c4countdown

Phil Stanton

Hey guys, I don't know the best place to ask this, so I'll ask here on my family's behalf. Where's the best place to stay for the event? Soho Westminster Waterloo [/size] My family's open to any other suggestions if those don't suffice. I could have sworn I'd replied to this, sorry! Honestly, prett...

Phil Stanton

I agree with all of this in principle, with a few comments ... Organisers should announce "doors open" and "event start" times, and give enough time between the two. A 15-minute gap between doors opening and event starting isn't enough, IMO, whereas 45 minutes is plenty. (Obvious...

Phil Stanton

Thomas Cappleman wrote: ↑Thu Aug 21, 2025 12:46 pm *grumble* I swear Co:Lon starts earlier and earlier every year

Couldn't get the April slot from the venue this time, but thanks for being the number 1 sign-up anyway!

Phil Stanton

http://philstanton.net/COLON2025.jpg It's the return of CO:LON - Countdown in London 2026 – a FOCAL Countdown event. WHEN Saturday 21st February 2026 Doors open at 10:45 am. Gameplay starts at 11:30. WHERE & GETTING THERE “The Venue”, Level 2, The O2 Centre, 255 Finchley Road, London NW3 6LU We...

Phil Stanton

Nice one

Please could you put in the major holiday dates, e.g. Easter, bank holidays, other major religious ones, etc.? Just so that it's easier to avoid potential clashes.
School holiday dates might also be useful.

Phil Stanton

Following last night's revelation that Beachy has to manually start his Countdown clock for the overlay at the same time as Daz starts the timer on WebRack, the obvious question seems to be: can Beachy's clock be inserted into Graeme's rack? (Not a euphemism.) Might not be that simple of course, but...

Phil Stanton

I saw a solution to the last numbers round just a bit too late, sadly: (25 x 6 + 7) x 5 - 9 - 3 = 773

Thanks for your commiserations

Phil Stanton

Yeah , i noticed you did this and did feel bad for not matching the energy, will make more of an effort going forward! Thank you! :) My biggest issue with it is that on three times i've introduced myself to someone at a table when i've drawn them and they tell me we've already played - i get a bit ...

Phil Stanton

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Fri Jul 18, 2025 9:11 pm What about forks?

At least buy me a drink first

Phil Stanton

This is a shout-out to everyone who was ever once a newbie at a co-event, i.e. everyone :P Please go out of your way to talk to newbies and make them feel welcome and included. There were 2 newbies at Durham this weekend, and when I arrived (about half an hour after doors had opened, don't know how ...

Phil Stanton

I've caught up with the most recent Zoomdown episode now (from Thursday 3rd July), and have more feedback :) 1. The chat with Ian Wray was pretty much a textbook example of how it's done. Well prepared, well presented, something he was clearly passionate about, interesting, and just the right length...

Phil Stanton

I think they should go even further and have the non-participants swear a solemn oath at the start to not speak, or do anything at all, unless they are called upon. You raise some good points in your post, but I really can't see why it's a problem if a non-participant occasionally chimes in. It add...

Phil Stanton

Now that we're 8 episodes in, here's a bit of feedback as a viewer (and mostly one who watches after the livestream rather than live, just because busy): - It would be nice if there was less delay/uncertainty about when you were actually live, though this might be difficult from a tech point of view...

Phil Stanton

As has already been pointed out, CROCODILE came from the same "hard" file as the rest of the cons for the lower table numbers, it's an 8 on Apto. I only switched to the easier file (which involved ending the game on RoboRiley and starting a new con-only one) for CONSONANT later on. Agreed ...

Phil Stanton

Marc Meakin mentioned this - with tie-break conundrums, it makes sense (after the first failed one) to start giving out easier conundrums. No game should go to five or six tie-breaks! Open to suggestions as to how the software could deal with this - at the moment it pulls in the next conundrum from...

Phil Stanton

Another idea I have from Scrabble is for the losing player ( or both players ) to sign the score sheet to confirm the results are correct. Players pretty much agree the score at the end, and not sure there's ever been a situation where the submitted scores have been disputed, so probably solving a ...

Phil Stanton

Thanks to everyone who came and made it a great day, looking forward to seeing the newbies at more events in future! :) With regards to the tie-breaks, I discussed this with Fiona afterwards. Currently, tie-break conundrums are just drawn from the same file as the regular ones, so they are as hard a...

Phil Stanton

As an addendum to this, but for event hosts ... 1. Is your venue active on social media? This year, mine approached me and asked for photos from last year, and have been sharing and promoting the event on their socials. They even created an event page for me at https://allevents.in/london/co-lon-202...

Phil Stanton

Just to reiterate what I said at Rugby yesterday ... It would be great if event attendees could help with event promotion by sharing their experiences (good ones!) on social media, not just to help spread the word and generate interest about our events, but also to show some support to our host venu...

Phil Stanton

1. What are the timings (start times in particular) for each day's events?

2. Is there a Facebook event page yet?

3. Why do you have a leading zero on your dates (01st and 02nd August) but then inconsistently not have one on your warm-up entry fee (£5 instead of £05)?

Phil Stanton

MEAL PLANS! Once again, we'll be heading to Pizza Express in Baker Street at 7 pm for a Saturday evening meal. Please either vote in the poll on the Facebook page at https://fb.me/e/4C35VezFx or just let me know here on privately whether or not you'd like in on this, so that I can get the booking m...

Phil Stanton

TRAVEL & ACCOMMODATION TRAVEL Advance train fares have been out for a while now, but don't forget that you can also get a coach to London pretty reasonably, if train fares are putting you off. There is a coach stop (Finchley Road, stop CL) 80 yards down the road from the venue, serving National...

Phil Stanton

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. COLIN Handicap Ultimate Match ...

Phil Stanton

Speaking as someone who isn't very likely to be in the top 8 (and certainly hasn't been since I joined the scene), I'm very grateful that the Open at the Finals exists ... without it, there would be almost a 3-month gap with no events for me to attend. (Technically more for me, since Braintree alway...

Phil Stanton

COLIN may have slightly more prestige due to its history/longevity ... when I started on the scene, I was told I really had to go to COLIN, because of its legendary status. Looking back, I think that was based more on the pre- and post-event shenanigans (Fox & Hounds, Travelodge room parties) th...

Phil Stanton

If we want to grow our attendee-base (and I think it's probably a given that we do), then having something centralised like FOCAL is the way to do it. It's far easier to point a newbie to the FOCAL website rather than telling them to trawl around C4C or search for events on Facebook, not to mention ...

Phil Stanton

Too many points for me to quote all of them, but some observations in no particular order ... Checking significant local events should always happen. The obvious ones, like Valentine's Day or Bank Holiday Weekends, but also the less obvious ones, e.g. some of the big Prides, music festivals, etc. Ge...

Phil Stanton

Reasons for starting this discussion include observing what the levels of sign-ups seem to be at events this year so far (both ones we've had and ones to come), and being in the position, as host of an upcoming event, of really not knowing yet what my budget is going to be for trophies, prizes, etc....

Phil Stanton

Worth noting that you can use up to two wildcards * in the focalwordchecker - any more will be ignored https://focaltools.azurewebsites.net/FocalWordChecker.aspx Did not know about that functionality. Would be good if it could be built in to the Maxes checking on TCC's tool, so that everything can ...

Phil Stanton

Access to the word checker will no longer be free for non-subscribers. The main reason for this is that I am too lazy to keep the list of existing co-events maintained in the app to allow non-subscriber access on event days. Another reason is that the only people I tend to see using the app for Wor...

Phil Stanton

LAST CHANCE TO WIN FREE ENTRY! SIGN UP BY 11:59 PM ON WED 12TH FEBRUARY TO QUALIFY! If you're thinking of coming along to CO:LON - Countdown in London - time is running out to be in with a chance of getting FREE ENTRY. All sign-ups received (and paid for!) by 11:59 pm UK time on Wednesday 12th Febr...

Phil Stanton

Tools! Not being rude, but just a heads-up that all the tools you could ever want (possibly!), whether you're an Event Host or an Attendee, are now in one handy place. Head on over to https://www.focalcountdown.com/tools for all the goodness. Event Hosts can share this single link, for their attend...

Phil Stanton

- We're all touching the same letters cards all day so please wash your hands. As much as I regret my immaturity in printing "bloody big twat" on the back of those numbers cards I made, I am more regretful that more than one deck of them are now quite literally "bloody" as they ...

Phil Stanton

Steve Hyde wrote: ↑Thu Jan 30, 2025 11:03 am Re: amplification, I'm happy to sling my PA in my car boot for any events I'm driving to

I hope she's OK with that

Phil Stanton

Agreed that having the promotion of upcoming events after the lunch break is a better place to do it. Let's see if I remember that for London :P For Bristol-style events, displaying the scores during the finals is already built into Fiona's RoboRiley software, as long as the host remembers to tick a...

Phil Stanton

Want free entry to CO:LON 2025?

Everyone who signs up (and pays!) for CO:LON 2025 before 13th February (i.e. by 23:59 on 12th February) will go into a draw ... winner gets their entry fee refunded.

This includes anyone who has already signed up.

Phil Stanton

The bit where we have to stand still in silence and listen to a 15 minute exhaustive checkbox list of upcoming events is always excrutiatingly boring and kills a lot of momentum and excitement in the room. I understand that hosts need to promote events, and this is seen as a good opportunity to do ...

Phil Stanton

None of this "buh kuh duh" nonsense. For events where the event host is happy to let volunteers officiate/present the final, may I suggest to anybody who is wanting to present/officiate a final, but doesn't know how, please just reach out to the host and politely ask! It would be great to...

Phil Stanton

My personal view is that having attendance lists published is better.
For CO:LON, everyone who signs up is explicitly asked if they're happy for their name to be published, with an assurance that it's not a problem if they'd rather not.

Phil Stanton

OK, my thoughts on the question of event capping. First off, I think it's only been a few events recently where I've seen a cap announced, and virtually every time it's been due to venue capacity. I myself had a cap for London this year and will do for next year, for the same reason, although I've n...

Phil Stanton

In Bristol-style events, your opponent's decision is final. The onus is on you to explain your solution correctly, clearly, and without hesitation. Surely your opponent would be too bias to make such a call? I’m not saying that countdowners cheat, but we’re all guilty of unconscious bias and our ju...

Phil Stanton

Yes, there could be a WhatsApp Community for events. However, that would mean getting the phone numbers off all the attendees, so that's another piece of data which has to be collected, if people are happy to give it, plus it requires them to be on WhatsApp, which not everyone is. The vast majority ...

Phil Stanton

Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Wed Oct 23, 2024 10:36 pm With regards what's app groups , I'm sure you can post without your phone number being visible
Or is that only people who have blocked me ?

You can't stop your phone number being visible in a WhatsApp group.
You can in a WhatsApp Community, but that's a different thing.

Phil Stanton

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

Phil Stanton

Mainly cos of a lack of interest for Glasgow this year, I’m tentatively looking at venues just south of the border… Potentially, Carlisle is being looked at as a possibility, possibly in July… Have to say, I didn't see a lot of publicity/promotion for Glasgow, although there may of course have been...

Phil Stanton

I am actually in favour though of not publishing the attendees list. It's never happened at a Co-Event, but I've had a previous experience of being listed as attending on Facebook, and found afterwards another attendee had googled everyone on the list to "get to know" everyone. I didn't l...

Phil Stanton

A reminder that Daz's message about publishing venue and attended list was given as a "recommendation" to event hosts, not a rule of mandate. Which comes back to my point that different hosts will take a different view, and there won't be any consistency. Whether we then see a correlation...

Phil Stanton

I held off on commenting on this until I was back home in front of a device with a real keyboard, during which time many of the points I was going to make have been made, but I'll chuck in my thoughts anyway. I agree that reviewing how events are run in the light of Blackpool is sensible and necessa...

Phil Stanton

Thanks for all the great feedback, really good insights. I think the summary is that the decision of the host (Lincoln) or opponent (Bristol) is final, and that if both players are NWD, regardless of who is nearer, they should both quickly write down their solutions, to avoid potential issues. Fiona...

Phil Stanton

Having seen a few numbers rounds disputes at Co-Events over the years, I think it would be a good idea to have FOCAL policy/guidelines around this, particularly in relation to Bristol-style events. This could be publicised and announced by the event host in advance, so that everyone is aware. Some b...

Phil Stanton

Yay just checked my work calendar and this falls on a weekend off so , I will pencil myself in but I won't send money just yet as the last 2 occasions I paid early I was jinxed and couldn't go . If you have to pull out before the day of the event, you get a refund. So go ahead and gimme your money!...

Phil Stanton

Yay just checked my work calendar and this falls on a weekend off so , I will pencil myself in but I won't send money just yet as the last 2 occasions I paid early I was jinxed and couldn't go . If you have to pull out before the day of the event, you get a refund. So go ahead and gimme your money!...

Phil Stanton

http://philstanton.net/COLON2025.jpg I'm pleased to announce CO:LON 2025 - Countdown in London 2025 – a FOCAL Countdown event. WHEN Saturday 12th April 2025 Doors open at 10:45 am. Gameplay starts at 11:30. WHERE & GETTING THERE “The Venue”, Level 2, The O2 Centre, 255 Finchley Road, London NW3...

Phil Stanton

Because of reasons, London in 2025 will be moving to April, specifically April 12.
My intention, assuming I keep running this event, will be to keep it around Easter time, during the school holidays.

Phil Stanton

Great to see everybody again this weekend. Well done to TCap on a great win on Saturday! Thanks Phil for putting the whole thing on, and Sam was a great co-host/atropine whizz. I think the silent declaration idea worked quite well, kudos to whoever invented that 😊 Thanks Jack, and of course thanks ...

Phil Stanton

Fiona T wrote: ↑Sun Aug 25, 2024 8:33 pm Fantastic weekend - thank you so much Phil, Sam and Jack/Word Game Geeks for a fantastic event, as well as to Tony for the MSO fun today.

Thanks Fiona!

Phil Stanton

What happened to Matthew Tassier? I don't think I imagined talking to him but he's not in any results. Good question! He and Lynne were definitely there near the start, and they were announced as sign ups on the Facebook event, but then seem to have disappeared without playing. there was a personal...

Phil Stanton

Tom S wrote: ↑Sun Aug 25, 2024 11:21 am Great event Phil- very well run and liked the declaration and QR code sheets.

Thanks Tom!

Phil Stanton

Win £1,000! OK, this is deliberately click-baity, I know, and I'm not here just to promote Uber, but ... Uber have a promo on at the moment where you get entered into a draw to win £1,000 in Uber Credits (to use on trains, food or rides) if you book a train ticket on the Uber app by 15th September....

Phil Stanton

I'm not a parkrunner, but Gladstone Park is basically opposite my house. It's a 10 minute walk (max) from there to Dollis Hill tube, and then 4 stops to Finchley Road for the venue. Or you can hire a Lime e-bike and you'll be at the venue in 15 minutes. Callum and Maus have both done the Gladstone P...

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