Countdown 30th Championship - which 41 would you pick?

[Gavin Chipper]

Obviously not every great player in the history of Countdown expressed an interest in this tournament, but assuming that everyone was available and you had a free choice of who to pick, which 41 would you choose? (41 being the number in the tournament.) Unless you particularly want to rank your selection, so that it's easier to compare lists (I'm expecting you all to make one - no excuses), it's probably best to put your choices in chronological order. Go. I'll be back later this evening with mine (probably).

[Gavin Chipper]

So here's my list. It's possible I might change my mind about some of these:

1. Mark Nyman
2. Helen Grayson
3. Clive Freedman
4. Harvey Freeman
5. John Clarke
6. Nick Brown
7. Allan Saldanha
8. Dick Green
9. Tim Morrissey
10. Chris Waddington
11. Wayne Summers
12. Don Reid
13. Andrew Perry
14. Darren Shacklady
15. Chris Rogers
16. David Acton
17. Natascha Kearsey
18. Scott Mearns
19. Graham Nash
20. David Williams
21. Chris Wills
22. Julian Fell
23. Chris Cummins
24. Stewart Holden
25. Paul Gallen
26. Mark Tournoff
27. Conor Travers
28. Steven Briers
29. Craig Beevers
30. David O'Donnell
31. Kirk Bevins
32. Innis Carson
33. Andrew Hulme
34. Chris Davies
35. Oliver Garner
36. Eoin Monaghan
37. Jack Hurst
38. Adam Gillard
39. Edward McCullagh
40. Graeme Cole
41. Jack Worsley

I automatically included all CofC winners, and any champions since the last CofC, because they haven't had a chance at anything like this. Other than that, winning stuff and scoring highly were looked upon favourably. All 15-round octochamps scoring more than Jon Corby on 856 (sorry, Corby, just luck of the draw) made it in and all xicounts above Richard Brittain on 1102. The top 8 9-round xicounts are all in and top 3 octochamps.

Other than that, I included a few others:

Helen Grayson, who was on over 90% of the max in her 7-game run (she didn't play the 8th for some reason)
John Clarke, who reached the semis of the supreme championship, and would have been a fairly high-scoring xicount anyway had his run not been at the end of a series so he missed out on being an octochamp
Allan Saldanha, who never won a championship but reached the final of the supremes
Andrew Perry, who reached the quarters of the supremes looking very strong before losing to eventual winner Harvey Freeman on a crucial conundrum
Darren Shacklady, who was on for one of the highest 9-round octochamp scores before surprisingly losing, but he still won his series

[Gavin Chipper]

And when I can be bothered, I'm going to count how many of them are actually in the tournament.

[Jon Corby]

And when I can be bothered, I'm going to count how many of them are actually in the tournament.

I'll save you the trouble, the answer is...
























































































































































nobody cares.

[Jon O'Neill]

I'd have all of the above, plus Amey Deshpande.

[Ian Volante]

I'd have all of the above, plus Amey Deshpande.

STOP MOCKING ME

[Johnny Canuck]

Have included every series champion and most runners-up since the last CoC, as well as every CoC winner (thanks Gevin for the idea), Xicounts who were CoC runners-up or especially high-scoring, members of the 800 and 480 clubs (more like the 900 and 500 clubs, actually) and a handful of others. The reason why some series champions (e.g. Junaid Mubeen, David O'Donnell) are excluded is because they were already in CoCs, and I wanted this hypothetical draw to be geared toward those who haven't yet had the chance to play in a competition.

1. Mark Nyman (3)
2. Clive Freedman (7)
3. Harvey Freeman (10)
4. Nic Brown (14) (No "k" in his name, by the way.)
5. Allan Saldanha (15)
6. Tim Morrissey (17)
7. Wayne Summers (24)
8. Don Reid (25)
9. Chris Rogers (29)
10. Natascha Kearsey (35)
11. Pete Cashmore (35)
12. Kate Ogilvie (39)
13. Scott Mearns (41)
14. Graham Nash (43)
15. David Williams (43)
16. Chris Wills (47)
17. Julian Fell (48)
18. Chris Cummins (50)
19. Stewart Holden (51)
20. Paul Gallen (52)
21. Mark Tournoff (52)
22. Conor Travers (54)
23. Steve Briers (55)
24. Craig Beevers (57)
25. Charlie Reams (59)
26. Martin Bishop (59)
27. Kirk Bevins (60)
28. Jimmy Gough (60)
29. Chris Davies (61)
30. Andrew Hulme (61)
31. Innis Carson (61)
32. Oliver Garner (62)
33. Nicki Sellars (62)
34. Jack Hurst (63)
35. Eoin Monaghan (63)
36. Edward McCullagh (64)
37. Adam Gillard (64)
38. Graeme Cole (65)
39. Mark Deeks (65)
40. Jack Worsley (66)
41. Jonathan Rawlinson (66)

Will post later with the actual draw.

[Gavin Chipper]

And when I can be bothered, I'm going to count how many of them are actually in the tournament.

I think it's 14, so just over a third. Quite a small number, but I doubt if any of the earlier players applied to go on. David Williams is the earliest player and only one from the 9-round era on my list that is in the real tournament. I think they probably wanted more older players if possible, so I'm guessing that no-one before David on my list actually applied. He's 19th on my chronological list, and from 19 to 41, 14 out of 23 made the cut, and some of the 9 that didn't no doubt didn't apply - Julian Fell and Stewart Holden to name two - but given some of the people that did make it, I am surprised by some of the omissions.

Edit - the big omissions from the people who I think probably applied are Oliver Garner, Eoin Monaghan and Adam Gillard. This can't just be to make room for more past contestants, because they should be in over some of the recent ones. Oliver Garner also missed out on a special against his neighbouring champion Jack Hurst (we had Kirk Bevins v Chris Davies and Edward McCullagh v Graeme Cole).

Also I would consider the likes of Jon Corby and Charlie Reams to be pretty unlucky.

[Gavin Chipper]

Edit - the big omissions from the people who I think probably applied are Oliver Garner, Eoin Monaghan and Adam Gillard. This can't just be to make room for more past contestants, because they should be in over some of the recent ones. Oliver Garner also missed out on a special against his neighbouring champion Jack Hurst (we had Kirk Bevins v Chris Davies and Edward McCullagh v Graeme Cole).

Also I would consider the likes of Jon Corby and Charlie Reams to be pretty unlucky.

So did all of Garner, Monagahan and Gillard apply for this?

[Adam Gillard]

Eoin and I did. I think Oli was unable to attend, so he didn't apply.

[Eoin Monaghan]

Oliver had January modules so couldn't commit, I couldn't take part due to legislations regarding me not having completed GCSEs - out of the crew's hands.

[Matt Morrison]

Oliver had January modules so couldn't commit, I couldn't take part due to legislations regarding me not having completed GCSEs - out of the crew's hands.

I bet some of the older contestants don't have GCSEs

[Gavin Chipper]

Oliver had January modules so couldn't commit, I couldn't take part due to legislations regarding me not having completed GCSEs - out of the crew's hands.

Presumably it's an age thing, rather than a GCSE thing?

[Adam Gillard]

the big omissions from the people who I think probably applied are Oliver Garner, Eoin Monaghan and Adam Gillard. This can't just be to make room for more past contestants, because they should be in over some of the recent ones

Oliver had January modules so couldn't commit, I couldn't take part due to legislations regarding me not having completed GCSEs - out of the crew's hands.

That just leaves Adam Gillard

[Gavin Chipper]

the big omissions from the people who I think probably applied are Oliver Garner, Eoin Monaghan and Adam Gillard. This can't just be to make room for more past contestants, because they should be in over some of the recent ones

Oliver had January modules so couldn't commit, I couldn't take part due to legislations regarding me not having completed GCSEs - out of the crew's hands.

That just leaves Adam Gillard

It does seem a bit of a weird omission. It clearly wasn't done entirely on merit.

[Eoin Monaghan]

Oliver had January modules so couldn't commit, I couldn't take part due to legislations regarding me not having completed GCSEs - out of the crew's hands.

Presumably it's an age thing, rather than a GCSE thing?

A bit of both. but I think it is GCSE related - Kai's a few months younger than me but has completed his.