c4countdown

Graeme Cole

3rd numbers: ((25x5x3)+7)x2+5 = 769 Victoria might not have been quite as good today as she was recently (maybe because of tiredness) but the lightning quick conundrum solve was pretty impressive. It was impressive, but after the conundrum was revealed Nick did faff about for a bit before starting ...

Graeme Cole

Probability of two fair, random, one-large games having the same selection in the same order: (1/4) * (2/20) * (2/19) * (2/18) * (2/17) * (2/16) = 32/7441920 = 1/232560. That assumes all the numbers picked are different, though. For selections where you get two of the same number I think the probabi...

Graeme Cole

I don't necessarily agree with artificially limiting the number of apterites in a series, and I think Countdown's long tradition of valuing skill over other factors in the audition is important and something that makes the show unique, but I can understand the reasoning behind it if it's actually st...

Graeme Cole

OATIER in the GOATIER^ round.

Graeme Cole

Hmm, this is interesting. I thought it might have been that Joseph forgot to press the "Find automatically" button in the recap writer, which is easily done (I did it in one of the rounds for today's recap, as James was kind enough to point out), but that's not the case because there's an ...

Graeme Cole

James Robinson wrote:
Graeme Cole wrote:Round 11: B R T R S A E I O

C1: BORATES (7)
C2: RAREBITS (8)
DC: ORBITERS (8) ARBITERS (8) ROTARIES (8)
Score: 39–57 (max 93)
You must have missed the button, Graeme, cos it says that ARBORIST is also good in this one........

Ah yes, so I did.

Graeme Cole

Mark Deeks wrote:Valid on Aptodic, and I offered it and it was accepted on the show as recently as June. Haven't got me ODE3 to hand, but surely just a blip with the recap writer and not actually an invalid word.

It's valid.

Graeme Cole

Countdown recap for Monday 6 February 2012. C1: Champion Jocelyn Menyhart (2 wins, 178 points.) A maths tutor who has had a pair of strong games, even though her strength seems to lie in the letters rounds rather than the numbers as you might expect. C2: Challenger Victoria James, from Hitchin, Hert...

Graeme Cole

In.

One snag though, just to be awkward I'm going to be on holiday between Monday 12th and Friday 23rd March, so if I'm still in the tournament by that stage I'll only have a small window in which to play those weeks' games. Hopefully I'll be able to sort something out though.

Graeme Cole

Can anyone help solve this? If you go here: http://www.theactuary.com/archive/2012/02/ Click the download link then the Cluedo puzzle is on page 37. I've set up a spreadsheet and I've got the weapon but struggling to proceed. Any help appreciated? Also if anybody can cut and paste the puzzle here r...

Graeme Cole

Round 7: P S C V E I O B T C1: COSTIVE (7) C2: poetics OT: POETICS (7) Score: 47–33 (max 48) Oooooooooooooh, Ryan might want to put in a claim here. As that POETICS in round 7 would've given him the win, he might want to actually punch Dan (see my FB photos, if you have no idea what i'm on about) f...

Graeme Cole

BANG, "APOSTOLIC, YES!" says Mark about as quickly as you read those words. Sorry if that came across as dickish. It was just a hell of a release, what with that being (a) the final that should have been, and that I had spent weeks thinking about, and (b) almost the greatest collapse ever...

Graeme Cole

COLIN 2012 recap for Saturday 28 January 2012, table 6, game 9. The last game of the day... Dinos and Jon Corby are battling in front of James Robinson at the top table with a place in the final at stake, which would turn out to be a rematch. It's close at the top with about half a dozen people in c...

Graeme Cole

Thanks, Ben and Ben's mum. It was an enjoyable and well-run event, and I look forward to it again next year.

Graeme Cole

In the absence of a COLIN 2012 recap thread, I humbly submit this one. I'll kick off with the match Dinos billed as "the final that should have been", and which "by popular demand" was played last in the group of three as some wanted to watch the ending... COLIN 2012 recap for Sa...

Graeme Cole

I shall reveal all at COLIN. And then I'll tell you about the cat. Would I be saying too much if I said it's not always literally "a cat"? - I can't figure out if that gives it away or makes it more confusing though for somebody not in the know! I'm not in the know and it makes it more co...

Graeme Cole

Michael Wallace wrote:I think Gevin must have written that, 9 points for REEDLINGS, eh?

"Here’s a quiz question for Countdown fans: The letters shown in Kirk’s photograph scored him 9 points."

Technically the correct answer to their quiz question is "false".

Graeme Cole

Unlucky there Matt. You did well to get through to the final round and you didn't actually do badly, despite what the Twits say. The chaser hardly put a foot wrong for the entire episode. I doubt there are many teams who'd have beaten him that day.

Graeme Cole

Really? I can only assume the people moaning at him for "not taking it seriously" just don't have a sense of humour. It's quite obvious that CF's providing great entertainment - "je ne comprendez pas" and the skateboarding move answer for an ice-skating question being the highli...

Graeme Cole

Clearly a deliberate loss to maximise screen time (maybe). Twitter is becoming more and more love/hate with him, but it's hard to see which side is winning. It seems an awful lot of people take the show so seriously that they find it necessary to tweet about how much they hate him for not taking it...

Graeme Cole

Countdown recap for Monday 23 January 2012. C1: Champion Mark Murphy (3 wins, 251 points.) A Scrabbler who also enjoys pub quizzes. His girlfriend in the audience is from Nashville, Tennessee. C2: Challenger Cameron McClurg, from Kilmarnock. He's intending either to start his own business or go into...

Graeme Cole

Charlie Reams wrote:I made a wordsy quiz that y'all might like.

Nice. I got 17/25.

Graeme Cole

From discussions with other "losers" from a decade ago, more formal contacts with the programme have not, so far, proved successful. I thought "What the hell" if I try something different Damian might consider giving another opportunity to some "old" blood. From a pers...

Graeme Cole

Congratulations Jack. Well deserved octochampdom.

Alan didn't do too badly either - POTENCE and LAXATIVE were good spots. In another week he could have strung together a few wins.

Graeme Cole

I noted that the image is a 36 x 36 grid, and if I replaced the black squares with 1, and white with 0, I ended up with 36 lines of binary (seems more logical than setting black = 0, white =1, given the large areas of white space). I then tried breaking down each line into groups of n bits (ideally...

Graeme Cole

James Robinson wrote:
Eoin Monaghan wrote:Seeing as Graeme's first recap went down well, I'm happy to alternate Monday's with him if he is too.
If that's fine with Graeme, I don't see any reason why not.

Yep, fine with me.

Graeme Cole

No, it's not a QR code. QR codes have those concentric squares in three of the corners. Doesn't look like any two-dimensional barcode shown here, either.

Graeme Cole

I don't have the board game, but I can bring this along. I made the electronics part months ago but I've only this week come back to it to put it in a box and fix it all together. Slightly easier than rolling dice or messing about with unused number cards to generate a target, and, I'm sure you'll a...

Graeme Cole

Rhys Benjamin wrote:
Ben Wilson wrote:Final score was 14th January 2011
In that case, it's Graeme Cole.

Oh yes, very good point.

Graeme Cole

Rhys Benjamin wrote:
Ben Wilson wrote:Final score was 14th January 2011
In that case, it's Graeme Cole.

Graeme Cole

Thanks Graeme, I'm well aware of all that you pointed out - all I was saying is that, in this instance, it would be hard to argue that Susie's judgement call was incorrect. Ah yes, I was really replying to Innis' post. I think it would have made more sense for me to quote only his post rather than ...

Graeme Cole

Just wondering, is there anything in the dictionary definition of MAIN to suggest that MAINER shouldn't be allowed as a comparative? Or was it just a judgement call by Susie? She seemed oddly definite about it. Well, since MAIN is itself effectively a superlative, it's hard to see how you could der...

Graeme Cole

Would it be daylight all the time on Earth? Nope. As Rosemary said the moon isn't always above the horizon. Also consider the phases of the moon: if it's a new moon then it's the far side of the moon that's illuminated, which is no use to an observer on earth even if the moon were a perfect mirror....

Graeme Cole

Paul Keane wrote:Graeme

Well done on your first recap champ. I think it will take some time to get used to Nick's style, but is it early days yet. Paul

Thanks Paul, and welcome to the forum. Thanks for everyone else's comments as well.

Graeme Cole

Why not, I'll do it if nobody else will. Although I've never recapped anything before, so everyone should feel free to hurl insults and condemn it as the worst recap ever. DONE :!: And done. The big bold link in the recap writer saying "Important: Add to CDB database" is a bit of a stumbl...

Graeme Cole

Countdown recap for Monday 9 January 2012. After the sparkly new titles, Nick Hewer welcomes us to the first show of 2012. In a short introduction he pays tribute to his four predecessors and promises to do as well as he possibly can to follow them and justify his place in the chair. Countdown welco...

Graeme Cole

Rhys will be providing the first Hewer era recap later Will I? Didn't we have this discussion a while back? I got the impression that it had been sorted out. Having looked back in the recap thread, there is actually no-one booked for today's show, or all future Mondays. So, who wants today's show.....

Graeme Cole

I don't think Nick did badly at all. He seemed a bit stiff at times, but nothing you wouldn't expect from someone on the first day of their first presenting job. In a few weeks' time I expect he'll come across a lot more natural. I don't agree that he was treating the contestants in any way similar ...

Graeme Cole

The producers certainly should not be allowed to get away with offering someone a place on the show and then taking it back. Unless maybe the person in question was later found to have broken rules that were already in place. She was invited to audition because there's still the possibility that sh...

Graeme Cole

Casserole and apple pie with custard, please.

Graeme Cole

The first programme of Series 2 to get the ‘max only’ treatment. For the record, in those days, you didn’t have to get within 10 of the numbers target to score 5 points and you only got 10 points for a nine-letter word. Really? I always assumed the 18 points for a nine-letter word had been the case...

Graeme Cole

Graeme Cole

Graeme Cole

James Robinson wrote:Hopefully I'll back on a TV screen near you soon.

Well played James, and bad luck with the final round. At least you still won the trophy.

Your next TV appearance *has* to be Mastermind, with Countdown as your subject.

Graeme Cole

Ooh. Patrick and Chris (the losing couple from what Richard Osman is referring to on his Twitter feed as "Paramaribo-gate") haven't returned for a second appearance today. Wonder if they stormed off in a huff? Not sure what the -gate is all about. It seems pretty open-and-shut to me. [edi...

Graeme Cole

If they have a set amount of time and the question-asking is included in the time, surely some people will be disadvantaged by having longer questions. It certainly used to be the case (not sure if it still is) that the questions and answers were timed so that a contender answering each question co...

Graeme Cole

So has anyone watched this? I thought it was ok. Although the host was annoying me when he kept saying "you have X grand left" instead of "X seconds". Countdown got a mention too in one of the questions. I've watched Monday's episode. It's a nice idea for a format, but it runs a...

Graeme Cole

11th January, 11:11:11.

Graeme Cole

Rhys Benjamin wrote:An out take has just appeared on "It'll be all right on the night" featuring Graeme Cole. It will be on ITV1+1 in about an hour (22:55 UK Time).

Sudden stealth ninja YouTube link!

Graeme Cole

As you know, the rules for the letters game require the contestant to pick between three and five vowels. Presumably this is to prevent contestants who've built up a lead from unfairly protecting it by asking for something silly like nine vowels. I'm curious about when this started. It's not a rule ...

Graeme Cole

Kirk Bevins wrote:Interesting remainder (4).

Its -e-t. Maybe rest or nett?? No idea. Suggestions with reasons please

Nett sounds right - net interest.

Graeme Cole

Only vaguely related, but I made these last year and sent them as Christmas cards.

I make no apologies.

Happy Christmas everybody.

Graeme Cole

Phil Reynolds wrote:Another one correct - well done Graeme. By the way, there seems to be something strangely apt about the fact that your idea of hiding is to make yourself very slightly smaller while still perfectly visible...

Is it? Looks unreadably small on my screen. I set it to size=10.

Graeme Cole

2. 6, 5, 6 (number of octochamps in series 58-65)

Graeme Cole

7. Better known as Dudley Doolittle, the warm-up comedian.

Graeme Cole

In, please.

Graeme Cole

Charlie Reams wrote:
Gavin Chipper wrote:I've heard that it's happened before as well.
Yep.

Ow.

Graeme Cole

I think the reason the winner gets a laptop and the online dictionary subscription in addition to the dictionaries nowadays is simply because the full ODE is no longer the leather-bound gold-leafed set. I seem to recall it's because they don't make that any more. Also agree that the existence of a c...

Graeme Cole

I am about 75+% sure Carl got worrisome by overhearing dictionary corner, going on his body language (probably you didn't see this on camera). Not that this is in anyway cheating or his own fault, not complaining or anything, I think it's happened before, but I just thought I'd mention it. It could...

Graeme Cole

6. 1946: just gone quarter to eight

Seen one very much like that before, though.

Search found 2015 matches