Ask Graeme?

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Graeme Cole
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

Mark Deeks wrote:I wonder if there's any possible screen time for Countdown's version of Benedict.
Whassat? Pope? Cumberbatch? Eggs?
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Ben Wilson
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Ben Wilson »

Graeme Cole wrote:
Gavin Chipper wrote:Please list every 15-round octochamp in order of maximums out of 120. Do it for 9-rounders as well (but not out of 120). And a separate xicount list. Or at least top tens. That would be gruesome.

Edit - I want pro rata scores for top potential octochamps like John Clarke and Helen Grayson.
Here's the first bit - 15 round octochamps ordered by the number of maxes out of 120 in heat games. A maxed round is where the player got the most points available. Tiebreaks aren't counted.

The 9-rounder one is going to need a bit more thought to exclude people who had more than one run, so I'll come back to that one another day.

Code: Select all

    1. Edward McCullagh           95
    2. Julian Fell                94
    3. Jack Hurst                 91
    4. Jonathan Rawlinson         89
    4. Craig Beevers              89
    6. Stewart Holden             86
    7. Kirk Bevins                85
    8. Chris Davies               84
    9. David O'Donnell            82
   10. Eoin Monaghan              81
   11. Conor Travers              80
   12. Graeme Cole                79
   12. Chris Wills                79
   14. George Greenhough          78
   14. Oliver Garner              78
   14. Adam Gillard               78
   14. Paul Gallen                78
   14. John Mayhew                78
   19. Jack Welsby                77
   20. Andrew Hulme               76
   20. Paul Howe                  76
   20. Innis Carson               76
   23. Peter Lee                  75
   24. Daniel Pati                74
   25. Marcus Hares               73
   26. Martin Bishop              72
   26. Jimmy Gough                72
   28. Tom Barnes                 71
   28. Ryan Taylor                71
   30. Grace Page                 70
   30. Aaron Webber               70
   30. Chris Cummins              70
   33. Richard Heald              69
   33. Jon Corby                  69
   35. Matthew Shore              68
   35. Lee Hartley                68
   37. Neil Zussman               67
   37. Mark Deeks                 67
   37. Charlie Reams              67
   37. Mark Tournoff              67
   37. Steven Briers              67
   37. Paul James                 67
   43. Jack Worsley               66
   44. James Hurrell              65
   44. Tom Rowell                 65
   44. Andy McGurn                65
   44. John Brackstone            65
   44. Jeffrey Hansford           65
   49. Tom Hargreaves             64
   49. Stuart Earl                64
   51. Scott Gillies              63
   51. John Hunt                  63
   53. Stuart Solomons            62
   53. Wendy Roe                  62
   53. John Davies                62
   53. Junaid Mubeen              62
   57. Jon O'Neill                61
   57. Jean Webby                 61
   59. Richard Brittain           60
   59. Martin Gardner             60
   59. Shane Roberts              60
   62. Cate Henderson             59
   62. Michael Bowden             59
   62. Ross Allatt                59
   62. Steven Moir                59
   62. Jonathan Coles             59
   62. John Gray                  59
   68. Mike Pullin                58
   68. Stu Horsey                 58
   68. David Edwards              58
   68. Brian Selway               58
   72. Jim Bentley                57
   72. Danny Hamilton             57
   72. Liam Shaw                  57
   72. Keith Maynard              57
   76. Nik Von Uexkull            56
   77. Rupert Stokoe              55
   78. Tim Reypert                54
   78. Sweyn Kirkness             54
   78. David Von Geyer            54
   78. Jeffrey Burgin             54
   82. James Roberts              53
   82. Paul Keane                 53
   82. Kai Laddiman               53
   82. Nick Wainwright            53
   86. Ned Pendleton              52
   86. Amey Deshpande             52
   86. Jayne Wisniewski           52
   89. Carl Williams              51
   89. Michael Macdonald-Cooper   51
   89. Dave Taylor                51
   92. Judith Young               50
   92. Gary Male                  50
   92. Julia Wilkinson            50
   95. Danny Pledger              49
   96. Tony Warren                48
   97. James Doohan               46
   98. Joe Zubaidi                44
   99. Tia Corkish                43
   99. Brenda Jolley              43
  101. Chris Marshall             42
  101. David Thirlwall            42
  103. Steve Wood                 37
  103. Suzi Purcell               37
  103. Chris McHenry              37
No love for we lepers the viscounts? :( Also,
Graeme Cole wrote:17. Six people have done this:

Allan Saldanha, with 17 consecutive maxes up to and including round 8 of a Supreme Championship semi-final;
Mark Tournoff, up to round 11 of the CoC XII final;
Craig Beevers, up to round 8 of Episode 4472;
Kirk Bevins, spanning three games up to round 1 of Episode 4771;
Jack Hurst, up to round 8 of the series 63 final;
Jonathan Rawlinson, up to round 10 of Episode 5505.

I've counted "maxing a round" as scoring the most points available in the round, so if someone's numbers solution is two away and they're not beaten, but the best is one away, that's still a maxed round. If you say that to max a numbers round you have to get the closest possible solution, that eliminates Allan Saldanha.
Would love to know how many rounds the last 16 of the 30th championships would have to max to beat this, as I reckon this record won't see out the week.

PS I bloody love Graeme Cole, and everyone else should too.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Chris Marshall »

Graeme Cole wrote:
Adam Gillard wrote:Graeme, what is the worst ever conundrum guess? Just came to mind with all this talk about HORSEMEAT at the moment, someone guessed ATMOSPHERE in the audience (10 letters) and I just noticed that in one of Darryl Francis's heat games his opponent went for a 7 (DEFTEST) when the solution was STEADFAST. So, basically, what's the shortest and longest word that a player has guessed for a conundrum? Also, if possible, what's the furthest removed from the actual solution that someone has guessed (probably OUBLIETTE -> GANDISEEG)?
14 players have buzzed in with a seven-letter word. Jimmy Gough is recorded as buzzing in with a six-letter answer, but I don't think we can count that. The longest conundrum answer was 12 letters, which was done four times: episodes M25, 1401, 3530 and 3744.

The conundrum answer with fewest letters in common with the selection appears to be in the last round of a Masters game - FROTTIFY, which has two letters in common with the selection PRANGMAGI. No, I've got no idea what's going on there either.

GANDISEEG from ELITEBOUT is next with three common letters, and three conundrum answers had five letters in common with the answer: they're in episodes 856, 1007 and 5488.
In the audience for David Barnard's first game, someone came up with the answer WISDOMTOOTH from TWODOTHIS which amused me before I collected my mug with the correct answer.
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Graeme Cole
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

Ben Wilson wrote:No love for we lepers the viscounts? :(
Boom.

Code: Select all

              MAXES     MAXES*8/6
Ben Wilson       42         56.00
Loz Sands        42         56.00
Ian McMenzie     41         54.67
Phil Wass        41         54.67
Paul Ryan        31         41.33
Gavin Chipper
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Gavin Chipper »

Graeme Cole wrote:
Ben Wilson wrote:No love for we lepers the viscounts? :(
Boom.

Code: Select all

              MAXES     MAXES*8/6
Ben Wilson       42         56.00
Loz Sands        42         56.00
Ian McMenzie     41         54.67
Phil Wass        41         54.67
Paul Ryan        31         41.33
Excellent. And can we have the players who didn't complete octoruns because they ran out of games or stopped early (like John Clarke and Helen Grayson)? And also xicount totals - so totals from the 11 games of series winners. Actually it would be interesting to have people who had a high max rate but didn't quite make octochamp status. I imagine Darren Shacklady would have a high percentage.

I'm not sure how we can repay you for all this amazing information. Actually I think I saw you on Facebook the other day saying that you overuse the word "awesome" and that leaves you with nowhere to go when something is really awesome. Try "gruesome". It will give you a whole new lease of life. You're welcome.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Gavin Chipper »

It was really interesting to see the list of most maxes for 15 round players. I wasn't surprised to see Ed McCullagh top at just shy of 12 per game. Sounds like a target!
Jon O'Neill wrote:Julian Fell getting 94/120 is disgusting. How? How!
Cos he was brilliant! Actually I probably expected Jack Hurst and Craig Beevers to be ahead, and didn't exepct Jonathan Rawlinson to be quite so high. Beevers was also pre-Apterous, so it's interesting that Apterous hasn't yet completely swamped the top of the leaderboard.
Jon O'Neill wrote:Also George Greenhough seems like the unluckiest guy on here, to have such a shit QF performance when he was clearly the nuts.
This also stuck out to me. I thought he was really good at the time, and was very disappointed to see him lose to Joe Zubaidi, who hadn't done anything to suggest he might beat George before that game. It was a shame we never saw him in a CofC.

The 9-rounder table is very interesting too. Not surprising to see Harvey Freeman at the top. Terry Knowles tied with him and he's another one who I thought was brilliant at the time and was disappointed that he didn't produce that form ever again.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Ben Wilson »

Graeme Cole wrote:
Ben Wilson wrote:No love for we lepers the viscounts? :(
Boom.

Code: Select all

              MAXES     MAXES*8/6
Ben Wilson       42         56.00
Loz Sands        42         56.00
Ian McMenzie     41         54.67
Phil Wass        41         54.67
Paul Ryan        31         41.33
There's awesome, and then there's Graeme.
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Grant Waters
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Grant Waters »

Graeme Cole wrote:The longest conundrum answer was 12 letters, which was done four times
I was kinda hoping my suggestion of PROFITEROLE for PORTFOLIO was at least a joint record. I blame Dave Myers for that as he had me thinking about food all the time! ;-)

Graeme, can you please list the top ten Heptochamps of all time in order of total points scored in their 8 prelims and ideally give credit to the winner of the 8th game in each case?
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Andy Platt »

Graeme Cole wrote:
Johnny Canuck wrote:What is the greatest number of consecutive episodes in which the conundrum has been correctly solved? What is the greatest number in which it has gone unsolved?
Some episodes have more than one conundrum, so I'll take this as the greatest number of consecutive (un-)solved conundrums.

32 consecutive conundrums were solved during the Masters series between this episode and this episode. If we disregard Masters episodes, the longest streak of consecutive solves was 24, between episode 4094 and episode 4117, which spanned some of Jon Corby's and Tony Warren's heat games, the series 54 finals, and the first five games in CoC XII. The streak was only broken by the tricky conundrum SNOWFABLE.

The most consecutive unsolved conundrums is six, which has happened on three occasions: the conundrums up to and including episodes 261, 2103 and 5338.
That last run was started with this absolute beauty when that guy wildly celebrated his conundrum solve that then turned out to be incorrect, will never forget that, haha.
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Graeme Cole
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

Gavin Chipper wrote:And also xicount totals - so totals from the 11 games of series winners.
15 round series winners by round maxes out of 165:

Code: Select all

    1. Edward McCullagh          130
    2. Julian Fell               129
    3. Jack Hurst                127
    4. Craig Beevers             125
    5. Kirk Bevins               121
    6. Chris Davies              116
    7. Conor Travers             114
    7. Stewart Holden            114
    9. Chris Wills               113
   10. David O'Donnell           110
   11. Oliver Garner             109
   12. Graeme Cole               104
   12. John Mayhew               104
   14. Chris Cummins             101
   15. Mark Tournoff              97
   15. Paul James                 97
   17. Junaid Mubeen              94
   18. Jack Worsley               92
   19. John Davies                88
   20. Richard Brittain           80
   21. Nick Wainwright            77
   22. Ben Wilson                 72 (59/135 scaled up)
(Edit: Paul James now included.)
Last edited by Graeme Cole on Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Graeme Cole
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

Grant Waters wrote:
Graeme Cole wrote:The longest conundrum answer was 12 letters, which was done four times
I was kinda hoping my suggestion of PROFITEROLE for PORTFOLIO was at least a joint record. I blame Dave Myers for that as he had me thinking about food all the time! ;-)

Graeme, can you please list the top ten Heptochamps of all time in order of total points scored in their 8 prelims and ideally give credit to the winner of the 8th game in each case?
15 round heptochamps by 8-game score:

Code: Select all

       HEPTOCHAMP           HEPTOTAL  THWARTER
    1. Steve Baines              758  Grant Woods
    2. David Nickeas             756  Danny Hamilton
    3. David Franks              744  Lee Hartley
    4. Anita Freeland            742  Jon Young
    5. Niall Young               726  Greg Hayhurst
    6. Grant Waters              722  Andy Rossall
    7. Michael Chadwick          706  Andrew Greenway
    8. Peter Godwin              705  Lee Palmer
    9. Joy Longworth             699  Andrew Laycock
   10. Christine Armstrong       693  Douglas Clark
   10. John Jeffrey              693  Sean Jessop
   12. Vivienne Mead             682  Ganesh (Subrahmanyam)
   13. Mikey Lear                680  Martin May
   14. Peter Coutts              662  David Stainer
   15. Dundas Keating            661  John Holland
   16. Nikki Roberts             655  Anne Haley
   17. Andrew Blades             650  Stu Horsey
   18. Barry Smith               648  Bob O'Keefe
   19. David Butcher             620  Clive Barham
   20. Dave Wilkinson            618  Barry Watson
   21. Peter Zyss                617  Claudia Tyson
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Ben Wilson
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Ben Wilson »

Here's a good one- of all the rematches there have been on the show, which one had the greatest difference (in terms of winning margin) from the original result?
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Gavin Chipper »

Ben Wilson wrote:Here's a good one- of all the rematches there have been on the show, which one had the greatest difference (in terms of winning margin) from the original result?
Presumably if it's 100-50 and then 50-100 (the other person wins), it's a difference of 100, not 0?
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Graeme Cole
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

Ben Wilson wrote:Here's a good one- of all the rematches there have been on the show, which one had the greatest difference (in terms of winning margin) from the original result?
In series 30, Ben Cooke ended Sue Renwick's run in her sixth game, winning 60-26. They met again in the quarter-finals, and this time Sue Renwick won 56-24. This was a 66-point difference between the two margins.

The second biggest margin difference is 57. In series 28, Damian Eadie lost 59-26 to Suzanne Miles, but beat her 59-35 in the CoC VII semi-final the following year.

At the other extreme, in series 5, Sarah Hadaway and Colin Pearce drew 55-55. In the rematch the following day, Colin Pearce won 53-52.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Jack Worsley »

Can you list all 15-round octochamps in order of total winning margins over eight games? Possibly the number of points accumulated by their opponents too but I'm more interested in the former. Thanks.

PS: I love this thread. :D
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Martin Long »

Graeme Cole wrote:
Mark Deeks wrote:I wonder if there's any possible screen time for Countdown's version of Benedict.
Whassat? Pope? Cumberbatch? Eggs?
Benedict is the statistician on Sky Sports cricket coverage. :)
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Adam Gillard »

Graeme Cole wrote:
Adam Gillard wrote:Graeme, what is the worst ever conundrum guess? Just came to mind with all this talk about HORSEMEAT at the moment, someone guessed ATMOSPHERE in the audience (10 letters) and I just noticed that in one of Darryl Francis's heat games his opponent went for a 7 (DEFTEST) when the solution was STEADFAST. So, basically, what's the shortest and longest word that a player has guessed for a conundrum? Also, if possible, what's the furthest removed from the actual solution that someone has guessed (probably OUBLIETTE -> GANDISEEG)?
14 players have buzzed in with a seven-letter word. Jimmy Gough is recorded as buzzing in with a six-letter answer, but I don't think we can count that. The longest conundrum answer was 12 letters, which was done four times: episodes M25, 1401, 3530 and 3744.

The conundrum answer with fewest letters in common with the selection appears to be in the last round of a Masters game - FROTTIFY, which has two letters in common with the selection PRANGMAGI. No, I've got no idea what's going on there either.

GANDISEEG from ELITEBOUT is next with three common letters, and three conundrum answers had five letters in common with the answer: they're in episodes 856, 1007 and 5488.
Thanks Graeme! I'm loving this thread :)
Andy Platt wrote:I know it was a dickish thing to do but I was laughing so hard at those 12-letter guesses. Love it.
I have to admit I had a cheeky giggle too - some of them seem to have been pioneers for the Unlimited variant!
Mike Brown: "Round 12: T N R S A E I G U

C1: SIGNATURE (18) ["9; not written down"]
C2: SEATING (7)
Score: 108–16 (max 113)

Another niner for Adam and yet another century. Well done, that man."
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by David Barnard »

This thread exudes awesomeness left right and centre, excellent work
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Graeme Cole
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

Gavin Chipper wrote:Excellent. And can we have the players who didn't complete octoruns because they ran out of games or stopped early (like John Clarke and Helen Grayson)?
Maxes, round counts, and percentage for potential octochamps. Only prelims are considered. Some players (e.g. Cathy Morgan) are missing some round details, and Philip Nelkon is completely omitted as we don't know about any of his prelims. I've only considered those rounds where we know the player's score and the max.

Code: Select all

                                  MAXES      %
     1. Helen Grayson             44/63  69.84
     2. John Clarke               23/37  62.16
     3. Wayne Kelly               29/54  53.70
     4. Esther Byers              19/36  52.78
     5. Anthony Butcher           13/27  48.15
     5. Mark Preston              13/27  48.15
     7. Pat Hynes                 16/36  44.44
     7. Jim Ainsworth             20/45  44.44
     7. Julian Hough              12/27  44.44
    10. Frank Mulvey              31/75  41.33
    11. Cathy Morgan              26/63  41.27
    12. Alan Payne                21/54  38.89
    13. Eleanor Crosby            17/45  37.78
    14. Vicki McCarthy            10/27  37.04
    15. Geraldine Hylands         22/63  34.92
    16. Derek Stuart-Clark        18/54  33.33
    16. Andrew Loheide            12/36  33.33
    18. Dennis Fearon             11/36  30.56
    19. Elizabeth Thomson          8/27  29.63
    20. Michael Stephenson        10/36  27.78
    21. Kathleen Vickers           9/36  25.00
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Thomas Carey »

Who has faced the most impossible numbers games? How about impossible to get within ten also?


Awesome thread by three way.
cheers maus
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Gavin Chipper »

Thanks Graeme. So Helen Grayson's max rate was indeed slighter higher than Harvey Freeman's as had been suspected.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Matt Morrison »

this gets better and better
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Graeme Cole
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

Jack Worsley wrote:Can you list all 15-round octochamps in order of total winning margins over eight games? Possibly the number of points accumulated by their opponents too but I'm more interested in the former. Thanks.

PS: I love this thread. :D
15-round octochamps in order of aggregate winning margin in prelims:

Code: Select all

     1. Eoin Monaghan                    544
     2. Edward McCullagh                 535
     3. Jack Hurst                       534
     4. Craig Beevers                    528
     5. Andrew Hulme                     523
     6. Kirk Bevins                      508
     7. David O'Donnell                  503
     7. Jonathan Rawlinson               503
     9. Adam Gillard                     477
    10. Julian Fell                      474
    11. Tom Barnes                       469
    12. Stewart Holden                   461
    13. Chris Davies                     454
    14. Conor Travers                    446
    15. Matthew Shore                    441
    16. Chris Cummins                    431
    17. Daniel Pati                      422
    18. Marcus Hares                     421
    19. Innis Carson                     405
    20. Jon Corby                        403
    21. Aaron Webber                     401
    21. Scott Gillies                    401
    23. Lee Hartley                      399
    24. James Hurrell                    393
    25. Tim Reypert                      390
    26. Jack Worsley                     389
    27. George Greenhough                387
    28. Paul Gallen                      377
    29. Chris Wills                      366
    30. Graeme Cole                      363
    31. Keith Maynard                    361
    32. Brian Selway                     358
    33. Mark Tournoff                    357
    34. Steven Briers                    356
    35. Stuart Solomons                  355
    36. John Mayhew                      354
    37. Jeffrey Hansford                 341
    38. John Brackstone                  339
    39. David Barnard                    338
    40. Cate Henderson                   337
    40. Jon O'Neill                      337
    40. Junaid Mubeen                    337
    40. Mark Deeks                       337
    44. Charlie Reams                    336
    44. Oliver Garner                    336
    46. Jonathan Coles                   334
    47. Peter Lee                        329
    48. Jack Welsby                      328
    48. Paul Howe                        328
    50. John Hunt                        320
    51. Paul Keane                       318
    52. Richard Heald                    314
    53. Martin Gardner                   313
    53. Paul James                       313
    55. Martin Bishop                    309
    56. Grace Page                       304
    57. John Gray                        299
    58. Tom Hargreaves                   295
    59. Sweyn Kirkness                   293
    60. Mike Pullin                      290
    61. Wendy Roe                        288
    62. Danny Hamilton                   287
    63. Heather Styles                   285
    64. Richard Brittain                 284
    65. Michael Macdonald-Cooper         280
    65. Stuart Earl                      280
    67. Ryan Taylor                      277
    68. Jimmy Gough                      272
    69. Shane Roberts                    260
    70. Jean Webby                       254
    71. Tom Rowell                       253
    72. James Roberts                    251
    72. Kai Laddiman                     251
    74. Nik Von Uexkull                  247
    75. Gary Male                        240
    75. Neil Zussman                     240
    77. Jim Bentley                      237
    77. Kevin Thurlow                    237
    79. Ross Allatt                      236
    80. Judith Young                     235
    80. Stu Horsey                       235
    82. Suzi Purcell                     232
    83. Michael Bowden                   225
    84. Carl Williams                    223
    85. James Doohan                     221
    86. Tia Corkish                      219
    87. John Davies                      218
    88. Julia Wilkinson                  211
    88. Rupert Stokoe                    211
    90. Brenda Jolley                    210
    91. Andy McGurn                      209
    92. Tony Warren                      207
    93. Steven Moir                      206
    94. Amey Deshpande                   201
    95. Nick Wainwright                  195
    96. Chris Marshall                   189
    97. David Von Geyer                  185
    98. Richard Pay                      184
    98. Rose Boyle                       184
   100. Jayne Wisniewski                 182
   101. Ned Pendleton                    172
   102. Dave Taylor                      164
   102. Liam Shaw                        164
   104. Jeffrey Burgin                   162
   105. David Thirlwall                  155
   106. Danny Pledger                    152
   106. David Edwards                    152
   108. Steve Wood                       150
   109. Joe Zubaidi                      120
   110. Chris McHenry                     95
And in order of total points scored by opponents in prelims:

Code: Select all

     1. Jonathan Rawlinson               347
     2. Tom Barnes                       353
     3. Eoin Monaghan                    354
     4. Edward McCullagh                 361
     5. Aaron Webber                     372
     6. David O'Donnell                  377
     7. Craig Beevers                    379
     8. Tim Reypert                      383
     9. Brian Selway                     388
    10. Andrew Hulme                     407
    11. Matthew Shore                    409
    11. Scott Gillies                    409
    11. Stewart Holden                   409
    14. Jack Hurst                       412
    14. Jonathan Coles                   412
    14. Lee Hartley                      412
    17. Marcus Hares                     413
    18. Kirk Bevins                      417
    19. Daniel Pati                      418
    20. Keith Maynard                    424
    21. Adam Gillard                     426
    21. Paul Keane                       426
    23. Chris Cummins                    427
    24. Jack Worsley                     429
    25. George Greenhough                430
    26. David Barnard                    433
    26. Martin Gardner                   433
    28. Chris Davies                     438
    29. Stuart Solomons                  441
    30. Conor Travers                    444
    31. Cate Henderson                   445
    31. James Hurrell                    445
    33. Graeme Cole                      450
    33. Julian Fell                      450
    35. Heather Styles                   452
    35. Mark Tournoff                    452
    37. Jon Corby                        453
    37. Junaid Mubeen                    453
    39. Suzi Purcell                     454
    40. Innis Carson                     456
    41. John Mayhew                      457
    42. John Gray                        458
    43. Mike Pullin                      466
    43. Oliver Garner                    466
    45. Jon O'Neill                      467
    46. John Hunt                        468
    47. Paul Gallen                      469
    48. Judith Young                     472
    48. Peter Lee                        472
    48. Sweyn Kirkness                   472
    51. Danny Hamilton                   474
    52. Jeffrey Hansford                 477
    53. Tia Corkish                      478
    54. James Doohan                     481
    54. Paul James                       481
    54. Richard Heald                    481
    57. Danny Pledger                    483
    57. John Brackstone                  483
    59. Charlie Reams                    484
    59. Jean Webby                       484
    61. Carl Williams                    485
    61. James Roberts                    485
    63. Mark Deeks                       487
    63. Paul Howe                        487
    63. Steven Briers                    487
    66. Ned Pendleton                    492
    67. Andy McGurn                      493
    67. Chris Marshall                   493
    67. Wendy Roe                        493
    70. Stu Horsey                       497
    71. Martin Bishop                    500
    71. Michael Macdonald-Cooper         500
    73. Nik Von Uexkull                  502
    74. Jack Welsby                      503
    75. Kai Laddiman                     505
    75. Ross Allatt                      505
    75. Tony Warren                      505
    78. Shane Roberts                    506
    79. Brenda Jolley                    508
    80. Chris Wills                      509
    81. Gary Male                        510
    81. Jimmy Gough                      510
    83. Michael Bowden                   514
    84. Ryan Taylor                      515
    85. Amey Deshpande                   517
    85. Rose Boyle                       517
    87. Jim Bentley                      519
    88. Tom Rowell                       521
    89. Jayne Wisniewski                 523
    89. Jeffrey Burgin                   523
    91. Grace Page                       525
    91. Steve Wood                       525
    93. Dave Taylor                      527
    93. Stuart Earl                      527
    95. Neil Zussman                     528
    96. Nick Wainwright                  531
    97. Kevin Thurlow                    532
    98. Julia Wilkinson                  533
    99. Richard Brittain                 536
   100. David Von Geyer                  539
   101. Liam Shaw                        544
   102. Joe Zubaidi                      545
   103. Chris McHenry                    548
   103. John Davies                      548
   103. Richard Pay                      548
   106. David Thirlwall                  549
   107. Tom Hargreaves                   555
   108. Steven Moir                      557
   109. Rupert Stokoe                    565
   110. David Edwards                    585
Edit: both these tables now include all 15-round octochamps up to the end of series 67.
Last edited by Graeme Cole on Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Matt Morrison »

and better...
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Post by Graeme Cole »

Thomas Carey wrote:Who has faced the most impossible numbers games? How about impossible to get within ten also?
Impossible to get 10 points: Martin Bishop had six, Jack Welsby had five, ten people had four, and loads more people have had fewer.

Impossible to get any points: Sweyn Kirkness had three, John Mitchell had two (in only four games), and loads of people have had one.
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Post by Jon O'Neill »

Which person who lost their first game got the most maxes?
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Post by Gavin Chipper »

Jon O'Neill wrote:Which person who lost their first game got the most maxes?
For both 9 and 15 rounds please.
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Post by Ryan Taylor »

I didn't think this thread would take off like it has but I'm impressed with Graeme's relentless work here. I do hope it's not taking up all your spare time though! Some really interesting stats coming out of this too. I like the winning margins one with Eoin top and it's testament to Ed how good a player he is that he is surfacing top in a lot of the high calibre categories.
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Post by Johnny Canuck »

If I may thank Graeme Almighty for his answer to my previous question and throw another one out there...

What are the most frequently offered niners?
I'm not dead yet. In a rut right now because of stress from work. I'll be back later in S89. I also plan to bring back the Mastergram - if I can find a way to run a timer or clock through pure MediaWiki without having to upload to Vimeo every time.
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Post by Mark Ivey »

I am loving this thread, very informative.

Has there ever been a show which has containing more than one numbers game in which is was impossible to get within ten?
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Post by Andy McGurn »

Andy McGurn wrote:Question: At CO events numbers rounds can be awkward when you have to use those flimsy numbers thingys to get a target which can sometimes be 081 or something, so my question to Graeme is this: Could you make at least 10 more of those electronic numbers gadgets of yours and bring them to future CO events so all tables can have one?
How come Graeme didn't answer my question?
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Post by Grant Waters »

Graeme Cole wrote:

Code: Select all

       HEPTOCHAMP           HEPTOTAL  THWARTER
    1. Steve Baines              758  Grant Woods
    2. David Nickeas             756  Danny Hamilton
    3. David Franks              744  Lee Hartley
    4. Anita Freeland            742  Jon Young
    5. Niall Young               726  Greg Hayhurst
    6. Grant Waters              722  Andy Rossall
    7. Michael Chadwick          706  Andrew Greenway
    8. Peter Godwin              705  Lee Palmer
    9. Joy Longworth             699  Andrew Laycock
   10. Christine Armstrong       693  Douglas Clark
   10. John Jeffrey              693  Sean Jessop
   12. Vivienne Mead             682  Ganesh (Subrahmanyam)
   13. Mikey Lear                680  Martin May
   14. Peter Coutts              662  David Stainer
   15. Dundas Keating            661  John Holland
   16. Nikki Roberts             655  Anne Haley
   17. Andrew Blades             650  Stu Horsey
   18. Barry Smith               648  Bob O'Keefe
   19. David Butcher             620  Clive Barham
   20. Dave Wilkinson            618  Barry Watson
   21. Peter Zyss                617  Claudia Tyson
Wow. Thanks Graeme! You are clearly the datameister!

Looking through those names and cross referencing them against the wiki uncovers lots of interesting stories. I love clicking through the wiki and reading all about the champions from previous series.

Code: Select all

HEPTOCHAMP           HEPTOTAL  THWARTER		Crucial   Series  Wins	Comment
1. Steve Baines           758  Grant Woods			NO	 57	1	Grant was beaten by Octochamp Jeffrey Hansford who Steve also met in his SF
2. David Nickeas          756  Danny Hamilton		YES	48	8	Danny was beaten by Julian Fell with THAT 146 game!
3. David Franks           744  Lee Hartley			NO	 47	8	David Franks did NOT make the quarter finals!
4. Anita Freeland         742  Jon Young			  YES	56	1	Anita was arguably the most successful heptochamp losing in the final on the crucial
5. Niall Young            726  Greg Hayhurst       YES	63	5	Niall was actually in the lead in his Octogame in every round until the crucial which Greg got in 1 second!
6. Grant Waters           722  Andy Rossall		  NO	 67	2	Andy was beaten by Ocvtochamp Liam Shaw
7. Michael Chadwick       706  Andrew Greenway 	 YES	63	1	Andrew was beaten by Octochamp Jack Hurst and his win over Michael was with the lowest ever winning score of 47.
8. Peter Godwin           705  Lee Palmer		    NO	 63	1	Peter finished 9th in the seeding but played in the QFs as Michael Chadwick was unavailable.
9. Joy Longworth          699  Andrew Laycock	   YES	55	5	Just like Niall, Joy was in the lead in every round of her octogame but lost to Andrew when he buzzed on 2 seconds.
10. Christine Armstrong   693  Douglas Clark	    YES	54   1	Both Christine's Octogame and Douglas's next game were crucials.
I would have thought that most heptochamps would have been "thwarted" by Octochamps, but as the table shows most thwarters actually only won 1 or 2 games!
3 of these heptochamps were in the same series (63) and so many of them were decided on crucial conundrums!

Thanks again Graeme. But a big shout out to all who contribute to the wiki as that is an awesome resource too. :)
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Gavin Chipper »

The list of total maxes that octochamps and champions achieved is an excelent tool, and it's been said before that number of maxes is the best way to judge performance. But obviously it doesn't tell the whole story. If the max is an 8 and one contestant has a 7 and the other a 6, maxes won't make any distinction. I think the best way would be to come up with some scoring system based on someone picking the nth best word. So if the max is 8 and there are three 8s, then 7 would be the 4th best.

Obviously only the best words (and the contestants' offerings) are recorded in the database, so it can't be used to score rounds in this way, but I was wondering if there was some approximate rule of thumb that can be used to calculate the likely number of words of each length based on the length of the max, and how many words there are at that length.

Edit - Something that the database probably could answer - what is the break down of probabilities of each length of word being the max, and for each length, what is the average number of words of the max length?
Last edited by Gavin Chipper on Sun Feb 10, 2013 4:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Andy Platt »

Who had the fewest and most nines available in their octoruns?
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Post by Mike Brown »

I think I ought to rather belatedly add my praise for Graeme to this thread. The amount of data pulled out and the speed with which it's been done is astonishing. I also think that a few years ago this thread would not have flourished in quite the same way and that is probably down to the apterous effect! It's also slightly surreal to see my 'olde worlde' notes being used in such a super-high-tech-Graeme-like fashion, but very enjoyable and informative nonetheless. And, yet again, I'm reminded that I failed to take note of much of Series 7 and Clive Freedman's legendary octorun. Sorry. :)
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Post by Mike Brown »

Andy McGurn wrote:
Andy McGurn wrote:Question: At CO events numbers rounds can be awkward when you have to use those flimsy numbers thingys to get a target which can sometimes be 081 or something, so my question to Graeme is this: Could you make at least 10 more of those electronic numbers gadgets of yours and bring them to future CO events so all tables can have one?
How come Graeme didn't answer my question?
I asked Graeme about this a while ago and I seem to recall they're quite a bit of work to put together (this may be a false memory) and buying ten would probably cost quite a few quid. Having said all this, maybe several of us could buy and build one and donate it to the Co-event cause. I'd certainly be willing as long as it doesn't involve super-skills. Next: conundrum buzzers!
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Post by Graeme Cole »

Jon O'Neill wrote:Which person who lost their first game got the most maxes?
In 15-round games, three people lost their debut with ten maxes. They are David Morgans, Paul Lyne and Christine Smith.

In 9-round games, Tom Bradshaw and Gareth Fuller both lost their debuts with seven maxes.
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Post by Graeme Cole »

Johnny Canuck wrote:What are the most frequently offered niners?
RELATIONS is the clear winner, having been offered 18 times. Then it's DELATIONS with 9, ORDINATES with 8 and IDOLATERS and CREATIONS with 7.
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Post by Graeme Cole »

Gavin Chipper wrote:Edit - Something that the database probably could answer - what is the break down of probabilities of each length of word being the max, and for each length, what is the average number of words of the max length?
I can only do the first bit. For each letters round the database stores the most points available, but I didn't make it store what words were available.

Code: Select all

  MAX    FREQ
    3       2     0.0043%
    4      44     0.095%
    5     825     1.78%
    6    6720    14.54%
    7   20058    43.39%
    8   15977    34.57%
    9    2596     5.62%
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Post by Graeme Cole »

Andy Platt wrote:Who had the fewest and most nines available in their octoruns?
15 rounds: Richard Heald and Chris Wills respectively.

Code: Select all

                        SPOTTED  AVAIL
Chris Wills                   4     12
Andrew Hulme                  7     11
Julia Wilkinson               3     11
Dave Taylor                   2     11
Tony Warren                   2     10
Adam Gillard                  4      9
Jeffrey Burgin                4      9
Amey Deshpande                4      9
Ryan Taylor                   3      9
Chris Cummins                 3      9
David Thirlwall               2      9
Judith Young                  0      9
Kirk Bevins                   5      8
John Brackstone               4      8
Steven Briers                 4      8
Tom Barnes                    3      8
James Hurrell                 3      8
Keith Maynard                 2      8
Ross Allatt                   2      8
John Davies                   1      8
Brenda Jolley                 1      8
Stu Horsey                    0      8
Jack Hurst                    6      7
Eoin Monaghan                 5      7
Matthew Shore                 4      7
Stewart Holden                4      7
Marcus Hares                  3      7
Gary Male                     3      7
Aaron Webber                  2      7
Jack Worsley                  2      7
Mike Pullin                   2      7
Scott Gillies                 2      7
Stuart Solomons               2      7
Richard Brittain              2      7
Cate Henderson                1      7
Nik Von Uexkull               1      7
Michael Bowden                1      7
Steven Moir                   1      7
Tia Corkish                   1      7
Heather Styles                1      7
Nick Wainwright               0      7
Julian Fell                   5      6
Jeffrey Hansford              4      6
David Barnard                 4      6
Jimmy Gough                   4      6
Charlie Reams                 3      6
Jon Corby                     2      6
Wendy Roe                     2      6
Tim Reypert                   2      6
Carl Williams                 2      6
Jon O'Neill                   2      6
Junaid Mubeen                 2      6
Jonathan Coles                2      6
Conor Travers                 2      6
Jean Webby                    1      6
Paul James                    1      6
James Roberts                 1      6
Suzi Purcell                  0      6
Martin Gardner                0      6
Peter Lee                     4      5
Innis Carson                  4      5
Chris Davies                  4      5
John Mayhew                   2      5
Jayne Wisniewski              2      5
Chris Marshall                1      5
Shane Roberts                 1      5
Mark Deeks                    1      5
Rupert Stokoe                 1      5
Rose Boyle                    1      5
Jack Welsby                   1      5
Mark Tournoff                 1      5
James Doohan                  0      5
Andy McGurn                   0      5
Paul Keane                    0      5
David Von Geyer               0      5
Daniel Pati                   4      4
Michael Macdonald-Cooper      4      4
Jonathan Rawlinson            3      4
Oliver Garner                 3      4
John Hunt                     3      4
Graeme Cole                   3      4
Paul Gallen                   2      4
Tom Hargreaves                2      4
Stuart Earl                   2      4
Grace Page                    2      4
David O'Donnell               1      4
Ned Pendleton                 1      4
Richard Pay                   1      4
Steve Wood                    0      4
Joe Zubaidi                   0      4
Brian Selway                  0      4
Liam Shaw                     0      4
John Gray                     0      4
Edward McCullagh              3      3
George Greenhough             2      3
Neil Zussman                  2      3
Kai Laddiman                  2      3
Kevin Thurlow                 2      3
David Edwards                 1      3
Lee Hartley                   1      3
Martin Bishop                 1      3
Paul Howe                     1      3
Chris McHenry                 1      3
Danny Pledger                 0      3
Craig Beevers                 2      2
Tom Rowell                    1      2
Danny Hamilton                1      2
Sweyn Kirkness                1      2
Jim Bentley                   0      2
Richard Heald                 1      1
Here's the equivalent 9-round table, but note that some of these players' octoruns aren't completely represented in the database, so these numbers might be wrong.

Code: Select all

                   SPOTTED  AVAIL
Scott Mearns             4      5
John Hadfield            1      5
Lawrence Pearse          0      5
Maria Boyes              2      4
David Ballheimer         1      4
David Trace              0      4
Lew Schwarz              0      4
David Williams           3      3
Simon Cooper             2      3
Jonathan Anstey          2      3
Suzanne Miles            1      3
Nic Brown                1      3
Kate Ogilvie             1      3
Graham Nash              1      3
Norman Christian         1      3
Harvey Freeman           1      3
Terence O'Farrell        1      3
Glynn Leaney             1      3
Phil Jordan              0      3
Melvin Hetherington      0      3
Satbir Gupta             0      3
Sanjay Mazumder          0      3
Kevin McMahon            2      2
Richard Evans            1      2
Chris Waddington         1      2
David Acton              1      2
Dag Griffiths            1      2
Natascha Kearsey         1      2
Allan Saldanha           1      2
Gareth Williams          1      2
Derek Coombs             1      2
Steve Williams           0      2
Don Reid                 0      2
Richard Campbell         0      2
Anthony Jenkin           0      2
Bhavin Manek             0      2
Lucy Roberts             1      1
Jon Marsh                1      1
Margaret Foster          1      1
Tim Morrissey            1      1
John Wallace             0      1
William Bradford         0      1
Dick Green               0      1
Peter Hutchings          0      1
Terry Knowles            0      1
Stephen Deakin           0      1
Michael Calder           0      1
Ray McPhie               0      1
James Martin             0      1
Darryl Francis           0      0
Mark Nyman               0      0
Clive Freedman           0      0
Lindsay Denyer           0      0
Sharon Bridge            0      0
Last edited by Graeme Cole on Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Andy Platt »

Thank you, you sexy man.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

Mike Brown wrote:
Andy McGurn wrote:
Andy McGurn wrote:Question: At CO events numbers rounds can be awkward when you have to use those flimsy numbers thingys to get a target which can sometimes be 081 or something, so my question to Graeme is this: Could you make at least 10 more of those electronic numbers gadgets of yours and bring them to future CO events so all tables can have one?
How come Graeme didn't answer my question?
I asked Graeme about this a while ago and I seem to recall they're quite a bit of work to put together (this may be a false memory) and buying ten would probably cost quite a few quid. Having said all this, maybe several of us could buy and build one and donate it to the Co-event cause. I'd certainly be willing as long as it doesn't involve super-skills. Next: conundrum buzzers!
The whole thing probably costs in the region of £20 to make. It consists of a PIC microcontroller, a 7-segment display module and miscellaneous bits like the case, button, batteries, voltage regulator, on/off switch and so on. Making ten of these things, as Mike says, is a significant task and probably not worth saving the extra few seconds it takes to spin the flimsy mechanical thing again. :-)
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by JackHurst »

Which contestant(s) with at least one wine has the highest loss:win ratio?

Which contestant(s) have the most consecutive losses?

Could you give a leaderboard of players scoring in most consecutive rounds?
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Post by Zarte Siempre »

I'm expecting this to take far too much time and effort to be worthwhile answering, but on the off-chance.

Are there lucky omens in Dictionary Corner? i.e. - does one produce the highest average scores, and does one (excluding finals week obviously) preside over more future series champions in their heats than anyone else?
Possibly the first contestant to accelerate with a mic clipped...
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Post by Jack Worsley »

Who's used the most phantom letters in a letters round?
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Post by Conor »

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

Top 5 sexiest contestants ever?
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Post by Chris Philpot »

I'll echo everyone's comments to say that this thread, and Graeme's work herein, is most impressive.

Inspired by the nominative similarities between Kirk Bevins and Sweyn Kirkness, what string of four consecutive characters was won the most episodes of Countdown? Do the collective "John"s catch up with the "Kirk"s? (I'll guess almost certainly.)
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Post by Peter Mabey »

Graeme Cole wrote:
Gavin Chipper wrote:Edit - Something that the database probably could answer - what is the break down of probabilities of each length of word being the max, and for each length, what is the average number of words of the max length?
I can only do the first bit. For each letters round the database stores the most points available, but I didn't make it store what words were available.

Code: Select all

  MAX    FREQ
    3       2     0.0043%
  
What were these words, and how did the contestants do?
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Post by tomrowell »

Who gave the worst winning performance?
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Post by Grant Waters »

Jack Worsley wrote:Who's used the most phantom letters in a letters round?
There's probably a lot worse but I remember one of my opponents (Colin Costello) suggesting CAPSICUM from MEICPBSUN.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Jack Worsley »

Grant Waters wrote:
Jack Worsley wrote:Who's used the most phantom letters in a letters round?
There's probably a lot worse but I remember one of my opponents (Colin Costello) suggesting CAPSICUM from MEICPBSUN.
I remember. Didn't he declare it as a seven as well (don't think the wiki states words declared of the wrong length unless it's the only reason why the word was disallowed)?
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Post by Grant Waters »

Yes. He declared 7.
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Post by Graeme Cole »

Conor wrote:Which contestants have done the unholy Trinity of declaring an invalid word for the wrong length whilst using phantom letters?
The problem with this one is that for each letters offering in the database, I've got just one "adjudication" column, which has a number in it. If on the wiki page a disallowed word had the NWD (not written down) template then it's 3; otherwise, if it had the "misdeclared" template it's a negative number representing the number declared; otherwise, if it uses letters not in the selection it's 2; and if none of those apply then it assumes the word was unacceptable so it uses 1. And if the word was fine then it's 0. It doesn't have a concept of a word being disallowed for more than one reason.

However, I happened to recall this post, which, although not corroborated by the wiki page, suggests it's been done at least once.
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Post by Graeme Cole »

Peter Mabey wrote:
Graeme Cole wrote:
Gavin Chipper wrote:Edit - Something that the database probably could answer - what is the break down of probabilities of each length of word being the max, and for each length, what is the average number of words of the max length?
I can only do the first bit. For each letters round the database stores the most points available, but I didn't make it store what words were available.

Code: Select all

  MAX    FREQ
    3       2     0.0043%
  
What were these words, and how did the contestants do?
Round 7 in this game and round 2 in this game.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Graeme Cole »

JackHurst wrote:Which contestant(s) with at least one wine has the highest loss:win ratio?
Bruce Lambert won one game and lost three.
JackHurst wrote:Which contestant(s) have the most consecutive losses?
Olivia Lloyd-Potts with five.
JackHurst wrote:Could you give a leaderboard of players scoring in most consecutive rounds?
If the max for a round was zero (numbers game where it's impossible to get within 10) I've counted that as a scoring round for the purpose of this statistic. Also this one is fiddly to work out, which is why I've not got a huge table.

David O'Donnell had a streak of 84 consecutive scoring rounds starting in round 1 of his fourth game and ending in round 10 in his quarter-final.
Tom Hargreaves is next - from the very start of his run he scored in 52 consecutive rounds before he was eventually beaten by OUTBID in his fourth game.
Chris Davies is just behind on 51, in a streak that ended in round 1 here.
Conor Travers had a run of 49 scoring rounds, ending with round 4 here.
Adam Gillard is next with 45 - this ended in round 3 in this game.
Lucy Roberts also scored in 45 consecutive rounds, ending with round 8 in this game.
Kirk Bevins got a streak of 44 ending in round 14 in this game.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Mark Deeks »

Have there ever been any declarations on Countdown that would be pencils on Apterous today? So, valid as maxes, valid in ODE3 now, still unpencilled.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by David Williams »

tomrowell wrote:Who gave the worst winning performance?
No-one ever completes their octochamp run like this nowadays. More's the pity!
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Kirk Bevins
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Kirk Bevins »

Mark Deeks wrote:Have there ever been any declarations on Countdown that would be pencils on Apterous today? So, valid as maxes, valid in ODE3 now, still unpencilled.
As an extension:

Have there been any declarations (during 15 round Countdown) that had a) never come up on the show before and b) were pencils at the time on apterous, i.e. the contestant knew the word from life or, if an apterite, had never offered it before as a max.
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Re: Ask Graeme?

Post by Johnny Canuck »

Kirk Bevins wrote:As an extension:

Have there been any declarations (during 15 round Countdown) that had a) never come up on the show before and b) were pencils at the time on apterous, i.e. the contestant knew the word from life or, if an apterite, had never offered it before as a max.
I recall there being two during rounds 6 and 8 of our own stat master's debut game.
I'm not dead yet. In a rut right now because of stress from work. I'll be back later in S89. I also plan to bring back the Mastergram - if I can find a way to run a timer or clock through pure MediaWiki without having to upload to Vimeo every time.
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