Countdown recap for Wednesday 10 February 2010.
C1: Champion Craig Chittenden (2 wins, 189 points.) An Apteforumite from Bishop Auckland, County Durham. He is currently in training at college to become a chef, and one day hopes to own his own restaurant. His hobbies are reading, listening to The Killers and supporting Southend United. (There are better teams in League One than Southend, there's a good team who wear blue and white stripes and have a dog for their nickname (That's in case, anyone mentions Jeff's team in that little analysis I did there.))
C2: Challenger Keith Chatton. From Burnopfield, County Durham. He works in service management for an IT consultancy. He lives with his partner, Anne. He's a big fan of the NFL side Dallas Cowboys and his ambition is to see them win the Superbowl in their own stadium next year. He has abseiled down some Newcastle-upon-Tyne landmarks for charity, including the former Co-op Building at 110ft high, the Tyne Bridge at 90ft high and the bell-tower of the Newcastle Civic Centre, which is 200ft high
, but he says that being on the show is scary enough. 
DC: Susie Dent and Mark Foster.
RR: Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.
R01: M C T E A O R I E
R02: O R E A T W L O T
R03: D N K U A T S I O
R04: A S R E Y U S N I
R05: 2, 4, 3, 5, 9, 4. Target: 362.
TTT: DARTREST - "Did this bird look at the first page?"
R06: E V S I R N E P S
R07: L D G E O I Y T A
R08: O V A R L E S D E
R09: M T P O I E T S I
R10: 100, 75, 10, 4, 7, 8. Target: 344.
TTT: EATTOLET - "A lot of golf pegs, but no booze at all"
R11: L N T E A E O P N
R12: A P G R A E B X I
R13: D S B U O A F D E
R14: 25, 50, 7, 1, 5, 7. Target: 368.
R15: C E D A R T R E E (conundrum)
And now a brief interlude before our main feature:
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Enjoy the show.
Round 1: M C T E A O R I E
C1: METEORIC (8)
C2: METEORIC (8)
DC: METEOR (6) EROTICA (7)
Score: 8–8 (max 8)
A nice darrenic start by today's contestants.
Round 2: O R E A T W L O T
C1: ROTATE (6)
C2: wattler
DC: WATTLE (6) ROOTLET (7)
Score: 14–8 (max 15)
Keith's risky 7 unfortunately sees Craig take the early lead.
Round 3: D N K U A T S I O
C1: STINK (5)
C2: SOUND (5)
DC: ASTOUND (7) DAIKONS (7)
Score: 19–13 (max 22)
I'm quite ASTOUNDED that both players missed ASTOUND
Not so ASTOUNDED on them missing DAIKONS, though. 
Round 4: A S R E Y U S N I
C1: INSURES (7)
C2: SUNRISE (7)
OT: SENARIUS (8)
Score: 26–20 (max 30)
A STINK followed by that well-known anagram of ASRE, this show seems to be involving quite a bit of things involving the trouser department today
A SENARIUS is a Latin verse of 6 feet.
Round 5: 2, 4, 3, 5, 9, 4. Target: 362.
C1: 363. (9 x 4 x 5 x 2) + 3 (7)
C2: -
RR: 362. ((9 x 4 x 5) + 4 - 3) x 2 (10)
Score: 33–20 (max 40)
6 small doesn't completely work for Craig today, but he still gets a bigger lead.
Mark tells of his school swimming schemes that he's involved with at the moment.
Teatime teaser: DARTREST -> REDSTART
Carrying on with the trouser department, Susie gives the description of REDSTART as "a Eurasian/North African songbird with a reddish tail and underpants", obviously it should be underparts. She reveals that it was a bet from upstairs, not THAT upstairs
Round 6: E V S I R N E P S
C1: INVERSES (8)
C2: PREENS (6)
DC: RIPENESS (8)
OT: VERSINES (8) PREVISES (8)
Score: 41–20 (max 48)
Interestingly, no mention of PENISES....., or was there
Round 7: L D G E O I Y T A
C1: LIGATED (7)
C2: GAIETY (6)
DC: GODETIA (7)
OT: GLOATED (7)
Score: 48–20 (max 55)
Round 8: O V A R L E S D E
C1: REVEALS (7)
C2: overseal
DC: RESOLVED (8)
OT: SLAVERED (8)
Score: 55–20 (max 63)
The risky 8 fails to come off for Keith, as he falls even further behind.
Round 9: M T P O I E T S I
C1: TIPTOES (7)
C2: TEMPOS (6)
DC: EPITOMIST (18)
Score: 62–20 (max 81)
Even though many people refer to me as an OPTIMIST (a very nice 8), i didn't even think that EPITOMIST would be in, not that I saw it anyway.
Susie's Origin Of Words tells of the origins of the word "slipshod".
Round 10: 100, 75, 10, 4, 7, 8. Target: 344.
C1: 344. (100 x 4) - (8 x 7) (10)
C2: 342.
Score: 72–20 (max 91)
Keith's numbers skills don't seem to be adding up today, as failing to get the target means he hasn't scored since round 4.
Teatime teaser: EATTOLET -> TEETOTAL
Round 11: L N T E A E O P N
C1: ETALON (6)
C2: PLANET (6)
DC: POLENTA (7) ANTELOPE (8)
Score: 78–26 (max 99)
Keith finally scores, but DC find the darrenic 8.
Round 12: A P G R A E B X I
C1: GRAPE (5)
C2: -
DC: AGAPE (5)
OT: BARGE (5) BEIRA (5) BRAAI (5) GAPER (5) PAGER (5) PARGE (5) GARBA (5) GRIPE (5) PAGRI (5)
Score: 83–26 (max 104)
I think that round just sums up Keith's day.
Round 13: D S B U O A F D E
C1: BASED (5)
C2: BAUD (4)
DC: ABODES (6) ABUSED (6)
OT: ABODED (6) ADOBES (6) DAUBES (6) DAUBED (6) DOUSED (6)
Score: 88–26 (max 110)
Keith could've added the S to make BAUDS, but that would still only be little consolation.
Round 14: 25, 50, 7, 1, 5, 7. Target: 368.
C1: 368. (50 x 7) + 25 - 7 (10)
C2: 364.
Score: 98–26 (max 120)
Another mathematical masterclass from Craig, but can he reach that century that he's been so close to twice already....
Round 15: C E D A R T R E E
C1 buzzes on 2 seconds to say DECORATED which is incorrect.
C2 buzzes on 8.5 seconds to say RETRACED which is incorrect.
The answer was RECREATED.
Score: 98–26 (max 130)
Craig buzzes in extremely confidently, before realising that there was no O in the conundrum, so Keith has 28 seconds to get some consolation, but 6.5 seconds later, he buzzes in with an 8-letter-word
Oh, the agony. 
So, Craig wins comfortably in the end. At the end of the first part, I don't think that many people would have thought that Keith would just unravel like that, but that's the way that Countdown goes some time.
And just to make it worse, METEORIC in round 1 was his only max all game!
Well, join me tomorrow to see if Craig can get to half-way and get his deserved century.
Till then, bye bye.
Statistics Corner
Craig:
Total score - 98
Raw score - 98
Total % of max - 75
Raw % of max - 75
Total average score per round - 6.5
Raw average score per round - 6.5
Number of maxes - 6
Keith:
Total score - 26
Raw score - 62
Total % of max - 20
Raw % of max - 48
Total average score per round - 1.7
Raw average score per round - 4.1
Number of maxes - 1
Further summaries are at:
http://www.apterous.org/cdb/series.php?series=62
