c4countdown

Julian Fell

I tend to agree, there's no reason that Apterous should "replace" MSN tournaments as there are advantages to them I can't imagine people will be queuing up to act as hosts when it can be done automatically, but if people want to waste their time then I won't dissuade them. I've probably h...

Julian Fell

Yes I was going to say Kirk - was this Rich's first / almost first ever game on Apterous? Bit cruel if that's the case - though looking at previous messages, I guess he did volunteer to play on Apterous. Should have taken Charlie's advice, Rich :) Still, good stuff Kirk, kids bugging you about Count...

Julian Fell

It's a touch hard to pin Jerry H down, but it looks like we will indeed be playing tonight on MSN at 8... hopefully someone can be there to host

(edit to say: looking at another thread, I know not to bother asking Charlie

)

Julian Fell

Countdown recap for Friday 19th September 2008. I attempted to host a game on MSN for the first time in years, and it wasn't fun. Apologies to the contestants for the rough edges in my hosting (I had to re-start CountGen at one point, hence the lack of an E in the first four letters rounds)... C1: C...

Julian Fell

Aaargh avert your eyes all who enter this place :( Before I say anything else, big thank you to Kirk for staying in especially to host the game (after I'd cocked up by arranging it at the same time as your game vs. Julie) and for writing this recap - I owe you one (no, not in that sense) But this wi...

Julian Fell

Jerry has now got back to me so it looks like he will be playing in my and Steven's group after all - he and I will probably be playing our game on Sunday at 8pm, and I imagine it will be on MSN because I don't think Jerry's too familiar with Apterous, though I may be wrong. But if somebody could pr...

Julian Fell

Oh yes and you might want to change the bit where it says "there are currently 36 spaces remaining" on the front page of the site (

); and the link to Charlie's ratings needs updating as well. Just little things that's all, great website though

Julian Fell

Nice one Mr Reams you are a legend!!

Julian Fell

Jono and Julie, I'm glad somebody thinks the same way as me re human intervention! Apterous is a great tool but I think for tournaments organized on the forum, you have to give people the option of playing on MSN as well - a lot of people are struggling with Apterous, and even if you aren't, IMHO MS...

Julian Fell

Yeah probably Charlie, ok. So can anyone host me vs. Steven on MSN, 8pm tomorrow? Jono that's exactly what I was saying, most people don't take it as seriously as you or I do. And, two months ago, you could get the details of (most) past tournament games for free on this forum; I don't think you sho...

Julian Fell

Cheers Ben

Need to get Tournoff and Travers in there now...

Julian Fell

Yay!

Julian Fell

Bizarre behaviour on the ratings- losing to Stewy in his first ever game dropped my rating from 580 to 356. Unlucky :) I think the same thing happened to Kirk when he lost to Matthew Green in one of his first games. IIRC Kirk challenged him again, beat him and had his rating restored to an even hig...

Julian Fell

Fair enough! - when I said "at the moment", what I really meant was, "the last time I checked"

Julian Fell

The conundrums do need sorting out though Charlie - it seems to be most of the time that it's jumbled randomly. Perhaps have a feature whereby a third party - a human - can set the conundrum for tournament games? I know you don't like this whole human-intervention thing, but still... On the same lin...

Julian Fell

Ben, when are you going to apply to go on the show? After my A-Levels. Ben, you get yo' sorry ass on that programme, you hear me? :) Or at least to COLin or COBris. I stand by what I've said before - if you play as well in the studio as you do online, you'll be very unlucky not to be a series champ...

Julian Fell

However in the spirit of generosity, I'll change it so that the COGST games are viewable forever. Ah right has this been done now Charlie? I asked about this in the Events forum without looking here first. It's definitely the right thing to do IMHO (and for all tournaments, not just COGST) Totally ...

Julian Fell

Don't give people ideas, Dinos, don't give them ideas...

Julian Fell

Lol, a lot of mix-ups going on here. Right, a few things to say: I'm due to play Steven Briers at 8pm tomorrow (Friday, I mean), and we're going to play on MSN because Steven hasn't had chance to practise on Apterous (indeed, he apparently hasn't played a competitive online Countdown game of any sor...

Julian Fell

Ben / Jono, get that list of attendees on the website sorted out

Please

Julian Fell

Well done Paul H - two great performances I was wondering if people could, where they have time, write text recaps for their games using the Recap Writer on Charlie's site (cdb I mean)? - the Wiki-type recaps which Apterous automatically writes are fine, but they make it a bit difficult if you want ...

Julian Fell

IMHO priorities should be: sorting out the conundrums (making the scrambles into word-forms like on TV, and having some way of making tournament conundrums be of an appropriate difficulty level) and having a challenge feature for disallowed words. Otherwise, as mentioned before Charlie, if there's s...

Julian Fell

Yes, great work Charlie

Julian Fell

I remember in an article written by Stewart Holden said that in Scrabble in the 1970s CINQ was allowed whereas CHEF was not. It just depends who's reading the dictionary. Martin I think I read a quote from Joyce Cansfield where she said one of her funniest (funnest?) memories of her years playing S...

Julian Fell

I have the new ODE2r ... Is the new ODE2r different from the ODE2r? No. It is confusing though Howard - several years ago I remember Stuart Earl adamantly insisting to me that there must be different NODEs, because his had words in it which mine didn't. It turned out that the dictionary Stuart had ...

Julian Fell

BROMINES has been allowed on the show before, though I think it would be disallowed now if it came up again. Though who knows really. Allowing plurals of elements is pretty dodgy; I know I'm not the only one who thinks that, at least (!) - they have allowed IODINES a couple of times recently (includ...

Julian Fell

I take your point Charlie, and certainly I'm in awe of - and very grateful for - the amount of time you put into your site and promoting Countdown etc. I do tend to see the all-time results archive as the "core" (and most impressive part) of Mike's site, and it's a shame it's no longer uni...

Julian Fell

confusing contestants with such an ambiguous rule Well they were happy enough to do that re the mass-nouns rule, which is an issue far more often than things like FUNEST / LONEST ever are... The NODE, ODE2 and ODE2r do make sense, anyway. Like I keep saying, you'll never find a general-use dictiona...

Julian Fell

But anyway Jono is this because MORTICE is listed as a variant of MORTISE so we're left with the question of whether all the derivatives are valid? I think this is why Julian Fell didn't go for COLONISER once upon a time but I think it was confirmed as allowable. Has there not been a general ruling...

Julian Fell

Taking BASSLINE and BASSLINES out is a travesty, though. Stupid dictionary. Were they actually ever in, though? They weren't in the NODE, aren't in the ODE2r. I haven't got a copy of the ODE2 any more so can't check that... Jim am I right in thinking that you originally drew up your wordlist based ...

Julian Fell

Hmm... Jim said he had fixed all the things mentioned previously on the thread before uploading the new version, but he hadn't removed FERREL(S) yet so that still needs doing. (Edit to say: BLEATINGS, NUDISMS and POLICINGS still need to be added as well) Summary of other mistakes found so far in Jim...

Julian Fell

Yes, poor-quality game today... and I continue to have a mare on the numbers; I've watched 3 shows so far on my return, got only 2 out of the 9 numbers games :( And I'm up against two numbers specialists in Martin's competition... oh well. I also missed LIGATED and OBLIGED / BEDLOAD today, so not gr...

Julian Fell

I think the rule re adding -ER and -EST to single-syllable adjectives is that it's allowed within reason - I think Damian said once that truly ridiculous examples like SOLER and LONEST wouldn't be allowed. Obviously these would have to reach a very high standard of ludicrousness to be disallowed - s...

Julian Fell

Ben O Ben, is there any chance you could put on the website a list of who's signed up for COLin so far, like you did with CONot? Oh yes and as requested on the site, I can bring a copy of the ODE2r if need be

Julian Fell

Seems fair enough to add Joseph since you did say Martin that you'd leave it open for people to join till the 10th... Also, might be a good idea to give people at least a rough deadline for when the group games have to be played by - JUST AN IDEA, don't jump down my throat. I've drawn two numbers sp...

Julian Fell

Yes that's a good point Mike - the Corral / its successor is looking more and more like The Countdown Page all the time

Fair enough if you're happy with it - but your page is the original and best (Charlie don't get annoyed with me, I'm not having a go at you)

Julian Fell

Yeah Martin I think that's the idea, though it doesn't sound like it's completely ready yet. Charlie does the apterous site write automatic game recaps as well? Would be useful... But yes it'll be good to have David O'D back - missed you in last tournament. Speaking of which: no Corby in this tourna...

Julian Fell

It was great Jason - as many other contestants (including Charlie now) have said, the whole recording experience was/is fantastic. I haven't been so keen on the attention that has come with it since, but the actual filming and competing and meeting everyone was truly memorable.

Julian Fell

Good stuff Martin, that's pretty comprehensive. This probably comes under "the bleeding obvious" as well, but there'll be a lot of games to be played so make sure you keep a fairly tight rein on the scheduling of the tournament won't you - give people deadlines (within reason) and so on, d...

Julian Fell

lol. Anyway I'll have a go Martin (if you're willing to have me in the tournament). Is it going to be 9-round or 15-round games? Also, you said about MSN Messenger and hosts - so are we not using Charlie's apterous site? (haven't had chance to play a game on it yet, so don't really know much about i...

Julian Fell

I shall certainly endeavour to be there Ben, please put me on the list. Will give you payment on the day... thanks

Julian Fell

Goodness me a lot's happened in the month or so I've been away - nice one Charlie, and I hope it went really well. They must have seriously fast-tracked your application, it was only at the start of July that you sent the form in wasn't it? Still it's good that you got chance to play in Carol's last...

Julian Fell

Hi sorry for the late reply, have been busy organizing moving house. It was really good meeting everyone, and hats off to Ben and his mum for taking it on themselves to run another tournament. Where would we be without them? I got an insight into just how difficult these real-life tournaments are - ...

Julian Fell

I got reseating but wondered about gratinees? So did John Davies in his game vs. Paul Gallen... Edit because that's a bit unhelpful: Lee, 'gratinees' is no good - in his game vs. Paul Gallen in the quarter-finals of the last CofC, John Davies saw both RESEATING and GRATINEES^ in the first round, an...

Julian Fell

Hi everyone, looking forward to meeting you all. I would just say - please don't be offended if I don't recognize some of you - I've seen very little Countdown in the last 4 years or so and have completely missed the likes of Paul Howe, Jono and others on-screen. Of course, I likewise won't be offen...

Julian Fell

Because not everyone cares about Countdown?

Julian Fell

Well done for spotting ARTICHOKE Dinos, I was nowhere near that. And I have to agree with all the comments re John Sergeant - I used to like him but he's not done a lot for his image during this run (one moment that hasn't been discussed is his making fun of his Polish cleaner's accent earlier in th...

Julian Fell

brilliant

Julian Fell

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/article1461054.ece Ah well, Stuart Earl will be happy. (ok, to be fair, I admit I haven't found Des all that great either) Does this mean that the new presenter's first task will be to host a CofC? :shock: I agree re Stephen Fry - a) that he should do...

Julian Fell

Jon Corby wrote:
Damian E wrote:After the show on Friday, there will be no NEW Countdowns until Monday August 25th.

However, for the week of Monday August 11th, there will be 5 repeat transmissions shown.

I second those emotions... guess I'll have to get a life now

Julian Fell

Damian E wrote:If you look up the word 'apple', they don't put 'we think its some kind of fruit'

I'm going to write a dictionary like that

Julian Fell

Richard Brittain wrote: my aficionados

You don't have any

Julian Fell

Yeah I was Gevin - although it's worth mentioning that there's nothing else longer than 6 in that round other than FATHEAD and FLATHEAD. So I was pleased at finding a (IMHO) difficult-to-spot word, just then annoyed that I didn't take it one step further It's weird, I also thought in my game vs. Ben...

Julian Fell

Ben, you are a legend, as ever. Why aren't the COBris 2007 results and standings etc. accessible from the main COBris page as linked to on Mike Brown's website? Anyway, although I'm not the hugest fan of the Wiki, I guess it would be good to eventually have all the results from unofficial tournament...

Julian Fell

Does anyone have, or know where I can find, results for:

- COOTs 1, 2 and 3?
- COBris 2007?
- CORed?

(If they're on the old C4C Yahoo group, I can't get on there any more since I changed my email address

)

Thanks in advance for any help

Julian Fell

I was thinking of trying a Euro 2008-style tournament with 8 groups of 3 people, with players playing the other two people in their group, meaning of course that everybody gets 2 games minimum. The two non-qualifiers could then play in the plate and there would be eight qualifiers for the quarter-f...

Julian Fell

Roll on COOT '09! Hope there'll be another online tournament before 2009 - which is sort of why I disapprove of the name COOT '08 because it implies you can't have another COOT in 2008; should just have been called COOT IV really. Obviously there shouldn't be another tourney TOO soon but it'd prob ...

Julian Fell

Charlie, something which was discussed a lot last night on MSN was people's head-to-head records in unofficial tournaments, e.g. Kirk saying that he had a good record vs. Chris Wills but a poor one vs. Paul Howe - I was wondering if there's any way you can create a 'head-to-head' link from your rati...

Julian Fell

Players now need 6 games (i.e. one real-life tournament or a couple of weeks of online play), and at least one of those must have been in the last 2 years 8 games Charlie, according to your ratings. I think 6 might be fairer, since as you say, that = one COLin, but up to you Edit to say: speaking o...

Julian Fell

Keith Bevins wrote:I was tossing up between wariest and waryest

Seriously though, I agree this was a great game, well played Ben and Kirk - lots of hard-to-spot maxima in there so you didn't have it easy. Well done Kirk for keeping your focus after that disastrous start

Search found 455 matches