c4countdown

Guy Barry

A couple of alternatives in round 8 - WARIEST and LAWSUIT. Round 6 seemed to have loads of alternative solutions like 6 x (10-4) x 3 and ((3 x 10) - 3) x 4, and round 3 had the rather more "pedestrian" solution of ((4+7) x 75) + (9x3). Quite pleased at getting ORIFICES in round 4 and hitti...

Guy Barry

INFLATE as an alternative in round 2.

Guy Barry

Alt. REASONED in round 12.

Very close-run thing - if Jill hadn't misdeclared in the first round she'd have won.

Guy Barry

Just caught up with yesterday's episode so well done Andy. As I'm normally rubbish at the "four large" rounds I'd just like to say that I had (75 - (100/25) - 8) x 8 as another alternative in round 3 - could be a first!

Guy Barry

Round 2: M W C L S O I E O C1: COELOMS (7) C2: woolies OT: COOLIES (7) Score: 15–0 (max 15) Da fuq? Awesome max by Giles, it's part of a worm intestine or something. Unlucky for Peter - there's a lot of colloquial or regional language that does make it into the dictionary and I had a sneaky suspici...

Guy Barry

OK, I've done a few rough calculations now. For simplicity I'll just look at the "one large" picks. From the graph posted by Graeme some time ago it looks as though they come up about 70% of the time, so that's about 9000 games played in total. For further simplicity I'll just look at the ...

Guy Barry

I haven't done the calculation either, but given that there must have been something like 13,000 numbers games in the entire history of Countdown (I'm sure someone will supply the correct figure), it doesn't strike me as particularly remarkable that two of them turned out to be the same. It's a vers...

Guy Barry

What happens if Glen carries on into the next series but then loses his 8th game and then, as it's a full-length series, his score is overtaken by 8 other people, so he doesn't make the finals? Is that possible? If so it might be better to deliberately lose game 7 to ensure a place in This series' ...

Guy Barry

Well, on the basis of yesterday's programme I don't think I like the new final round format at all. First of all, I had difficulty remembering the sub-categories when the answers were displayed. And secondly, the first two sub-categories had only one pointless answer each, making them virtually impo...

Guy Barry

Difficult to say whether it's an improvement or not on the basis of one show, particularly since the contestants only gave answers from one sub-category anyway. I suspect the jackpot will be won more often this way, but it's hard to be sure. But I'm still awestruck by the contestants on Wednesday's ...

Guy Barry

I have to say this. Even if Richard ends up losing by a large margin, UMPTEEN is one of the better spots I've seen in awhile, particularly from a non-apterite, so I'll give him a lot of credit for that. Agreed, particularly as he'd scored nothing up to that point. I had ENCODES as an alternative in...

Guy Barry

Sorry to keep pointing out errors like this, but are you quite sure you've got the numbers of the preliminary rounds right? 48-51 seem to have come around twice now, and they don't match up with the round numbers in the recaps section.

Guy Barry

Andy Platt wrote:There was a better scramble available for the con :p

I know - it completely distracted me from finding the correct answer!

Guy Barry

UNRESTED as an alt to EXTRUDES in R11. Also DENTURES, with RAGTIME as an alternative in R12. And ((50 x 2)-1) x 8 in R3. I thought of COWARDY in R13 but rejected it! Some very good selections of letters there - my highest personal score for some time, though Glen would have beaten me. Hope he conti...

Guy Barry

Has there ever been a round quite like the second round in yesterday's programme? On the first pass, all three contestants came up with variations on the same answer: the musical containing "Any Dream Will Do" was named as "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat", "Joseph and ...

Guy Barry

I thought Jack was doing well by getting the date wrong, but posting in the wrong section entirely is a stroke of genius

Guy Barry

That was quick! I spotted the deliberate mistake in the header

Guy Barry

Another alternative for round 9 was ((25 x 9)-6) x 3. I also had an alternative for round 3: (((5 x 10) + (9 - 6)) x 4 - 25. I was surprised that POSEY went without remark in round 4. At first I thought the contestant had misdeclared and offered POSY as a five-letter word, but there's also a slang w...

Guy Barry

Zarte Siempre wrote: fast forward letter choosing

Why would you want to do that? That's usually the time when I work out my answer!

Guy Barry

That's a relief! Surprised there's no mention on the Wiki, or even a clip on YouTube. Apart from the Gotcha, I can't think of another appearance of the genuine Countdown set on the BBC.

Guy Barry

FORAGES is yet another for round 7.

Guy Barry

What Richard Osman actually said was "on a conventional atlas", which I thought was something of a cop-out - how does one define what's conventional? I suspect there are some Pacific island groups that could qualify as both west and east of London depending on which atlas you use. Fortunat...

Guy Barry

Here's one that I've gradually pieced together from memory. As I can find no record of the episode in question anywhere I'd be grateful for any confirmation. It took place as part of the TV version of Simon Mayo's Confessions , a show where members of the public were embarrassed by revelations of th...

Guy Barry

How would OUTRATED have been in round 4?

Regarding Rachel's remarks about Bob Holness as James Bond - he didn't play him on TV, but in a South African radio production in 1956. See this site for a list of all the actors to have played Bond (the earliest was Barry Nelson in 1954).

Guy Barry

Oh, I suppose so. A bit strained though don't you think?

Guy Barry

I generally like Jo Brand on Countdown but I admit that the whole making up silly words thing starts to tire if it's done to death like it has the last couple of shows. Some people can pull it off. Richard Stilgoe was excellent at it - but his inventions were always inspired in comparison with most...

Guy Barry

Isn't there a convention that the clue should be at least mildly cryptic? The first of yesterday's teasers was: VINORISE - "It's what all good students should do before the exam." This just seemed like a straight clue to the answer, unless there's some cunning piece of wordplay that I miss...

Guy Barry

(round 10)

Graeme Cole wrote: You might think TOMMIES^ would be in, but it's only there with a capital T.

By the way, the name that everyone was groping for was Tommy Atkins:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Atkins

Guy Barry

I have just watched the first of these and am still utterly gobsmacked that "Marvin the Paranoid Android" could have been a pointless answer. When I was at school "brain the size of a planet" seemed to be one of the most popular catchphrases...

Guy Barry

Hi guys, James Roper is having login problems and, as such, has aptomailed me his recap to paste here - (any comments in red will be mine). Well done James! Just one thing - on round 13 you say that OVERLAIN is the past tense of OVERLAY. It isn't - it's the past participle of OVERLIE. The correct f...

Guy Barry

Andy Platt wrote: Edit: DEVOURS and GROUSED in round 12, probably amongst others

I had DROVERS in round 12. Really surprised that DC could only come up with six-letter words.

Guy Barry

szodiac wrote: Round 10 a possible 9 in REMASKING* was scuppered as it was not in ODE3 nor Collins!

Would REMAKING have been OK?

Also, what about OXIDATE in round 13? I know the usual verb is "oxidize", but the noun is "oxidation" and some sources list it as an alternative.

Guy Barry

Would REALIGHT have been OK in round 4? I thought of it but then decided against it on the grounds that once you've alighted from a train, it's a bit difficult to alight from it again. (Unless you get back on board of course

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Guy Barry

edit: then stay tuned for the following programme too. It's called Harry and is another word game!! Words in bubbles. My French isn't that brilliant but I could soon get addicted. If you stay tuned after Harry, there's a crossword-based game called Slam which I think is even better. Thanks for the ...

Guy Barry

Going off on a tangent here, but in the early days, it was quite standard for contestants to specify which rows they wanted the small numbers from - you still get hangovers from that era like the "Whitehall" (1-2-1-2) or the inverted T, but generally such formalities seem to have been disp...

Guy Barry

Did no one actually watch today?

I didn't exactly cover myself in glory. I thought of VAMPIEST in round 5 and rejected it, and matched DC in round 13 with MAUNDERS. I think (8+6-1)x2x7 was a reasonable alternative in round 14. It was touch and go on the conundrum. Otherwise I was nowhere.

Guy Barry

Surprised no one's mentioned KIDNEYS in round 12. And would HASTING have been an alternative in round 7?

What was the closest anyone got in round 6? I had (75 x (10+5-3)) - 5 = 895.

Guy Barry

Ian Volante wrote:
Graeme Cole wrote:RR: 983. 10*100-((4-1)*3-10) (10)
Huh?

"3" is a typo for "9". There was no 3 in the selection.

Guy Barry

A really odd one for me today as I did really badly in the early letters rounds and yet somehow managed to end up with a personal score of 84 (against both contestants), with the help of four perfect numbers games, MURDERS in round 8, FLUORITE in round 12 and a 10-second conundrum. Hope Eileen manag...

Guy Barry

James Robinson wrote: [Round 6] Oh dear, Katie still seems to be in neutral on the numbers, and Elaine takes full advantage

Was there a mystery third contestant then?

I think RESUMING in round 13 was spotted by Rachel rather than DC.

Guy Barry

Andy Platt wrote:It's odd how in her first game I was very impressed with her numbers but unfortunately they seem to be becoming worse now.

Because that was the only time she picked three large numbers?

Guy Barry

If audience figures are falling, then why was Channel 4 so keen to get an extra minute of advertising during the programme? That really doesn't add up.

Guy Barry

Might be worth mentioning that the decision to take two large numbers in round 14 was Rachel's own after Paul passed up on it. She was clearly sick of all those awful "one large" rounds!

Guy Barry

Any idea why it took Rachel so long to come up with the solution to round 3? I had ((75+6) * (2+5+1)) - 5, slightly different from hers, but it didn't strike me as anything out of the ordinary. Similarly I'm puzzled how DC managed to come up with the relatively obscure REPINED in round 12 while miss...

Guy Barry

Before going into the break, Susie reveals that she has overruled her original decision to disallow Pat's offering of TAXIES in round 7. Although the plural of TAXI is given as TAXIS, the word TAXIES is mentioned in the definition which leads Susie to decide that there's some sort of misprint in th...

Guy Barry

Teatime teaser: NAGSALES -> LASAGNES "It's been known for nags to end up in the sale of these." Quality teaser there. Yes, a bit of topical humour there - don't know why Nick Hewer had to act so disgusted as he read out the solution. Jimmy Carr would have delivered it better (but it wasn'...

Guy Barry

Would BITTERER have been OK for round 4?

I thought of RIGOUT for round 13, but I suspect that's hyphenated.

Guy Barry

Graeme Cole wrote:A conundrummable word is any nine-letter word without any valid anagrams and which isn't a regular plural.

As a matter of interest, do you know why the restriction on plurals is there?

Guy Barry

Round 8 (Picked by Lee): 50, 75, 8, 5, 1, 9. Target: 896. Jimmy's Distraction: Makes a wooden rabbit sculpture. Team 1 - Richard: 895. ((9 + 1 + 8) x 50) - 5 (7) / Lee: 4000. (9 + 1) x 8 x 50 (0) :lol: Team 2 - Jon: 0 / Stephen: 894.44444444. :P Mistake in working. I thought Stephen's declaration w...

Guy Barry

Interesting that before the players are introduced, Jimmy does a little gag mentioned the infamous Jack Hurst/SHITFACE incident, yet he cocks up by saying that he could've added the D that he didn't use at the end for SHITFACED, but in the ODE2r, that is hyphenated. :roll: :oops: :lol: Which would ...

Guy Barry

Rhys, why can't you just relax and try to enjoy it for what it is, which is first comedy, then Countdown? Sure, but I think it's actually funnier when they try to take it at least semi-seriously. There's quite a fine balance which I think worked better this week than last week. They can get rid of ...

Guy Barry

Well, just as a data point, it happened yesterday and they didn't win the jackpot (19th-century prime ministers). Only four pointless answers by the way - I'm wondering if there ought to be some sort of minimum standard for questions. Would they set a category in the final where there was only one p...

Guy Barry

Andy Platt wrote: Round 9: 50, 10, 4, 2, 1, 7. Target: 844.

C1: 845. Mistake in working.
C2: nothing offered
RR: 844. (10 + 7) x 10 - 4 - 2 (10)

Excellent recap but a small typo here!

Guy Barry

Second day in a row Nick has had a very, very, too short an introduction to the contestants. Clipped by editing maybe !? Possibly edited to give Paul Zenon time to do his trick in the middle? Incidentally, the total running-time fell from 36 to 35 minutes when the new format was introduced, as Chan...

Guy Barry

Nick fell victim to the practice of alluding to another scheduled event to make it seem as if the episode was live, whereas we know it had been recorded weeks ago. Going on about some pop concert as if it was the big event of the day was an unfortunate coincidence - I suppose it would have been OK ...

Guy Barry

I guessed the payoff to Paul Zenon's card trick. No idea how he did it though

Guy Barry

What's the best method of calculating one's own score when watching a game? There seem to be several possible methods: (1) Raw score, ignoring the contestants; (2) Playing against one contestant or the other; (3) Playing against both contestants simultaneously, so you only claim the points if neithe...

Guy Barry

This standard really isn't any different from how like 90% of us played before finding the online community. Interesting you should say that. I'm just an armchair fan who's never played online and the likes of Giles would have absolutely wiped the floor with me. Yet (pitting myself against the bett...

Guy Barry

Jojo Apollo wrote:Very well done Giles on becoming an octochamp and setting a new record.

Congratulations indeed. I just feel chuffed at beating him to that last conundrum! (20 seconds is pretty good by my standards...)

Guy Barry

I can only presume that STEADINGS was meant as a joke, since Lee Mack looked just as shocked as everyone else when it was revealed to be a legitimate word. Did the comedy element actually play to his advantage?

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