Monday 4th October 2021 (Series 84, Preliminary 70)

[Rhys Benjamin]

We're copying this from Ryan Lam's wikicap. Thanks to him for this.

That means no OOW, DC segments, or non-max DC words will be in this recap. No jos score either for the same reason. Sad!

Annedown LXIX.

Countdown recap for Monday 4 October 2021.

C1: Champion Ahmed Mohamed (3 wins, 339 points.)
C2: Challenger Colin Wright. From St. Albans, Hertfordshire.
DC: Susie Dent and Dr Phil Hammond.
RR: Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.

R01: T L E O B I C N O
R02: S Y D E E U E R G
R03: 25, 5, 10, 6, 7, 8. Target: 171.
TTT: DARNBRIEF - "Sack Jo for being too passionate about a cause."
R04: T W N A O O E F D
R05: R L I T I A S E N
R06: 50, 4, 5, 3, 2, 10. Target: 500.
R07: P G O I R O S I A
R08: A E U D M S W N V
R09: 75, 2, 8, 9, 7, 6. Target: 572.
TTT: RANGEIGHT - "He rang eight of his friends and they all got together for this. "
R10: R G L I O B S E A
R11: C R E S U A K D T
R12: G O J A P O U R D
R13: N E F T A M E P S
R14: 9, 5, 4, 3, 2, 8. Target: 475.
R15: S H I M M E E U P (conundrum)


And now a brief interlude before our main feature:

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Enjoy the show.

Round 1: T L E O B I C N O

Ahmed: BOLECTION (18)
Colin: CLONE (5)
Score: 18–0 (max 18)
Darren-o-meter: 1/1 (100%)

A metamax start to get us underway here.

Round 2: S Y D E E U E R G

Ahmed: REUSED (6)
Colin: SURGED (6)
OT: GEYSERED (8)
Score: 24–6 (max 26)
Darren-o-meter: 2/2 (100%)

Sixes for both contestants, but the computer takes it.

Round 3: 25, 5, 10, 6, 7, 8. Target: 171.

Ahmed: 171. 25 × 7 − (10 − 6) (10)
Colin: 171. 25 × 7 − (10 − 6) (10)
Score: 34–16 (max 36)

thank u, next

Teatime teaser: DARNBRIEF -> FIREBRAND

Round 4: T W N A O O E F D

Ahmed: ODONATE (7)
Colin: FOOTED (6)
Score: 41–16 (max 43)
Darren-o-meter: 3/3 (100%)

Wonderful darrenage in this game so far, ODONATE getting Ahmed up to 41 after just 4 rounds.

Round 5: R L I T I A S E N

Ahmed: SAINTLIER (18)
Colin: RETAILS (7)
Score: 59–16 (max 61)
Darren-o-meter: 4/4 (100%)

Four darrens from four and Ahmed now has nearly 12 points per round! At this rate he'll get 177.

Round 6: 50, 4, 5, 3, 2, 10. Target: 500.

Ahmed: 500. 50 × 10 (10)
Colin: 500. 50 × 10 (10)
Score: 69–26 (max 71)

Dr. Phil talks about his stories of people meeting their relatives during the pandemic.

Round 7: P G O I R O S I A

Ahmed: PIROGI (6)
Colin: poors
DC: PIROGIS (7)
OT: POORGAS (7)
Score: 75–26 (max 78)
Darren-o-meter: 4/5 (80%)

Susie thinks PIROGI can be pluralised, Apterous doesn't think so. There's nothing in Lexico to say PIROGI should be valid anyway, it's not given as a variant of PIEROGI, but equally there's nothing suggesting PIEROGI can't be pluralised.

Round 8: A E U D M S W N V

Ahmed: MEDUSAN (7)
Colin: AMUSED (6)
DC: UNSAVED (7)
Score: 82–26 (max 85)
Darren-o-meter: 4/6 (67%)

Ahmed and Susie each get a seven. Now, for sure, this won't be an all-darren game. Boooo.

Round 9: 75, 2, 8, 9, 7, 6. Target: 572.

Ahmed: 572. (75 + 6) × 7 + 9 − 8 ÷ 2 (10)
Colin: 572. 8 × 75 − (6 − 2) × 7 (10)
Score: 92–36 (max 95)

60/60 on the numbers so far.

Teatime teaser: RANGEIGHT -> GATHERING

Round 10: R G L I O B S E A

Ahmed: ALBERGOS (8)
Colin: OBLIGERS (8)
OT: GARBOILS (8) GASOLIER (8) GIRASOLE (8) OILBERGS (8) SERAGLIO (8)
Score: 100–44 (max 103)
Darren-o-meter: 4/7 (57%)

Flaaaaaaaaat.

Round 11: C R E S U A K D T

Ahmed: TRADUCES (8)
Colin: TRADUCES (8)
OT: EDUCRATS (8)
Score: 108–52 (max 111)
Darren-o-meter: 4/8 (50%)

Less flat. But still two eights.

OoW: Susie talks about why we use the U in words like HONOUR.

Round 12: G O J A P O U R D

Ahmed: GOPURA (6)
Colin: GROUP (5)
OT: ADROOP (6) PODURA (6) POORGA (6) UROPOD (6)
Score: 114–52 (max 117)
Darren-o-meter: 4/9 (44%)

This round is a poor one and Ahmed somehow extends her lead out of it.

Round 13: N E F T A M E P S

Ahmed: NEPETAS (7)
Colin: pestman
OT: MEANEST (7) PASMENT (7) PENATES (7) PESANTE (7) SPAEMEN (7)
Score: 121–52 (max 124)
Darren-o-meter: 4/10 (40%)

Flaaaaaaaaat.

Round 14: 9, 5, 4, 3, 2, 8. Target: 475.

Ahmed: 476. (9 × 5 + 3) × (8 + 2) − 4 (7)
Colin: 475. Mistake in working.
RR: 475. (9 + 3) × 4 × (2 + 8) − 5 (10)
Score: 128–52 (max 134)

Colin thinks he gets this difficult 6 small round, but doesn't, so Ahmed's 1 away gets the points.

Round 15: S H I M M E E U P

Ahmed buzzes on 1 second to say EUPHEMISM which is correct.
Final Score: 138–52 (max 144)

Max minus 6, a score over 125... there's not much stopping Ahmed.

Join us again soon.


Further summaries are at:
http://cdb.apterous.org/series.php?series=84

[Sam Cappleman-Lynes]

Susie thinks PIROGI can be pluralised, Apterous doesn't think so. There's nothing in Lexico to say PIROGI should be valid anyway, it's not given as a variant of PIEROGI, but equally there's nothing suggesting PIEROGI can't be pluralised.

Lexico suggests that the acceptable plurals of PIEROGI are PIEROGI and PIEROGIES, so one would expect that PIROGIES is valid and PIROGIS^ is not.

However, that is predicated on it indeed being a variant of PIEROGI. That may not be the case - it could just be the plural of PIROG: https://www.lexico.com/definition/pirog

I don't want to go all-in without having access to ODO, but my money is on DC having made an error here, one way or another.

[Fiona T]

[Sam Cappleman-Lynes]

Thanks, Fiona!

My reading of the ODO entry is still the same - that all plurals ought to be +ES rather than just +S. I don't think there's any other sensible way to interpret it.

[Philip A]

Yeah I’m pretty sure the plural would be -ES rather than -S in all three spellings. When plurals of variant spellings of a headword aren’t given, the last syllables of the plurals should be assumed to take the same spelling. Hence, e.g., HEDER > HEDERS or HEDARIM because of CHEDER > CHEDERS or CHEDARIM.

[Gavin Chipper]

You can jos this up now if you want because it's on All 4.

[Rhys Benjamin]

You can jos this up now if you want because it's on All 4.

I can’t, and I can’t do today’s recap either for now, because I have had no electricity for the past 8.5 hours.

(It also took me 8 hours to remember I had my spare battery.)

Edit: power’s back. Clearly someone at the national grid reads C4C.
Double edit: but today's game isn't up yet. Ah.