Discussion and announcements relating to unofficial Countdown competitions, held online or in real life. Observation, discussion, reflection, and other stuff ending in -ion.
I'm happy to announce the first ever Countdown in Nottingham tournament will be taking place on Saturday 26th July. Following the unfortunate news that there will be no CoBris this year, and CoLiver and CoLei have had to be postponed, I thought it was a bit of a shame there'd be no face-to-face event between COLINs 08 and 09, hence CoNot is born.
The venue for CoNot will be the Westdale Lane Community Centre in Mapperley, Doors will be open from 10am on the day. The tourney will consist of six games played 'Bristol style'; Entry fee will be £7.50. There will be time for a small goatdown competition beforehand, and perhaps some exhibition play too!
Kudos to Ben for taking it on himself to organize a second tournament! Are you moving to Nottingham then Ben...?
I'd definitely like to attend, though it's a long way for me to travel, will depend on if I can get time off work. Please put me on the list provisionally Ben. Btw does "Bristol style" mean everyone in the room playing from the same set of letters and numbers?
Do we know why there's no COBris this year? Is it that Jerry cancelled it so that Joseph could run COLiver instead? Am just interested - not having a go at Jerry or Joseph or anyone, so pls no-one get offended!
Joseph Bolas wrote:Whats the situation with COLEI? I thought that might've replaced COBRIS.
As I recall There were some issues finding a venue with CoLei- could be mistaken though.
Julian wrote:Kudos to Ben for taking it on himself to organize a second tournament! Are you moving to Nottingham then Ben...?
I'd definitely like to attend, though it's a long way for me to travel, will depend on if I can get time off work. Please put me on the list provisionally Ben. Btw does "Bristol style" mean everyone in the room playing from the same set of letters and numbers?
Do we know why there's no COBris this year? Is it that Jerry cancelled it so that Joseph could run COLiver instead? Am just interested - not having a go at Jerry or Joseph or anyone, so pls no-one get offended!
No, I'm very much Lincoln bound for the time being- I just didn't want to host a second tourney in one year in Lincoln (especially as the next COLIN will be #5).
Bristol style does indeed mean everybody plays from the same letters, as opposed to the three-to-a-table 'Edinburgh style' used at COLINs.
Excellent stuff, you can count me in for this after missing out on COLIN, but the location is far too accessible for my liking
Also, if you're going to use the COBRIS format, would it be possible to preshuffle the letters for each game according to a selection generated by Countgen, so that we get to play with nicer letters than we typically get at CO tournaments? I asked Jerry about this once, and was met with a silence that screamed "I already do more than enough work, you ungrateful bastard", so feel free to treat this suggestion with similar contempt
Finally, I seem to have fallen into the habit of ending every paragraph with an emoticon. My usual reaction to people who do this is a strong desire to punch them in the nose, so I'm going to redeem myself and end this paragraph with a conventional full stop. So there.
Paul Howe wrote:Excellent stuff, you can count me in for this after missing out on COLIN, but the location is far too accessible for my liking
Also, if you're going to use the COBRIS format, would it be possible to preshuffle the letters for each game according to a selection generated by Countgen, so that we get to play with nicer letters than we typically get at CO tournaments? I asked Jerry about this once, and was met with a silence that screamed "I already do more than enough work, you ungrateful bastard", so feel free to treat this suggestion with similar contempt
Excellent stuff, but alas the idea of shuffling letters like Countgen is indeed highly contemptious- especially when I'm planning on using Countgen itself on the day.
Paul Howe wrote:Excellent stuff, you can count me in for this after missing out on COLIN, but the location is far too accessible for my liking
Also, if you're going to use the COBRIS format, would it be possible to preshuffle the letters for each game according to a selection generated by Countgen, so that we get to play with nicer letters than we typically get at CO tournaments? I asked Jerry about this once, and was met with a silence that screamed "I already do more than enough work, you ungrateful bastard", so feel free to treat this suggestion with similar contempt
Excellent stuff, but alas the idea of shuffling letters like Countgen is indeed highly contemptious- especially when I'm planning on using Countgen itself on the day.
So does that mean then that the games are going to be computerised, like what Kevin did at CORED?
Are you going to have a version of CECIL too then .
I hope to be able to get to CoNot. I tend to be away more than I'm at home during summer months (and my summer lasts April till October), but at the moment I've no idea what plans are being made for late July. I'll get if I can. Nottingham's very handy for me - even easier than Lincoln.
jasoncullen wrote:Because I'm new to all this, can someone pls explain to me the different potential formats that could be played in Nottingham . I hope I can make it as it should be a laugh if its anything like what happened in Leeds recently
Just the one format to be used in the competition itself- the old nine-round format (LLLNLLLNC). There'll be some Goatdown beforehand though if you want to try your hand at that too. And an exhibition game, though I haven't decided exactly what yet- I'm saving hypergoatdown (by which I mean blindfolded hypergoatdown) for COLIN '09.
Hi put me down please, as i live about 5 mins away from westdale lane, will be easy for me to get too, if anyone wants directions from the train station or town centre, just let me know and i will only be too happy to help
I am gutted. I would have loved to come to this (especially with it not being too far away) but, sadly, we have a 65th birthday celebration in Birmingham at lunchtime that day. Unless anyone fancies doing a swap with me!!
Just wondering, in Bristol-style events, what do you do if several people in the room say they've got the same word/numbers solution, not written down? Do you just trust people to be honest? (in which case, just as well Jeffrey Hansford's not signed up...)
Also Ben, how are you doing the choosing of the letters and numbers? I've never been to one of Jerry's events, but as I understand it, at COBris people would take it in turns to choose letters rounds going round the room, and numbers rounds would run on a pre-determined pattern so that every 9-round game had one numbers round which was 1 large and 5 small, and one which was something different. (please correct me if I'm wrong)
Final question, is anyone from the last CofC (Jono, Paul H?) still in touch with Jack Welsby, because he is/was Nottingham-based isn't he, he might be interested in CONot?
Julian wrote:Just wondering, in Bristol-style events, what do you do if several people in the room say they've got the same word/numbers solution, not written down? Do you just trust people to be honest? (in which case, just as well Jeffrey Hansford's not signed up...)
I guess you just tell your opponent that you need to write it down and they will give you a second to scribble it. I've never known it to cause a problem really.
Julian wrote:Also Ben, how are you doing the choosing of the letters and numbers? I've never been to one of Jerry's events, but as I understand it, at COBris people would take it in turns to choose letters rounds going round the room, and numbers rounds would run on a pre-determined pattern so that every 9-round game had one numbers round which was 1 large and 5 small, and one which was something different. (please correct me if I'm wrong)
That is correct.
Julian wrote:Final question, is anyone from the last CofC (Jono, Paul H?) still in touch with Jack Welsby, because he is/was Nottingham-based isn't he, he might be interested in CONot?
Fraid I didn't get any contact info from him. We could probably something from Damian if we tried though. I liked him.
Julian wrote:Just wondering, in Bristol-style events, what do you do if several people in the room say they've got the same word/numbers solution, not written down? Do you just trust people to be honest? (in which case, just as well Jeffrey Hansford's not signed up...)
I guess you just tell your opponent that you need to write it down and they will give you a second to scribble it. I've never known it to cause a problem really.
I've wondered why this isn't done on the programme itself, when someone says they've not written it down. It could avoid potential problems.
I suppose if the other player has their word written down it isnt necessary as long as Des goes to the non-written down player first, and asks them to spell it if its dodgy etc. I can see what you're saying tho Howard in terms of fair gameplay, but I suppose this might extend the programme length unnecessarily or something.
dinos_the_chemist wrote:I suppose if the other player has their word written down it isnt necessary as long as Des goes to the non-written down player first, and asks them to spell it if its dodgy etc. I can see what you're saying tho Howard in terms of fair gameplay, but I suppose this might extend the programme length unnecessarily or something.
The was a case once, I can't remember how long ago, or even who was the presenter, when both contestants said that they hadn't written their solution down. I thought at the time that the obvious way round this one was to ask both players to write their answer down before giving it, but I believe that didn't happen; the presenter said to the second player something like "We'll have to trust you."
Julian wrote:
Final question, is anyone from the last CofC (Jono, Paul H?) still in touch with Jack Welsby, because he is/was Nottingham-based isn't he, he might be interested in CONot?
I don't have contact info, but he told me that he reads c4c but never posts, so there's a decent chance he knows about CONOT.
Howard Somerset wrote:
The was a case once, I can't remember how long ago, or even who was the presenter, when both contestants said that they hadn't written their solution down. I thought at the time that the obvious way round this one was to ask both players to write their answer down before giving it, but I believe that didn't happen; the presenter said to the second player something like "We'll have to trust you."
I think that was Whiteley. There were also occasions where one player declared before the other mentioned that they hadn't written it down, and he tended to let that slide as well. Maybe it would be taken more seriously in the finals.
Interesting... the both-players-not-written-it-down thing happened twice in my octochamp run, both on numbers games, though on each occasion my opponent and I had different solutions so it didn't matter.
I believe there's an informal, unwritten rule on the show that they'll let a contestant off once if they haven't written their answer down and forget to say so (and then say they had the same as their opponent); this happened to David Stainer, for instance.
So if they'll let you off once if you forget to say so, it follows that they should definitely let you off at least once if you DO say you've not written it down but it just happens that your opponent's in the same boat.
(There's also a third type of situation, which happened to Gary Male, where one contestant says he hasn't written it down but the host forgets to go to him for his word first. In that case, it's obviously fair enough to let that contestant off!)
But like Charlie, I reckon it might be different in the finals; they didn't let Jeffrey Hansford off in that numbers round, although that was probably because he had a reputation for cheating and there were other signs that he'd cheated on that round in particular (tearing up his sheet of paper etc.). Don't know if it would be the same with an 'honest' contestant in the finals. It'd be interesting to see what happened if both contestants said they hadn't written down their answer to a crucial, and difficult, last numbers round in a semi-final...
Finally, Howard's / Jono's suggested remedy could be open to abuse couldn't it, if a dishonest contestant saw it as an opportunity to get a few extra seconds to look at the selection? I know only a tiny minority of people would do that, but still, it's best to keep everything above board isn't it?
A few thoughts: Charlie would you be able to 'sticky' this thread or whatever the technical term is, so it stays at the top of Events forum ( => people who don't know about CONot yet will be more likely to see it)?
Ben dyou want payment of the entry fee in advance for CONot? Also are you providing a lunch on the day (good on you if you are, just wanted to check)?
Howard Somerset wrote:
The was a case once, I can't remember how long ago, or even who was the presenter, when both contestants said that they hadn't written their solution down. I thought at the time that the obvious way round this one was to ask both players to write their answer down before giving it, but I believe that didn't happen; the presenter said to the second player something like "We'll have to trust you."
In my 2nd heat show against Gill Ford, we both declared that we'd got the second numbers solution (711) but that we hadn't written it down. I remember I only saw it in the dying seconds and I presume the same was true of Gill. After consultation with Lisa (floor manager) Des asked us both to write down our solutions and then they did a re-take where we both declared 711 and had both written it down, and we then read our solutions, which were very similar to one another, out to Carol.
That's interesting Rich, as I say, that happened twice on numbers games during my run and they didn't do retakes or give us extra time to write our answers down, they just went on to the reading-out to Carol as normal
Just one week to go now. Here's the current list of entrants:
Jon O'Neill
Dave Coulthurst
Kirk Bevins
Dinos Sfyris
Jack Rudd
Paul Howe
Matt Coates
Jason Cullen
Jerry Humphreys
Howard Somerset
Charlie Reams
Richard Priest
Stewart Holden
Stewart Gordon
Marc Vestey
Dan Vanniasingham
Julian Fell
Nick Wainwright
Jared Robinson
Maurice Brown
If your name isn;t on there but you think it should be, please let mw know- likewise, if you've only just decided you want to enter, now is the time to tell me.
Julian Fell wrote:That's interesting Rich, as I say, that happened twice on numbers games during my run and they didn't do retakes or give us extra time to write our answers down, they just went on to the reading-out to Carol as normal
The standard proceedure now is that if BOTH players haven't written it down, we stop the tape and ask them to do so, very quickly.
I just wish everyone would write something down and save us all the hassle.
Julian Fell wrote:That's interesting Rich, as I say, that happened twice on numbers games during my run and they didn't do retakes or give us extra time to write our answers down, they just went on to the reading-out to Carol as normal
The standard proceedure now is that if BOTH players haven't written it down, we stop the tape and ask them to do so, very quickly.
I just wish everyone would write something down and save us all the hassle.
Sometimes during numbers games though, Damian, you can get 1 away in your head easily but that's just not good enough so you have to look for an obscure method to get the target - even if you don't find this target, you don't want to waste 10 seconds writing down a solution to a basic 1 away that you could do in your head when asked to recall it by Carol.
Was wondering how far the venue is from Nottingham train station so I know how long to allow myself. And is there a frequent service bus to Westdale Community Centre?
I had a look around some transport and decided a cab was probably much easier. I'll be getting to the station at about 10 so if anyone fancies sharing a cab to the venue for cost effectiveness and generally polite but awkward conversation, let me know here.
Dinos Sfyris wrote:Was wondering how far the venue is from Nottingham train station so I know how long to allow myself. And is there a frequent service bus to Westdale Community Centre?
Cheers
I just went on http://www.transportdirect.info and there are buses every now and then to the venue. As Matt Coates lives just around the corner from the venue, I think it may be best to ask him . Like Jono, I think I will opt for an overpriced cab
Damian E wrote:The standard proceedure now is that if BOTH players haven't written it down, we stop the tape and ask them to do so, very quickly.
What about if one of the player's has only written down half the word, which coincidentally is also a word itself, and then says they got the same as the other person? I'm sure today's contestant wasn't cheating (she was much too nice) but if Jeffrey Hansford did it then questions would definitely be asked.
Damian E wrote:The standard proceedure now is that if BOTH players haven't written it down, we stop the tape and ask them to do so, very quickly.
What about if one of the player's has only written down half the word, which coincidentally is also a word itself, and then says they got the same as the other person? I'm sure today's contestant wasn't cheating (she was much too nice) but if Jeffrey Hansford did it then questions would definitely be asked.
Although she *did* declare 7 first didn't she? Anyway, Jono, I'd be willing to share a cab with you. I have your number I think (if it ends in 29). My train arrives into Nottingham at 10:05.
Damian E wrote:The standard proceedure now is that if BOTH players haven't written it down, we stop the tape and ask them to do so, very quickly.
What about if one of the player's has only written down half the word, which coincidentally is also a word itself, and then says they got the same as the other person? I'm sure today's contestant wasn't cheating (she was much too nice) but if Jeffrey Hansford did it then questions would definitely be asked.
As Kirk said Charlie, she declared her seven first and it does seem extremely unlikely that she'll have been stuck on LOAD for 4 from that selection. There was an S, so LOADS for 5 would have been the bear minimum. Instances like this go unchallenged of course, as we've no reason to believe anything different. Its hardly the same as tearing up pieces of paper under the desk or getting out of your seat to look at your opponents word.
In any case, anyone who uses the word PERSNICKETY with such casual abandon ought to be put in the stocks. Its also an anagram of TINY PECKERS.
I'll be driving to CONOT, joining the M1 at J11 just north of Luton, so if anyone lives very close to the M1 and wants a lift (and is willing to split petrol costs ) I'm more than happy to oblige.
I'll be staying over in Notts all weekend, so in theory could offer a lift from the station to the event - it just depends how rough I feel on Sat morning as to whether I want to arrive stupidly early or not. I'm also presuming the train station can't be more than a mile or two from the market square.
Is there a rough guide of timings for the event anywhere? May help as I should allow an extra 15mins for doing a lap of the city's ridiculous one way system.
All info is on the website- http://colin.nebagram.co.uk/conot/ -I'll have a scout around for bus times and upload them tonight along with a finalised list of contestants (20, in case you were wondering, so it's not too bad) and prizes. I'll also be doing a mailshot around everyone attending, just with a few details/requests.
Oh, and much to everyone (except Dan Van)'s delight, the anagrammed nametags will be returning, if I remember to do them.
Hi Everyone, I live in Nottingham and i am meeting Jason Cullen at about 9.30 at nottngham train station, if anyone wants to meet us there they can, i know hich bus to catch and they run every 10 mins.
just post on the board if you want to come with us and we will arrange to meet.
Hi everyone, looking forward to meeting you all. I would just say - please don't be offended if I don't recognize some of you - I've seen very little Countdown in the last 4 years or so and have completely missed the likes of Paul Howe, Jono and others on-screen. Of course, I likewise won't be offended if people don't recognize me
Ben you don't need me to bring an ODE along do you?
This will be the first year I'm not bringing an ODE to a CO-event. Reason? The covers have gone - it's in 2 pieces separated at FOUNDER/FRAGILE and the missing page has been ripped out. Various pages have also been torn. I think it's time to update the version!!
If you (or indeed anyone) could bring a current ODE I'd appreciate it, though Countgen will be on hand with an updated wordlist.
What I will request is that someone nip to the local shops beforehand and pick up some squash and some milk (about 6 pints should do). I'd bring it myself, but we'll be on the train- or would be, if there were trains running from Lincoln so it's half coach half train- and in this heat the milk would pretty much be gorgonzola by the time it reached Nottingham.
I don't suppose its got a point yet where you can do live feeds (think thats the correct term) of the event, so people who aren't able to participate can still watch online
EDIT: Also I don't know about anyone else, but I think this week leading up to the event, has gone very quick.
Joseph Bolas wrote:I don't suppose its got a point yet where you can do live feeds (think thats the correct term) of the event, so people who aren't able to participate can still watch online .
Sadly no, and it looks highly unlikely for COLIN 09 either- though I will be looking into possibilities.
Joseph Bolas wrote:EDIT: Also I don't know about anyone else, but I think this week leading up to the event, has gone very quick.
Joseph Bolas wrote:I don't suppose its got a point yet where you can do live feeds (think thats the correct term) of the event, so people who aren't able to participate can still watch online .
Sadly no, and it looks highly unlikely for COLIN 09 either- though I will be looking into possibilities.
I do hope to make it to COLIN next year. I remember speaking to Christine Armstong at the end of COLIN '08 and she said she would like to play against me next time .
Joseph Bolas wrote:I don't suppose its got a point yet where you can do live feeds (think thats the correct term) of the event, so people who aren't able to participate can still watch online .
Sadly no, and it looks highly unlikely for COLIN 09 either- though I will be looking into possibilities.
Sadly? Who really cares? Joseph and just about nobody else, and he's gonna be at COLIN anyway. Neb, if you spent more time trying to be cool and less time trying to make live feeds, you might be cool by now, like me.
Joseph Bolas wrote:I don't suppose its got a point yet where you can do live feeds (think thats the correct term) of the event, so people who aren't able to participate can still watch online .
Sadly no, and it looks highly unlikely for COLIN 09 either- though I will be looking into possibilities.
Sadly? Who really cares? Joseph and just about nobody else, and he's gonna be at COLIN anyway. Neb, if you spent ... less time trying to make live feeds, you might be ... like me.
.
. I hope I can make it as it should be a laugh if its anything like what happened in Leeds recently 
Hmmm
) I'm more than happy to oblige.
