Friday 13th November 2015 (Series 73, Prelim 93)

[Thomas Carey]

Countdown recap for Friday 13 November 2015.

Hello and welcome to my first recap since puberty. I haven’t got a proper recap job, don’t worry, I’m just covering for Anthony.

Nick starts off by talking about The Lady in The Van (presumably Channel 4 don’t get paid for endorsements like this, although I do kind of want to see it now) and talks about that time he went around Morocco in a camper van before we get down to business.

C1: Champion Matthew Tassier (4 wins, 387 points.) Retired from playing for Southampton and England to become a statistical consultant from Ealing. He’s been doing pretty well so far, and would have a lot more points if he didn’t go for THE WORST numbers pick every time.
C2: Challenger Eoin Jardine. Ooh, another student. He's from Limerick and once did a firewalk, and he’s looking to become an emergency first responder. Good luck to him there, and good luck to him against Matthew here.
DC: Susie Dent and Sherrie Hewson.
RR: Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.

R01: P E S B A D E I R
R02: E I O M T C X E F
R03: 2, 9, 6, 5, 7, 8. Target: 430.
TTT: CREMEBUN - "He wouldn't do this to you, he's your brother"
R04: O A E T J D B O K
R05: P I G M E W O A S
R06: 3, 4, 4, 7, 75, 50. Target: 826.
R07: R I S T A N U E N
R08: U I O F V P M E T
R09: 75, 100, 25, 50, 3, 1. Target: 576.
TTT: KENCARED - "Ken cared for his apple trees but sadly they were this"
R10: U O A P S N L E R
R11: D A S T I V A E D
R12: A I E T R N L A G
R13: S E N T A D O U G
R14: 4, 2, 7, 7, 75, 25. Target: 316.
R15: I F F I P L A N T (conundrum)


And now a brief interlude before our main feature:

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Enjoy the show.

Round 1: P E S B A D E I R

Matthew: PRAISED (7)
Eoin: BEADS (5)
DC: BEARDIES (8)
OT: AIRSPEED (8)
Score: 7–0 (max 8)

Good start from Matthew, and there were a couple of decent 8s here. AIRSPEED was one of those ones I missed all the time, but now it doesn’t matter.

Round 2: E I O M T C X E F

Matthew: EXOTIC (6)
Eoin: TOXIC (5)
DC: EXCITE (6) COMFIT (6) EMETIC (6)
Score: 13–0 (max 14)

I wonder if Eoin was trying to spell out his name? (I wonder how many times a contestant’s name has been spelt out in a game they played (I imagine there are many for Tims and the like). What’s the longest? What’d score most in Scrabble?)

Matthew took a good early lead, while Susie got all 4 sixes, Sherrie talked about the useless X (she must have been waiting to make that joke) and Nick talked about recently eating too many Liquorice Allsorts. What a round.

Round 3: 2, 9, 6, 5, 7, 8. Target: 430.

Matthew: 430. 9*8*6-2 (10)
Eoin: -
Score: 23–0 (max 24)

Nice and simple method from our champ. Makes up for him picking 6 small.

Teatime teaser: CREMEBUN -> ENCUMBER ("He wouldn't do this to you, he's your brother")

Round 4: O A E T J D B O K

Matthew: BOATED (6)
Eoin: BOATED (6)
DC: DATEBOOK (8)
Score: 29–6 (max 32)

Eoin gets off the mark. Cool darren there from DC which got Sherrie talking about dates. I’m not going to do the Darren Bent thing, as much as I like it. Sorry.

Round 5: P I G M E W O A S

Matthew: MAGPIES (7)
Eoin: POEMS (5)
DC: MIAOW (5) MIAOWS (6)
Score: 36–6 (max 39)

…although it does feel wrong not to. It’s probably drawn my attention to darrens much more. (Also, when the guest says a word and Susie adds something obvious, are you meant to put both words?)

Round 6: 3, 4, 4, 7, 75, 50. Target: 826.

Matthew: 826. (7+4)*75+(4-3) (10)
Eoin: 826. (7+4)*75+(4-3) (10)
Score: 46–16 (max 49)
Even 2 large is better than what Matthew picks (although it’s still far worse than the other 3 choices).

Sherrie talks about accidents she’s had with furniture and her time on Loose Women. I’ll agree with her that the chairs on set are really nice, even though the chairs in the audience are – quite literally – a pain in the arse to sit on for 5 games.

Round 7: R I S T A N U E N

Matthew: URINATES (8)
Eoin: TRAINS (6)
DC: SATURNINE (18)
Score: 54–16 (max 67)

Ouch! URINATES is a very good one for stemming, but Matthew doesn’t get it. Oh well, his word is still two letters longer than Eoin’s.

Round 8: U I O F V P M E T

Matthew: MOTIVE (6)
Eoin: PIVOT (5)
OT: IMPUTE (6) OUTVIE (6) UPTIME (6) UPVOTE (6)
Score: 60–16 (max 73)

UPVOTE has not only made it into the ODO, it’s already on the recap writer. Eat your heart out, Neb (or alternatively, give that an upvote).

Round 9: 75, 100, 25, 50, 3, 1. Target: 576.

Matthew: 576. (100-75)*25-50+1 (10)
Eoin: 575.
Score: 70–16 (max 83)
Pleasantly surprised to see Matthew mixing it up. Nice solve too, easy one if you know/spot that 575 is a ‘gimme’.

Teatime teaser: KENCARED -> CANKERED ("Ken cared for his apple trees but sadly they were this")
A canker is a cancerous lesion in plant tissue, apparently. The more you know.

Round 10: U O A P S N L E R

Matthew: PERSONAL (8)
Eoin: PLANS (5)
DC: soaper SUPERNAL (8)
OT: PSORALEN (8) PURSLANE (8)
Score: 78–16 (max 91)

This looks like one of those where there’s a new ODO 9, but nobody has found one yet so I’m going to assume for now that there isn’t one. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Round 11: D A S T I V A E D

Matthew: AVIATED (7)
Eoin: seated
DC: STAVED (6) ADVISED (7) DEVADASI (8)
Score: 85–16 (max 99)

I’m pretty sure Eoin said SEATED, but they didn’t disallow it. Not that it matters, especially as Matthew takes his fifth win in this round. Meanwhile my max game is off because of DEVADASI which was said by both Susie (who tells us it’s a female dancer in a Hindu temple) and the lads in apto show chat (who didn’t have a clue, as per).

As it’s Friday the 13th, Susie talks about the origins of ‘chancing your arm’ which turns out to be one of those that could be linked to a cool story but is probably based off something much more boring.

Round 12: A I E T R N L A G

Matthew: TRIANGLE (8)
Eoin: - (0)
DC: RELATING (8) ALTERING (8) ALERTING (8)
OT: AERATING (8) ALGINATE (8) GERANIAL (8) INTEGRAL (8) REGALIAN (8) TANGLIER (8)
Score: 93–16 (max 107)

Don’t worry Eoin, you’re better than the last sixth form student who was on, and a lot less twattish than the one before him.

Round 13: S E N T A D O U G

Matthew: OUTSANG (7)
Eoin: donuts
DC: TONGUED (7) DONATES (7)
OT: ASTOUND (7) AUGENDS (7) DOTAGES (7) GUSTNADO (8) NOUGATS (7) ONSTAGE (7) OUTAGES (7) SNOUTED (7) SOUTANE (7) TANGOED (7) TANGOES (7) TONGUES (7)
Score: 100–16 (max 115)

Ah, American spellings. Unlucky Eoin. Nice century though Matthew, keep it up.
DONATES is topical as it’s Children in Need today. I think.

Round 14: 4, 2, 7, 7, 75, 25. Target: 316.

Matthew: 316. 75*4+7+7+2 (10)
Eoin: 316. 75*4+7+7+2 (10)
Score: 110–26 (max 125)

And this sees Matthew leap over Rhys Benjamin and Zac Goodman to become #8, and he hasn’t lost yet! He’s very likely going to be in the finals this December (I would spoil it but I can’t remember if he was or not).

Round 15: I F F I P L A N T

Matthew buzzes on 2 seconds to say PLAINTIFF which is correct.
Final Score: 120–26 (max 135)

That’s his first conundrum solve, and a nice fast one. This is the eighth 120+ score this series, and it’s far from over (in broadcast, anyway). Eoin is sent back to Ireland (where many apterites are going today for Co:Dub, good luck everyone involved.) Just how far will Matthew go? A win or a score of more than 24 on Monday will put him ahead of the current #7, Matty Artell, and a win with more than 128 puts him ahead of Liam Moloney too, but he could well end up as the 5th octochamp of the series. Will he manage that? He certainly deserves it. Find out soon!

Sorry for the crap recap everyone.

Further summaries are at:
http://cdb.apterous.org/series.php?series=73
.o/

[Matthew Tassier]

Not crap at all, great to have you doing one of mine. Nice work, mate.

[Tracey Anne Mills]

Good work on your first recap Thomas