c4countdown

The battle of Barlow and Titcombe! Who will win? Could not confidently say who will win- should be in for a good one...

It's completely ridiculous the number of times Susie has switched on MOHAIRS; in its most recent appearance, she allowed it: http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_6376

I can recall Tom Conlon (Horace) having mohairs disallowed in 2013, but something makes me think it's been allowed on the show since.
http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_5801

Mohairs was valid on Apterous in 2013, and remains so.

Very enjoyable game- best of the prelims- a well-matched contest. Hard luck Fiona, you had a great run, but congratulations to Maggie who has a rather unenviable prospect tomorrow!

This was a great game overall, with a superb conundrum solve from Maggie.

Tom S wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 1:58 pm Very enjoyable game- best of the prelims- a well-matched contest. Hard luck Fiona, you had a great run, but congratulations to Maggie who has a rather unenviable prospect tomorrow!

Cheers Tom. I sent off my Countdown application for a bit of fun, and failed my first audition, just scraping through on the second after a couple of weeks' of online practice. A couple of months later, I was sitting in the challenger chair, and a teapot really was as far as my hopes went - I certainly never contemplated the possibility of being in the finals. (I hadn't cut the labels of my 'day 3' top, intending to return it to the shop!). Having somehow secured 8 wins, prior to filming the finals I'd done a lot of online practice on 4L's (a special thanks to Reg!), learnt a few tricks and had got at least as reliable as my (pretty inconsistent) 1L, but on the day went into rabbit in headlights mode. I was kicking myself a wee bit on the conundrum as I saw CHAPARRAL straight away, but did that brief mental check (should there be 2 P's?) and Maggie buzzed. But she was always the better all round player, and I was certainly relieved that I didn't have to face Elliott (a truly phenomenal player, but one who was still generous enough to take the time out to give me some numbers tips!) on screen. I could relax, eat Brendan's lovely chocolate cake, and enjoy watching tomorrow's semi-final game from the safety of the audience. All in all, I'm delighted (in fact overwhelmed) with my run, am both amazed and proud by how far I got, and am very happy that the outcome of the QF was the right one. Maggie was a really lovely person, and we both encouraged each other, even during the game. To me that's just what Countdown should be about. The whole experience was very +ve - and as a happy bonus, I've been welcomed into a supportive and friendly community that I never knew existed eight months ago, and have made some new friends along the way. Shucks - I'm not even drunk - I'll shut up now!

Great words Fiona- you quite possibly are one of the best/successful contestants to have a result like that. The practise definitely showed in today's game...

Final Quarter-Finals today with Richard Arnold who we haven't seen since he was in for the week with the eventual champion of Series 79 Mike Daysley in October last year! Battle of the Female Octochamps as I mentioned yesterday as well!

Letters: Absolutely nearly knick and knack almost the whole way, and like I mentioned in the Daily Chat, both contestants sure were "stubborn like glue". Nice spots from both in R2 with CODIFY and IDIOCY and in R4 with PROSAIC! However, if there's one thing to point out today, it's none other than Maggie's declaration of MOHAIRS in R7:

Ray Wilding wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 1:39 pm It's completely ridiculous the number of times Susie has switched on MOHAIRS; in its most recent appearance, she allowed it: http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_6376

I agree with Susie's inconsistency making the game unfair and certainly doesn't do Maggie just if it was definitely 100% in but there were multiple angles that some of us on the Daily Chat debated and after a while, I (and probably most of the people there) came to the conclusion that it should have been allowed. Thanks Ray once again for checking this on ODO Premium!

Fiona T wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 2:07 pm Having somehow secured 8 wins, prior to filming the finals I'd done a lot of online practice on 4L's (a special thanks to Reg!), learnt a few tricks and had got at least as reliable as my (pretty inconsistent) 1L, but on the day went into rabbit in headlights mode.

Numbers: Maggie sticks to what she knows best but Fiona, probably knowing this would be a close game bravely gambles with 4L on both of her Numbers Round! Now that was unexpected given that we only saw her got that selection once prior to this taping and I never knew you were practising behind-the-scenes! While both contestants did spot the easy way out in R6, Maggie had pushed the margin up with her solve in R14 and unfortunately, the gamble backfired! Tbf, it's easier to solve when you're at home compared to when you're in the studio...

Fiona T wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 2:07 pm I was kicking myself a wee bit on the conundrum as I saw CHAPARRAL straight away, but did that brief mental check (should there be 2 P's?) and Maggie buzzed.

Conundrum: I nearly did a Hansford on it but it wouldn't have mattered as I got the wrong answer anyway with parcharal. With Maggie buzzing in with CHAPARRAL, she's cleared and through to the Semi-Finals! Poor Fiona, she did have the answer as mentioned above but was unsure if it was correct. By then it was too late as Maggie had pressed her way to victory!

When I was initially charting my predictions a fortnight ago, my very first one for this game was that it could go either way with a margin of 10 to 20 points, the only Quarter-Final I wasn't sure who to bet on. Ultimately, my final prediction was that Maggie would win by a margin of 15 points and indeed it was not that far off with the margin at 20 points.

Fiona T wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 2:07 pm I sent off my Countdown application for a bit of fun, and failed my first audition, just scraping through on the second after a couple of weeks' of online practice. A couple of months later, I was sitting in the challenger chair, and a teapot really was as far as my hopes went - I certainly never contemplated the possibility of being in the finals. (I hadn't cut the labels of my 'day 3' top, intending to return it to the shop!)...But she was always the better all round player, and I was certainly relieved that I didn't have to face Elliott (a truly phenomenal player, but one who was still generous enough to take the time out to give me some numbers tips!) on screen. I could relax, eat Brendan's lovely chocolate cake, and enjoy watching tomorrow's semi-final game from the safety of the audience. All in all, I'm delighted (in fact overwhelmed) with my run, am both amazed and proud by how far I got, and am very happy that the outcome of the QF was the right one. Maggie was a really lovely person, and we both encouraged each other, even during the game. To me that's just what Countdown should be about. The whole experience was very +ve - and as a happy bonus, I've been welcomed into a supportive and friendly community that I never knew existed eight months ago, and have made some new friends along the way. Shucks - I'm not even drunk - I'll shut up now!

What a nice way to wrap up your (hopefully not) last appearance on Countdown! You have been absolutely a delightful person to chat with in the Daily Chat ever since I returned after finishing up my Examinations in early-May! Most importantly aside from "bragging" that you have a teapot and made it to the Quarter-Finals, you were definitely a sportswoman by showing humility and grace to your opponent. Nah you're not drunk, you should be proud of yourself for making this far! Hopefully your positive experience with Countdown doesn't end there!

Just three more episodes to go! Will Elliott breeze through smoothly just like some of his Preliminaries or will Maggie just be like Mark and try to hold him back despite what the odds tell us at this point? Tune in tomorrow!

Progress:
QF1 (20 June): Elliott Mellor (#1) vs Mark Decouto (#8) (109 - 73)
QF2 (21 June): Dinos Sfyris (#2) vs Sandra Pilson (#7) (118 - 71)
QF3 (24 June): Brendan Whitehurst (#3) vs Steven Turnbull (#6) (58 - 57)
QF4 (25 June): Maggie Barlow (#4) vs Fiona Titcombe (#5) (98 - 78)
SF1 (26 June): Elliott Mellor (QF1 Winner) vs Maggie Barlow (QF4 Winner)
SF2 (27 June): Dinos Sfyris (QF2 Winner) vs Brendan Whitehurst (QF3 Winner)
GF (28 June): (SF1 Winner) vs (SF2 Winner)

Now that's a quarter final. Congratulations to Maggie but very well played to Fiona who played very well and I think you did the right thing with gambling for 4L. But like you said Fiona, at least you don't have to face Elliott!! But that is a game I'm looking forward to!! You be sure of it!! (I should probably stop saying that)

Ray Wilding wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 1:39 pm It's completely ridiculous the number of times Susie has switched on MOHAIRS; in its most recent appearance, she allowed it: http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_6376

Phil Collinge wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 1:40 pm I can recall Tom Conlon (Horace) having mohairs disallowed in 2013, but something makes me think it's been allowed on the show since.
http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_5801

Mohairs was valid on Apterous in 2013, and remains so.

Including today, MOHAIRS has been offered by a contestant only four times in Countdown's history. It was disallowed on every occasion except one, which was the 2016 game Ray refers to.

http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_3174 (disallowed)
http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_5801 (disallowed)
http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_6376 (allowed)
http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_7104 (disallowed)

The dictionary gives MOHAIR as a mass noun, and none of the many example sentences use it in the plural. Arguably the mistake was to allow it in 2016 rather than to disallow it on the other occasions.

Its validity on apterous is pretty much irrelevant - on the show they only use the dictionary.

Very tense game! Extremely well played by both! I was really looking forward to this match and it definitely could have gone either way. Btw, extremely unlucky on the conundrum Fiona. Honestly, it's a completely new word on me! Congratulations to both of you!

PIGCOTES for a R12 beater.

Toby McDonald wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 9:05 pm Btw, extremely unlucky on the conundrum Fiona. Honestly, it's a completely new word on me!

Ah, Maggie and I are of an age where we remember https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_High_Chaparral

There was a conversation afterwards about what a chaparral was, and the conclusion was that we had no idea, but we knew there was a high one!

Hang on, why are we talking about MOHAIRS when we should be talking about Nick's claim that Fiona's octotal was 520?

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 9:28 pm Hang on, why are we talking about MOHAIRS when we should be talking about Nick's claim that Fiona's octotal was 520?

Aye, I did have a wtf moment, but at that point in time I had no clue what my total actually was!

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 9:28 pm Hang on, why are we talking about MOHAIRS when we should be talking about Nick's claim that Fiona's octotal was 520?

I've seen him get stats wrong but that is a big time mistake. I thought Fiona would say something.

Owen Carroll wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 10:00 pm

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 9:28 pm Hang on, why are we talking about MOHAIRS when we should be talking about Nick's claim that Fiona's octotal was 520?

I've seen him get stats wrong but that is a big time mistake. I thought Fiona would say something.

At the time I wasn't 100% sure it was wrong - just an "I thought I'd got more than that" feeling. Also, it doesn't much matter in the scheme of things.

Fiona T wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 10:05 pm

Owen Carroll wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 10:00 pm

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 9:28 pm Hang on, why are we talking about MOHAIRS when we should be talking about Nick's claim that Fiona's octotal was 520?

I've seen him get stats wrong but that is a big time mistake. I thought Fiona would say something.

At the time I wasn't 100% sure it was wrong - just an "I thought I'd got more than that" feeling. Also, it doesn't much matter in the scheme of things.

True. I'd have said "no that's wrong nick. Get back to the apprentice"

Fiona T wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 9:08 pm There was a conversation afterwards about what a chaparral was, and the conclusion was that we had no idea, but we knew there was a high one!

As a motorsport fan I spotted chaparral immediately but had no idea it was a real word, hence wouldn't have buzzed.

Great game - good standard and shame there had to be a loser. I'll be sure to say hello if I see you in our local Tescos Fiona

Fred Mumford wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2019 5:58 am

Fiona T wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 9:08 pm There was a conversation afterwards about what a chaparral was, and the conclusion was that we had no idea, but we knew there was a high one!

As a motorsport fan I spotted chaparral immediately but had no idea it was a real word, hence wouldn't have buzzed.

Lewis "Chaparral" Hamilton?

Fiona T wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 9:08 pm

Toby McDonald wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 9:05 pm Btw, extremely unlucky on the conundrum Fiona. Honestly, it's a completely new word on me!

Ah, Maggie and I are of an age where we remember https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_High_Chaparral

There was a conversation afterwards about what a chaparral was, and the conclusion was that we had no idea, but we knew there was a high one!

I remembered it as the racing horse actually.