c4countdown

sean d

A couple of weeks late watching this one on Sky+. HOARDERS is a max in R 10.

Nice to see Fiona H on the show. She hung in there well but another good showing from Abdi

sean d

Thanks Graeme. That's a big and increasing average margin of victory. A couple of factors, I suppose, are the increase in the number of really good top end players and possibly a drop off in the quality at the other end.... certainly they seem to be finding it harder to find the 200+ contestants req...

sean d

I think some of us askers on Ask Graeme May be guilty of not saying thanks for individual answers partly to avoid clogging up the super-thread, partly because oflaziness and the weakness of the human condition... but mainly because of the unacceptable tardiness of many of Graeme's answers. ;) But ye...

sean d

Has anyone ever declared a numbers solution of over 1,000? There are at least a couple of combinations that yield a 'max' solution of just over 1,000 for a high target just under 1,000 (eg 1 3 4 4 7 7 -- 999. Best solution is 1,001)

sean d

Luckily I used a broom handle so eventually got there on about my sixth guess #tekkers

sean d

I don't think there's anything 'sinister' about not mentioning his history, it just strikes me as odd. He is in many ways the most interesting return appearance having hit the headlines last time as the 11yo genius. It wasn't mentioned and cut during the recording of his first 3 shows anyway. I thou...

sean d

One thing I've noticed, and Bradley commented on too, is theres been no mention so far of his previous appearances. Seems a strange omission when it's an interesting fact and presumably they could dredge up a couple of photos of 11 year old Bradley with Richard and Carol. I wonder was it a conscious...

sean d

Apols Ian. Original post edited fwiw. You might want to edit yours to save others a similar fate

sean d

Good God .... Pronunciation-gate has made page 3 of the Irish Daily Mail! Perhaps we should plant a leftist pro-immigration europhile article here and see how if it makes the Mail.

sean d

What's the highest ever 15 round score without a 9?

sean d

If the rumours are true opponent number 8 will be the legend that is Horace Horlicks. Assuming Bradley gets there. Today's game was the end of a recording block so I don't know how he did beyond today but I'm going to guess he might survive that long. Assuming he does octo we're looking at four supe...

sean d

Thanks for the recap Graeeem Collay! Nick managed to pronounce DeLoughry ok (DeLockree) but yeh, two good Irish names in Eoghan (pronounced closer to Own than Owen) and Oisín (usually pronounced Ush-een, not Oo-sheen, and more like Oh-sheen in the North. Or Aw-sheen in Scotland! The accent on the se...

sean d

SFUMATO came from Bradley's list of art/music terms! He said he's not on apterous and no reason to doubt that. Bah AEROLITES .... 5 vowels is my relative strength in letters and the nice selection prompted me to go 5 vowels- though I wasnt specifically chasing anything I felt it was the type of sele...

sean d

Thanks for the link James, unfortunately I'll now have to disinfect my phone. We're authorative enough to be quoted, wow.
I've no problem with the dictionary evolving mid series.

sean d

Awesome, can't wait to see Horace... this is like Kaiser Sose being revealed. I was beginning to think he was a bot- Apterous Unpredictable. Go #TeamHorace

sean d

Amazing two days. St Pats win the League of Ireland. Huge celebrations including a night in the pub watching the Irish equivalent of Match of the Day in the company of the team. Sing song and all with the players too. Pure magic. Well earned, and won in style it has to be said (reluctantly!)... nex...

sean d

Evening. I'm here to offer to recap the episode on Monday next, October 21. It might be moderately interesting and novel, because I'm on it!

sean d

We'll have to agree to disagree Jon ( because you're wrong!

)

Yes the apto kids don't bother writing down to save a few seconds. If they had to, by the rules, they would and it'd affect them less than the casual players.

sean d

I expect the ones to suffer most from a strict written down rule would be the more casual players. Apterites are used to having to commit words during the 30 seconds. A little old lady who playsalong at home is not and she's the one who's going to get flustered and distracted and end up with nothing...

sean d

Incidentally does a mod want to split this into 2 or 3 threads
? This started off about the new dictionary but now we've got sidetracked into 'not written down' and Hansfording. All 3 worth debating on their own imo.

sean d

Ah, so it is cheating in the series final, but hasn't been up til now! Simplest solution is a strong host who says just the contestant's name on buzzing with nothig else extraneous along the lines of "and Jen buzzes in to say...", and who will then enforce a Paxman on University Challenge ...

sean d

Whatever about the morality and gamesmanship of Hansfording it is clearly NOT cheating. No rules are being broken. Gamesmanship yes, cheating No.

sean d

Well this is interesting and eminently sensible. (Even if it's a bit of a nightmare for Apterous!)

Does anyone have any idea how word counts compare between dictionary and website?

sean d

Great puzzle Robert!

I reckon it wouldn't be too hard to program it for 5 or 6 numbers but not long before you run into trouble from the sheer volume of numbers.

I reckon, for now, I can push the record for 3 numbers up to 15 using 2, 3 and 7.

sean d

Just wondered - any of the IronMan/IronWoman Apterites getting withdrawal symptoms yet? And, if so, how are you dealing with it? It's awful, I've had to interact with family, do jobs around the house, read books, watch tv and have conversations with people that extend beyond "hi, gl" and ...

sean d

And who is the 'best' former contestant to get a second bite at the cherry, ie most wins/furthest progress on first appearance? (ignoring CofC, specials etc!) Maybe Glen Webb who I believe won 2/3 games and played in a series qf??

sean d

Just catching up on sky+, entertaining game and a great run Gemma. I think 7 games in 2days took its toll, I saw a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes ( missing an ING for example). Good game and Peter seems like a nice bloke... no harm in the little fist pump, it wasn't exactly in yer face, and it ...

sean d

Mine's 6 and I haven't been on yet!

sean d

Great stuff Graeme thanks. To be honest I'm surprised to see Carol (or young Carol for want of a better phrase) as close to Rachel. As has been said the stats aren't very reliable as we don't really know how well each did in 30 seconds, on "I'll have another look" efforts etc, but it's sti...

sean d

Cool, thanks Matthew. May ressurect that thread some time soon

sean d

850 = (25-1) * 75/100 = 18; (18-1)*50
I've no idea now how I did the calculations before! I'd guess 3,4 would give most flexibility as the 'best' selection, possibly even 2,3.

sean d

I find it so interesting that this series there seems to be a lot more potential apterite on apterite matchups. Zarte vs Dylan happened, Gemma vs Jen could, and now Mark vs Sean could. The spacing seems so different this series compared to ones past. I think due to the sheer volume of Apterites it ...

sean d

Gg wp AP. 1, 1 ... 109 is what I calculated. I programmed it in a idle hour in work a couple of years ago. I think any target under 200 is obtainable as long as you avoid two 1s, and its amazing just how many targets you can hit from 4L, 1, 1.

sean d

One for the 4L specialists....
I believe there is only one 4L target under 130 which cannot be solved if a certain 2 small numbers are drawn. What are the 2 small numbers and the unobtainable target?

sean d

I noticed the DOTAGES / NONAGES anomaly too. Very frustrating.

sean d

You can see me making up new words on Oct 21.

sean d

More super impressive stuff from Dylan. He's very intimidating for mortal opponents.

Niamh is pronounced Neeve because the H, obviously, is a séimhiú, softening the M.

sean d

Super Injunction time! Not forgetting the super-duper injunction meaning we can't even mention the super injunction.

sean d

109 Jordan. That's with 50 for numbers/ conundrum. They're some seriously horrible letters selections!

sean d

Looks like it could be down for a few days according to Charlie on Google+. Bit of a nightmare... I'm recording on Wed!

sean d

Looks like we're down again

sean d

We would appear to be back, thank God n Charlie.

sean d

A possible explanation for "Micheal".... Micheál (pronounced roughly Mee-haul) would be the Irish equivalent of Michael

sean d

gg wp Zarte. Nice solid start. Didn't realise Dylan was coming up, potentially. What a game that could be. At least it keeps the pair of them away from me

sean d

Just regarding er/est comparatives, I have the contestant guidelines in front of me and there's no mention of the subject in 4 pages on ODE usage and interpretation. So there's literally no rule. I'm pisseder and tireder with this than most so I'm gonna get my goldest pen and write a letter on the w...

sean d

I think enough viewers and contestants are intimidated by the numbers as it is, without some geeky college kid multiplying 2 minus numbers to get.... gasp... a positive number. I don't think there's any solution you can come up with that needs to go to minus numbers so no need to further alienate th...

sean d

Thanks gents. I'd suggest it is fairly significant. Andy's figures suggest 77% 7-or-better max on Apterous, the Countdown since 2010 figures suggest 84% 7-or-better max. Doing a quick weighted average (with 18 pts for a 9) I think the average max score per letters round on the show since 2010 is 7.8...

sean d

Forgive me if this has been dealt with already- I know it was discussed before but I can't find it. My question relates to the relative difficulty of Countdown and Apterous. Do we have figures for average max particularly for letters rounds, as I suspect letters rounds are considerably 'nicer' on th...

sean d

Sounds like obvious alopecia?
This clue might leave you stumped or tied up in Notts.

sean d

Brilliant, just brilliant. Nice narrative to accompany clean logical unambiguous clues. I came to the same solution as Guy, I hope we're both right!

sean d

gg wp Martin! It's hard to give a satisfactory explanation of darts bogeys, but briefly... It's fairly easy to find a checkout for any value up to 140. From there you can check out all even numbers up to 160 using T20, T20 and a double. And all odd numbers up to 157 using T20, T19 and a double. The ...

sean d

Interesting point Innis. I guess you could alienate contestants and audiences if you keep churning out obscure words. I hope Penelope is happy with the dumbing down!

sean d

Is it just me or have standards dropped in Dictionary Corner recently? For a period before Giles Brandreth was on I was beating dictionary corner 2 or 3 or 4 times a show, which is unheard of for me. (Or maybe Apterousness is paying off!) Did anyone else think there was a noticeable lull?

sean d

Interesting. I had 44 for my answer, but Dave's thrown a cat among the snooker playing pigeons. I think I'll stick with 44 though, it can't be considered a total clearance with a foul in it, imo.

sean d

still down

good night!

sean d

Someone was cooking with DAIKON on one of the myriad of cookery programmes my better half likes to watch

sean d

Grame, of course, is right. Graeme, of course, is always right. ;) Regarding moving high value colours to the baulk end, I'm not sure if it'd make it more difficult for the better players. Sure you'd be moving up and down the table but you'd have a very large margin for error in terms of positioning...

sean d

Trivial questions for the great minds around here, but anyway, here's two for the weekend. With the World Snooker Championship on the telly, We all know the maximum* total clearance break is 147, but what is the smallest total clearance break available? (*actual maximum break is 155 with the use of ...

sean d

Applying the Gev rule, I'm pretty sure the best you can do is 99,900 as follows: (((50+3)*25+7)*75)/100 = 999 Anything higher can be rearranged, I think. Of course, there are other ways to get 999 from those numbers though... Wow... I'd just about got my head around getting to 937.5, but this is a ...

sean d

Good man, I was wondering if this should just go in the Ask Grame thread! I suspected there might be a theoretical 'impossble' letters round. In that case would an indvidual letter count as 1-letter word? 750,000 was the highest I had got, i.e. 100 75 50 25 10 8 -> 750 (75*50*25*8) = 750,000 750,000...

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