Spoilers For Thursday June 21st 2012

[James Robinson]

So, we have now reached the climactic stages of this, the 66th series of Countdown.

And following on from 8 days of pretty much, super-cool brilliance from Jonathan Rawlinson, we've decided to have him back, not by choice, but because his endeavours have given him the prized #1 Seed spot for "The Sheffield Superkid".

But, stepping up to shoot him down is the #8 Seed, Rob "The St. Alban's Sniper" Gibney", who did impressively well, despite only winning 4 matches back in April, as you can see by the stats below:

Firstly, No.1 Seed Jonathan Rawlinson - 8 Wins, 850 Points (Average: 106.25)
Highest Score: 120 vs. Stewart Calver (3rd Game)
Lowest Score: 93 vs. James Kelk (7th Game)
9's Achieved: 3/4
Total Points/Max/%: 850/982 (87%)
Letters Points/Max/%: 565/662 (85%)
Numbers Points/Max/%: 205/240 (85%)
Conundrum Points/Max/%: 80/80 (100%)

Secondly, No.8 Seed Rob Gibney - 4 Wins, 486 Points (Average: 97.20)
Highest Score: 105 vs. John Bird (1st Game)
Lowest Score: 93 vs. Jason Atkinson (2nd Game) & Nathan Steggles (5th Game)
9's Achieved: 0/4
Total Points/Max/%: 486/650 (75%)
Letters Points/Max/%: 315/453 (70%)
Numbers Points/Max/%: 141/147 (96%)
Conundrum Points/Max/%: 30/50 (60%)

I'll be around with the recap later.

[Jordan F]

Total Points/Max/%: 486/650 (60%)

Apologies for being nitpicky but I'm pretty sure that's more than 60%.

[Jennifer Steadman]

Finally finished my guide to series 66 finals, if anyone's interested. This time with fewer unfounded serial killer accusations and more detail!

[Thomas Carey]

KINASE R1 and PETIOLE in the EELPOUT round. Great game.

[Tony Atkins]

Lots of 6s in R1 eg SALINE and ANKLES.

Well done to the Kid for his 9 wins in a row! Though not his best permance today - I think he needs 24 hours off to recover!

[James Robinson]

Total Points/Max/%: 486/650 (60%)

Apologies for being nitpicky but I'm pretty sure that's more than 60%.

Indeed, not sure how that happened. Fixed now though.

[James Robinson]

HEINOUS in round 8, ORANGEY in round 11 and TOLUENE in round 12.

[Graeme Cole]

Great game. Often the 1v8 quarter final is a bit one-sided, but not here. I'm glad Jonathan won, but I'm also pleased that Rob gave him a good game. Also loved the "eight eight........... eight" bit after Jonathan declared 890 on the last numbers round.

At this point I thought Jonathan had actually fallen asleep.

[James Robinson]

At this point I thought Jonathan had actually fallen asleep.

He was probably dreaming about being on the SOUL TRAIN.

[Eoin Monaghan]

I've been watching the show for the first time in a while (Summer holidays, woot woot) and saw Jonathan's recent games - very impressive!

I believe this was recorded immediately after Jonathan's 8th win, in which case hats off to Jonathan for not falling asleep! I know I was shattered before, during and after my last game and I was relieved to get the octochampdom. The finals didn't even enter my mind frame and I just wanted to enjoy myself thereafter. Had someone told me straight after my last win I'd have to play my quarter-final (against an impressive player might I add. (FIRESIDE was a great spot - eluded me.)) I would have just thrown in the towel.
Very glad to see you get the victory, and a great score to boot, Jonathan, because I'm sure (don't quote me on this) you'll be very impressive come your semi-final after what I hope was a good night's sleep!

A Jack/ Jonathan final looks imminent, but then again so did a 1 vs 2 seed last year. I'm rooting for Peter Lee though.

[Jack Worsley]

It was obvious that Jonathan was very tired having recorded nine in a row. It's understandable so all you could realistically ask of him was to win, even if it was with a below-par performance.

Hope this doesn't count as a spoiler but instead of tossing for the choice of chairs, they didn't do that this series for some reason. Instead, the higher seed was automatically given the challenger's chair.

[Graeme Cole]

Hope this doesn't count as a spoiler but instead of tossing for the choice of chairs, they didn't do that this series for some reason. Instead, the higher seed was automatically given the challenger's chair.

?!

The only explanation I can think of for this is that nobody had a coin on them.