c4countdown

Ben Wilson

Jason Larsen wrote:I'm sorry, David.

I bet you can all hear the Countdown clock "ticking on down" in your sleep, can't you?

No, but whenever I see threads like this, I can hear the theme tune to the Twilight Zone.

Ben Wilson

How about I lock it today and claim victory? :p

Ben Wilson

Loser.

Ben Wilson

The entrants comprised 26 series champions, three Championship of Champions winners who were not regular series champions and 25 other finalists from the first 32 series. The six champions of the first 32 series not to compete in the Supreme Championship were Andrew Guy, Nic Brown, Rajaretnam Yogas...

Ben Wilson

jasoncullen wrote:DERAILING

Seconded. How did they miss that?

Ben Wilson

First game of the Wills/Travers semi-final is being played tonight- I've not heard anything from either Paul or Ben so not sure what's happening there. Deadline for SF games to be completed is March 21st.

Ben Wilson

Nine-letter words, Jim? Anyway, I'm feeling a little under the weather right now, so I'm going to relax for a little while. I'll see you later. I'm sorry to hear that, Jason. Have a bit of a lie down, maybe a hot cup of tea, hm? When you've recovered, here's a list of the words you could have been ...

Ben Wilson

Not quite what you're looking for but I'll do the series 46 final rounds over the Easter holidays (which, perversely, begin on April 4th).

Ben Wilson

Alphabetic update: 6. CHADRAIN - arachnid 9. SURETIME - emeritus 24. GENTFARM - fragment 4. TOYGARRY - gyratory 19. HARMGOOL - hologram 1. BEAUTJIL - jubilate 23. GOANORAK - kangaroo 11. HALTREGY - lethargy 25. TAMPONIE - ptomaine 3. REALQUIT - quartile 15. SLEEPTUX - sextuple 7. MARISUIT - tiramis...

Ben Wilson

Have to admit I was guilty of it during my appearances.

Though I much preferred 'urgh' or 'oh dear' when one of the nasty ones popped out.

Ben Wilson

The only British one that immediately springs to mind is Bullseye, but even that's sort-of grunted out by Tony Green- "And here's your host, Jim Booowen!"

Ben Wilson

JURISDICTION, QUARTERSTAFF & ZOOLOGICALLY for the 'power' letters.

YOUTHFULNESS for Y.

Ben Wilson

Yep, I've had Brawl pre-ordered since about April last year. Might need to go and refresh that pre-order, actually- my original Wii preorder (which I made about 10 months in advance) kinda went a bit walkabout from GAME's systems so better safe than sorry. I'm also pretty fond of Guitar Hero- thoug...

Ben Wilson

The only problem I found with the DVD was the way the Conundrum was set up, other than that I thought it was good. I remember one round offered FISHCAKE as the maximum word, but there was also a T in the selection IIRC, so I think you could've had SHITFACE too :lol:. I had that exact round at my au...

Ben Wilson

Yep, I've had Brawl pre-ordered since about April last year. Might need to go and refresh that pre-order, actually- my original Wii preorder (which I made about 10 months in advance) kinda went a bit walkabout from GAME's systems so better safe than sorry. I'm also pretty fond of Guitar Hero- though...

Ben Wilson

Indeed- the semi-finals are now decided, and they are: Conor Travers vs. Chris Wills Paul Howe vs. Ben Pugh Games are all best-of-3 15 rounders- the winner of each tie will be the first to win two games outright regardless of score- and are to be completed by Friday 21st March. Note- for sanity's sa...

Ben Wilson

Most importantly, enjoy your time at the studios Matt- it really is something you'll never forget no matter how many you win. Say hi to Carol for me!

Ben Wilson

The original deadline has come and gone... obviously I don't want to have to resort to giving someone a bye in the tournament proper, so can someone update me on Mark vs. Ben/Dave and when it looks likely to go ahead? In other news, Chris & Conor, can you start playing your semi-final please. BJW

Ben Wilson

If either Mark or Ben are unavailable it seems a shame to forfeit the game. As Ben suggested one of the Wild Cards could fill in. I reckon DOD would be a strong contender and deserves another shot after having the misfortune to be drawn against Corby in a 2nd KO round. That said Mark and Ben may st...

Ben Wilson

The game does need to be played by this weekend at the very latest- I don't want this dragging out, so if you could work something out I'd be grateful.

Ben Wilson

Brilliantly during the practice game between Mark and Dan Van last night Coungen spat out 100, 1, 10, 7, 6, 2 Target: 101. First-ever millisecond round I've ever hosted.

Just for a laugh I WTPed it and got about 170 solutions.

Ben Wilson

Martin Gardner wrote:I don't really know any good Scrabble players who learn the meanings of words.

I can think of one off-hand- David Sutton, who is phoenomenally intelligent anyway and one of the best Scrabblers in the land. I for one would love to see him have a go at Countdown.

Ben Wilson

Hold your horses, you'll get your answer! :) ...And it is Chris Wills vs. Jon O'Neill, possibly the most anticipated 'new' fixture in online Countdown history (neither player has ever played the other before). Festivitie start tomorrow at about 7pm. In all seriousness, an 'events calendar' might be ...

Ben Wilson

I can tell you that it will be a very special game of Countdown that none of you will ever forget. I'm sorry Jason, but I need some more information before I can get involved in such a project. How special will it be? You can rate the specialness on a scale of 0 to 10 if you wish. I should warn you...

Ben Wilson

Corby wrote:No, some of us engage in cybersex as well.

Jesus H. Christ Corby, how many times have I told you to keep that quiet!?

Ben Wilson

manandmadman ATTTTTTTT hotmail DOTTTTTTTTT com.

Seven years' practice at typing manandmadman and still I screw it up. Both times during this post.

Ben Wilson

Martin Smith wrote:'owselknar'

Speaking of schoolboy humour, anyone else immediately spot another 7 in there?

Ben Wilson

I remember when we started MSN countdown in 2002 or something, everyone used to get a game even if it was just a friendly. This was before Soo created the ratings system. And yeah we used to stay up to whatever time we felt like. I was a bit disappointed last time I logged on that I didn't get a ga...

Ben Wilson

I have learnt my lesson on that one Reams.

Only one that isn't being played this week is Mark vs. Ben- if the two of you could play either Wednesday or Friday it'd be handy, as that was we can get the best-of-3 semi-finals started next week.

Ben Wilson

Ginger Jono wrote:23/04/98 Des Lynam 32-17 Sian Lloyd

Well, 32 is pretty bad in a nine rounder I think. However, after a year's practise, maybe he's a little better.

They were seven-rounders mate- LLNLLNC format. Though really you should still be getting 40 + under those circumstances.

Ben Wilson

...And form occurs as Corby wallops David 122-92. The first round draw has been made and looks like this-

Jon Corby vs. Conor Travers
Ben Pugh vs. Mark Tournoff
Tom Hargreaves vs. Paul Howe
Chris Wills vs. Jon O'Neill

All matches are 15-rounders and to be played by February 29th. Enjoy.

Ben Wilson

They made me dance at my Weakest Link audition, the buggers. (I passed it, btw, but they then told me 3 months later it'd been too long since I'd applied so I had to start all over again. I very politely them to piss off.) Did you apply under the pseudonym Michael Flatley? Or perhaps attend the So ...

Ben Wilson

They made me dance at my Weakest Link audition, the buggers.

(I passed it, btw, but they then told me 3 months later it'd been too long since I'd applied so I had to start all over again. I very politely them to piss off.)

Ben Wilson

He's Jon Corby. He knows everything he wants to.

Ben Wilson

I *was* wondering why Paul Howe is in there since he's the only one that isn't a Series champion. Obviously he's a brilliant player, but Tom Hargreaves who was a Series runner up and me and Corby who were semi-finalists were made to qualify (I lost by the way by about 20 points). Perhaps it should ...

Ben Wilson

The masters are now known! Playing in the first COMA will be:

Chris Wills
Conor Travers
Jon O'Neill
Paul Howe
Mark Tournoff

Meaning some more play-off action will be required. Charlie, tell the assembled masses how we shall get 3 entrants from 4 first-round winners, please.

Ben Wilson

No, but I can drown gracefully.

Ben Wilson

However he nailed me by solving STAGDROOP in one second to take the game. That was on TV very recently. http://thecountdowncorral.com/cd/recap.asp?recap=1237 Oops- for what it's worth, I didn't actually see that show or conundrum- the one online was originally going to be ARTHROPOD but I then chang...

Ben Wilson

Crackers and cheese it is at COLIN 09 then.

Ben Wilson

As Paul mentioned rather modestly elsewhere on here, he's turned his attention to Scrabble over the last few years, and today scored his first major success by becoming Northern Ireland's first national champion . He edged out this group's founding father Stewart Holden, who finished second, and a ...

Ben Wilson

Tough choice, but I do like a bit of mild brie- don't get me wrong, I love blue cheese, but you can't beat a bit of brie.

Ben Wilson

Julian wrote:Have Chris W and Craig B turned the invitation down Ben, or just not got back to you?

Not heard back from them yet, will be chasing them up tomorrow. If they're both unavailable, I may bring in some reserves rather than open up 4 wild card places- but obviously I'd rather it didn't come to that.

Ben Wilson

Exact same thing as they had on Brainteaser, only it went down to 9 letters as well.

Ben Wilson

Inviting back players who nearly beat eventual Octochamps might be worth doing (Austin Shin comes to mind). Agreed on all counts. If given enough time to prepare Austin would be absolutely deadly. And probably would've been 2 years ago too if he hadn't gone headlong into John Davies in his first sh...

Ben Wilson

Possibly the most self-explanatory thread title ever... Following on from the David Mitchell comments, who is it you would most like to see in Dictionary Corner? Toss-up between two people for me- Ronnie Corbett (genuine funny man, surely hundreds of fantastic anecdotes) and Patrick Stewart (don't r...

Ben Wilson

It was done at the start of 2006, and ultimately decided it probably wasn't a good idea after all IIRC.

Ben Wilson

Corby wrote:
Charlie Reams wrote:Richard just hit me with a private torrent of abuse and, as you can see, has deleted all of his posts. I guess that means I win the argument?

Please post it

Please don't.

Ben Wilson

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gky2EZCTv_M

Ben Wilson

...On information provided by Stewy. I think he was invited back, much like Helen Grayson/Darryl Francis in series 6, and later James Squire/terry Rattle/Amey Deshpande.

Ben Wilson

You don't have to by any means, but it would make it consistent with the other tourneys (CoBris uses the list too).

Ben Wilson

They're seeded according to the rankings on the Corral- most years I'm able to use a program especially designed for COLIN by Soo (which is also being rewritten for the 2009 event), sometimes (like this year) I make do with a spreadsheet. 2005 was randomly drawn, incidentally. Even at the time, a Ho...

Ben Wilson

http://www.countdownwiki.com/480_club ...Does exist, and contains the 500 club too, but I'm thinking maybe 480 was a bit of a vicious cut-off- I'm open to suggestions from anyone... Worth noting from that page though is the level of talent on display in Series 41- and #s 4 and 5 seed were on 479 and...

Ben Wilson

Also I hear (from Charlie) that in past COOTs, players have been free to decide between themselves whether to play over 9 rounds or 15 rounds... seems a bit daft to me, surely every game in a tourney should stick to the same format? I hope future COOTs will do... Coot III definitely had fixed-forma...

Ben Wilson

Actually Kirk was 3rd, on 28- Jim bentley was second with 26. Nick Wainwright was the only other one who came even close, with 29.

Have to admit I'm also surprised, I'd pretty much written Kirk's name down in the slot, but dropping 18 points to Dan Van in round 2 what was did him in.

Ben Wilson

To me Blackjack is that game where if a black jack is played the next person picks up 7 cards (unless they have red jack which cancels it) I love that game, especially when we play with rules where you can stack up black jacks and 2s to make a hideous penalty. And especially when I've preloaded the...

Ben Wilson

Well, after much procrastination, I'm finally able to award the final prize that wasn't announced at COLIN- the tuff luck award. This goes to the player who has the lowest total spread from three games in which they were beaten (obviously only the three closest games are considered for this prize). ...

Ben Wilson

Compared to getting COOT going in a forward direction, this should be a doddle- only four games to worry about at any one time as opposed to the about 15 beforehand, and quarter-finals played before qualifying rounds in some places. :-/ The speedy knock-out will have to be a little more vicious thou...

Ben Wilson

Hi all Before the next COOT, I'm organising a small online knock-out along the same lines as the ABSP Masters scrabble tourney- an elite competition for top players. An insane amount of the current top players play online- not least our latest octochamp Mr. O'Donnell- so I decided, why not pit them ...

Ben Wilson

For me, I suppose Julian would be Michael Schumacher. Breaking just about every record in the book, smashing the vast majority of his opposition, but ultimately not as invincible as he often seemed. Similarly Allan Saldanha when he first appeared could be Lewis Hamilton- immensely popular, young, an...

Ben Wilson

Hi Julian CoBris started 2005, same year as COLIN, and has run in July ever since though this year's date is kind of up in the air right now. I think Jerry said end of April but I will naturally defer to whatever he says. CoRed was at Redhill in Surrey, and organised brilliantly by Kevin Thurlow, an...

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