c4countdown

Antoinette Ryan's got two wins so far, can she end the week with a 3rd?

Join Anthony for the recap later.

In R1 Kevin missed FOAMER+I=FOAMIER of course.
Several alt 8s in R2 like PRELATES so not sure why Susie missed them.
Glad Rachel showed them the standard method way to 259 there.

There was a standard method for the second numbers. (75+1)×(7+7-9)-1=379.

TRENDOID in R8

Another beater available in the BIPEDS+WEU round.

In R5 Antoinette could have gone DEGLAZE instead of GLAZED.

CAPITULA in R13

Alts for last numbers 7x81+8 or 8x75-15 - you can work out the details if you are bothered.

An fitting 5 in the toothy round was HOTTY for the lady "on fire"!

Is it just me, but does Antoinette's hairstyle make her look far older, than she probably really is?
She is certainly a formidable opponent and should comfortably make the QF's (barring an upset).

Tony Atkins wrote:Alts for last numbers 7x81+8 or 8x75-15 - you can work out the details if you are bothered.

One detail might be that they have different answers...

Steven M. McCann wrote:Is it just me, but does Antoinette's hairstyle make her look far older, than she probably really is?
She is certainly a formidable opponent and should comfortably make the QF's (barring an upset).

Nah it's just you.


Did anyone else think that the applause after R12 was a bit odd? Was something cut out in editing?

Numbers round, target 259, alt:
(8+6) x (9-3) + 100 + 75

Tony Atkins wrote:Alts for last numbers 7x81+8 or 8x75-15 - you can work out the details if you are bothered.

Or you could do (7 x 75) + ((9 + 1) x (6 - 1)) for the 575.

1st Numbers Alt.: ((100 - 9) x 3) - 8 - 6 = 259

Nice work again, Antoinette, very lovely displays by a very likeable contestant.

Steven M. McCann wrote:Is it just me, but does Antoinette's hairstyle make her look far older, than she probably really is?
She is certainly a formidable opponent and should comfortably make the QF's (barring an upset).

How old do you think she looks and how old do you think she probably is?

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Steven M. McCann wrote:Is it just me, but does Antoinette's hairstyle make her look far older, than she probably really is?
She is certainly a formidable opponent and should comfortably make the QF's (barring an upset).

How old do you think she looks and how old do you think she probably is?

Uh-oh, this is unlikely to turn out well.

well done Antoinette..lovely conundrum spot too..I though hectagon might have been good but doesn't appear so.. Recognised the opponent from being on 15 to 1 recently

You come across really well Antoinette. Wish people would stop commenting on how contestants look!

Mark - no-one seems to do it when it's the men.

Half tempted to do a male contestant critique daily (or when it's not all-female), but feel that would make me part of the problem... well, it wouldn't today, Kevin was alright... but generally.

Zarte Siempre wrote:Mark - no-one seems to do it when it's the men.

Half tempted to do a male contestant critique daily (or when it's not all-female), but feel that would make me part of the problem... well, it wouldn't today, Kevin was alright... but generally.

Kevin was well fit lol

Jon Corby wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Steven M. McCann wrote:Is it just me, but does Antoinette's hairstyle make her look far older, than she probably really is?
She is certainly a formidable opponent and should comfortably make the QF's (barring an upset).

How old do you think she looks and how old do you think she probably is?

Uh-oh, this is unlikely to turn out well.

Probably right.

I would just like to say, Antoinette comes across as a charming lady, without the slightest hint of arrogance, despite her obvious abilities.
It's just that I watched the Wednesday & Thursday episodes on a low definition Tablet.
Today, I saw her on a large screen for the first time and was genuinely surprised at how much younger she is, compared to what I had originally thought, so rightly or wrongly I put it down to the hairstyle!

I reckon she's about 34, I think her hair is nice, she's an amazing talent and I definitely would. Hope this helps!

oh for christ's sake a female contestant does well and suddenly we're commenting on her looks??? how OLD SHE LOOKS???? Absolutely ridiculous and unwarranted.

Antoinette played brilliantly, focus on the performance.

George Pryn wrote:oh for christ's sake a female contestant does well and suddenly we're commenting on her looks??? how OLD SHE LOOKS???? Absolutely ridiculous and unwarranted.

Antoinette played brilliantly, focus on the performance.

Yes, but from my point of view, I would have said what I said in response to Stephen whoever the contestant was.

Maybe a good rule of thumb for anyone to use is to put yourself in the place of the person being commented on
Ie.imagine you are playing on the show and then come onto this forum and see the comments. How would it make you feel if those same comments were made against you?!

It may give some food for thought and make people think before they make personal comments about the contestant. This should surely be about commenting on the game itself!

Very well played, Antoinette

I have a dream that one day we will live in a nation where all Countdown contestants will be judged not by their outward appearance but by their standard of play. I hope I can say this without seeming to disparage the work of Countdown's hair and make-up artists! I am encouraged to see outdated gender-based comments being shouted down.

Gavin Chipper wrote:There was a standard method for the second numbers. (75+1)×(7+7-9)-1=379.

c4c folklore in action. never get bored of these!

Matt Morrison wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:There was a standard method for the second numbers. (75+1)×(7+7-9)-1=379.

c4c folklore in action. never get bored of these!

I don't go in for putting every DC/contestant equaller I ever get (not that I care when other people do), but I think if they use an overly complex method on the show, or they scrape a risky 7 when LEOTARD is available, then I think it's worth mentioning the neater/more obvious spots on here. Obviously it's meaningless to see a random numbers solution out of context when you haven't watched the show, but sometimes they get it an awkward way on the show, I've done it the same way, and then someone else posts a simple solution and I think "Oh yeah, should have got that", and I'm glad I've seen it. So let's have a fight about it.

Edit: This

Just want to make the point that some men in this thread are fucking vile.

Really? I'm going to have to read it now.

Can't believe I just wasted my time reading that. Why are you all up in arms about McCann and Preece posts?

</rhetorical>

Matt Morrison wrote:Can't believe I just wasted my time reading that. Why are you all up in arms about McCann and Preece posts?

I'm with Matt here. Steven made an observation in his general mode, i.e. an honest and unfiltered (if a bit blunt) assessment of what he saw and Dave replied in his normal style, i.e. a bit of laddish banter which I'm absolutely sure wasn't supposed to offend anyone. And in any case, unless Antoinette is offended, then none of it matters at all.

As far as I can remember, the only contestants whose appearances (be it hairstyles, face or clothes) are ever criticised on here are female. (Think the last big one was Rhys's astonishingly patronising and rude contributions here - he's redacted the comments themselves but the good quoting members of C4C have preserved them for posterity.) I don't think Steven was being intentionally malicious here, but that doesn't mean it's cool to just chuck out random comments to make contestants feel self-conscious or bad about how they look. There's already enough pressure in the media and across society for women to look and dress a certain way, and it's not like this is a community renowned for its fashion nous anyway, 30th BC jumpers aside. Unless someone has a particularly vibrant or unusual aspect to their appearance that may be noteworthy, why bother bringing it up? Especially considering that the contestant in question is part of this forum community so, y'know, she's probably going to see it.

Even if Antoinette is ok with these comments, do we really want to start a precedent where we assume that everyone's game to be insulted for looking "old" or whatever the implied criticism is?

Fair point that it's just the two biggest idiots on the forum, Matt. Either way, I felt pretty uncomfortable read it, and also the notion of laddish banter in this case is fucking tedious. Keep it to the pub or in private chat, and not in a public forum where the person in question is a member at the very least, and may well feel uncomfortable at the comments being made. Either way, looks should have nothing to do with this thread and I don't think there's justification for the crass comments. Also I reject the notion that this community isn't renowned for it's fashion nous. I'm a fashionista through and through. Others are letting the side down.

Reading the Tricia Pay saga back, I think Jen is overegging the pudding here. I wasn't trying to insult Tricia (and I can see why some would see that to be the case), I was trying to make a somewhat humorous reference to her slightly strange clothing choices that day. Clearly, it backfired, as I acknowledged at the time.

Rhys Benjamin wrote:I was trying to make a somewhat humorous reference to her slightly strange clothing choices that day

Jennifer Steadman wrote:that doesn't mean it's cool to just chuck out random comments to make contestants feel self-conscious or bad about how they look. There's already enough pressure in the media and across society for women to look and dress a certain way, and it's not like this is a community renowned for its fashion nous anyway, 30th BC jumpers aside. Unless someone has a particularly vibrant or unusual aspect to their appearance that may be noteworthy, why bother bringing it up?

Callum Pickering, I must say I'm looking forward to seeing how your Conqueror, David Stanford, gets on in the last 8.
1,000/1 he wins it!

Callum P wrote:Keep it to the pub or in private chat, and not in a public forum

What a fabulous idea.

I don't think there's an imbalance of aiming looks-based comments at women, as this place is probably 95% heterosexual males. These comments only reflect a problem society at large has rather than this place being inherently sexist.
Doesn't seem to be such an audience for it any more but back in the Burgin era people were commenting on how the (young) male contestants looked just as much as the females. And what they'd like to do to them.

Matt Morrison wrote:this place is probably 95% heterosexual males

You're nearer 50% I would say.

But yeah, the hysterical overreaction in this thread is ridiculous. Steven didn't say anything bad, nor did Dave. In fact, Callum P appears to have been the most insulting

Matt Morrison wrote:These comments only reflect a problem society at large has rather than this place being inherently sexist.

Not sure why it would be a bad idea to address wider problems within a smaller group, unless you've got a wand we can wave and magically make the entirety of society recant of its ways. If the forum has already stopped doing this with young male contestants then I'm sure it can bring itself to stop doing it with female contestants, or anyone else.

Also not sure why you two are complaining anyway - you always get excited when there's some kind of outrage to elicit a few sparks from the dying embers of C4C, so really you should be thanking all of us

I think I've contributed all I need to, so I'm bowing out now. #TeamAntoinette

Jennifer Steadman wrote:unless you've got a wand we can wave

I have if you like

What does #TeamAntoinette mean in context here? Are you suggesting somebody has shown themselves not to be "Team Antoinette"? So far as I can tell, everybody has said she's fantastic, and Steven, when watching a bad picture, thought she was slightly older than she actually is, and wondered if that was down to her hairstyle?

The fact that a comment has been made in someone's "general mode" or “usual style" is not enough to make that comment cool. I have developed fairly low expectations of Steven and very low expectations of Dave, but I still hope that their contributions to this forum might gradually become more in tune with intelligent, modern thinking on gender equality.

Part of the image thing is that people use an old photo of themselves on Apterous and you expect someone to
be a sweet teenage boy and when you actually see them on TV they are late 20-something with a beard or whatever
(not thinking of anyone in particular).

I was nearly not posting how fortunate I think Antoinette has been with the "letters selections" in her games up until now (a guaranteed 7, quite often a 8 and on at least half a dozen occasions a 9, available in nearly every letters round, apart from maybe 2 or 3) for fear of being accused of being sexist by the usual suspects!
I would have thought the same if it had been a male player.
I suppose I'm wrong in suggesting a female would be more likely to get the words PANTIHOSE & LADDERING than a male? yeah I thought so.
Heather, I'm wracking my brains for what I might have said, for you to have such a low opinion of me.
Thanks for the support Jon, much appreciated.

So when a man gets long words it's down to his skill, but when a woman does it, it's down to her getting lucky with the letters?

You disgust me.

I want Steven and Dave to come to COLIN.

As you were.

In case anyone is wondering,I would just like to make it clear, that the PANTIHOSE/LADDERING reference was not meant to be taken literally, it was made light heatedly (like ....... in a joke!).
I'm slowly beginning to realise, humour is in very short supply on this forum.

Gavin Chipper wrote:I want Steven and Dave to come to COLIN.

As you were.

Eh, why am I not going to COLIN anymore?

I blame Gevin

Steven M. McCann wrote:In case anyone is wondering,I would just like to make it clear, that the PANTIHOSE/LADDERING reference was not meant to be taken literally, it was made light heatedly (like ....... in a joke!).
I'm slowly beginning to realise, humour is in very short supply on this forum.

Because of Corby's psychopathic personality, it doesn't matter to him at all if people get his jokes or whether they are left thinking he's being an arsehole. It doesn't affect him at all. I tried it in the Scrabble world championship thread, but after a few days I couldn't help but clarify.

But anyway, PANTHOSE, LADDERING? These words haven't come up! Is this SPOILERS FOR FUTURE GAMES???!!! Deactivate your account!

Jon Corby wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:I want Steven and Dave to come to COLIN.

As you were.

Eh, why am I not going to COLIN anymore?

Because it's not big enough to hold you, Steven M. McCann and Dave Preece all at once.

George Pryn wrote:I blame Gevin

I blame George Ford.

Jennifer, Heather and the other little lady Callum Whatsyername.. Haven't you got any ironing to do or something???

(JOKING)

Seriously, I've been a MASSIVE fan of Antionette in her 6 wins so far, stop getting your knickers in a twist and chill out FFS!!!

It tickles how we have two clear groups of commenters in these threads:
Group A (E.g, Tony, Bradley, James...) Who watch the show most days and chip in with their contributions to the rounds.
Group B (E.g Corby, MWM, Jen, Zarte...) Who seem to only show an interest when there is controversy or drama in either the episode itself or the spoilers thread.
(Gevin is the only person in Both btw)

If the show wants a long term boost in viewing figures, then it needs to try and appeal to both groups at the same time. [Basing this on the well known fact that viewing figures for an episode are directly proportional to # of spoilers thread comments]

So do to this, its clear that we need controversy and drama in every episode. Are there any suggestions any of you feel that you'd like to make to the producers of the show to try and achieve this? I have one such suggestion I'd like the producers to consider*:

Conundrum Round: When C1 buzzes, C2 gets an electric shock. If C1's guess was incorrect, they get a shock too. If neither solve it in time, everybody in the studio (except the audience member who solved it) gets a shock. It keeps the show tense and exciting even if the conundrum is not crucial. [Apologies if Catsdown have already stolen this idea]

*This is a disclaimer in case of the event that an andividual is stupid enough to take this post seriously

Didn't they trial that conundrum idea in the Ian Volante v Bradley Cates game? Might have got away with it if the NSPCC hadn't got involved.

JackHurst wrote:It tickles how we have two clear groups of commenters in these threads:
Group A (E.g, Tony, Bradley, James...) Who watch the show most days and chip in with their contributions to the rounds.
Group B (E.g Corby, MWM, Jen, Zarte...) Who seem to only show an interest when there is controversy or drama in either the episode itself or the spoilers thread.
(Gevin is the only person in Both btw)

If the show wants a long term boost in viewing figures, then it needs to try and appeal to both groups at the same time. [Basing this on the well known fact that viewing figures for an episode are directly proportional to # of spoilers thread comments]

So do to this, its clear that we need controversy and drama in every episode. Are there any suggestions any of you feel that you'd like to make to the producers of the show to try and achieve this? I have one such suggestion I'd like the producers to consider*:

Conundrum Round: When C1 buzzes, C2 gets an electric shock. If C1's guess was incorrect, they get a shock too. If neither solve it in time, everybody in the studio (except the audience member who solved it) gets a shock. It keeps the show tense and exciting even if the conundrum is not crucial. [Apologies if Catsdown have already stolen this idea]

*This is a disclaimer in case of the event that an andividual is stupid enough to take this post seriously

sexist

I must admit, I did expect some stick for my 'sexist' comments...

Oh well... Whatever blows your frocks up!

I also expected some do-gooding Countdown sycophant to point out my misspelling of the curly-haired half-decent-looking Irish bird who is the current Countdown champion!!!

#disappointed

Dave, the ironing pile has just reached the ceiling, so I have no more time to dignify your stupid comments with sensible responses, sorry.