I promised the answers on Christmas Eve and yay, C4C's come back just in time for me to not be a welsher (although still Welsh). Here they are; for the more obscure answers I've suggested links to places where you might have found them.
12 S C N on the R W M T
12 Series Champions' Names on the Richard Whitely Memorial Trophy. An easy one to get you started.
What are the three missing terms (indicated by question marks) in the following sequence:
4, 4, 6, 7, 2, ?, ?, ?
6, 5, 6. The number of octochamps in each of the last eight series.
The next three could all be found via links from the
Series 60 finals topic:
The Series 60 grand final was the last episode of Countdown to be recorded in the Leeds studio. What did Rachel and Jeff tell Yorkshire TV's regional news programme Calendar they would miss the most?
"The people." See
here.
In the audience for that same recording, who was sitting on Charlie's left?
Simon ('Sid') Myers. See
here.
And that same night, what was my room number in the hotel?
417. See
here.
What links Andrew Laycock, Ryan Vickers, Matt Thorpe and Patrick McCurdie?
All are former
Countdown contestants who have registered with C4C and then posted exactly once.
In the context of Countdown, what relatively minor but nonetheless essential role is performed by Stephen Pickering?
He's the audience warm-up man, better known by his professional name of Dudley Doolittle. See
here.
What is the apterous clock music called?
Absolutely Apterous. A sneaky one this as it required research of a slightly more forensic nature. There's a link to the music in MIDI format
here, but to find out what it's called you'd have had to download it and then open it either in a MIDI editor or, failing that, a plain text editor (e.g. Notepad) where you'd see the title and other textual info embedded amongst various non-readable stuff.
What links Ystradgynlais, Kidderminster, somewhere in East Sussex and my bedroom?
They are all locations where various C4C members claim to be in their profiles: Ystradgynlais - Ian Glendenning, Kidderminster - Tyron Potts, Somewhere in East Sussex - Callum Laddiman, My bedroom - Kai Laddiman.
Unscramble the following nonsensical anagram:
For party man Charlie Reams, apterous may stew, handily.
A merry Christmas and a happy new year to all forumites!
Have a great time tomorrow and hope Santa brings you everything you asked for.
Phil x