c4countdown

Philip A

How many people have won a Countdown teapot and a Mastermind glass bowl?

Philip A

Can anybody explain to me like i'm a 5 year old why words get taken out of the dictionary? A lot of the words that have been removed from apterous have been because of misinterpretation of the countdown rules - thinks like percent, readout, outearn etc are now considered to be US spellings of the h...

Philip A

There seems to be confusion over what dictionary the show uses. Indeed, the Oxford English Dictionary is often confused with other Oxford dictionaries available, as this tutorial video explains at 2:34. https://youtu.be/JAdoOY3muqw?si=JNbXhFrSu9-sj7Cd So I thought I’d make this clear by explaining t...

Philip A

Anyone knocked out in previous questions before that point should never be brought back. Otherwise players would deliberately get a question wrong to try and walk away with a bit of money on the 1% question, and it wouldn’t be a good game. Not sure I understand this. What benefit is there to delibe...

Philip A

Anyone else find the ending unsatisfactory when we have the scenario where everyone remaining gets eliminated on the same question? Seems a bit of a cop out that all those eliminated on that question just get flung to the 1% question and have the ability to collect the money, or play for the full p...

Philip A

The 5% question was: “YOU is a three-letter word that when you remove the first two letters and just the third letter remains the word still sounds the same. What other commonly-used three letter word does this?” The “correct” answer, according to the show, was WHY - Y. Indeed, the phonetic spelling...

Philip A

Aye, some horrible questions there. I'd have gone 5 instead of 2 on national anthem question, but you can make a strong argument for both. The eyes/is thing was brutal too - it's not so much ambiguous as a question, but when read out... Also, we had a difference of opinion on "first letter of ...

Philip A

Is it just me or were there 3 or 4 questions where you could make a decent argument for more than one answer being correct tonight? 5% question in particular can eff right off Yes, there were at least two, what I called ambiguous, questions last night. Aye, some horrible questions there. I'd have g...

Philip A

Will Michael Calder be the 4th octochamp in 8 weeks?!

Will we get TEN octochamps?!

Philip A

Howie Myers wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 6:18 am r4 OUTCRIED?
r11 SOUNDABLE?
r12 UNQUESTED?
asking for a friend,,,,,

All invalid.

Philip A

I wonder what they'd have done if she'd said something like "UNPOWD ... Oh no, GUNPOWDER". You are the ref . . . I think I'd have to say that she lost, and she shouldn't be able to profit by actually giving the answer away completely, so any sort of rerun would be wrong. Maybe just refilm...

Philip A

Would anyone else have been tempted by the invalid ‘opacities’ in Round 1? https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_8210

R9 alt: (100+5*6-7)*(9-1)=984

R14 alt: (50*3+10/2)*5=755

Philip A

FAINEANTS for 9.

Philip A

Have a feeling this could be a 9-strong octochamp series, which has happened once before. A very open competition so far having seen some consistent scores among non-Apterites, and we’re not even at the halfway point of Series 89.

Philip A

RASCALS for an anagram of SCALARS in Round 2.

Since the recording of this episode, WORLDIE has been added to the premium.oxforddictionaries.com website. Thankfully, it didn’t cost the winner in the end.

Philip A

“Unpowder” was unfortunate. Very unlucky, Katharine. I’m sorry to see you go so soon.

Philip A

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 2:46 pm Although not as long as FACTOTUM, TACTFUL was the standard method contestant-beater in round 4.

I got FACTOTUM, but the lack of E always makes the game harder IMO.

Philip A

R2: MASTOID, MIKADOS

Philip A

Heads up!

Series 3 starts 17th February at 8:50 pm. And it’s twice longer; 16 shows!

Philip A

R4: PLUTEAL

Philip A

RETINULE in R8

Philip A

Howie Myers wrote: ↑Sat Feb 03, 2024 11:49 am r11: PRETRIED?

Alas, no. PRETRIAL is a word, though.

Philip A

Round 11: from the first 7 letters, FATUITY.

Philip A

Martin Long wrote: ↑Tue Jan 23, 2024 7:18 pm HOMININ in round 10.

Excellent.

R5: GEOTAGS

Philip A

Toby McDonald wrote: ↑Wed Jan 17, 2024 10:42 pm POLITRUK in R10

Wow!

Philip A

Good non-Apterites lately.

UPTHREW is off the list. Just UPTHROWN and UPTHROW(S) now.

PANDOURS to beat PARDONS.

Philip A

I feel people may benefit from a free version of Lexplorer to check words without paywalls. There was one in the past, but I think it stopped working, somehow. Agree. But Lexplorer works fine for me without subscription. You just need to sign in. Can't use advanced features like anagrams, but basic...

Philip A

I feel people may benefit from a free version of Lexplorer to check words without paywalls. There was one in the past, but I think it stopped working, somehow.

Philip A

It’s a very simple format (which I know and love) and yet some viewers still don’t fully understand how it works. I think Stephen Fry should outline the rules properly at the very beginning of each show as most people don’t necessarily know of the US format; answers must be in the form of a “Who/Wh...

Philip A

Not sure if this is free to play, but my personal favourite is the daily PlusWord from The Telegraph Puzzles – Wordle and Crossword combined, introduced in 2022. The aim is to solve a 5*5 concise crossword and the PlusWord underneath; some of the cells in the crossword have yellow and green squares ...

Philip A

Love the new Gladiators on BBC One/iPlayer so far; so well produced. How a reboot should be done!

Philip A

It’s a very simple format (which I know and love) and yet some viewers still don’t fully understand how it works. I think Stephen Fry should outline the rules properly at the very beginning of each show as most people don’t necessarily know of the US format; answers must be in the form of a “Who/Wha...

Philip A

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Thu Jan 11, 2024 2:55 pm The wheels kind of fell off that game. It was a good start!

Yeah they did. Happens sometimes.

The conundrum was very hard as well. Took me a second guess to get it right!

Philip A

R5: FOGRAMS

Philip A

R1: OMNITUDE for a rare 8

R3 alt: 378 goes into 9 and also 3. ((10+3+1)*3)*(8+1)

R5: WINTROUS

R8: OPULENT. Missable

R13: GOBSHITE!

Philip A

I think every 10 numbers games or so, you can expect Rachel Riley to go for the unusual numbers method instead of the normal method. Happens time and time again every series since 10 years ago.

Philip A

R11 alt: ASSEGAI

R14: The boring way: (100+50)*7-75-25-6=944

Philip A

R1: MOUTHIES

R6 alt: 625-15=(75-50)*25-100/5+5=610

Philip A

Classic HEPTAGON/PATHOGEN anagram pair in Round 2.

Philip A

Wow, good game.

Philip A

89 points or over will make Mark an 800 club member.

Philip A

Johnny Canuck wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2024 6:48 pm BROMELAIN^ (the natural meat tenderiser that makes pineapples taste sour and numbing, because it causes them to literally tenderise your flesh) was what I risked in the BOILERMAN^ round. I'm 100.0% convinced I've seen it on apto

Nice CSW word. Alas not in ODP.

Philip A

Mark on excellent form.

TIDEWAYS in Round 11.

2 large is annoying sometimes. (75+7-3)*10+9=799 for the easier way, which Rachel got at the very end.

5 seconds on DAMSELFLY for me, a hard one for a heat game.

Philip A

Johnny Canuck wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2024 12:00 am ANOMALIST - false positive or new?

A new one, along with ANOMALISM. Neither mentioned in the June 2023 update.

Philip A

Quite a painful watch, needs to find a way of putting some pace into it. Is it money they are accumulating or just points? Wasn't clear what happens to the winner going forward, does he take his "money" with him? I think it's the money they are accumulating. They need to get back to the 9...

Philip A

First Countdown of 2024! Can crossword guru Mark Goodliffe go all the way by the end of the week?

Philip A

Definitely feels more sedate than the U.S. version, but I enjoy playing. If recommissioned I think the show and Fry will gather pace. Liked the humour in some of the categories.

When I watch, I pretend to buzz in between clue being read and contestant buzzing in.

Philip A

Questions like this should go here http://www.c4countdown.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=9519 No 8th seed has yet won a Grand Final, 7th is the lowest (most recently Callum Todd in Series 69). No 8 knocked out No 1 in the following series: Series 05 (1984) Series 21 (1991) Series 24 (1992) Series 30 (1995) t...

Philip A

That was a good final. Viraj is one of the best 6 small solvers in a studio environment I have ever seen, well done on a great result. Harry is terrific, I loved watching his Rubik’s cubing. Many congratulations on the title.

UTILISER in R13.

Philip A

Very good game.

R13 alt: MORALIST

Philip A

Ben Wilson wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2023 4:30 pm Isn't that just 'They Think It's All Over'?

It is now!

Philip A

No surprise, really.

Philip A

There is a difference between cryptic crosswords and Countdown though. There are no written clues to the answers. That’s why the teasers are easier.

Philip A

Martin Hurst wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2023 10:43 am
Philip A wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2023 9:17 am There’s a new finalists’ trophy I think.
As in the "kryptonite", rather than the Richard Whiteley Memorial one?

Yes, the “kryptonite”. It’s blue. I’ve seen it on the Twitter (X) feed.

Philip A

There’s a new finalists’ trophy I think.

Philip A

Good game. Shame that JJ had to bow out, could easily have octo’ed.

Well played, Mark. You have your revenge after being narrowly beaten by Oliver Garner 13 years ago!

UNDERSOW as a false-agram of wounders x.

Philip A

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Fri Dec 08, 2023 12:48 pm
Ian Fitzpatrick wrote: ↑Fri Dec 08, 2023 12:26 pm Is that the record lowest score?
There have been a couple of 0s in recent years.

Four players have scored 0 so far; two of them in the 9-round format, two in the 15-round format.

Philip A

Today’s challenger is none other than the 12 times winner of The Times Crossword Championship, and one half of the YouTube channel ‘Cracking The Cryptic’, Mark Goodliffe!

Philip A

Johnny Canuck wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 6:36 pm Split multiplications by 9 are in no way a "kick yourself" situation.

Agree.

Philip A

Maximum scoring game for me. AUDIENTS and DAIGOUS were my beaters.

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