c4countdown

Conor

Correct me if I'm wrong everyone/anyone, but if you're talking about MAXes then what has your opponent got to do with it, are you suggesting he would have got more MAXes if he was playing against the likes of me? A stronger opponent is more likely to beat you to the conundrum, and depending on thei...

Conor

Great stuff so far.

Conor

Countdown recap for Thursday 28 March 2013. C1: Champion Andy Platt (7 wins, 779 points.) from Salford. This is his last game for a while, regardless of the result. C2: Challenger Bob Windsor is Andy's third opponent from Cambridgeshire, living in Six Mile Bottom (it lies in a valley bottom and is s...

Conor

ISOBUTANE reminds me of Paul Howe's ISOGAMETE, which for me is still one of the greatest nines of all time, alongside MYOGLOBIN I think. Can anybody else think of any good contenders for greatest nine of all time? I remember first reading about Michael Calder spotting MYOGLOBIN in the first round o...

Conor

Jono, I think I might well have put a few other players or forum regulars off watching me with how boring/serious/competitive I was in my first few games, and thus there hasn't been as much interest in the last few shows as I was (perhaps presumptuously or arrogantly?) anticipating from people I th...

Conor

Yeah, no doubt it's a word used enough, but I'm sure a lot of people complained just because they didn't like it.

Conor

I disagree with the strength of "but I also think that information ought to be communicated to the contestants beforehand." You say right at the beginning that it would be fine to disallow it if OUP say so, and then say it again, before adding this almost as an afterthought. In my view, i...

Conor

Thanks Andy.

Hope to be recapping your eighth game next Thursday.

Adam Gillard wrote:lol @ jist in an impassioned speech about criticising errors

Fixed now!

Is there something I should be doing to get this on the CDB, or should that be left to JR? Also, I have the WikiCode saved if someone wants to add it.

Conor

Just so you all know, Marcus Hares will be taking my place for the recap on March 28th. 8-) Scrap that, he's busy. So, a week tomorrow is still available. :) A nice little incentive is that it could potentially be Andy's octochamp show, and who wouldn't want to do that :!: :!: :?: :?: 8-) 8-) Happy...

Conor

Countdown recap for Thursday 21 March 2013. With James having his own Inbetweeners-style holiday in Magaluf there was a recap spot going for this week and I've stepped in to write to my first recap since May 2006. It's good to be back! C1: Champion is our own Andy Platt (2 wins, 226 points), a bilin...

Conor

James Robinson wrote:Just a reminder: This and next Thursday's (21st & 28th March) recaps are still vacant and awaiting for someone to do them, since I will be unavailable.

I'd quite like to do a guest recap this Thursday if that's OK.

Conor

Speaking of numbers of vowels, has it always been an official rule that you had to pick between 3 and 5 vowels? Was it ever mentioned on-screen, as nobody (other than contestants) seemed to be aware of it. Also, are there any anomalies - I'm positive I remember a 2-vowel letters round slipping thro...

Conor

Nobody ever practises 3 large so it seems unfair to refer to 'standard methods'.

Conor

Series 66 had the highest proportion of five-vowel picks of any series since 1985, because Jonathan Rawlinson was in it. (No, really - 43 of the 82 five-vowel letters rounds in that series were in his games.) I suspect Series 68 might break the record. In the semifinal between Jack Hurst and Jonath...

Conor

Really hope we'll see you back for the finals, Rachael - that 117 might come in useful. But well played Phil, especially after such a long wait.

Conor

This match is a battle royale between 2 fellows of Cambridge University... Just one note to say that for the time being we're both still students. OK, fair do's, I was just using the more generic sense of the word, but I'll gladly alter it for a champion. ;) :) :D Haha, it was a poor joke rather th...

Conor

Brilliant recap James. And thanks to all the recappers - the standard of recapping these days is very very high. I think apterous is killing recapping. This match is a battle royale between 2 fellows of Cambridge University... Just one note to say that for the time being we're both still students.

Conor

Thanks everyone for your very kind messages! I've been getting quite emotional over the number of people who've congratulated me after following the tournament: distant relatives, old friends whom I've not seen for years and people at uni I've only spoken to maybe once or twice. I remember when I pl...

Conor

When I thought about how the tournament might pan out, I kinda felt that a crucial conundrum was inevitable, and the thought of one made me a bit queasy. But as the clock ticked down at the end of round 14, I felt exactly as I'd felt before my only previous crucial: relaxed, happy with how I'd done ...

Conor

Jennifer Steadman wrote:He-Man is over there. ---->

Can't help on Harvey Freeman's whereabouts though.

He-man is doing his part in imitating Harvey's 'special' face, though...

Conor

Really good game to watch again and a great mixture of comic relief and tension. Congrats Jack, you have a happy story to accompany your 'My First Crucial' photo in your scrapbook. Unlucky Doddy, you've been one of the best surprises in this tournament as you were the underdog against both Chris and...

Conor

Thanks everyone! Kirk was one of the first people I spoke to in the c4c community, and I've probably played more games against him than anyone (except a certain Jon O'Neill) and learnt so many exotic words from him, so to be able to play him on screen was an amazing experience. I was happy to get th...

Conor

I agree with the above. Just scanning over the last few years, 16 seeds would usually let a few players on 2 wins scrape in and some on 3. The 16 seeds in Series 2 was very strange and it led to one player qualifying who'd lost his only game. Were there ever 9+ octochamps in 1 series I'd like to see...

Conor

Surely a three letter word is the smallest offered ever? But then again, I'm sure I've seen someone just give up and offer nothing; when probably there was a two or a three letter word there? For a given player's offerings during a game (e.g. 7,7,7,6,5,8,8,6,7,8,7) we take the maximum value. (So th...

Conor

That game was just beautiful. Just as great to watch today as it was live. Commiserations Jack - incredible spirit to keep fighting the whole way after the first round. And congrats Jono, we'll add you to the Max Game Club mailing list. Awesome. Another game where it's so unfair for someone to lose.

Conor

Jon O'Neill wrote:Jon "only non-university-educated quarter-finalist" O'Neill.

Doddy too, if we ignore all degrees other than maths.

Conor

Joseph Krol wrote: 2) Rudolf Hess: 120 - Holly from Red Dwarf: 6000

IQ?

Conor

Thanks. Great that neither solved it, but on reflection, BARRYDICK was crap. Deserved a BAGOGLORY sort of word. Gutted really. Could have done better. The lines separating too easy, just right and horrendously difficult are very fine these days. VIRULENCE was a fantastic conundrum, a common enough ...

Conor

This might be my favourite game so far. Ever. I didn't sleep at all the night before recording and so completely crashed during Jack vs Chris (sorry guys), but this game brought me alive again. MALAMUTE and QUANTICS had almost everyone (everyone?) in the green room beaten, and there was such a sense...

Conor

Thanks very much everyone. Still amazed to have done this on TV. I hadn't seen Chris's round 1 game before this so he was a bit of an unknown quantity. I'd no reason to doubt his anagramming ability through Scrabble, but had heard that among brilliant spots in round 1 he'd thrown in a couple of CSW ...

Conor

Strong performance Jono. Also good to see Darryl get a 9 after only one nine was available in his previous 17 games.

Conor

When we were in the audience someone suggested you can be as bold as brass, but that's pretty tenuous It's definitely the link, though. Well done Jonathan, commiserations Tom. Just wondered why Tom chose a vowel for the last letter in round 1? The selection was ISOLATED up to that point, had you go...

Conor

Which contestants have done the unholy Trinity of declaring an invalid word for the wrong length whilst using phantom letters?

Conor

Just to point out the stream found in the link above has been updated for today's show.

Conor

Jon O'Neill wrote:Definitely - but inaccuracies as a result of those cases are far outweighed by the reverse (I think?) The jump in size between the CODs and the NODs is pretty big, no?

Yeah. The current edition of the COD has 240,000 entries, and the ODE has somewhere around 355,000.

Conor

The words in the old dictionaries (ignoring Americanisms for now) aren't subsets of the current word list, are they? (e.g. AGRESTAL and DRIFTAGE) So, for total total completeness we'd need an electronic word list of each of the old dictionaries.

Conor

JackHurst wrote:I think Conor only dropped point in the SOIGNEES round, and I think his conundrum was unbeatably fast. I'd describe that as the most unbeatable countdown performance ever, so well done!

I'd say Kirk's recent max game or your grand final performance were just as (if not more so) unbeatable.

Conor

Thanks everyone! Mark was one of my earliest Countdown heroes and to be able to play him on screen was an absolute privilege. The scoreline didn't reflect his ability at all, but games can go like that if you get behind the 8-ball. The first numbers was one where I saw 100/(3+1) for the 25 and lucki...

Conor

POOVEIEST is a nine worth knowing. It's in, after all. I don't think that's in, in the same way that stuff like CAMPERYS are not in. Yeah, there's stuff in the beginning of the dictionary which tells you how to form plurals as well as verb tenses. Is there anything there for forming comparative and...

Conor

It's allowed. pouf is listed as an alternative to poof, and poofier and poofiest are specified. pouf inherits all derivatives of poof, and for a precedent: Episode 4106 , where tsar is the main heading, tzar and czar are alternatives and tsardom is the derivative. Hmmm, so interesting how it all tu...

Conor

Round 3: T I F P O U B S E C1: POSTIE (6) C2: PITEOUS (7) DC: OBTUSE (6) poufiest Score: 0–33 (max 33) 3 darrens on the spin for Jack, mainly because poufiest isn't in, despite what Susie says.............. :roll: :oops: It's allowed. pouf is listed as an alternative to poof, and poofier and poofie...

Conor

Oddly enough, at my last two interviews, the OCD 2001 was the source book still being used to check declarations for people applying to get on the show. MP Likewise at my auditions in 2004. It's just for convenience really - the selections are artificial so the auditioner will know which words are ...

Conor

Spousing was just really really unfortunate. Gutting, see how much it meant to you (though you need to leave some records for the rest of us). 'twas why I challenged POUFIEST/POUVIEST. Susie's call?! They're not even listed in the Official Countdown Dictionary 2001 edition. MP The OCD 2001 wasn't ev...

Conor

szodiac wrote: round 3: Can I challenge POUFIEST declared by Susie?

MP

Yes, but you're penalized 5 points.

Conor

How did they know it was a max game if they don't use computers? . . . would certainly be a question asked by some people. (That they miss the occasional thing themselves is a pretty good answer, of course.) AFAIK computers are used for 'checking' rather than spotting words. I seem to remember Kirk...

Conor

I think the CoC final that you just missed out on also had 26 maxes, Conor. So, definitely joint best at least. 8-) 8-) I make it 25 - Paul had 14 to Mark's 11 (the last numbers wasn't possible, but his declaration could've been bettered). The two games went in a very similar manner right up to the...

Conor

Stunning.

26/29 possible maxes - greatest ever joint performance (surely).

Conor

This maybe belongs in a viewing figures thread, or even in the coincidences one. I didn't tell anyone other than family that I was on last week. And in that week the only person who has mentioned seeing me is someone who was recording it every day because their husband knows Dave Hoskisson, but did...

Conor

Yeah, great finish - even better as it took her over 20 seconds to solve each one so you hear the clock approaching a climax and you think you've won and then you haven't. Beautiful. Yep, very different to Jonathan's double conundrum steal but no less exciting. Christine spent a while looking befor...

Conor

You did very well to get back within 10, Adam, after that nightmare start. Almost nobody would've beaten Innis on the letters and an excellent conundrum spot too (10/10 difficulty).

Conor

Very well played Chris - you had me with both ECSTATIC and the conundrum. Was also great to see David on TV, a forumite and Countdown legend who was last on just a bit before my time.

Conor

Jackie would have won with the extra 30 points from the numbers. That was her downfall today. Indeed, and even just the 20 from the first two games which were, in my opinion, more routine. DIALYSE was there in the ladyfies round, a very unlucky try which until recently was allowable (it dropped out...

Conor

Rhys Benjamin wrote:I am posting from my tablet so cannot check, but SPAGERIC in round nine?

No.

Edit: though, as seems appropriate, it's valid in Scrabble.

Conor

FUMAROLIC as an alternative in rd 15.

Also sadly 'dumbass' isn't in. Exciting stuff guys, unlucky on some of the risks amid some excellent spots.

Conor

Yikes. Thanks Heather, and congrats on today's strong win.

Conor

Did Susie say MUSLINED(^?) wasn't in? It certainly has been and is still listed as valid on apterous - could someone with the new dictionary confirm?

Conor

It's a good idea, though I have a few recommendations. If it's to have the title Supreme Championship, then it should live up to it by at least trying to emulate the outreach we had in the first Supreme Championship whereby almost all series finalists returned. Admittedly, the standard of the game h...

Conor

Good luck James. Really like this show - just submitted an application.

Conor

Sine-world.

Conor

Jon O'Neill wrote:Never mind them, whatever happened to Ian Gilmore?

Nigerians got him? Really did like his women looking like biscuits? I miss the man.

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