Countdown Rematch on Echo 106.8 - and a call for help

[Chris Philpot]

At present, I am hosting a student radio show on Echo 106.8 FM in the Farnborough/Aldershot area of Hampshire, and it's also available online if you're further afield. It's called The Echo Midweek Sandwich and it's on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1pm to 4pm, give or take at the start if there is an assignment taking place on air.

I'm not telling you this merely for self-promotion, else I'd have brought it up aeons ago! On my show this coming Tuesday the 17th (St. Patrick's Day) I will be joined on the phone by Ariane Sherine, who you might recall defeating me on Countdown back in early 2004. Well on Tuesday we're going to have a rematch. It's just three rounds - letters, numbers and a conundrum - but it should be a laugh and a good chance to hear from quite a popular contestant (Ariane, not me!)

So there's the plug, now a little request. My producer Abi will be in charge of proceedings, and to generate and solve the letters and numbers games I am planning to give her my laptop with Countgen and an anagram generator (on the other side of the mixing desk so that I can't see anything). Obviously I'll give full credit for the Countgen app to the appropriate people, and give Apterous a mention on the show to boot.

However, what I really need is a good conundrum. Now I'd set one myself but granted that I am one of the contestants, it might be considered unsporting for me to know the answer! I wondered therefore if the talented people on this forum might set a conundrum for the show, and send the scrambles and solutions straight to Abi. She could then pick the best one (or two, in case of a tie) for use on air. Her email address is:

tinyb_373 [at] hotmail [dot] com

Words to try and get into the scramble or indeed solution are anything related to the radio station, show name, contestants, and so forth. A good bank with which to work would be:

• ECHO
• MIDWEEK
• SANDWICH
• RADIO
• FM
• CHRIS
• ARIANE
• ABI
• Some sort of abbreviation of FARNBOROUGH?

Obviously some of those are more useful than others, but I thought they might serve for inspiration. Standard conundrum conventions apply of nine letters, no S-plurals, and suchlike. I just think it would be great to have a good themed conundrum, and I'll make sure you get full credit for your time and effort.

Thank you very much in advance, and I hope that you are able to tune in on Tuesday.

[D Eadie]

Sent one in. Have fun.

[Chris Corby]

If this is at Farnborough College of Technology, son Jon works only 5 mins' walk away and I am sure that on another occasion he would come in and give you a live challenge in the studio!

[Chris Philpot]

I did wonder if Jon was nearby, yes! The station is indeed based at FCOT - I shall drop Jon a message in the next few days. We could have a natter about Jeff and Rachel as well, as neither Ariane nor I have any first hand experience of the new team (or so I gather).

[Chris Philpot]

Sent one in. Have fun.

And, of course, thank you so much Damian! I appreciate that you must be incredibly busy, perhaps even more so given recent developments, so for you to set a conundrum for us is really very kind.