Something which has been baffling me for ages...

[Clare Sudbery]

How come I seem to be so unusual in that, when I pick letters, I alternate between vowels and consonants? That way, as the letters come out, they're nicely mixed up - in a distribution more likely to appear in an actual word (where you rarely get more than two consecutive vowels or consonants).

Most other people seem to favour getting all their vowels and consonants together in a clump, and it utterly baffles me. It can't just be that nobody has thought of doing it my way. So come on folks, why on earth do you prefer it like that??

[Rosemary Roberts]

How come I seem to be so unusual in that, when I pick letters, I alternate between vowels and consonants? That way, as the letters come out, they're nicely mixed up - in a distribution more likely to appear in an actual word (where you rarely get more than two consecutive vowels or consonants).

Most other people seem to favour getting all their vowels and consonants together in a clump, and it utterly baffles me. It can't just be that nobody has thought of doing it my way. So come on folks, why on earth do you prefer it like that??

When I first watched Countdown, which must have been around ten years ago, everybody seemed to do it your way, so much so that I wondered if there was a rule, but once they had had a couple of candidates who preferred bunches it seemed to catch on. I find that a group of consonants gives me a few ideas for words to look out for as the vowels go up, other people presumably get the same benefit from a group of vowels. So I don't think you're unusual, but maybe you're not the up-and-coming type of young male student who analyses word lists a lot.

[David O'Donnell]

My selection method was always VVVCCCC since you are obligated to choose 3 vowels and 4 consonants. I have seen contestants dither over their selection and then choose a final consonant when they were required to choose a vowel which generally creates a mindset which is not conducive to concentration: why have the added distraction of wondering if you have chosen the right numbers of vowels and consonants? My reasoning behind choosing the vowels first is that I thought it would make it slightly more awkward for contestants who view the selection in a straight line using the ordering as called. Regardless of how an opponent chose their letters I always put the vowels on an inner circle and the consonants on the outer circle so that spatially my brain would see the letters as I had practised. This may seem like fine detail but I know from chess tournaments that the size of the board and the size of the pieces relative to the board can really have an impact on performance: hence chess players playing in world championship matches ensure that they specify the exact dimensions of the pieces, the squares and the board itself.

[Les Butterworth]

As a countdown watcher from day one (this is how I usualy start my posts to give me time to think)

If a contestant picks three consonants first and they are not the QZXWK etc then I think to myself a promising selection ie STR or other combinations are likeley to lead to a higher counting word however if the more difficult consonant combinations come out first it is I think more probable that a higher word count could be achieved by choosing more vowels.

However this may not be the most tactical way of playing the game.

I am trying this out on Apterous but confess am still finding typing and entering words much more diffcult than sat in my armchair.

[Phil Reynolds]

How come I seem to be so unusual in that, when I pick letters, I alternate between vowels and consonants? That way, as the letters come out, they're nicely mixed up - in a distribution more likely to appear in an actual word

...which is just as likely to suggest a word to your opponent as to you. I tend to select in the way you describe more often when I'm playing Apterous bots, which (unless the AI involved is considerably more advanced than Charlie's letting on) derive no advantage from the letter ordering.

I do find, though, when watching the programme that, when three or four consonants go up first, I immediately start mentally filling in the gaps and seeing possible words - if only the right vowels will follow. Often this does result in my spotting some good words; the danger is that I'm willing those vowels to appear and, when they don't, I've then blinded myself to other possibilities.

[Clare Sudbery]

I thought it would make it slightly more awkward for contestants who view the selection in a straight line using the ordering as called. Regardless of how an opponent chose their letters I always put the vowels on an inner circle and the consonants on the outer circle

That's interesting. Most of the higher-rated players I've played on Apterous seem to go for clumps, but are also apparently not writing their letters down - I'm guessing this because they pick so quickly (unless they can just write really really fast, or have some kind of software that arranges the letters on a screen for them in pleasing fashion?). So, if they're clumping so as not to give their opponent an advantage... they may also be hoisting themselves by their own petards... but then again, the higher-rated players are all scarily good at finding words super-fast, even with clumping and without apparently writing letters down.

I think Phil (and Les, I think)'s point about thinking of potential words based purely on consonants may be important: When I was pondering this last night and wondering how it would be if I tried clumping, I could see that might actually work quite well. Maybe having actual vowels mixed in with the consonants, and in a particular order, can in fact have the effect of blinding you to other vowel combinations.

Certainly our brains all work differently, and David has a good point about visuals making a difference. I was massively thrown at first, for instance, by the anagramming part of Brain Training (on the DS) having this habit of making all the letters move constantly in a circle. I wanted them to stay still!

I'd love to know which parts of the brain are used when spotting words in random groups of letters, and why some people can spot multiple anagrams so much more quickly than others. It's definitely something you can train yourself to do, and improve with practice, but I suspect some people have an inate ability. Mine is better than average but I feel positively sluggish compared to a lot of you here.

[Kirk Bevins]

I know personally I don't need it to come out: TAROLED for me to spot LEOTARD; it might as well come out DTLEAOR. With much practice order usually doesn't matter too much but one thing I will say (which maybe goes along with David's post) is that I struggle when vowels come out first. I always write the first seven like CCCVVVC for the reasons DOD explained about the minimum allowed to choose. The only variations were when I did 4 consonants first. This occurs when either a) I have a Q in the first 3 and I don't bother writing it down (as I'll look later to see if there's a U, or QINTARS and TARIQAS) or b) when a letter is repeated, such as two Ns as I can't write these next to each other as my brain doesn't like that.

We all have our little idiosyncrasies.

[Charlie Reams]

Kirk is a very interesting person!

[Jon O'Neill]

I think for me when the letters come out after a few seconds they're ingrained somewhere in the recesses of my brain and mixing themselves around, so the order they come out in is inconsequential. I just pick vowels first out of habit.

[David Williams]

I think the order is immaterial, but I can't understand why anyone would have anything other than four consonants and three vowels for their first seven letters. Those seven are going to be in the final nine whatever order you pick them in, and if you see, say, an unusual eight letter word that just requires one more letter, you give youself the option of picking the eighth and ninth accordingly.

[Clare Sudbery]

I know personally I don't need it to come out: TAROLED for me to spot LEOTARD; it might as well come out DTLEAOR. With much practice order usually doesn't matter too much but one thing I will say (which maybe goes along with David's post) is that I struggle when vowels come out first. I always write the first seven like CCCVVVC for the reasons DOD explained about the minimum allowed to choose. The only variations were when I did 4 consonants first. This occurs when either a) I have a Q in the first 3 and I don't bother writing it down (as I'll look later to see if there's a U, or QINTARS and TARIQAS) or b) when a letter is repeated, such as two Ns as I can't write these next to each other as my brain doesn't like that.

We all have our little idiosyncrasies.

Fascinating.

And... "I always write the first seven like CCCVVVC" You do write them down? On Apterous too, or only in "real life" competition?

[Kirk Bevins]

Fascinating.

And... "I always write the first seven like CCCVVVC" You do write them down? On Apterous too, or only in "real life" competition?

Oh, not on apterous. I always do when playing from the TV show or the show itself although on the show I very rarely used my pad, was mostly the TV screen despite always writing the selections down in my own format. This came in useful if the other contestant chose the letters in an 'awkward' order and then I could revert to pad if needs be but the white on blue letters made words stand out much easier in my opinion.

[Ian Volante]

I find it tough when the selection is clumpy, but that's partly because I never write my selections down (except when I was actually on the show). On Apterous I'm just in the habit of doing it a certain way (roughly VCCVVCC), so changing that order throws me a bit. Most of the time though I'm looking for ING or TION or whatever, so the order doesn't matter so much.

[Lesley Jeavons]

I don't often write the letters down, but when I do, whatever way the contestant has selected them I split them in to CCCCC VVVV. I find I'm less likely to try to use a letter twice that way.

[Martin Gardner]

I'll echo that then, the order of the letters don't really matter to me. The first 7 letters ought to be CCCCVVV because that's the "book" (as they might say in bridge), you have to have that no matter what the last two letters are. Another interesting point is that when I get stuck, I actually tend to look away from the screen. This was even more obvious when I was doing a Scrabble tournament two weeks ago, and I was pretty sure I had something good from my letters, so I looked away from the board and my letters because I can shuffle them faster mentally than I can physically. In the same way, I played my (ex) girlfriend blindfolded a few months ago and got 98 - it would have be 106 but I played safe on a word I wasn't sure of, and she played the actual same word, and it was OK.

[Charlie Reams]

I played my (ex) girlfriend blindfolded a few months ago

Is the part inside the brackets somehow related to the part outside, I wonder?

[Martin Gardner]

I played my (ex) girlfriend blindfolded a few months ago

Is the part inside the brackets somehow related to the part outside, I wonder?

Well she was my girlfriend at the time, but not any more, compris?

[Kirk Bevins]

I played my (ex) girlfriend blindfolded a few months ago

Is the part inside the brackets somehow related to the part outside, I wonder?

Well she was my girlfriend at the time, but not any more, compris?

Exactly. That was Charlie's point.

[Charlie Reams]

It was a gag about you blindfolding her, or something. I guess in hindsight it wasn't really that witty.

Haha, he said "gag".

[Phil Reynolds]

It was a gag about you blindfolding her, or something.

Haha. I'd just assumed you were suggesting that when a couple have to resort to playing blindfold Scrabble to pass the time, the relationship is pretty much doomed.