Friday 8th May 2015 (Special S45)

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James Robinson
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Friday 8th May 2015 (Special S45)

Post by James Robinson »

So, I'm back for this special episode which Channel 4 in their infinite wisdom have decided to put it in the 6am slot.......... :roll:

Ah well, at least we're being treated to a match between 2 impressive players, so enjoy. ;) :) :D

Countdown recap for Friday 8 May 2015.

C1: Series 43 & Championship Of Champions XI Champion Graham Nash. An assistant operations manager from Wigan, Greater Manchester. (Also, in case you haven't worked it out, he's 15 matches unbeaten, so has a 100% record to defend. :geek: :ugeek: )
C2: Series 53 Runner-Up & Championship Of Champions XII Quarter-Finalist John Brackstone. A postman from Pontypool, Torfaen.
DC: Susie Dent and Gyles Brandreth.
RR: Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.

R01: N L F U E I S L R
R02: D S Z A E E N M D
R03: 75, 3, 5, 3, 10, 10. Target: 975.
TTT: MISSPELT - "Simon said it was the easiest thing he'd ever done"
R04: T H B O I A F P D
R05: T S G E E A D R L
R06: 75, 1, 9, 5, 8, 9. Target: 599.
R07: T G P O I O C T I
R08: R N L E U O C V M
R09: 75, 1, 9, 8, 5, 8. Target: 175.
TTT: ACOLDONE - "There's nothing cold about one, in fact quite the opposite"
R10: S P S O A O M R E
R11: S J T I E O N H W
R12: P K S E I E D R Q
R13: N S N O I A B G R
R14: 100, 9, 10, 3, 8, 1. Target: 374.
R15: S N A I L G O A T (conundrum)


And now a brief interlude before our main feature:

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Enjoy the show.

Round 1: N L F U E I S L R

Graham: FILLERS (7)
John: FILLERS (7)
DC: REFILLS (7)
OT: FULLERS (7) INFUSER (7)
Score: 7–7 (max 7)

Nice start for our veteran players. :)

A FULLER is a person whose occupation is fulling cloth.

Round 2: D S Z A E E N M D

Graham: DEMANDS (7)
John: DEMEANS (7)
DC: DAMNED (6) ENEMAS (6)
OT: AMENDED (7) DEADENS (7) DEADMEN (7) MADDENS (7)
Score: 14–14 (max 14)

More and more 7's here. :)

Round 3: 75, 3, 5, 3, 10, 10. Target: 975.

Graham: 975. (10 + 3) x 75 (10)
John: -
Score: 24–14 (max 24)

Oh dear, oh dear, John suffers a severe bout of brain freeze, as he misses a super simple numbers game....... :oops: :oops:

Teatime teaser: MISSPELT -> SIMPLEST

Round 4: T H B O I A F P D

Graham: PHOBIA (6)
John: HABIT (5)
Score: 30–14 (max 30)

A brilliant darrenic spot by Graham here. He's clearly not spooked after more than a decade away from the studio.....

Round 5: T S G E E A D R L

Graham: TREADLES (8)
John: LARGEST (7)
DC: RESTAGED (8)
Score: 38–14 (max 38)

And he follows it up with another top drawer spot to pull even further clear already.

Round 6: 75, 1, 9, 5, 8, 9. Target: 599.

Graham: 599. (8 x 75) - 1 (10)
John: 599. (8 x 75) - 1 (10)
Score: 48–24 (max 48)

Well, it's another simple numbers game, but at least John got it this time. :)

Gyles talks about "the good old days".

Round 7: T G P O I O C T I

Graham: TOPIC (5)
John: OPTIC (5)
DC: giotto
OT: COGITO (6) PTOTIC (6)
Score: 53–29 (max 54)

Graham's MAX GAME hopes come to an end, although no-one in the studio knows how...... :roll:

COGITO is the principle establishing the existence of a being from the fact of its thinking or awareness.
PTOTIC relates to PTOTIS, drooping of the upper eyelid due to paralysis or disease, or as a congenital condition.

Round 8: R N L E U O C V M

Graham: UNCOVER (7)
John: CLOVER (6)
DC: NOVEL (5) LOUVRE (6)
Score: 60–29 (max 61)

Graham has plenty more surprises to UNCOVER, as his lead is extended once again......

Round 9: 75, 1, 9, 8, 5, 8. Target: 175.

Graham: 175. ((5 - 1) x 9) + (8 x 8) + 75 (10)
John: -
Score: 70–29 (max 71)

A last second solve by Graham, but he impresses yet again, and this game seems like it has been won already.........

Teatime teaser: ACOLDONE -> CANOODLE

Round 10: S P S O A O M R E

Graham: soapers
John: SPORES (6)
DC: MORASS (6) PROSOMAS (8)
Score: 70–35 (max 79)

Argh, Graham decides to try a 7, but to no avail. DC get a super impressive 8 though. :D

Round 11: S J T I E O N H W

Graham: WHITENS (7)
John: WHITENS (7)
DC: TOWNIES (7)
OT: HISTONE (7) TOWNISH (7)
Score: 77–42 (max 86)

WHITENS from both here, nice and smiley faces all round. 8-) :mrgreen:

HISTONE is any of a group of basic proteins found in chromatin.

Susie's Origins of Words talks about the origins of "strapping lads".

Round 12: P K S E I E D R Q

Graham: PRESIDE (7)
John: respiked
DC: PESKIER (7)
Score: 84–42 (max 93)

The game is up for John, as you can't be respiked............ :roll:

Round 13: N S N O I A B G R

Graham: bonings
John: signora
DC: ABORNING (8)
Score: 84–42 (max 101)

Both players try 7's. Graham's can't be pluralised and John's is capitalised........., but DC go top dog with a super darrenic 8. 8-)

Round 14: 100, 9, 10, 3, 8, 1. Target: 374.

Graham: 372.
John: 373. (3 x 100) + (8 x 9) + 1 (7)
RR: 374. ((100 - 9) x (3 + 1)) + 10 (10)
Score: 84–49 (max 111)

Graham seems to have shut off for a bit, as he misses getting to within 1, like John, but Rachel is on hand to show us the way. ;) :) :D

Round 15: S N A I L G O A T

Graham buzzes on 23.25 seconds to say NOSTALGIA which is correct.
Final Score: 94–49 (max 121)

Now that's a bit of NOSTALGIA :!: :!: :P :lol: It might take Graham a bit of time to spot it, but we don't mind, especially as his fantastic shirt is still on display (another reminder of his appearances of yesteryear........ ;) :) :D )

John might not have been at his best today, but don't take that away from the 11-max performance of Graham, who was brilliant, and would've been brilliant if he had appeared in the 30th Birthday Championships 2 years ago (which I'm reliably informed he had no idea of its existence!!), so maybe an invite to the 40th Birtday Championships is in order. :idea: :idea:

Right, only 2 shows next week (not even an early morning show), so I'll be back on the 20th for the next Wednesday show.

Till then, bye for now. ;) :) :D :mrgreen: 8-)

Statistics Corner

Graham:
Total score - 94
Raw score - 101
Total % of max - 78
Raw % of max - 83
Total average score per round - 6.3
Raw average score per round - 6.7
Number of maxes - 11 8-)

John:
Total score - 49
Raw score - 67
Total % of max - 40
Raw % of max - 55
Total average score per round - 3.3
Raw average score per round - 4.5
Number of maxes - 4

Further summaries are at:
http://cdb.apterous.org/series.php?series=-14
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Mike Brown
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Re: Friday 8th May 2015 (Special S45)

Post by Mike Brown »

Well spotted, James. A different special to the one in my planner and noted as a repeat in the TV guides. Thanks to you (and 4OD) I managed to watch it. :)
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Re: Friday 8th May 2015 (Special S45)

Post by Anthony Endsor »

Oh. :shock: I never knew about the existence of this special, meaning not only did I miss the show, but presumably it appears I have also been rescued from what could have been quite an embarrassing recap faux pas. :oops:

The crazy thing is, I was actually up at 6am on Friday as well, though admittedly watching an alternative channel, watching to see what the country's fate would be for the next 5 years :roll:

Well done for spotting it James and thanks for covering :)
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Re: Friday 8th May 2015 (Special S45)

Post by Gavin Chipper »

James Robinson wrote:John might not have been at his best today, but don't take that away from the 11-max performance of Graham, who was brilliant, and would've been brilliant if he had appeared in the 30th Birthday Championships 2 years ago (which I'm reliably informed he had no idea of its existence!!), so maybe an invite to the 40th Birtday Championships is in order. :idea: :idea:
It was a shame that people weren't invited and it was just left basically to people on here and the Scrabble online community to apply themselves. I understand that the whole thing was short notice so it would have been difficult to send out a load of invitations, but I still think they could have picked a few of the greats to send invitations too - including Graham Nash, Harvey Freeman, Allan Saldanha etc.
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Re: Friday 8th May 2015 (Special S45)

Post by Tom »

Gavin Chipper wrote:
James Robinson wrote:John might not have been at his best today, but don't take that away from the 11-max performance of Graham, who was brilliant, and would've been brilliant if he had appeared in the 30th Birthday Championships 2 years ago (which I'm reliably informed he had no idea of its existence!!), so maybe an invite to the 40th Birtday Championships is in order. :idea: :idea:
It was a shame that people weren't invited and it was just left basically to people on here and the Scrabble online community to apply themselves. I understand that the whole thing was short notice so it would have been difficult to send out a load of invitations, but I still think they could have picked a few of the greats to send invitations too - including Graham Nash, Harvey Freeman, Allan Saldanha etc.
I always had wondered whether Graham knew about the 30th BC and when I finally got hold of him last year, he said he didn't know and had changed email and didn't think to notify channel 4. Graham I'm sure would have entered without hesitation, not really had any thoughts of "I'm risking my unbeaten record" and am 100% sure he would have got a place. If my memory is right I think Chris Wills had only heard about it as Ben Wilson emailed him about it and I only found out by fluke after checking here for the first time in over a year and the message had been put out earlier that day.

Whilst it isn't a gripe, the 30th wasn't as all-encompassing as I'd liked it to have been. Whilst I appreciate factors such as 30 years being a long time, people dropping out of the scene and understandable casualties, I know there are people who I've spoken to since who didn't know about it who would have been interested and its a shame in a way it was dependent on who checked here and the scrabble community. No criticism to any participants, but I do feel we were missing several people from down the years who it would have been awesome to have in the tournament. I don't know how it works behind the scenes but if I was organising it I'd have drawn up a shortlist of people I wanted in and at least try to make an effort to get hold of each of them providing you had details for them.

I'd love to see a big tournament like that happen again but don't know if it would happen. I don't know how long Countdown is contracted up until but maybe have a mini-series or tournament to celebrate 35 years or if and when the show ever got taken off air have a special series in its final episodes to make it a grand exit.
Probably the second tallest ever series finalist.
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