning 21 this year, and even though the weekend won’t be as big as last (this) yea...

Ben Wilson

The bat signal is usually meant to summon Batman, not piss him off, but it's worth a try.

Ben Wilson

https://www.rochesterfirst.com/entertai ... at-84/amp/

Chuck Mangione, musician who was in a few episodes of King of the Hill.

Ben Wilson

To take things to the extreme, the best thing to do really is to not have a set opponent. Everyone does the same rounds and has an adjudicator seeing how long they take to get the conundrums. Everything is fed into the computer, which uses some scoring system to determine the day's winner. This is ...

Ben Wilson

In last night's dream I was putting the finishing touches on a 'man cave' in my house, which consisted of 3 octagonal rooms in a row. The left hand room was a study with various work stations in it including for some reason a haberdashery section. The middle room was a game room, in which Jen Steadm...

Ben Wilson

Humans first arrived in New Zealand in the 13th century AD.

Ben Wilson

A brief one last night where I was on a street in Lincoln playing a game I'd called 'Dread Poker' against Charlie and a couple of other people. 'Dread Poker' is basically Poker mixed with Balatro, you play with 3 other people and draw 10-11 cards (my subconscious was unclear about this) and redraw/d...

Ben Wilson

Can't wait.

Have (ab)used my mod powers to put this as a global announcement on a par with in-person events as it's community-related.

Ben Wilson

It took a bit longer than usual but the stat file has been updated to include all 3 of 2025's events and added a couple more silly pages.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qi1d267b ... 1615x&dl=0

Ben Wilson

Also, I'm still planning on testing a handicap event on apterous one weekend when there isn't a co-event (for obvious reasons). The working event name is 'I Can't Believe It's the COLIN Handicap Event Sample,' which I acknowledge needs work from an acronym standpoint.

Ben Wilson

Welp, it's been a month and the results are more or less tied, but there's a fair chunk asking for no in person Friday event... which is what I was leaning toward anyway. There will be some form of warm-up event before XXI, but it'll be a mostly online thing with maybe an in-person element like a fi...

Ben Wilson

It's no big deal to give meat eaters vegetarian/vegan alternatives, provided there are no allergies or food intolerance issues.

Ben Wilson

I'll refrain from voting and prepare my pride for its inevitable kicking.

Ben Wilson

Late night + forgetting meds + hypo = oddness from my subconscious. It starts with me sitting at a table watching a rehearsal of a Taylor Swift concert with a bunch of people I don't know, all of whom for some reason have snowflake tattoos under their nostrils (one person has two under each nostril,...

Ben Wilson

I finally got back in today! Been locked out for about 4 months even though I was using the correct username and password. Does anyone read the Board Administrator messages? There was absolutely no notification of any issue with your account- it hadn't been deactivated so I couldn't begin to tell y...

Ben Wilson

Well, it's been a week, and it's safe to say the first COLIN/co-event triple header went pretty well. And with just 51 weeks to go until next year's event, I need to start planning lol. Next year, the main event and hangover will be taking place as normal, no major changes other than the hangover ma...

Ben Wilson

Good to hear

I had gone up to the Memorial Hall but the clubhouse wasn't open. Glad to hear it's been resolved.

Ben Wilson

I'll try to head up there tomorrow to see if anything was handed in.

Ben Wilson

Lots of good feedback above- the need for speakers for the laptop was made abundantly clear this weekend and will be addressed. Anything that boosts my compromised voice on the off-chance that Robbo isn't available is always good. Promoting upcoming events: I'll never be convinced that this is a bad...

Ben Wilson

And last but not least, today's results: COLIN XX: The Hangover The Memorial Hall 26 January 2025 STANDINGS Players are ranked by number of wins then total points scored. P W Pts 1 Dylan Taylor 4 4 287 2 Jack Hurst 4 4 273 3 Thomas Cappleman 4 4 263 4 Jack Worsley 4 3 293 5 Callum Todd 4 3 271 6 Dan...

Ben Wilson

Today's results: COLIN XX The Ark 25 January 2025 STANDINGS Players are ranked by number of wins then total points scored. P W Pts 1 Thomas Cappleman 6 6 419 2 Jack Hurst 6 6 382 3 Dylan Taylor 6 5 411 4 Callum Todd 6 5 390 5 Zohaib Rehan 6 5 385 6 Tom Carey 6 5 365 7 Jack Worsley 6 4 394 8 George A...

Ben Wilson

COLIN XX: The Pre-Drinks The Memorial Hall 24 January 2025 STANDINGS Players are ranked by number of wins then total points scored. P W Pts 1 Thomas Cappleman 4 4 280 2 Callum Todd 4 4 262 3 Eddy Byrne 4 4 261 4 Jack Hurst 4 4 244 5 Zohaib Rehan 4 3 278 6 Tom Carey 4 3 261 7 Dylan Taylor 4 3 237 8 D...

Ben Wilson

Hey everyone- presumably we've all seen the weather reports for Friday and how they look less than ideal (the joys of organising an event in January, eh?). If you're delayed or unable to attend on Friday evening, please let me know ahead of time by email (same as my PayPal address), Facebook message...

Ben Wilson

They're there, the graphics back in 1980 just weren't sophisticated enough to render them.

Ben Wilson

Pac-Man's eyes are little Pac-Men.

Ben Wilson

Just 4 spots left on the Friday... If you're entered on the Saturday (and Sunday) and want to upgrade to the three dayer, you can send me the remainder of the entry fee with a note and I'll add you to the Friday as well.

Ben Wilson

Welp, the unthinkable has happened- the hangover is now full. If you wish to play on the Sunday anyway, let me know and I'll put you on a standby list in case of any last minute dropouts, but I can't guarantee anything.

Still spaces left on Friday and Saturday

Ben Wilson

A little bit on the timings for the weekend Anyone who's been before will know the schedule for the Saturday and the Sunday, but it's printed below just for good measure as well. For Friday, the plan is that the doors open at (as I won't even be there before) 5pm, we get going at 6pm and play 2 rou...

Ben Wilson

BTW I've spent £360 on this event on prizes alone.

Edit: so far.

Ben Wilson

I've (finally) run a test event today and everything seems to be fine for my purposes.

Ben Wilson

I definitely recall watching the Masters when it was on in the early 90s, possibly before then but I couldn't say for certain. The first final I remember is the late Huw Morgan vs Harshan Lamabadusuriya (both of whom I would later have the pleasure of meeting), while the first contestant I distinctl...

Ben Wilson

Update! Sorry if I've been a bit quiet with updates both here and on Facebook- real life and the festive season have been a bit greedy with my free time lately. Planning is coming along well, though, and after Christmas I will start posting those photos of prizes that I promised, umm, months ago. In...

Ben Wilson

Funnily, I recall the resolution being 'midnight after the episode' but can't recall the discussion. Might've been on Facebook.

Ben Wilson

Have edited both of the above posts. No spoilers before midnight outside of the spoilers forum, please.

Ben Wilson

Cross-posted from Facebook: Good news! I've spoken to the manager of the Memorial Hall and he's agreed that if we bunch the tables together a bir and cut down on the mingling space near the prize tables, we can get 42 players in, so that's the new capacity for Friday and Sunday. :-) I enquired about...

Ben Wilson

What Maus said. I sometimes think I track a few too many stats.

Ben Wilson

JackHurst wrote: ↑Tue Nov 26, 2024 7:15 am Do you have a link to the Colin Stat file? Always makes an interesting read.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qi1d267b ... 1615x&dl=0

Be my guest

Ben Wilson

It's the 25th of November today, which means only one thing- just two months to go until COLIN! :D I'm hard at work on the puzzle mag and I have plenty of puzzles, games, facts and stats to go into it but there's always room for more. If you'd like to contribute, my inbox is always open, and if you ...

Ben Wilson

The chippy in question is probably Frydays, which isn't bad, there are other options a few doors down like the Jade Garden and a kebab shop, and thw Spar shop a few yards further. The hall will be open from 4:30pm, which is about when I'll be arriving. The original plan was to play both rounds and t...

Ben Wilson

Steve Hyde wrote: ↑Wed Nov 13, 2024 6:57 pm The MOTD-Countdown pipeline only flows one way. Lineker as next Countdown host?

Damian must've negotiated a hell of a budget increase if that's the case.

Ben Wilson

Earthworm Jim and Lara Croft were created only two years apart.

Ben Wilson

Callum Todd wrote: ↑Mon Nov 11, 2024 3:52 pm Piecing things together, I reckon this means that there were 130 coconut funko twirl forms left. Thanks Ian for (preemptively) answering Maus's questions. Kind of rude of you to leave him hanging like that Ben tbh

Technically this is only true if Ian also wanted some coconut funko twirl forms.

Ben Wilson

I'm ill again, so this means very weird dreams. In this case, it starts with the Honda skydiving ad , from the perspective of the cameraman, who somehow ends up landing in COLIN and running into Ian Volante, who from a very precise angle looks like James Nguyen (as in the old avatar, not Ahmed himse...

Ben Wilson

If anyone wants a nicer option than the Travelodge, Best Western (who own the hotel across the roundabout) are doing a 2 for 1 sale for the next 3 days, for stays up until March. Currently £125 for 1 person or £134 for 2, including breakfast. https://www.bestwestern.co.uk/2for1 No Travelodge, no CO...

Ben Wilson

Up to 27 for all events now! :-) just 9 spaces left on Friday and Sunday! Glad to see everyone's eager about the event, there may be additional treats and prizes in store for everyone in January as a result. :-) Just a word on the annual outrage that are the seedings- as the entrant list is being ke...

Ben Wilson

3 entries today take the total number of entries so far to 24. 24! In perspective, on 1/1/24, COLIN XIX had a mere 22 entries. So many thanks everyone for getting in early and thanks to TCap for sharing that link! Only 12 spots left in the Pre-drinks and the Hangover, but a reminder (though this doe...

Ben Wilson

1. House of Games 2. Blockbusters 3. Countdown 4. Bullseye 5. Fifteen-to-One 6. Going for Gold 7. Pointless 8. Crystal Maze 9. Every Second Counts 10. Mastermind Assuming they're not discounted for being too physical, I'd put The Interceptor (a brilliant ITV rip-off of Treasure Hunt that sadly only ...

Ben Wilson

Maybe not a You Are the Ref, but an event I’m helping oversee atm could be done very similarly in this manner. Contestant A appears on the show, winning their first two games, but losing the third on a crucial conundrum. Shortly after the last game, it is found their opponent, Contestant B had a wo...

Ben Wilson

Last night's dream started in a bus on lincoln High Street that was delayed. Jeff Clayton then knocks on the window to say hi, and explains (through text) he's involved in the opening of a new bus-themed cafe and all buses will be delayed as a result. I then go and look for some dinner, but as Jeff ...

Ben Wilson

Just to show that there's always a positive to be found, someone who was on Countdown in 1994 and had no idea Co-Events existed has now found out about us after having read about the Blackpool incident in the press, and will be coming to London :) And they say Damian's out of touch with the communi...

Ben Wilson

Yep, screwed me about yesterday and today too. You need to delete all cookies associated with c4c, then it'll work again. Plenty of guides on how to do that online.

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