c4countdown

Fred Mumford

I think it was all the on screen swearing, threats of violence, farting during the last few seconds of the quarter final conundrum to put Jen off - and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Fred Mumford

Ian Volante wrote:Excellent, first time for quite a while if I remember right too.

Yes, we were last unofficial champs during Euro 2000 - another tournament where we didn't do quite so well officially.

Fred Mumford

Doesn't Hodgson realise that the winner of the England v Costa Rica game becomes the unofficial world champions? And if it's England our early exit means we will probably hold on to it for a lot longer than Costa Rica would.

Fred Mumford

If only you had gone a little more overboard on the racism theme to the point of being ludicrous, and then removed all the humour from your post, you'd have practically written Bradley's weekly blog for him.

Fred Mumford

With no intended disrespect to the finalists, I wonder how many great players from last series (specifically the top 4 seeds, plus Zarte, Abdi and Mark Hartnett) are maybe wishing they had left it one more series before applying?

Fred Mumford

Until early April, it looked like quite a weak series, but we now have at least 5 very good players in the finals. Samir's words and numbers performances are very similar to Neil Green's, and if Countdown didn't have numbers rounds you could make a good case for saying that Mark Murray would only be...

Fred Mumford

Currently on BBC3 is England's Worst Ever Football Team, featuring the contributions of Series 69 octochamp and finalist Jonathan Liew.

Fred Mumford

If Neil does make it to the quarter-finals, I reckon he could be a dangerous opponent for the top seeds, especially if he's been working on his numbers in the meantime. What's surprising is that in terms of numbers rounds maxed, Neil's stats are very very similar to all the other 6 time winners thi...

Fred Mumford

I thought I recognised the challenger from before You remember a random contestant from 16 years ago? I'm cynical when Simon Cowell "remembers" an X Factor auditionee from 11 years ago or whatever, so pray tell how?? If it was Will D Downing or Julian Fell then fair enough, but a run of t...

Fred Mumford

What a thoroughly enjoyable game to watch - I somehow found myself rooting for both players to win.

Fred Mumford

Andy Platt wrote:He could be 900 material if he had any sort of numbers game, but as it is, he won't even score 800.

Maybe he thinks 800 is more than 900.

Fred Mumford

James S Roper wrote: +1

I'm sure there's more to it than that.

Fred Mumford

I don't believe it.

Fred Mumford

That list made me doubt myself, and look up the meaning of "all time". Turns out I was right.

Fred Mumford

Trevor led 45-6 at one stage, so that must be the 2nd biggest comeback in the show's history.

Fred Mumford

Looks like the last time 4 challengers in a row won was in Series 63, and it also happened in Series 62.

Don't know what the record is, but in Series 59 the challenger beat the champion 7 times in a row.

Fred Mumford

Somebody who knows how to correct the wiki needs to adjust Cliff's total.

The individual games total 549 but he's listed as 547.

Fred Mumford

Good question. On that issue I notice that the wiki still shows Sarah Taylor and Sarah Hadaway as two different people even though I thought we had established beyond reasonable doubt that it's the same person.

Fred Mumford

I think so, although the Priscilla Munday v Jamie Halliwell game equalled it.

Fred Mumford

Certainly seems an unusually low payout for 5 numbers.

4 numbers regularly pays out only about £60, on odds of over 1000/1.

No wonder the lottery has been described as a tax on stupidity.

Fred Mumford

Yes, he seems to be getting better and better (11 maxes today I think), in contrast to some of the other players this series who tripped up almost as soon as the words "promising" or "octochamp potential" were used to describe them. The quality of the challengers seems to have pi...

Fred Mumford

Martin Thompson wrote:Hard to believe he won by so much after a couple of poor opening rounds.

He recovered well though. An 8 max game is noteworthy by the standards of this series, and the challenger failed to win a single round.

Fred Mumford

The first numbers game was a 99%er, slightly surprisingly for a game with 2 discrete solutions. Both were fiendish though, so it's fair enough. Muchos kudos to those that got it within 30 mins, never mind 30 secs.

Fred Mumford

Yeah, that's the way I expected Rachel to show us, as she seems to like being needlessly ostentatious with numbers solves these days. If it's an easy numbers game but the players both miss it, maybe she deliberately goes for a more complicated solve in order to spare their blushes? There's been sev...

Fred Mumford

James Robinson wrote: So, the final max should be 118.

Steven McCann is so good he scored 145.

Fred Mumford

Noel Edmonds alert.

Fred Mumford

I thought it was well established that Rachel gets told if a game is impossible. What she never gets fed is solutions to solvable games.

Fred Mumford

Matt Morrison wrote:Nick has some cheek asking the old lady not to die before the finals.

In fairness I don't think he actually said that. If he did, then it didn't make it to our screens.

Fred Mumford

Fred Mumford wrote:It's going to be a low max score if no nines turn up.

112 according to Callum's recap - comfortably a new record since the last format change, beating the series 68 final by 3 points.

Fred Mumford

3 impossible numbers rounds. Blimey. Has that ever happened before? I don't know, but bearing in mind that they haven't gone for 6 small or 4 large it's even more remarkable. Overall, aren't about 94% of games solvable? Gut feel says that means it probably has happened before, but obviously not ver...

Fred Mumford

Tony Atkins wrote:The computer agrees with Rachel that 998 is impossible.

And can only get within 7 on the next game.

It's going to be a low max score if no nines turn up.

Fred Mumford

Many thanks Graeme. For both my questions I'm surprised at just how many occasions those scenarios occurred. I accept your judgement as the final arbiter of what is ironic too.

Fred Mumford

Can't believe it's 45 episodes since we last had 2 female players.

Fred Mumford

What on earth was Sam on about in the 2nd numbers round?

Fred Mumford

Ouch, that last numbers was uncomfortable viewing. Poor guy looked so embarrassed.

Fred Mumford

Channel 4 seem very protective of Countdown copyrights, as they have every right to be, but it does seem a shame as it can surely only help the show's popularity at no expense to them.

Giles put the series 68 final on youtube a few weeks ago, and it was taken down within 2 days.

Fred Mumford

How ironic is it to be mocked by apterites for not knowing the correct meaning of a word?

Fred Mumford

Wish I had just used "coincidentally" instead

Fred Mumford

Ian Volante wrote:Is this from the Morissette school of irony?

Not at all - someone having a hit record called "Ironic" without knowing the meaning of ironic is pretty ironic. Isn't it?

My use of the word is hardly misuse to "a traffic jam when you're already late" levels, surely?

Fred Mumford

Mark James wrote:why would that be ironic?

Because the man I'm asking is partly to blame.

Fred Mumford

Graeme, which players have appeared on the show more than once and lost every time? The rather unlucky James Hall springs to mind, ironically.

Secondly, which players have lost to the same player more than once? (including examples like Junaid v Charlie, where the final score was 1-2).

Many thanks.

Fred Mumford

Was fearing the worst after he started with a 4, but luckily he picked up his game after that.

Fred Mumford

Bah. Speling obviusly not my fortay.

Fred Mumford

The recap and the wiki give 6 as the max for round 7 - is TOXEMIA not valid?

Fred Mumford

Andy Platt wrote:Some dickhead missed a possible 149 here as well.

That was old format wasn't it Andy?

Fred Mumford

Bradley Cates wrote:I wonder how long it will be until we see another game where the highest score ever could easily have been broken.

For what it's worth, I make this the 178th game of the new format. Until today's game the top max scores were 154, 147 and 147.

Fred Mumford

I think there's only been one previous game in the new format that had as many as 3 nines. Was it 4 today?

I felt like an idiot watching the last finals. One week into this new series and I feel like a fucking genius.

All likeable cheery contestants, but wtf?

Fred Mumford

Andy Platt wrote:might be a blessing in disguise in a way as I felt that his 3-vowel picking made the game a bit stodgy and less enjoyable to play.

And he beat Bea Hill, fittest contestant of the last series

[/sad old man]

Fred Mumford

Zubair Patel wrote:What about a match between the two champions of 2013 ? Didn't it happen regularly in the past ?

No, I don't think Callum and Giles have ever played each other on the show before.

(Tiresome sarcasm or genuine stupidity? You decide)

Fred Mumford

I would vote for including everyone since the last CoC - not least because the 30th birthday tournament was won by someone from an earlier series.

Fred Mumford

Thanks for the replies, and I hope you are both right!

Though I guess it might be bit a moot point if CoC tournaments have seemingly died a death.

Fred Mumford

Also, if there is a CoC and I have to play you It would be great to see a rematch, but would you qualify for entry to a CoC tournament? No offence meant, as obviously if it was based on ability alone then you would not only deserve a place, but would be one of the favourites. But if such a competit...

Fred Mumford

So the best 5 ever in the show's 31 year history don't include anybody that Richard Whiteley would ever have heard of? Absurd!

Fred Mumford

In his 11 games, Dylan dropped more points on conundrums than on all other rounds combined!

Fred Mumford

It's good that Countdown is a non-athletic pursuit, otherwise Callum's meteoric improvement would be dismissed as cynical proof of anabolic steroid use. Good to see such a great standard of play throughout the finals, it seems as if nearly everybody upped their game. Dylan has overtaken Julian Fell'...

Fred Mumford

Well played also to Dylan, though I do think that if Glen or Callum can bring him to a crucial on Friday we may have a surprise... Before the finals started, I thought Dylan was the best player but predicted that he would lose the final to Jen on a crucial conundrum, provided she could stay with hi...

Fred Mumford

Jennifer Steadman wrote:Assuming of course that this isn't including people who've become octochamps in the last prelim of the series

Thanks Jen. Correct assumption - I was specifically wondering about contestants who straddled series, not octochamps who completed their run at the very end of a series.

Fred Mumford

Has a player ever missed out on a finals place as a result of winning the final preliminary game of a series? (eg. player finishes series x with several wins, but loses the first game of series y and misses the series y finals, when losing the last game in series x would have got them into the serie...

Fred Mumford

That Jen the greatest female player ever is unargufied, but it's largely missing the point when she's one of the best Countdowners ever anyway. That was the slightly annoying thing about the accolades bestowed on her in the intros (and even by Rachel at the end of her octorun). Firstly, it's not th...

Fred Mumford

Wow. Wonderful drama.

That must have been the longest 22 seconds of Callum's life, dreading the sound of a buzzer that never came.

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