c4countdown

New series kicks off tonight, QUB (yay!) against Aberdeen.

My mum knows one of tonight's contestants, any Apterites we should look out for?

Bob De Caux is representing Southampton in this series. I think he said he's on next month.

I'll be facing Mr Paxman for Southampton on Uni Challenge tonight

Bob De Caux wrote:I'll be facing Mr Paxman for Southampton on Uni Challenge tonight

Unlucky tonight Bob, you came up against a strong side! Hopefully you'll be back in as highest scoring losers though, 5 more minutes and you probably could have scraped 200!

Eoin Monaghan wrote:

Bob De Caux wrote:I'll be facing Mr Paxman for Southampton on Uni Challenge tonight

Unlucky tonight Bob, you came up against a strong side! Hopefully you'll be back in as highest scoring losers though, 5 more minutes and you probably could have scraped 200!

Yeah, my sister's university (Loughborough) also got 155 last week, so you're joint 2nd in the high-scoring losers, so hopefully you'll get a 2nd bite of the cherry, but it was a pretty strong performance, particularly at the end there.

Well done, BDC.

Thanks guys! Yeah, unfortunate to come up against such a strong team in the first round, but we've given ourselves a good shot at a highest loser berth

Just caught up with this. That was a good effort, especially picking up a hatful of points at the end. Hope you make it back, Stephen Hendry / Jesus / Bob!

Just in case anyone isn't aware, the last 1st round match was played tonight, and amazingly since they played their game over a month ago, BDC's Southampton team remained in the same runners-up spot, so we'll see them again within the next 2 weeks.

Don't know who they've got yet, but it's either Durham, Loughborough, or Christ Church, Oxford.

Watch this space.

Hey James, thanks for posting this. We were second to film, so we expect that our playoff will be on 28th October - it's against Loughborough...

Bob De Caux wrote:Hey James, thanks for posting this. We were second to film, so we expect that our playoff will be on 28th October - it's against Loughborough...

Well, my sister will be cheering her uni on, and I'll be cheering you on.

I punched the air when they showed that Southampton had stayed in as a high-scoring loser. Looking forward to more!

Haha, cheers Adam. That must have been an interesting sight!

Unless I'm very much mistaken, Jesus and Co. will be on in 5 minutes!

Adam Gillard wrote:Unless I'm very much mistaken, Jesus and Co. will be on in 5 minutes!

Indeed, a very good performance by BDC and his team. Will look forward to seeing them again.

And after the past 2 years of Apto-related semi-finalists, he's got a lot to live up to.

Ok, BRING IT ON!

Yes, excellent performance tonight by Southampton. Looking forward to more!

I laughed when you laughed at 'Turdus'.

Brilliant stuff Southampton!

Thanks Eoin. Seems that even under pressure, I still find poo jokes funny. Which is worrying!

Bob De Caux wrote:Thanks Eoin. Seems that even under pressure, I still find poo jokes funny. Which is worrying!

Haha! Don't worry, I chuckled when I heard it too, and then found it even funnier that you laughed at it!

Nice work Bob, some very good buzzing by your team.

Cheers Thomas, definitely learned a lot from that first round game. It's all about the early buzzing!

Bob De Caux wrote:Cheers Thomas, definitely learned a lot from that first round game. It's all about the early buzzing!

Getting the answers right also helps - I was outbuzzed by a team-mate with wrong answers at least twice

Bob - you didn't happen to get speaking to the QUB team whilst over did you?

PS, QUB on tonight, woop woop!

Yes Eoin, they were in our filming block for the second round, so we saw them at the hotel and had a chat

Bob De Caux wrote:Yes Eoin, they were in our filming block for the second round, so we saw them at the hotel and had a chat

Ah thought you might have! My mum's friend's son is on the Queen's team, and mentioned to her that there was a Countdown octochamp filming, so I was scratching my head trying to work out who it was!

Eoin Monaghan wrote:

Bob De Caux wrote:Yes Eoin, they were in our filming block for the second round, so we saw them at the hotel and had a chat

Ah thought you might have! My mum's friend's son is on the Queen's team, and mentioned to her that there was a Countdown octochamp filming, so I was scratching my head trying to work out who it was!

Well, it wasn't Bob then

Yes, thank you for reminding me, James! I can't think who else they could have meant though, Eoin.

Bob De Caux wrote:Yes, thank you for reminding me, James! I can't think who else they could have meant though, Eoin.

Sorry, sorry! Perhaps he had said 'winner' (of a game) or something along those lines!

Southampton are back on tomorrow vs Bangor

Bob De Caux wrote:Southampton are back on tomorrow vs Bangor

If you haven't had chance to watch it, GO WATCH IT!!!

Beast De Caux

Well that was ok. Maybe cut down on the smug grin for the next one

Maybe not please.

I'll see what I can do

Juggernaut! Well played everybody, great team performance and some superb starters/answers.

WOW! Just caught up with this. Awesome performance by Bob and team! You'll be hard to beat in that sort of form.

Just watched your second round - truly spectacular effort, well done! The quick buzzing tactic was working ridiculously well.

Less spectacular was the question setters' knowledge of Sudan, but at least it didn't matter.

Thanks for the comments, guys. The quick buzzing was certainly working well, aided by a lot of science questions!

The Sudan mistake was just bizarre - seems odd that they've had that question sitting around for a few years without thinking to update it.

Note to Mr Monaghan. Southampton v QUB on Uni Challenge this Monday.

Bob De Caux wrote:Note to Mr Monaghan. Southampton v QUB on Uni Challenge this Monday.

Oh no! Not only do I not want either team to lose, but I'm also in France next week so will be a whole week behind!

Great performance again Bob. Are you against Somerville next? Would definitely fancy you against them (though I'm expecting an interesting match against Trinity/Manchester in the semis)

Thanks Thomas. Yes, Somerville next in three weeks time

Very impressive stuff again, Bob and team! Looked like you were enjoying yourselves there!

Thanks Adam. Yes, we were much more relaxed for this game and really enjoyed it

Cracking stuff, we were both thoroughly impressed, particularly with how many you clearly knew you knew, rather than just educated guesses.

Thanks Michael. I think the last round taught us that if we had a solid hunch, it was probably right, so we were much more confident. I think only Australia and Guggenheim were educated guesses for me (I did actually know Dostoevsky, even though I unnecessarily Hansforded it), and there were a lot of clues which just happened to be a giveaway for one of us, e.g. giving Richard an atomic number is equivalent to just giving him the answer.

That maths questions was totally unparseable at full speed though, no-one in the studio was anywhere near it.

Bob De Caux wrote:Thanks Michael. I think the last round taught us that if we had a solid hunch, it was probably right, so we were much more confident. I think only Australia and Guggenheim were educated guesses for me (I did actually know Dostoevsky, even though I unnecessarily Hansforded it), and there were a lot of clues which just happened to be a giveaway for one of us, e.g. giving Richard an atomic number is equivalent to just giving him the answer.

That maths questions was totally unparseable at full speed though, no-one in the studio was anywhere near it.

Ha yes, I did enjoy the atomic number one. And yes, that maths one was a bit mental, I got as far as working out the answer for *natural* numbers rather than integers. I recognized it afterwards as something I vaguely remember from number theory, but that was years ago and it's proving impossible to google.

Bob! *Sob*

I hope you were paying attention when Pax-man described the 'draconian' rules where you have to win twice at this stage.

Go Team SouthBobton!

Unlucky tonight Bob, can't deny that Somerville were pretty strong. Good luck in the next game

Thanks guys. We knew it was going to be a really tough game as we were aware of the Vermeer/Beer tandem, and once you get off to a bad start (especially when you know all the answers but are just a fraction too slow), it's very hard to claw your way back into it. So, one more chance....

This is all just a plan to maximise your TV appearances, right?

Unlucky on this one - hope you won your next (especially if it's against Manchester)

Yeah, you've sussed it out, Thomas! It IS Manchester up next, btw.

Back on tonight v Manchester for a place in the semi finals...

Unlucky Bob. You were a true presence. Those shits from Manchester didn't even bother waving goodbye.

Thoroughly enjoyed all of the shows you were in. Disappointed to see you go out, but tonight just didn't fall the teams way. Playing catch-up forced you into errors and the Manchester team were also pretty good opposition and seemed to land a lot of bonuses that you'd have probably cleaned up on. Well done to you and your team! A true presence as Matt says.

Also I apologise for openly chastising you for giving DIMINISH as an answer when Paxtits had asked for an 8-letter word. Oops.

Haha, I did actually count the letters Matt! By that stage, it was definitely a case of fuck it, worth a pop. Thanks for the comments though, guys. Shame it ended on a bit of a meh, but we had a good run with a couple of awesome wins, and the questions just didn't really fall for us tonight. I don't think there was much between us and Manchester, but they were a more rounded team subject wise and got crucial buzzes in all the right places. I thought I remembered getting a question wrong every minute in that match, so it wasn't quite as bad as I feared. Not great though! Dimension though, jeez, that was a bad one

A shame to see you go, Bob. You and team Southampton have been thoroughly entertaining and did really well to get to this stage.

Bob De Caux wrote:Haha, I did actually count the letters Matt! By that stage, it was definitely a case of fuck it, worth a pop. Thanks for the comments though, guys. Shame it ended on a bit of a meh, but we had a good run with a couple of awesome wins, and the questions just didn't really fall for us tonight. I don't think there was much between us and Manchester, but they were a more rounded team subject wise and got crucial buzzes in all the right places. I thought I remembered getting a question wrong every minute in that match, so it wasn't quite as bad as I feared. Not great though! Dimension though, jeez, that was a bad one

I don't know - I guessed dimension, but was still surprised when it was right. Maths questions are often necessarily convoluted that I reckon they're much harder than, say, a tough history question. I suppose from another point of view, it wouldn't be that unusual to sit and browse a text on the Second Carnatic War (did that even happen?!), whereas perusing a treatise on Euclidean geometry would be somewhat odd.

I know I'm only repeating what will have been said a hundred times elsewhere, but that music numbers opening question was one of the wankiestly worded things ever. 15 was way more correct than 75.