Goat/Co:Brum 2023

[Matt Rutherford]

Brum is back, baby! Bigger than before.

Some slightly miffed train drivers may have dented the numbers for Birmingham’s 2022 return to the FOCAL calendar, but it didn’t stop us having a rather spiffing time. ‘Tis I, MSR (the one who looks like a Victorian preacher was dragged through a hedge backwards), along with Adam Beach (the one who sounds lie Ant and Dec) who shall be hosting FOCAL’s summer holiday jaunt in the home of the UK’s most hated accent-with TWO events.

Yes, two, back-to-back events. Both at the same place.

Format-Lincoln-style for both (further details below)

When?-On 04th-05th August 2023. On the Friday, it’ll be GoatBrum Warm-Up from 18:00. On the Saturday, it’ll be CoBrum Main Event from 11:00

Address-The Wellington, 37 Bennetts Hill, Birmingham, B2 5SN-in the room on the first-floor. Essentially CoMan 2020, but with better lighting

Premise(s)
FRIDAY-Playing four, 9-round games of Goatdown over two round in Lincoln-style,

Essentially, Goatdown is Countdown except the player picking the letters can choose exactly which letter they would like for the 9th letter. So the first eight letters are chosen as normal (vowel or consonant) but for the ninth letter the player picking that round’s letters chooses exactly which letter they would like.

For conundrums, the player is shown only eight letters instead of nine. Their task is to find the NINE letter word that uses those eight letters (there will only be one possible nine-letter word from those eight letters). If nobody does that within the 30 seconds, the ninth letter will be revealed and the players will have a further 15 seconds to solve the now normal conundrum. Doing so will however only grant 7 points rather than the 10 that would be awarded for solving the conundrum from only the first eight letters.

There will be mechanisms to work around all these explained on the night

SATURDAY-Playing eight, 9-round games of Countdown, in tables of three, ‘'Lincoln' style. After eight games, the top two players will face each other in the grand final, with prizes for the top 8. The first round is drawn randomly-don't panic if you are trounced early on, for the subsequent rounds, you will play opponents that have scored similarly to you, so everyone should get some good, well-matched games. Main aim is a bit of fun.

Venues conditions state over-18s only, I’m afraid, but if any u-18s do wish to come, I can try and arrange. Please let me know!

For both events, please see timings below


Admission-Admission-£10 for CoBrum, £5 for GoatBrum, or £15 for the pair of them. Payment link here (uses real name and says last year’s event, but it is fine. Select Friends and Family please!) https://paypal.me/CoBrum2022?country.x= ... le.x=en_GB

TIMINGS
Goat:Brum/Friday 04th August
18:30-Doors open
19:00-First round draw is made and things kick-off
20:15-Second round starts
21:30-Grand final
Co:Brum/Saturday 05th August
10:00-Doors open
11:00-First round draw and kick-off
12:15-Lunch
13:15-Second round
14:30-Third round starts
15:45-Fourth round starts
17:00-Grand Final
17:30-Prizegiving
After-evening plans are brewing-stay tuned!

OTHER INFO
Food and Drink-Bar will be open at the venue, but they don't do food. Numerous eateries within walking distance, however

Hotels-Multitude of options in the City Centre, including your picks of Premier Inns, Travelodges, or bushes.

Parkrun-Choice of two, either Edgbaston Reservoir (number 27 in terms of speed) or Cannon Hill Park (number 140 in terms of speed). Because running is fun, apparently. You mad people

Facebook
GOAT-https://www.facebook.com/events/1348116 ... _tab=about
CO-https://www.facebook.com/events/3344405 ... _tab=about

Any further questions, drop me a line. Hope to see you there!

CONTENDERS (Ready)
Goat (16)
Adam Latchford
Coral Heath
George Armstrong
Fiona Titcombe
MSR
Bradley Horrocks
Thomas Carey
Zohaib Rehan
Stephen Read
Dave Ryan
Suzy Turner
Jack Hurst
Dan Byrom
Tim Hebbes
Mel Coupe
Andy Platt


Co (32)
Adam Latchford
Coral Heath
Phil Stanton
George Armstrong
Darren Godfrey
Fiona Titcombe
Tom Stevenson
MSR
Bradley Horrocks
Mike Lee
Thomas Carey
Matt O'Connor
Steve Hyde
Adrian Fletcher
Stephen Read
Steven Grady
Karen Pearson
Jayne Oldham
Jayne Wisniewski
Eddie Wisniewski
Sam Prouse
Daniyaal Ali
Brendan Whitehurst
Dave Ryan
Suzy Turner
Jack Hurst
George Baker
Dan Byrom
Tim Hebbes
Mel Coupe
Jacob Coventry-Peters
Andy Platt

[Callum Todd]

Keen on this one, should be able to sign up shortly. I'd be interested to hear what hotel others have booked if they have done so already, especially the Parkrunners!

[Fiona T]

Novotel for me!

[Matt Rutherford]

News! Mr Adam Beach is still coming, don't worry, but he's going to be pulling host duty (draw generation, results input, murdering my enemies, etc) and I'll be leaping into play. All cash still comes to me, but it does mean the added risk of having to put up with my shit puns should I end up on your table

[Adam Beach]

but it does mean the added risk of having to put up with my shit puns should I end up on your table

In that case, fingers crossed we’ll need two Prunes so I can rig the draw and have you with them. xo

[Tom S]

Thanks to all of the organisers for a great event! Til next time:)

[Steve Hyde]

What Tom said, really enjoyed it. Thanks all and hopefully see you in Blackpool

[JackHurst]

Thanks to Adam and MSR for putting on this event! Several things about this event were awesome:

- Adam did a cracking Job hosting his first event(s)
- The venue was excellent. Hope there's another Co:Brum there next year
- 8 game format. Probably not everybody's taste, but it's good to have a few of these type of events in the calendar for variety and I certainly prefer them
- The custom printed letters sets we used are SO MUCH BETTER than using an assortment of copies of the board games. The consistency across tables, and more faithful replication of letters selections in the show made it feel more fair and fun.


It was also good to see quite a few people using the word checker tool that I put in the app. Any feedback on that is gladly welcomed

[Fiona T]

It was a fantastic event - congrats to Adam and MSR - couldn't have gone more smoothly.

Having a central venue was great, and it worked well with the two rooms.

Also enjoyed having the extra round and timings worked well. (Personally I would not want an extra round at the expense of not having time for a parkrun, but all worked well this time! Appreciate I'm probably in the minority! )

Meal was good and even the bill worked out

Thanks again for a fun event!

[Adam Beach]

Thanks to Adam and MSR for putting on this event! Several things about this event were awesome:

- Adam did a cracking Job hosting his first event(s)
- The venue was excellent. Hope there's another Co:Brum there next year
- 8 game format. Probably not everybody's taste, but it's good to have a few of these type of events in the calendar for variety and I certainly prefer them
- The custom printed letters sets we used are SO MUCH BETTER than using an assortment of copies of the board games. The consistency across tables, and more faithful replication of letters selections in the show made it feel more fair and fun.


It was also good to see quite a few people using the word checker tool that I put in the app. Any feedback on that is gladly welcomed

Thank you Jack, and well done on winning Saturday's tournament. Responses to your several points:

- It was amazing to get a taste at running a co-event, albeit a bit flustering with it being my first. Huge respect to those who do it without a second person, because I'd be hopeless.
- Agreed. I also hope we do it at The Wellington again next year as it was brilliant.
- The 8-game format can be a bit tiring for some (myself included, hence why I volunteered to co-host), but like you said it's good to get some variety on the calendar.
- The consistency in the letter packs was because I sat down and sorted through every one of them in the weeks beforehand and gave them equal distribution (yes, I'm sad). I kid you not, one of the packs had 4 Ks in before doing this. I'm all for fairness and everyone playing with the same quantities to alleviate any "advantages".

What I like about your word checker over Apterous is the fact it shows the submaxes, however I'm an iPhone wanker and can't use it until it has iOS compatibility.

[Adam S Latchford]

Fun Event

Any chance of a run down of all the results for both events?

[Adam Beach]

Fun Event

Any chance of a run down of all the results for both events?

Goat:Brum — https://greem.co.uk/cgi-bin/colive/tour ... atbrum2023

Co:Brum — https://greem.co.uk/co/brum2023

[JackHurst]

The consistency in the letter packs was because I sat down and sorted through every one of them in the weeks beforehand and gave them equal distribution (yes, I'm sad). I kid you not, one of the packs had 4 Ks in before doing this. I'm all for fairness and everyone playing with the same quantities to alleviate any "advantages".

This is amazing work! Thank you so much for doing this

Is there a target distribution you use?

[Adam Beach]

The consistency in the letter packs was because I sat down and sorted through every one of them in the weeks beforehand and gave them equal distribution (yes, I'm sad). I kid you not, one of the packs had 4 Ks in before doing this. I'm all for fairness and everyone playing with the same quantities to alleviate any "advantages".

This is amazing work! Thank you so much for doing this

Is there a target distribution you use?

It makes it fairer I guess.

For what it's worth, they were all sorted into the following distribution, sourced from WebRack:

• U: 6

• I and O: 12

• A: 14

• E: 21

• J, K, Q, X, Y and Z: 1

• B, F, H, V and W: 2

• C: 3

• G, M and P: 4

• L: 5

• D: 6

• N: 8

• R, S and T: 9

Whether they still hold this distribution after the two events is another matter.

[Sam Cappleman-Lynes]

FWIW, that's not enough C's. I had two shows in my octorun where 5 C's were drawn and another that had 4.

[Adam Beach]

FWIW, that's not enough C's. I had two shows in my octorun where 5 C's were drawn and another that had 4.

Yeah, I saw your post about that last year on another thread. I think it's simply a case of the quantities of certain letters being changed every so often by the guys who shuffle them. 3 seems to be the accepted quantity for a standard distribution, whatever that is.

I mentioned on here before about the (perhaps inadvertent) addition of a second Y at the beginning of Series 82 (funnily enough, your series, so they must have been doing some experimentation) which stood out to me immediately, but it appeared to be only brief, hence possibly accidental. I originally had 4 Cs in my consonant deck (as well as those two Ys), but now just follow the distribution on WebRack to keep it consistent. Others, namely Graeme, have done better calculations than me to work out the correct quantities lol.