Monday 25th November 2013 (Series 69, Prelim 99)

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Graeme Cole
Series 65 Champion
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Monday 25th November 2013 (Series 69, Prelim 99)

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Countdown recap for Monday 25 November 2013.

C1: Champion Jonathan Liew (2 wins, 189 points) is a sports journalist for "one of the great national broadsheets" as Nick puts it, or The Daily Telegraph, as I put it.
C2: Challenger Sally Castle is an illustrator and artist from Ruscombe, near Reading. One of her artworks stands in Reading's Forbury Square.
DC: Susie Dent and Selina Scott.
RR: Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.

R01: O E I N T H N R E
R02: S D H A U O S D U
R03: 5, 4, 1, 2, 5, 2. Target: 437.
TTT: CLAYHIPS - "Olivia was pleading with us to get this."
R04: I E L P X A N R G
R05: E I A R K T T B N
R06: 25, 3, 5, 1, 9, 5. Target: 116.
R07: I O E P M P V R W
R08: N H R I E O F T E
R09: 7, 3, 4, 8, 2, 9. Target: 191.
TTT: SPARETIN - "Found a spare tin of gloss, so he does this."
R10: L N G O I O L M E
R11: U I O J R Q M F T
R12: S R T E A E G S A
R13: E I A P C B S Z O
R14: 75, 50, 7, 4, 5, 3. Target: 711.
R15: C O S Y D R I V E (conundrum)


And now a brief interlude before our main feature:

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Enjoy the show.

Round 1: O E I N T H N R E

C1: THINNER (7)
C2: THINNER (7)
DC: ENTHRONE (8)
OT: THREONINE (18)
Score: 7–7 (max 18)

Seven apiece for Jonathan and Sally, and Susie finds ENTHRONE. Well done to anyone who spotted THREONINE, which is an amino acid whose origin is from the phrase "Countdown's on in a minute".


Round 2: S D H A U O S D U

C1: SADDOS (6)
C2: dous
OT: DOSHAS (6) SADHUS (6)
Score: 13–7 (max 24)

Jonathan does well to find a six out of this lot, and Sally suspects, correctly, that her offering needs an E. Other than SADDOS, there were two sixes, both of Sanskrit origin: DOSHA is a term from Ayurvedic medicine, coming from the Sanskrit for "disease", and a SADHU is a holy man.


Round 3: 5, 4, 1, 2, 5, 2. Target: 437.

C1: 440. (5*2+1)*2*5*4 (7)
C2: -
RR: 440. (7)
OT: 440. (7)
Score: 20–7 (max 31)

Normally when Rachel says "this could be tricky" in response to putting up a series of lowish numbers, CECIL cheekily comes up with a target like 200. Not this time. Three away is the best it gets, and Jonathan achieves perfection to extend his lead.


Teatime teaser: CLAYHIPS -> PHYSICAL


Round 4: I E L P X A N R G

C1: EXPLAIN (7)
C2: PLAINER (7)
DC: RELAXING (8)
OT: PEARLING (8)
Score: 27–14 (max 39)

This was Sally's chance to catch up as Jonathan misses an -ING word for eight. But both can only find seven, so it's up to Susie and Selina to give us RELAXING.


Round 5: E I A R K T T B N

C1: BATTIER (7)
C2: BITTERN (7)
DC: NITRATE (7) TRINKET (7)
OT: BEATNIK (7) BIRETTA (7) KERATIN (7) KNITTER (7) NATTIER (7) TERTIAN (7)
Score: 34–21 (max 46)

I did wonder what Jonathan's three-vowels-six-consonants thing was all about, but he doesn't pick it every time. Sometimes he picks a final vowel, but not on this occasion.


Round 6: 25, 3, 5, 1, 9, 5. Target: 116.

C1: 116. (5+5+3)*9-1 (10)
C2: 114.
Score: 44–21 (max 56)

Whoops, Sally misses a reasonably straightforward one large, and Jonathan treats it like a six small. Which it kind of is, since the alleged "large" is 25.


Round 7: I O E P M P V R W

C1: IMPROVE (7)
C2: IMPROVE (7)
DC: POMPIER (7)
Score: 51–28 (max 63)

IMPROVE for our contestants, and POMPIER for the corner. POMPIER is a noun - it's a kind of artist - so don't go away thinking you could also have POMPIEST^.


Round 8: N H R I E O F T E

C1: THEREOF (7)
C2: THRONE (6)
DC: FORINT (6)
OT: FEINTER (7) HEFTIER (7) HEROINE (7) NEITHER (7) OFTENER (7) THEREIN (7) THEREON (7)
Score: 58–28 (max 70)

This is almost exactly the same selection as round 1. Sally finds THRONE, perhaps remembering ENTHRONE from that round, but Jonathan takes the points by spotting one of the sevens.


Round 9: 7, 3, 4, 8, 2, 9. Target: 191.

C1: 191. (7*4-3)*8-9 (10)
C2: 190.
Score: 68–28 (max 80)

Jonathan "doesn't really like the numbers" Liew solves another six small.


Teatime teaser: SPARETIN -> REPAINTS


Round 10: L N G O I O L M E

C1: LOOMING (7)
C2: LOOMING (7)
DC: GNOME (5)
Score: 75–35 (max 87)

Anyone else notice that Nick seemed to ask for Sally's word almost before the clock finished?


Round 11: U I O J R Q M F T

C1: FORUM (5)
C2: QUOIT (5)
DC: QUIRT (5) MUFTI (5) FRUIT (5)
OT: JORUM (5) MOTIF (5)
Score: 80–40 (max 92)

Rubbish selection. Five is the best it gets, including our old favourite QUIRT.


Round 12: S R T E A E G S A

C1: STEERS (6)
C2: GREASES (7)
DC: RESTAGES (8) AERATES (7)
Score: 80–47 (max 100)

The game isn't over yet, as Sally beats Jonathan's offering with GREASES.


Round 13: E I A P C B S Z O

C1: BAIZES (6)
C2: SPACE (5)
DC: CAPSIZE (7) BICEPS (6)
Score: 86–47 (max 107)

BAIZES, however, does seal the game for Jonathan. It's a bit of an awkward word to pluralise, but they've allowed it before, most recently in this game, when there was a bit of off-screen debate about it. As I recall, on that occasion it was originally disallowed, then the decision was reversed after the following round. In the case of BAIZES, the fact that pool and snooker tables can be covered in different colours of baize is enough for DC to accept the plural.


Round 14: 75, 50, 7, 4, 5, 3. Target: 711.

C1: 717.
C2: 709. (7+3)*75-50+4+5 (7)
RR: 711. (75+4)*((50/5-7)*3) (10)
Score: 86–54 (max 117)

Jonathan seemingly likes 6 small more than 2 large, as Sally denies him the points by getting two away.


Round 15: C O S Y D R I V E

Sally buzzes on 7 seconds to say DERISORY which is incorrect.
Jonathan buzzes on 8 seconds to say DISCOVERY which is correct.
Final Score: 96–54 (max 127)

Sally realises DERISORY isn't right as soon as she says it, and Jonathan had seen the correct answer at about the same time. Another strong showing for Jonathan, but this time he falls short of a century. Sally seemed to pick up towards the end, but couldn't stop Jonathan scoring his third comfortable win.

Meanwhile, over on BBC4, Michael Wallace and Jamie Karran are on Only Connect!

I'll leave you with a puzzle, continuing the tradition of hiding puzzles in recap threads. A set of puzzles, in fact. Not made by me, but put together by someone inspired by this xkcd comic. If you're Adobe, and you don't use a salt when hashing passwords* for storage in a database, then anyone with access to that database can tell that two people have the same password by observing that they have the same password hash. So what, you might think? Well, if these password hashes are stored alongside the password hints, and the password table accidentally gets leaked, it turns out that guessing the most commonly-used passwords is pretty easy. So somebody made some crosswords out of it.

* I was going to explain these technical terms by the time-honoured tradition of including a bunch of wikipedia links, but if you want an accessible and well-presented discussion of How Not To Store Passwords, you'd do better to watch this Computerphile video by the excellent Tom "from the internet" Scott.


Further summaries are at:
http://cdb.apterous.org/series.php?series=69
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