Thursday 5th June 2014 (Series 70, Prelim 96)

[Graeme Cole]

Countdown recap for Thursday 5 June 2014.

JR is away today doing some kind of quizzing thing. Maybe he's finally got on to The Chase? Anyway, I've stepped in to do today's recap.

C1: Champion Roy Taylor (3 wins, 266 points) is the last player who could possibly displace the current #8 seed Andy Gardner, having won three games so far with five prelims left in the series.
C2: Challenger Penny Storey is a retired administrator from Weston-Super-Mare. Appropriately for tomorrow's 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings, Penny tells us that her father flew in the RAF during the war and was shot down in France in July 1944. A farmer saw the plane come down. That farmer and a group of resistance personnel helped him and his crew to safety. Then, in 2001, Penny's father, the farmer and the resistance workers met up again.
DC: Susie Dent and Chris Packham.
RR: Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.

R01: I O A J T W H I E
R02: B D P O A I S D U
R03: 75, 25, 100, 10, 7, 1. Target: 316.
TTT: PEGROYAL - "He'll often peg down to the Theatre Royal for a night out."
R04: T G N E A E L T O
R05: R L D A U E N L O
R06: 50, 100, 1, 6, 3, 8. Target: 169.
R07: A E U T X S R T A
R08: R Y P E A O C R E
R09: 75, 50, 100, 6, 8, 4. Target: 975.
TTT: THINIRIS - "Forget her thin iris, it's more to do with a thick nose."
R10: S P T V O E O S A
R11: R V N S E I A E M
R12: D S Z I O U E M C
R13: O A E R N S U F I
R14: 75, 100, 1, 5, 10, 3. Target: 941.
R15: S I N G L E C A N (conundrum)


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Enjoy the show.


Round 1: I O A J T W H I E

Roy: WHITE (5)
Penny: WHITE (5)
OT: TOWAI (5) WHEAT (5) WITHE (5)
Score: 5–5 (max 5)

You know how some people pronounce "white" as "hwite", as Roy did? And how they also pronounce things like "what" as "hwat" and "where" as "hwere"? Turns out these words used to be spelt with the H first. WHITE comes from the Old English hwīt, WHAT from Old English hwæt, and WHERE from Old English hwǣr. So it's not wrong exactly... just several centuries out of date.


Round 2: B D P O A I S D U

Roy: PADS (4)
Penny: PODS (4)
DC: BIPODS (6)
OT: DISBUD (6)
Score: 9–9 (max 11)

Another unappetising selection yields only fours for our contestants, but Chris and Susie find BIPODS.


Round 3: 75, 25, 100, 10, 7, 1. Target: 316.

Roy: 316. (75/25)*100+10+7-1 (10)
Penny: -
Score: 19–9 (max 21)

Roy asks for three large. Rachel looks at him in a silly way. This doesn't stop him going in front for the first time in the match.


Teatime teaser: PEGROYAL -> PLAYGOER


Round 4: T G N E A E L T O

Roy: ELONGATE (8)
Penny: TANGLE (6)
DC: GELATO (6) TANGELO (7)
Score: 27–9 (max 29)

Chris and Susie find the old Countdown favourite TANGELO - a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit - but Roy elongates his lead.


Round 5: R L D A U E N L O

Roy: LAUNDER (7)
Penny: LAUNDER (7)
DC: UNLOADER (8) EUROLAND (8)
OT: UNROLLED (8)
Score: 34–16 (max 37)

Roy and Penny match each other with LAUNDER, while DC go one better.


Round 6: 50, 100, 1, 6, 3, 8. Target: 169.

Roy: 169. 100+50+3*6+1 (10)
Penny: 169. 100+50+3*6+1 (10)
Score: 44–26 (max 47)

Penny opts for two large, and it doesn't trouble either of them. Next.


Round 7: A E U T X S R T A

Roy: EXTRAS (6)
Penny: TREATS (6)
DC: STATURE (7) SATURATE (8)
Score: 50–32 (max 55)

Penny is getting chances to catch up, but isn't taking them at the moment - they tie the round and Roy remains in front.


Round 8: R Y P E A O C R E

Roy: PRAYER (6)
Penny: COPER (5)
DC: PARRY (5)
OT: CAPERER (7)
Score: 56–32 (max 62)

Roy extends his lead even more. Unspotted in the studio is CAPERER. I wondered if it had any particularly unusual meaning, but it just means someone who capers. So in the absence of an interesting definition, have a look at some of Tom Scott's short and engaging videos on language, such as why we say "big red balloon" but not "red big balloon", a list of feature requests for the English language, and why you swear in Anglo-Saxon and order fancy food in French.


Round 9: 75, 50, 100, 6, 8, 4. Target: 975.

Roy: -
Penny: -
RR: 975. ((100+50)/6-8-4)*75 (10)
Score: 56–32 (max 72)

This was surprising - I'd expect one of Roy or Penny to spot one of the many ways of making 975, but Roy doesn't declare anything, and Penny realises she's made a mistake before she declares. So Rachel deploys a showboaty method.


Teatime teaser: THINIRIS -> RHINITIS


Round 10: S P T V O E O S A

Roy: STOVES (6)
Penny: VOTES (5)
DC: PASTES (6) STOOPS (6)
OT: ESTOPS (6) OVATES (6) PASEOS (6) POOVES (6) POSSET (6) SPATES (6) STAPES (6) STAVES (6) STOEPS (6) STOPES (6) VESTAS (6)
Score: 62–32 (max 78)

Roy spots one of the boatload of sixes in this round to go thirty ahead. Chris Packham talks about STOOPS, and how a peregrine falcon's stoop when it catches prey can briefly reach 200mph, and sustains 150mph. I didn't know what he was talking about at first, then I realised that when a bird swoops, it can be called a stoop.


Round 11: R V N S E I A E M

Roy: MARINES (7)
Penny: RAVINES (7)
DC: REMAINS (7) RAVENS (6)
OT: ENVIERS (7) ERMINES (7) INVERSE (7) MEANIES (7) NEMESIA (7) RENAMES (7) SEAMIER (7) SEMINAR (7) SERIEMA (7) VERMIAN (7) VERSINE (7)
Score: 69–39 (max 85)

Another pancake round. NEMESIA is a plant related to the snapdragon, a SERIEMA is a South American bird, VERMIAN is an adjective meaning worm-like, and VERSINE is a mathematical term meaning 1 minus the cosine of something.


Round 12: D S Z I O U E M C

Roy: MEDICS (6)
Penny: COSIED (6)
DC: MISCUED (7) MOUSED (6) MEDICOS (7)
Score: 75–45 (max 92)

Time is running out for Penny now, who is still 30 behind with three rounds left.


Round 13: O A E R N S U F I

Roy: FURIES (6)
Penny: FINER (5)
DC: INSURE (6) INSOFAR (7)
OT: NEFARIOUS (18)
Score: 81–45 (max 110)

I was initially confused when Roy picked a fifth vowel, and then I assumed he must have been fishing for NEFARIOUS. In fact he wasn't, but his FURIES give him his fourth win.


Round 14: 75, 100, 1, 5, 10, 3. Target: 941.

Roy: 940.
Penny: 941. 100*10-75+3*5+1 (10)
Score: 81–55 (max 120)

Penny starts a late surge, but sadly a little too late to take back the game. This was a pretty fiddly numbers round though - according to my solver, Penny's solution is one of only three exact solutions, and the other two are much more difficult to spot: (75+5)*(10+3)+1-100, and (100+75+10+3)*5+1.


Round 15: S I N G L E C A N

Penny buzzes on 3 seconds to say CLEANSING which is correct.
Final Score: 81–65 (max 130)

Penny takes the conundrum to bring her score up to 65. It was perhaps closer than you might think - had Penny spotted NEFARIOUS, she would have won 83-75 and broken the record for the biggest comeback in the last three rounds of a game. However, Roy was the deserved victor on this occasion, and now needs at least two more wins to take him into the quarter-finals which start on Friday week.

Tomorrow's Countdown will be somewhat less interesting, significantly more horsey and considerably more absent than today's. The silver lining is that a new series of Catsdown starts tomorrow at 9pm.


Further summaries are at:
http://cdb.apterous.org/series.php?series=70