c4countdown

JimBentley

I think if anyone told me ten years ago that I'd be watching Ann Widdecombe telling jokes on national television, I would have declared them mad and had them sectioned.

JimBentley

CAULDRON, round 3. Challenger seems pretty damn good, mind!

JimBentley

I really like him, he looks like Lou Reed and talks like Mark E. Smith, which is a very cool combination.

JimBentley

Now this forum is up and running so successfully :P is it very difficult to add a live chat room? I agree! Excellent idea. It would mean that online games could go on there and everything. What fun it would be to log on and see, for example, that my son is also logged on so we could have a father-s...

JimBentley

Monday 17 March 2008 (Series 58, Game 50) C1: Bob O'Keefe (2 wins) C2: Joe Denniss, aged 14, a student from the Wirral with ambitions to climb Everest DC: Susie Dent and John Sergeant Summary of game: ROUND 1 M K R U I E G D T ROUND 2 S A O A Z N D T E ROUND 3 N Y R L I E A B P ROUND 4 I E U S N D G...

JimBentley

Monday 10 March 2008 (Series 58, Game 49) C1: Bob O'Keefe (1 win) C2: Richard Coombs from Prestatyn DC: Susie Dent and John Sergeant Summary of game: ROUND 1 R D R E U E S C N ROUND 2 M Z A O I P R A T ROUND 3 N P S E I O Y R L ROUND 4 D S D D A E U N F ROUND 5 50 5 10 8 9 2 Target 104 TTT 1 RICEDUS...

JimBentley

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 ...

JimBentley

However, I was extremely impressed when Bob O'Keefe solved the conundrum of milkshake and derailed Barry Smith in his chances to become an octochamp. For one thing, I can't even think of any words of that length with two k's in them. 'Course you can, Jason, you're just not trying hard enough. As a ...

JimBentley

Whittle was really good! I liked it a lot, although maybe that's because the whole thing was made to appear completely absurd by Tim Vine. It wasn't a bad concept for a gameshow (and probably predates almost all of the "audience as contestant" shows that have been on since) and with a diff...

JimBentley

You didn't have it in before this? We might need to merge again...I promise it'll be a painless* operation, and you can ignore any of the dodgy mass nouns that I let through.

* sedatives and/or hypnotics may be required

JimBentley

I'd say yeah to TREASONS. Not in the usual sense of betraying one's country, but in the more general sense of betraying anyone - petty treasons, and all that.

JimBentley

Carol's way to the 925 in round 5 was nice, but I had a nicer one, I think:

(7 x 6) + 8 = 50
5 x 4 = 20
50 x 20 = 1000
1000 - 75 = 925

You could even do (8 x 7) - 6 for the fifty if you were feeling a bit saucy.

PAYOUT is fine (I got that!), also CAUDEX (solver-assisted) in round 7.

JimBentley

The X one must be XEROPHAGY (the eating of dry food only, a form of fasting practised in the early Christian church) but Ben's right, it ain't in the current book.

JimBentley

Monday 3 March 2008 (Series 58, Game 44) C1: Barry Smith (3 wins), a Methodist minister from somewhere or other C2: Vic Goodall, a retired electrical officer from Milford-on-Sea in Hampshire DC: Susie Dent & Rick Wakeman Summary of game: ROUND 1 D P X E O U R L S ROUND 2 D I T B E S R U I ROUND ...

JimBentley

Round 5:

(9 x 10) + 1 = 91
91 x 7 = 637
637 - 75 = 562

Piece of piss!

JimBentley

Monday 25 February 2008 (Series 58, Game 39) C1: Barbara Fletcher (2 wins, 159 points) C2: Nick Chamberlain, a printer's assistant from Horncastle DC: Susie Dent & John Inverdale Summary of game: ROUND 1 R B I U D E F N O ROUND 2 D V U W S E I T O ROUND 3 A E N Y A T L S R ROUND 4 M N I Q P O T ...

JimBentley

Yeah, point taken, David. It's just that when someone repeatedly and consistently fails to get the joke, it becomes something of a spur to escalate it to an illogical and increasingly bizarre level. But you're right, I feel a bit bad about it now and will give it a rest.

JimBentley

Jason Larsen wrote:Jon Corby has been disqualified for offending me in a prior post.

That doesn't sound like the sort of thing Jon would do at all, he's never anything but polite and courteous. Are you sure you're not confusing him with someone else?

JimBentley

ALIQUOT in the QUINOA round. I also got DOGGEREL today and have had quite a few DC-beaters the last few days, maybe they've been going easy. (Oh, I should mention that I still miss loads of obvious stuff, but DC are generally more consistent than I am).

JimBentley

Jim, can you give us some details of the game please? Sorry Jono, I was so excited by the prospect of this game that I had to go and have a lie down to recover. However, I'm back now. I gather that it will feature Drew Barrymore and Jim Carrey, with a million dollar prize to the winner (a shame tha...

JimBentley

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...

JimBentley

Monday 18 February 2008 (Series 58, Game 34) C1: TIM REYPERT (6 wins), from the Vale of Glamorgan C2: ROS ROCHESTER, a mother of two (and mean pool player) from Staffordshire DC: Susie Dent & Nick Owen Summary of game: ROUND 1 D T Q I O E S C A ROUND 2 T U I R R E S N O ROUND 3 J B S A I A R D E...

JimBentley

Jason Larsen wrote:The Bolton Wanderers must be a football team.

I think that's being rather kind. Any similarities between what Bolton Wanderers do and the game the rest of us call football are purely coincidental.

JimBentley

He has many hidden cameras in your house, like the guy in that film "Sliver". Jon's into voyeurism in a big way. He's got cameras pretty much everywhere. He's not really fussy about who he looks at - no-one is safe from his lecherous gaze.

JimBentley

I can swim. It gladdens my heart to learn this, Jason. But how far can you swim? Do you think - if you really trained hard for it - you'd be able to swim across the Atlantic Ocean? How long do you think that would take, assuming you could do it? I think you could do it, but I'd be interested to kno...

JimBentley

Nice recap, Dinos (and Emma)! One small point though, the champ's name is Tim Reypert, not Ian Peywert. Dunno where you got that from!

Don't edit it though, or it'll make my post look foolish.

JimBentley

I can swim excellently, but my rock 'n' roll lifestyle of non-stop drink and drugs means that I tire easily these days. I used to be able to swim really long distances, but I'd probably drop dead mid-stroke if I tried it now.

JimBentley

No, Jason, you most certainly cannot. I forbid it.

Now go to your room and think about what you've done.

JimBentley

I think that cooked cheese (especially that really orange Cheddar) smells uncannily like vomit. More neutral cheeses such as mozzarella seem to be OK when cooked, but there's still a hint of a vomity smell about them. Does anyone else notice this, or am I drawing on some weird olfactory memory?

JimBentley

Definitely has to start with the day and other than that this topic is a little tedious. Quiet, you. This is a subject of the utmost import. I've changed today's to date first, series and game in brackets. The date's the thing I guess, but I include the series and game numbers because I am a nerd a...

JimBentley

Monday 11 February 2008 (Series 58, Game 29) C1: TIM REYPERT (1 win), from the Vale of Glamorgan C2: MICHAEL QUINN, a magician and children's entertainer from Belfast - actually M. GEORGE QUINN, or MAGIC GEORGE, one of Northern Ireland's leading children's entertainers, according to the must-see web...

JimBentley

If David Mitchell doesn't come off then Jeff Stelling would be VERY good. Jeff Stelling would get my vote as Greatest Living Englishman. The man is a god. I'd also like Richard Herring, please. He's a self-confessed nerd and media whore so I'm sure he'd be up for it. He might make a couple of ill-j...

JimBentley

I gave mine to my mum, because I am kind.

Amey Deshpande, however, has got about six.

JimBentley

Well, it's not every day that an 880-point octochamp comes along, so I thought it deserved a bit of an effort.

JimBentley

I used to like fry-ups, but because I am trying to watch my weight, I will only eat black pudding (done in the George Forman)....if I was to have sausages too (if I had them in), it would be in a George Forman grill. I am intrigued by this line of products that you mention. Do you have any informat...

JimBentley

Ginger Jono wrote:Dead babies

Fried or scrambled?

JimBentley

Series 58, Game 24 (Monday 4 February 2008) C1: DAVID O'DONNELL (7 wins), from Omagh, Co. Tyrone C2: STEVE JEPP, a support worker from Woburn Sands, Buckinghamshire DC: Alison Heard & Richard Digance Summary of game: ROUND 1 E E O B P H T N L ROUND 2 T L E A C U T I S ROUND 3 A I E G C T S D O R...

JimBentley

...Your long-awaited entry onto the Octochamp Stats page will be made as soon as today's recap appears. Speaking of which, today's is going to be a bit later than usual, I'm afraid. Probably about eight o'clock-ish, if that's OK? Brilliant stuff though, David! Tomorrow's contestants must be breathi...

JimBentley

If this is like the par score on UKGameshows, then one criticism is that it punishes disallowed words harshly. I don't think it does. If a player has an eight disallowed and their opponent gets a seven, then the program puts their offering down as a six (offering nonwords should be punished, but no...

JimBentley

I agree, to a point, because that's how you're not going to get beaten. But one thing that doing all the recaps has taught me is that maximums are not all the same. Sometimes there's a letters round with 20 seven-letter words and nothing better, and anyone could get a seven. Sometimes there's one se...

JimBentley

A while ago (about two year ago, in fact) I wondered if there could be a way to rank players on the letters and numbers games, automatically, based on their offerings in each round as compared against what was actually available. I concluded that there wasn't - there are too many external factors - ...

JimBentley

I think it's a great shame. I was never really a fan of 'Game For A Laugh' or 'Beadle's About' or 'You've Been Framed' or any of that shit, but I liked him because of "Win Beadle's Money" (being on Channel 5, it had fairly low production values, but confounded this by being a fucking good ...

JimBentley

It was a decent score but still missing too many maxima! But in your defence, you haven't missed a lot in the four games so far. Today's game might've seemed worse because the maximums you didn't get - HEARKEN, CONVICTS, METHANOL, ARTEFACT - are more everyday than ones you've missed in the previous...

JimBentley

I think I've got this. In the original scenario, you should always switch as your odds of getting the car will increase from 1/3 to 2/3, but in the revised scenario it doesn't matter, it's a straight 1/2 vs 1/2. In the original scenario, let's say the car's behind door A: You choose A, Monty opens B...

JimBentley

And you'd be right! I never looked much at the tricksy things you can do with four large, but when Jono explained the principle behind it, it seemed so obvious. I must have a proper look at Jerry's page sometime...

JimBentley

ROUND EIGHT - 25 50 75 100 9 5 TARGET 207 Jono: (50 * 100 + 75) / 25 + 9 - 5 = 207 (10) Joe: - 62-22 Of course (25-100/50)x9 would be too easy! I think all the four large stuff must get to you in strange ways; in our game, Jono genuinely didn't see the obvious way on this one, but still got it righ...

JimBentley

I still have to log in manually each visit (have tried the "keep me logged in" checkbox, and deleting cookies and all that shit but it's not making any difference). I use Firefox (version 2.0.0.11, if that helps). Funnily enough, I would always be automatically logged in when the forum was...

JimBentley

Series 58, Game 19 (Monday 28 January 2008) C1: DAVID O'DONNELL (2 wins), from Omagh, Co. Tyrone C2: MARTIN SMITH, a charity volunteer worker from Eastbourne DC: Alison Heard & Trudie Goodwin Summary of game: ROUND 1 I E E T N G S I N ROUND 2 S E A W N O R S E ROUND 3 O E O D P R V E S ROUND 4 T...

JimBentley

Jeff's proposal of a threesome is met with mixed reactions.

JimBentley

I have to agree with all the fulsome praise so far, it was for me the best one yet. I didn't do great at the actual games - except for one (hi Mike!) - but everything was so easy-going, which is my sort of thing. I got to meet a bunch of people I'd not met before and see another load of people that ...

JimBentley

I only got 28, but I imagine I might've scored a bit higher twenty years ago. I can still be a geek, though, right?

JimBentley

As no-one's posted the 987 yet, then I will oblige (do not fear, fellow COLIN attendees, I didn't get it within the time): 75, 5, 10, 1, 8, 5 : Target 987 75 + (5 x 10) - 1 = 124 124 x 8 = 992 992 - 5 = 987 Hurrah! You were damned good again today, David. As for the Vic Reeves thing, I think it's be...

JimBentley

Great debut, David, ARMIGER and ORISONS were especially impressive. 8 maximums from 11 on the letters, max possible on the numbers and conundrum; with that in your debut game, I imagine there'll be even better to come.

Also, I think you look a bit like Vic Reeves.

JimBentley

No problem! But I should've remembered that the second "W" was a reversed "M"...ah well, most of the others should be right, anyway. Or as right as they can be - there's only 120-130 games in a series, which probably isn't quite a large a sample as is needed to be sure.

JimBentley

Since Soo did his letter distribution page in Series 54, I thought I'd have a look at Series 57 to see if anything had changed. This is all just observed data - it's not definitive by any means - but a few things do seem to have altered (for one thing, the mythical fifth "U" made an appear...

JimBentley

Hahaha, you just beat me to it! At first, I thought the star appeared on this one just because I'd posted in it and obviously all other forum members would wish to be advised of this expediently, in order to read my words of wisdom, but then I realised I was being solipsistic and deluded and it's th...

JimBentley

I think a red icon means that the thread has unread posts, a blue icon means that you've read them all and the scrolling ones have more than 15 replies. Something like that, anyway. Haven't a clue what the stars are for, though.

JimBentley

Hello, my name is Jim Bentley. I was on in Series 50 and managed to win eight games by using advanced mind control techniques on my opponents. Unfortunately my quarter-final opponent - the wily Adam Laws - somehow became wise to my saucy ways and beat me on a crucial conundrum. I have never forgiven...

JimBentley

Series 58, Game 14 (Monday 21 January 2008) C1: RACHEL ALLENBY (1 win), a teaching assistant from Wetherby C2: MARJORIE HILLMAN, from Creekmore in Dorset DC: Alison Heard & Alastair Stewart Summary of game: ROUND 1 N S O I E L D A G ROUND 2 L M U A K E S I N ROUND 3 Z O I N S H A E D ROUND 4 A A...

JimBentley

I like a full English too, but tomatoes have to be involved in some way. Fresh tomatoes grilled are the best way to go, but I'll have tinned if that's all there is. Also, mushrooms are essential.

Your tomato-based wrongheadedness is frankly astonishing, however.

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