Countdown recap for Monday 12 January 2009.

C1: Champion David O'Donnell (God knows how many wins.)
C2: Champion James Hurrell (8 wins.)
DC: Susie Dent and Andrew Sachs.
RR: Some Oxford graduate called Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.

It gives me huge pleasure to have the honour (etc etc) to write the first ever Stellified recap. I'm dead excited about it! I don't think there is a Countdown fan anywhere in the world (well, Britain anyway) that isn't.
The winner of this will go on to play either Steven Briers or Debbi Flack in the QF's on the 22nd.

R01: E O E S R S R R H
R02: I A A O N C N M N
R03: U E I N X S F T T
R04: E A E I L D P P S
R05: 100, 25, 75, 50, 10, 3. Target: 503.
TTT: NURACHEL - "It's all about starting again."
R06: E E E I L F T D B
R07: O E E N D K Z C S
R08: E U I O C T R M R
R09: A I E G W T P R Y
R10: 1, 10, 6, 9, 7, 3. Target: 690.
TTT: CLADSIGN - "Tell somebody off - they're in very hot water."
R11: A I U R L N R O T
R12: O A U O B V N D S
R13: E I O H D T S M L
R14: 75, 10, 5, 6, 1, 3. Target: 554.
R15: N I C E R O O T S (conundrum)


And now a brief interlude before our main feature:

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Let the games...BEGIN!

Round 1: E O E S R S R R H

C1: reshoes
C2: ERRORS (6)
OT: HEROES (6) HORSES (6) HOSERS (6) SHORES (6) SHEERS (6)
Score: 0–6 (max 6)

An unfortunate start for DoD, with a reasonable-ish word disallowed. This round is the earliest example of poor letters distribution, which was kinda annoying.

Round 2: I A A O N C N M N

C1: MANIAC (6)
C2: MANIAC (6)
DC: MANIOC (6)
OT: CINNAMON (8)
Score: 6–12 (max 14)

Surprising miss there by everyone.

Round 3: U E I N X S F T T

C1: INFUSE (6)
C2: UNITES (6)
OT: UNFIXES (7)

UNFIX - to unfasten

Score: 12–18 (max 21)

Round 4: E A E I L D P P S

C1: SLAPPED (7)
C2: PLEASED (7)
DC: APPLIED (7)
OT: AEDILES (7) APPLIES (7) DAPPLES (7) ELAPSED (7) PALSIED (7) PLEIADS (7) SLIPPED (7) SPIELED (7)
Score: 19–25 (max 28)

AEDILE - a Roman magister
DAPPLE - to mark with spots
PALSY - to affect with paralysis
PLEIAD - an outstanding group of seven people or things
SPIEL - to recite

Andrew Sachs rambles on about...well...something to do with acting, I think.

Round 5: 100, 25, 75, 50, 10, 3. Target: 503.

C1: 503. 50x10+3 (10)
C2: 503. 50x10+3 (10)
Score: 29–35 (max 38)

A nice easy start for Rachel. (The contestants were not asked to declare their solutions, but I assume these are correct. Unless DoD comes along and says that he did 50x10/(100/(75+25))+3 )

Teatime teaser: NURACHEL -> RELAUNCH

Round 6: E E E I L F T D B

C1: BELIEF (6)
C2: EDIBLE (6)
DC: FLEETED (7)
OT: BEETLED (7)
Score: 35–41 (max 45)

BEETLE - to make one's way hurriedly

Round 7: O E E N D K Z C S

C1: SECOND (6)
C2: ENCODES (7)
DC: SNECKED (7)
OT: COZENED (7) DECOKES (7) DOCKENS (7) SECONDE (7)
Score: 35–48 (max 52)

COZEN - to trick
DECOKE - to remove carbon from
DOCKEN - another term for the plant dock
SECONDE - a parrying position in fencing

Round 8: E U I O C T R M R

C1: MORTICE (7)
C2: RECTUM (6) "When you see something like that, you can't see anything else!" Hurrell, 2009
DC: COURTIER (8)
OT: MORTICER (8) TURMERIC (8)
Score: 42–48 (max 60)

Round 9: A I E G W T P R Y

C1: WIRETAP (7)
C2: EARWIG (6)
Score: 49–48 (max 67)

A great spot by David here.

Round 10: 1, 10, 6, 9, 7, 3. Target: 690.

C1: 690. (9x7+6)x10 (10)
C2: 690. (9x7+6)x10 (10)
Score: 59–58 (max 77)

Teatime teaser: CLADSIGN -> SCALDING

Round 11: A I U R L N R O T

C1: RAINOUT (7)
C2: RAINOUT (7)
Score: 66–65 (max 84)

The classic.

Round 12: O A U O B V N D S

C1: ABOUNDS (7)
C2: ABOUNDS (7)
Score: 73–72 (max 91)

3 darrens in a row - probably reasonably rare.

Round 13: E I O H D T S M L

C1: ETHMOIDS (8)
C2: HOSTILE (7)
OT: DEMOLISH (8) HELOTISM (8) MELODIST (8)
Score: 81–72 (max 99)

David admits to using the Conor principle (not knowing what the word means).

Round 14: 75, 10, 5, 6, 1, 3. Target: 554.

C1: 554. (10-3+1)x(75-5)-6 (10)
C2: 554. (10-3)x75+(6x5)-1 (10)
Score: 91–82 (max 109)

Round 15: N I C E R O O T S

C2 buzzes on 0.4 seconds but his buzzer doesn't work.
C1 buzzes on 0.5 seconds to say CORTISONE which is correct.
Score: 101–82 (max 119)

An amazing conundrum spot by DoD rounds off a spectacular opening encounter. If this is anything to go by, CoC XIII will be one of the best ever. Bring it on!

Feel free to make your opinions known to everyone.

Further summaries are at:
http://www.apterous.org/cdb/series.php?series=59

C'ya later!

Bit of a poor clue, I thought - telling someone off is scolding, not scalding. They're not even pronounced similarly.

Balls! In addition to MORTICER/COURTIER I had COZENED/SECONDE (in fact I mentioned SECONDE to James during the show then ruled it out as I thought it was SECONDO/SECONDI only).

Gone but not forgotten...

I noticed that the letters came out quite unevenly - presumably Rachel lied on her application by claiming to be able to shuffle.

Perhaps she admitted that inability - as it was one of the production staff that was shuffling the letters (seriously though - I think that has always been the case). I'm also told the regular letter-shuffler was not present for the recording of this game, hence some unusual selections. Reminds me of the board game, really.

Well done to David, and unlucky to James. Was great to see the game in the studio and those of you watching on TV have some great games coming up this week.

Here we go... New hosts, new set, new era! Without further ado, here's my first post in one of these threads for the year.

I'd like to start off with some entertainment for you by saying the following sentence:

"And the award for the biggest unexpected shocker of the year goes to... (drumroll,) JEFF STELLING!

Jeff, way to re-assure us here that Countdown is not a different show. You were right to say that we were not tuning into "Beauty and the Beast" by mistake. We are not watching "The Weakest Link," although it may look like we are. This is the Countdown we know and love, and Jeff, Jeff Stelling, we love you so!

Rachel was just who I expected her to be, but after so many people told me not to worry about her, something that happened today surprised me without a doubt. But, I did like how she told us about George Clooney. I know it's a dream and a joke, but how do you know he is so good at math? Now, on to the game.

Round 1: So, the very first letter that Rachel ever picks is the most common letter in the English language. We believe it, so on with my commentary.
Round 2: I had CINNAMON, too! No wonder why people call you a "star," Kai!
Round 5: Though we were spoiled of the outcome of Rachel's very first numbers game by the interview on ITV's morning show, it was still very easy.
Teatime Teaser #1: Jeff was right, the first Teatime Teaser of the new era could not be any more appropriate!
Interlude before Round 8: I couldn't tell if that was a joke or not, Jeff. Plymouth Argyle must be a football team, but I thought the real Pilgrims had passed away long ago!
Round 8: James, you are absolutely right, I'm ashamed to admit.
Round 13: Wow, David, I'm very impressed with your word there, and you even shocked Susie, too! What else can I say?
Round 14: Rachel! Everybody said you were going to be just fine! You just solved 551! That's ok, don't worry about it! One show down, many more to go (hopefully)
Round 15: Wow! Again David, you shocked us all! You got that conundrum in a half-second! I just couldn't believe it, and I'm sure some of us couldn't either!

Finally, here's a note to Jeff. Do not rush the end of the show! Can't you just tell the people at home to tune in tomorrow? There's a chance that the loyal viewers might forget!

All told, that was a good episode to start the new era off! I hope to see more episodes like this in the near future!

She doesn't shuffle them, but the normal shuffler was away.

If you get unusual letter choices (eg. 3 R's), that's probably a sign that the shuffling's more random than normal. If you consistently get average selections with no freak selections, on this sample size, it means someone's manipulating the cards.

I've edited something for you, Hurrell.

Edit the CV into RR as well please.

Eh???

LOL, nice one Kai.

2! 4! 6! 8!

Who do we appreciate?

Rachel! Rachel! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees, Rachel!