c4countdown

WD Callum! That was such a great episode to watch, I recorded my reaction as it unfolded, so I might upload it to youtube or something. Probably the best series ever, and Callum pulled off the best streak of wins ever to be the overall champ.

Commiserations to Dylan, who surely proved to be the best ever letters and numbers player in a series? I guess the weakness was always the conundrums for him, I think he might live to regret not making the most of the conundrum practise available on apterous.

In his 11 games, Dylan dropped more points on conundrums than on all other rounds combined!

Fred Mumford wrote:In his 11 games, Dylan dropped more points on conundrums than on all other rounds combined!

Yeah, 60/116 Crikey, what a statistic that is

Speaking of conundrums, was I the only one who noticed the "Kirk semi" error in that final

James Robinson wrote:Speaking of conundrums, was I the only one who noticed the "Kirk semi" error in that final

Do you mean the conundrum board being the actual conundrum board rather than having that blue mask over it? Might have been unintentional, but I wouldn't say it was an error. I've never understood why they have the blue mask thing in the first place.

Congratulations, Callum. To come from being #7 seed to win against such great players as Jen, Glen and Dylan is a huge achievement, and it was the hardest series to win for a long time. First #7 seed to win for 18 years.

Congratulations also to Dylan on helping to make it such a high-quality final. That was the highest-scoring series final ever, by a huge margin.

Graeme Cole wrote:

James Robinson wrote:Speaking of conundrums, was I the only one who noticed the "Kirk semi" error in that final

Do you mean the conundrum board being the actual conundrum board rather than having that blue mask over it? Might have been unintentional, but I wouldn't say it was an error. I've never understood why they have the blue mask thing in the first place.

Yeah, it is a bit odd, in the old purple set, it wasn't used to begin with (the pink/purple mask), but by the time they left, it was there all the time.

It's just noticeable to me when it's missed........... Shouldn't really be a factor, but it sticks out to me, just not to others...........

FWIW, I completely understand Callum lack of nerves. I reckon, of all my games, I felt the least nervous in my final simply because I knew I was the underdog, and personally didn't expect to win.

This was such an amazing final to watch. Very, very well played. Commiserations, Dylan. Callum, that was just - wow!

That was so good!

I want to talk about Dylan first. Dylan, you've been brilliant throughout this series and blew the competition away en route to the all-time record octototal, which will be very tough to beat! I've really enjoyed watching you (almost as much as Rachel Riley has) and this final was no exception. If I'm not mistaken, you were one point off the max ('raw' score) going into the conundrum, so there's certainly no question that you kept up your incredibly high level in the final. Then when Callum emerged TRIUMPHAL, you were very gracious in defeat - you are a true all-time great of Countdown.

Now on to Callum. Callum, as I and others have said before, you've truly been a breath of fresh air on Countdown and on apterous lately. You exhibit a great easy-going personality and have provided us with wonderful entertainment this series. To beat Jen, Glen and Dylan in the finals - 3 of the greatest players ever - is a monumental achievement and one you should be immensely proud of. I must also thank Adam Dexter for introducing you to apterous, not only because that helped produce one of the closest and best finals ever, but also because it's always a treat chatting to you or playing you online. I hope I get to meet you at a Co-Event or other geeksphere thing in the future.

Well done to both of you for putting on such a brilliant final and well done to the Countdown team for a great series - I've really enjoyed some of the DC stints that I've seen this series. I wish I could have been there and can tell by reading through spoilers threads that some of you (Worsley, Robinson, Jarvis etc.) seem to have got there by hook or by crook, even though all the tickets were sold out before the dates were announced! Maybe I should have tried getting on a waiting list or something - I thought it was a lost cause. I think Graeme vs Carl still trumps this for me, but I was there in the studio that day, so it's hard to compare really. In terms of the quality of gameplay, however, this final must be right at the top. Highest combined maxes ever? Or at least the highest in a normal series game?

Finally, hopefully you've both inspired all of the young ladies reacting to the show on Twitter that Rachel mentioned to become awesome at Countdown so they have a chance of impressing such Adonises as the two of you.

Thank you, Dylan and Callum

An absolutely phenomenal series, and one that will surely be talked about by Countdown fans for a very long time to come. Congrats to everyone involved in making it so, which includes all the finalists and several others including Zarte, Abdi and Mark Hartnett. You can all take a great deal of pride in that, regardless of what your particular result was.

Very very well done to Callum for a positively inspirational finals performance. It feels almost patronising to say this when you played as well as you did, about as well as any champion ever has, but well done for proving once and for all that unpredictable results aren't just a thing of the past (2 votes out of 27 in the poll!). A championship truly earned, and with an impeccable grace too. Special congrats also to Dylan who put in a performance that would have won almost any other final. I can only imagine that the runner-up spot must have felt rather anticlimactic after flying so high throughout the rest of the series, but you seemed to take it very magnanimously indeed, and that deserves a lot of credit.

I feel bad for Series 70, how on earth is it going to follow that?

Innis Carson wrote:I feel bad for Series 70, how on earth is it going to follow that?

Dale Levell vs Joe Harrison in the final?

Jennifer Steadman wrote:Also, if there is a CoC and I have to play you

It would be great to see a rematch, but would you qualify for entry to a CoC tournament?

No offence meant, as obviously if it was based on ability alone then you would not only deserve a place, but would be one of the favourites. But if such a competition was opened up to one losing quarter finalist then surely it would be only fair to open it up to all the others - which kind of devalues the CoC concept. Or doesn't it work that way?

Fred Mumford wrote:

Jennifer Steadman wrote:Also, if there is a CoC and I have to play you

It would be great to see a rematch, but would you qualify for entry to a CoC tournament?

No offence meant, as obviously if it was based on ability alone then you would not only deserve a place, but would be one of the favourites. But if such a competition was opened up to one losing quarter finalist then surely it would be only fair to open it up to all the others - which kind of devalues the CoC concept. Or doesn't it work that way?

There's always been a fair amount of discretion in the selection process for CoCs - there have been instances in the past where a quarter-finalist was invited but the runner-up of that same series wasn't. I'm positive they wouldn't overlook Dylan if there was another CoC, but almost equally sure they wouldn't overlook Jen.

Innis Carson wrote:

Fred Mumford wrote:

Jennifer Steadman wrote:Also, if there is a CoC and I have to play you

It would be great to see a rematch, but would you qualify for entry to a CoC tournament?

No offence meant, as obviously if it was based on ability alone then you would not only deserve a place, but would be one of the favourites. But if such a competition was opened up to one losing quarter finalist then surely it would be only fair to open it up to all the others - which kind of devalues the CoC concept. Or doesn't it work that way?

There's always been a fair amount of discretion in the selection process for CoCs - there have been instances in the past where a quarter-finalist was invited but the runner-up of that same series wasn't. I'm positive they wouldn't overlook Dylan if there was another CoC, but almost equally sure they wouldn't overlook Jen.

If being the third-highest scoring contestant ever, despite losing the QF to the eventual series winner, and a 'demographic breaker' (always popular for these events to break up the domination of NYMs [Nerdy Young Males]) doesn't qualify, then what does?

Thanks for the replies, and I hope you are both right!

Though I guess it might be bit a moot point if CoC tournaments have seemingly died a death.

Jennifer Steadman wrote:

Innis Carson wrote:

Fred Mumford wrote: It would be great to see a rematch, but would you qualify for entry to a CoC tournament?

No offence meant, as obviously if it was based on ability alone then you would not only deserve a place, but would be one of the favourites. But if such a competition was opened up to one losing quarter finalist then surely it would be only fair to open it up to all the others - which kind of devalues the CoC concept. Or doesn't it work that way?

There's always been a fair amount of discretion in the selection process for CoCs - there have been instances in the past where a quarter-finalist was invited but the runner-up of that same series wasn't. I'm positive they wouldn't overlook Dylan if there was another CoC, but almost equally sure they wouldn't overlook Jen.

If being the third-highest scoring contestant ever, despite losing the QF to the eventual series winner, and a 'demographic breaker' (always popular for these events to break up the domination of NYMs [Nerdy Young Males]) doesn't qualify, then what does?

I agree, Martine Sinclair.

I think another CoC event would be pretty cool, not just for selfish reasons. There's a lot of good candidates from this year alone that I think both fans on here and typical armchair viewers would be happy to see again.

My understanding is that Damian or perhaps officials at Channel 4, or whatever, have not been that keen on them in the past, but the general response to the 30th Birthday Championships was overwhelmingly positive. For that reason, I think it's very likely in the near future.

Did it used to be every 5 years?

Andy Platt wrote:I think another CoC event would be pretty cool, not just for selfish reasons. There's a lot of good candidates from this year alone that I think both fans on here and typical armchair viewers would be happy to see again.

My understanding is that Damian or perhaps officials at Channel 4, or whatever, have not been that keen on them in the past, but the general response to the 30th Birthday Championships was overwhelmingly positive. For that reason, I think it's very likely in the near future.

Did it used to be every 5 years?

I think it used to be every two years and then became a bit more haphazard at some point.

Do we reckon this should date back to the last CoC or just to the series before the 30th birthday thing (since none of them were selected for the 30th birthday)?

I would vote for including everyone since the last CoC - not least because the 30th birthday tournament was won by someone from an earlier series.

I'd be inclined to draw mostly from S67 onwards, to make sure as many as possible of the great contestants since then get to be included, but also be open to a few particular contestants from S60-S66 who would have been likely candidates to be invited to a CoC but didn't take part in the 30BC for whatever reason (I'm thinking of Oliver Garner, Eoin Monaghan and Jimmy Gough, but there are probably other good examples too)

Jennifer Steadman wrote:
If being the third-highest scoring contestant ever...

*The third highest scoring octochamp in a format which has only been going for 1.5 series.

Innis Carson wrote:I'd be inclined to draw mostly from S67 onwards, to make sure as many as possible of the great contestants since then get to be included, but also be open to a few particular contestants from S60-S66 who would have been likely candidates to be invited to a CoC but didn't take part in the 30BC for whatever reason (I'm thinking of Oliver Garner, Eoin Monaghan and Jimmy Gough, but there are probably other good examples too)

IAWTP.

JackHurst wrote:

Jennifer Steadman wrote:
If being the third-highest scoring contestant ever...

*The third highest scoring octochamp in a format which has only been going for 1.5 series.

0.75 years isn't it?

Gavin Chipper wrote:

JackHurst wrote:

Jennifer Steadman wrote:
If being the third-highest scoring contestant ever...

*The third highest scoring octochamp in a format which has only been going for 1.5 series.

0.75 years isn't it?

Literally cant tell if you're mocking my use of decimal notation or if you misread my post.

JackHurst wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:

JackHurst wrote:
*The third highest scoring octochamp in a format which has only been going for 1.5 series.

0.75 years isn't it?

Literally cant tell if you're mocking my use of decimal notation or if you misread my post.

I misread "series" as "years". Never mind. Move on. Nothing to see here.

Edit - Actually I reckon I can get away with this. Yeah, I just noticed the whole 1 point 5 thing and thought "what an absolute lunatic! "

Innis Carson wrote:I'd be inclined to draw mostly from S67 onwards, to make sure as many as possible of the great contestants since then get to be included, but also be open to a few particular contestants from S60-S66 who would have been likely candidates to be invited to a CoC but didn't take part in the 30BC for whatever reason (I'm thinking of Oliver Garner, Eoin Monaghan and Jimmy Gough, but there are probably other good examples too)

Like.