Friday 24th September 1999 (Series 41, Prelim 55)

[James Robinson]

Countdown recap for Friday 24 September 1999.

C1: Challenger Jean O'Neill.
C2: Challenger Christine Silverwood.
DC: Damian Eadie and Angela Rippon.
CV: Carol Vorderman.
OT: Other words or solutions.

R01: C B G S A U I N T
R02: R Y T E A E P D C
R03: H Q O I E N V T A
R04: 100, 5, 1, 6, 3, 1. Target: 128.
R05: R G E D S X A I M
R06: S L N O U A H T P
R07: R S M E I L T E F
R08: 75, 2, 1, 4, 10, 10. Target: 592.
R09: F I C T E M P E R (conundrum)


And now a brief interlude before our main feature:

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Enjoy the show.

Round 1: C B G S A U I N T

C1: CASTING (7)
C2: CASTING (7)
DC: BUSTING (7) ABUSING (7) CAUSING (7)
OT: BASTING (7) SAUCING (7) TABUING (7)
Score: 7–7 (max 7)

Round 2: R Y T E A E P D C

C1: CREATED (7)
C2: CARPETED (8)
Score: 7–15 (max 15)

Round 3: H Q O I E N V T A

C1: HAVEN (5)
C2: NATIVE (6)
OT: NOVATE (6)
Score: 7–21 (max 21)

Round 4: 100, 5, 1, 6, 3, 1. Target: 128.

C1: 128. 100 + (5 x 6) - (1 + 1) (10)
C2: 128. ((6 + 1) x (3 + 1)) + 100 (10)
Score: 17–31 (max 31)

Round 5: R G E D S X A I M

C1: MIRAGES (7)
C2: ARMIES (6)
DC: ADMIRES (7) MISREAD (7) ADMIXES (7)
OT: SIDEARM (7) IMAGERS (7)
Score: 24–31 (max 38)

Round 6: S L N O U A H T P

C1: PLANTS (6)
C2: PLANTS (6)
DC: OUTSPAN (7)
OT: HAPLONTS (8)
Score: 30–37 (max 46)

Round 7: R S M E I L T E F

C1: FILTERS (7)
C2: FIRMEST (7)
DC: SMELTER (7) STERILE (7) SMILER (6)
OT: FERTILE (7) FILMSET (7) LEFTISM (7) LIFTERS (7) STIFLER (7) TRIFLES (7) LEFTIES (7) LEISTER (7) MELTERS (7) METIERS (7) RELIEFS (7)
Score: 37–44 (max 53)

Round 8: 75, 2, 1, 4, 10, 10. Target: 592.

C1: 591.
C2: 592. (75 - 1) x 4 x 2 (10)
Score: 37–54 (max 63)

Round 9: F I C T E M P E R

C1 buzzes on 6 seconds to say IMPERFECT which is correct.
Score: 47–54 (max 73)

Statistics Corner

Jean:
Total score - 47
Raw score - 66
Total % of max - 64
Raw % of max - 90
Total average score per round - 5.2
Raw average score per round - 7.3
Number of maxes - 5

Christine:
Total score - 54
Raw score - 60
Total % of max - 74
Raw % of max - 82
Total average score per round - 6.0
Raw average score per round - 6.7
Number of maxes - 6

Further summaries are at:
http://www.apterous.org/cdb/series.php?series=41

[Clive Brooker]

Congratulations on all the hard work, James, and everyone else.

“Interestingly”, HAPLONT(S) wasn't in COD9 (by my reading of it), so the actual max available for R6 was 7. Unless of course there was another 8 or 9 lurking there which wouldn't be valid now, but that's harder to check.

Having looked through a few games from S41, I'd guess that at least half of the “other” words wouldn't have been valid at the time, although often the max is unaffected. One case where it is affected (again, based on my interpretation) is R5 in this game, and since this one makes a difference to Scott Mearns' career average it demonstrates that the issue is at least worth thinking about.

[Peter Mabey]

HAPLONT was in the 1999 NODE as a nounm under HAPLONTIC (it's still OK in Scrabble )