Hello all and welcome to today's recap. Many thanks to Robbo for standing in for me at short notice last week, but onto today and Nick starts us off by informing us it's World Health Day. I was half-expecting a reference about the 100th birthday of Billie Holliday, which is also today.
C1: Champion Gerry Tynan (2 wins, 218 points.) An apterite and an accountant from Lucan. Had two impressive wins so far, can he continue his form today?
C2: Challenger Charlotte Robertson. A computer science graduate from Norwich. A big fan of F1 and once achieved the rare feat of going to Las Vegas and leaving in the black!
DC: Susie Dent and Janet Street-Porter.
RR: Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.
R01: R P U E C D U G B
R02: D G O E O V N W E
R03: 7, 3, 5, 2, 3, 75. Target: 521.
TTT: SLIPRACE - "They might slip in the race because they've got odd legs"
R04: T R S I E A L R M
R05: J R E T C I E R S
R06: 9, 5, 6, 4, 100, 50. Target: 797.
R07: V R A D Z E S O I
R08: B Q A U I N L S E
R09: 1, 7, 8, 6, 3, 25. Target: 340.
TTT: LEADSHIP - "X doesn't mark the spot, H's do"
R10: R T X A I E O N R
R11: H K A E Y W I M T
R12: P F L O E O T G E
R13: S T O E M A G I L
R14: 2, 4, 2, 9, 5, 75. Target: 160.
R15: R A F R E S C U E (conundrum)
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Round 1: R P U E C D U G B
Gerry: PURGED (6)
Charlotte: CURED (5)
DC: CURBED (6)
OT: BURPED (6) PUDEUR (6)
Score: 6–0 (max 6)
Four 6s available to start us off and Gerry finds one of them to take an early lead.
PUEDUR is A sense of shame or embarrassment, especially with regard to matters of a sexual or personal nature
Round 2: D G O E O V N W E
Gerry: WOODEN (6)
Charlotte: ovened
DC: WODGE (5) VOWED (5) ENDOW (5)
OT: GODOWN (6) GOWNED (6)
Score: 12–0 (max 12)
Three 6s this time but sadly for Charlotte her offering isn't one of them and Gerry doubles his lead.
Round 3: 7, 3, 5, 2, 3, 75. Target: 521.
Gerry: 521. 75*7-(3+3)+2 (10)
Charlotte: 521. 75*7-5+3-2 (10)
Score: 22–10 (max 22)
Easy numbers game to get Charlotte on the board.
Teatime teaser: SLIPRACE -> CALIPERS
Round 4: T R S I E A L R M
Gerry: TRAILERS (8)
Charlotte: MALTIER (7)
DC: RETRIALS (8) REALISM (7)
OT: RETIRALS (8)
Score: 30–10 (max 30)
Charlotte is now the TRAILER by 20 points as Gerry makes it 4 maxes on the spin.
Round 5: J R E T C I E R S
Gerry: RECITES (7)
Charlotte: ERECTS (6)
DC: RECITERS (8) JERRIES (7)
Score: 37–10 (max 38)
Gerry extends his lead but he could have extended his word to have given us our first Darren of the day!
Round 6: 9, 5, 6, 4, 100, 50. Target: 797.
Gerry: 796. (9-6+5)*100-4 (7)
Charlotte: 796. Mistake in working.
RR: 797. (100+50+9)*5+6-4 (10)
Score: 44–10 (max 48)
Charlotte's woes continue in the numbers as she makes the mistake. Gerry's 1 away is good, but not quite perfect as Rachel shows us how it's done
JSP talks about being a foodie and how we've become scared of food due to over labelling on packaging, and how she can make a meal out of any leftovers.
Round 7: V R A D Z E S O I
Gerry: OVARIES (7)
Charlotte: AVOIDERS (8)
DC: RAISED (6) RADIOES (7)
Score: 44–18 (max 56)
Could there be a comeback on the cards??? Charlotte pulls out a fantastic Darren out of nowhere.
Round 8: B Q A U I N L S E
Gerry: QUAILS (6)
Charlotte: QUAIL (5)
DC: SQUAB (5) BISQUE (6) LESBIAN (7)
OT: INSULAE (7) NEBULAS (7)
Score: 50–18 (max 63)
But she's brought straight back down to earth as she misses the S on QUAIL. DC find an interesting selection of words
Round 9: 1, 7, 8, 6, 3, 25. Target: 340.
Gerry: 340. (25+8+1)*(7+3) (10)
Charlotte: 340. (8+6)*25-(7+3) (10)
Score: 60–28 (max 73)
Different solutions here for a simple numbers game as we go into the second break.
Teatime teaser: LEADSHIP -> HELIPADS
Round 10: R T X A I E O N R
Gerry: TRAINER (7)
Charlotte: RETAIN (6)
DC: TERRAIN (7) RETRAIN (7)
OT: ANTERIOR (8)
Score: 67–28 (max 81)
Charlotte's hopes of RETAINing any chance of a comeback take a blow as Gerry takes the round with TRAINER. Surprisingly the Darrenic 8 goes amiss
Round 11: H K A E Y W I M T
Gerry: wheaty
Charlotte: MATH (4)
DC: WHITEY (6)
Score: 67–32 (max 87)
It's a good try from Gerry but wheaty is yet to make it into the dictionary. MATH adds four more points to Charlotte's total).
Nick originally seems to usher in OoW straight away but Susie tells us she found the 6 before she starts, giving us our 4th Darren in 5 rounds!
OoW: Susie talks about the meaning of "chivvy", one of her favourite words which was originally spelt "chevy".
Round 12: P F L O E O T G E
Gerry: POOTLE (6)
Charlotte: FOOT (4)
DC: FOOTLE (6)
Score: 73–32 (max 93)
"Silly sounding words" as Nick and Susie put it are the order of the day here as Gerry officially wraps up his third win.
Round 13: S T O E M A G I L
Gerry: LOAMIEST (8)
Charlotte: LOAMIEST (8)
DC: ISOLATE (7) LIGATES (7) GIMLETS (7) GAMIEST (7)
Score: 81–40 (max 101)
Yet Another Darren from our contestants. It's just as well it's the last letters round as I'm running out of photos of Hucks!
Round 14: 2, 4, 2, 9, 5, 75. Target: 160.
Gerry: 160. (75+5)*2 (10)
Charlotte: 160. 75*2+5-4+9 (10)
Score: 91–50 (max 111)
Once again two different methods in a simple numbers game. Gerry has a shot at a second century in two weeks...
Round 15: R A F R E S C U E
Gerry buzzes on 8 seconds to say RESURFACE which is correct.
Final Score: 101–50 (max 121)
....and he takes it to take his third win. Gerry's looked impressive in his appearances so far and he will hope to rise up the leaderboard in his coming shows. With 5 octochamps already it is looking set to be a thrilling finals when they are finally aired in June. Robbo will be here tomorrow with the last regular Countdown of the week before the Grand National takes over, although I believe we may have a long-awaited treat finally coming to air on Friday morning! I'll be back next week in our first full week of Countdown for a while, but until then, thank you for watching.
Further summaries are at:
http://cdb.apterous.org/series.php?series=72