Greatest Televised Game - The Poll!

[Gavin Chipper]

Following on from the discussion in this thread and also this one, you now get the chance to vote for your favourite game(s) of all time to see which is the ultimate winner. There are quite a few choices available (30 to be precise) and it would probably be a bit of a car crash in a First Past the Post election. However, in this poll you can vote for more than one option (known as approval voting), and you can also change your vote until the poll closes, so you won't find yourself having "wasted" your vote with poor tactical choices. The poll will run for 14 days. If your favourite game isn't listed, then tough luck - you had plenty of time to make suggestions.

Vote away!

[Gavin Chipper]

By the way, this post gives a very brief summary of why the games might be included.

As mentioned above, I'm probably going to do a poll for this so I'm going to list some of the games I might put in the poll, based on what people have said above. There's also this thread. I'll wait until after the grand final of this series in case we have some crackers, and you've still got time to make suggestions and point out games I've arbitrarily excluded. Anyway, the current list (which hopefully includes pretty much all of the sensible suggestions):

Clive Freedman 91* - 81 Peter Evans (CoC final decided on a tie-break) 8/4/86
Stephen Balment 83 - 45 Keith Albans (First instance of the record 83 over 9 rounds) 14/4/87
Harvey Freeman 115 - 107 David Trace (Epic CoC grand final, highest winning and losing 14-round scores) 30/6/87
Allan Saldanha 70 - 81 Dick Green (Series 15 GF, Saldanha controversially has YOLKED disallowed, narrowly missing out on being a 10-year-old series champion) 17/6/88
John Widdowson 46 - 70 Jenny Haldane (first known max) 5/8/88
Mark Nyman 76 - 68 Harvey Freeman (Controversial Masters game, Freeman's only defeat against another great) 5-9/2/90
Allan Saldanha 79 - 82 Harvey Freeman (Supreme final) 20/12/96
Danny Hamilton 77 - 146 Julian Fell (the original 146) 18/12/02
Chris Wills 113 - 111 David Williams (Close and crucial CoC game) 7/1/03
Graham Nash 120 - 109 Julian Fell (Fell's only defeat, gambiers) 21/1/03
Mark Tournoff 92 - 89 Paul Gallen (Grand final, late crucial conundrum solve) 17/12/04
Sue Drinkwater 71 - 85 Tanmay Dixit (8-year-old wins, offers FANNIES) 21/3/05
John Mayhew 86* - 76 John Brackstone (Richard Whiteley's last game, grand final won on tie-break) 1/7/05
Conor Travers 124 - 100 Paul Howe (Series 54 SF, both players maxed the letters) 24/5/06
Paul Gallen 111 - 93 Mark Tournoff (Epic CoC grand final, won on 14 maxes) 16/6/06
Chris Davies 102 - 97 Innis Carson (Sleepsuit) 17/12/09
Carl Williams 95 - 105* Graeme Cole ("Good v evil" grand final, tie-break) 16/12/11
Graeme Cole 98 - 104 Jack Worsley (30th BC game, Graeme loses after maxing the first 13 rounds) 31/1/13
Jonathan Rawlinson 105 - 106 Jack Hurst (Very close 30th BC SF, most vowels in a game) 27/2/13
Jon O'Neill 102 - 120 Conor Travers (30th BC SF, both crucial and a max game) 28/2/13
Jack Hurst 111 - 146 Conor Travers (30th BC final, joint record of 146 in the format) 1/3/13
Dylan Taylor 116 - 126 Callum Todd (Grand final, 14-13 maxes) 20/12/13
Tom Cappleman 97 - 114 Giles Hutchings (Close CoC QF, good comeback) 14/1/16
Andy Platt 125 - 127 Dylan Taylor (Very close and high-scoring CoC QF) 15/1/16
Dylan Taylor 121 - 104 Dan McColm (Tight CoC final, comeback from McColm to nearly win) 22/1/16
Ann Dibben 107 - 106 Tim Down (Tight quarter final) 20/6/16
Zarte Siempre 128 - Philip Aston 118 (Close grand final, 14-13 maxes) 22/6/18
Tom Carey 122 - 150 Zarte Siempre (CoC QF, highest ever joint score, highest score at the time) 17/1/19
Elliott Mellor 152 - 40 John Hadfield (Highest ever score) 17/5/19
Elliott Mellor 83 - 103 Dinos Sfyris (Grand final, Dinos's giant killing) 28/6/19

That's probably way too many actually. I might cut a few out of that - good games that have basically no chance of being voted the actual greatest. We'll see. But it won't be First Past the Post voting, so it won't be damaged too much by multiple options.

Edit - I've added a couple in since I made this post, and it's open to suggestions until at least the end of the current series.

[JackHurst]

Slander. I never got as low as 106.

Nice list. Very fun to read through some of the best highlights of the show. For me a notable absence would be Kirks Semi final vs Neil Zussman.

[Tom S]

Ahmed v Richard Williams. Candidate for one of the best prelims of all time?

[Gavin Chipper]

A couple of good games mentioned but what were you doing when the other thread was actively taking nominations? Slackers.

Edit - It's not like they'd be real contenders for the win anyway so it's not a great loss. If the Ahmed game was making the list, there would be other near giant-killings as well like Chris Wills v Terry Rattle.

[L'oisleatch McGraw]

Mikey Lear's first game was one of the most memorable ones from the (distant) past.
Also, the first game of Tracey Mills's Octorun was breathtaking. One of the most edge-of-seat games ever.

[Gavin Chipper]

We can consider these games for the next poll - in 10 years' time.

[L'oisleatch McGraw]

The nominations phase was too short and largely went unheralded.
I object to this entire process!

[Marc Meakin]

No Kirk Bevans Games?

[Gavin Chipper]

If you guys really want, I could cancel this off, and restart the nomination discussion, though I'm not sure how many of those mentioned would be potential winners. What do you say?

[JackHurst]

No Kirk Bevans Games?

Not sure I've heard of this Krik Bevon chap. He's not on the wiki.

[Marc Meakin]

No Kirk Bevans Games?

Not sure I've heard of this Krik Bevon chap. He's not on the wiki.

Bevins

I always get his spelling wrong I used to get Beevers wrong too

[L'oisleatch McGraw]

If you guys really want, I could cancel this off, and restart the nomination discussion, though I'm not sure how many of those mentioned would be potential winners. What do you say?

Nah.
It's a bit of fun.

What I would suggest though, is that sometime in the future... perhaps 2032 for the 50th birthday... someone should run a fuckload (probably more than 100 by then) of polls to find the best game per series... and then from that make a massive poll including all of those winners to find the best game ever.

[Gavin Chipper]

OK, carry on as normal.

[L'oisleatch McGraw]

14 of these games, I have either not seen, or had so little interest at the time, I do not remember.
I think if I voted, newer games would be favoured over some potentially better ones from the past, which is why I've abstained, until such time that the old games are available to watch.

[Marc Meakin]

Maybe a different poll of best finals series.
I would vote for the SLEEPSUIT finals every game was a gem

[Gavin Chipper]

I've changed this to "global" so it will stay at the top, and I'll demote it again at the end of the poll. And get your votes in!

[Phil H]

James Robinson's commentary on the spoilers thread for the 30BC final was better than actually watching any of the games.

[Matt Morrison]

Deeply disappointed to click through to this thread and find out it is not about a gameshow called The Poll. Deeply might be an exaggeration.

[Gavin Chipper]

Deeply disappointed to click through to this thread and find out it is not about a gameshow called The Poll. Deeply might be an exaggeration.

Well here is a clip of one guy that lost on "The Poll".

[Gavin Chipper]

By the way Jack Hurst beat Jonathan Rawlinson 116 - 105, not 106 - 105. But if I change it, it might reset the poll.

[Gavin Chipper]

Less than 48 hours to go for this poll, and with a three-way tie at the top and fourth just one vote behind, it's still all to play for.

[Gavin Chipper]

Less than 48 hours to go for this poll, and with a three-way tie at the top and fourth just one vote behind, it's still all to play for.

Less than 24 hours now, and after some voting, we are back to the same position again!

[Gavin Chipper]

We have reached the end of the poll! 115 votes were cast in all, although that isn't from 115 people. It counts each game you "approve" as a separate vote. And it doesn't say how many people voted. Anyway, over the two weeks, there were four games that looked like potential winners throughout as the lead changed a few times.

In fourth place with 8 votes was the 30th Birthday Championship semi-final between Conor Travers and Jon O'Neill, which Conor won 120 - 102. It was a max game from Conor, but was a crucial conundrum despite this, with Jono on 13 maxes. The only max he missed before the conundrum was when he risked SULPHATED for 9 in round 6. This was Conor's third max game in a row, and Jono had also maxed his quarte final game, against Jack Worsley, so it was set up to be a classic. Conor then went on to win the final against Jack Hurst.

There was a tie for second place on 9 votes. Firstly we have the series 61 semi-final between Chris Davies and Innis Carson, which Chris won 102 - 97. Chris was the number 2 seed and Innis number 3, but realistically these were the two best players in the series. Innis took an early 7-point lead in round 3, with he held all the way to the final letters round, where he extended his lead to 15 by spotting SOLENOID. It was then Innis's pick for the final numbers and he went for his standard 2 large. It wasn't the hardest solve in the world and it was thought to be game over, but under the pressure of the situation, Innis missed the target, and Chris closed to just 5 points behind. Then came the famous SLEEPSUIT conundrum, which Chris solved after 25.5 seconds to book his place in the final, where he beat the number 1 seed Andrew Hulme.

The other game in second place is the quarter final of CoC XV between Zarte Siempre and Tom Carey, which Zarte won 150 - 122. 150 was the record score at the time, and this game still has the record joint score. Both players saw a nine in round 1, but Zarte followed this up with consecutive nines in rounds 4 and 5, both of which Tom missed, giving Zarte a 36-point lead. This lead remained until round 12, when Tom spotted the nine TIRAMISUS, reducing the lead back down to 18. A tied final letters round meant that the game was still on going into the final numbers. However, it was Zarte's choice and a relatively simple 2-large got him over the line. He solved the conundrum as well for the then-record score of 150 and a 14-max game. Evey round was maxed by at least one of the players, so working together they could have achieved 168!

And now onto our winner. With 11 votes it is the series 69 grand final between Callum Todd and Dylan Taylor, which Callum won 126 - 116. The preliminary rounds of this series had arguably the highest level ever, with Dylan Taylor on a then record octotal of 974, Jen Steadman on 952 and Glen Webb on 945. Callum Todd was seeded down at number 7, with just 7 wins and an average score of just over 93 having lost his final game on a controverisal tie-break conundrum. On paper, Callum did not look a realistic contender. Dylan progressed to the final as expected, without having to play either of the other 900+ octochamps on the way. However, Callum, seeded 7, first beat Jen Steadman (octotal of 952) in his quarter final and then Glen Webb (octotal of 945) in his semi-final to earn his place in the final. He'd certainly done it the hard way. Onto the final then. Dylan went 8-0 up after round 1, and perhaps this was a sign of things to come. But no, Callum countered and levelled the score with an 8 of his on after round 2. And from that point on, both players maxed every round, until the conundrum. They went into the conundrum level on 116 points each and 13 maxes out of 14. Then after 4.5 seconds, Callum was indeed triumphal after spotting the conundrum to win the series having consecutively knocked out three of the highest scoring octochamps the game had seen. He really did do it the hard way.

[L'oisleatch McGraw]

Interesting result. The winner was a great game, but as alluded to in the summary, Callum's entire finals run is the thing that was truly noteworthy.
Is it fair to assume that the first 10 games on the list deserved quite a few more votes, and the final 10 quite a few less?
Gotta love the recency effect.

[Philip A]

Good poll and pretty much agree with the results.

[Gavin Chipper]

I wouldn't say I completely agree with the results. I think my top two are the CoC finals between Harvey Freeman and David Trace and between Paul Gallen and Mark Tournoff. As well as being CoC finals, they had a great ebb and flow.

But anyway, after this poll went up a few other suggestions came in, and while I don't really think any of them were really potential winners, it might be intetesting to run something like this again at some point and consider some of these options. On the Kirk front, he had the first max 15-rounder, the already-mentioned Zussman semi-final and the tie-break win against Innis in the 30th BC.

Also, a game that I think was never mentioned is the highest joint score of 145 over 9-rounds where Robert Richland beat Stuart Schofield 75 - 70 after they tied the previous day. And the 80 - 70 tie-break win for Tony Vick against Steve Williams in the CoC IV semi-final. And also Chris Waddington beating Robert Teuton in the series 22 grand final with a 29-second conundrum.

Also not included were this game, this game, or this game.

[Neil A Collins]

It's Zarte v Tom Carey for me. There was definite emotion in there with Zarte going for a record/max + Tom knowing he was potentially going to deny his friend with his 9 (TIRAMISUS). The fact Zarte still managed the record was top class

[Gavin Chipper]

In case we ever do another one of these, I thought I might add some notes now - we had Tom's 154 (which was then equalled by Cillian), Ahmed v Dan where they both scored in every round before the conundrum (which Giles and Dylan had done previously), and then the final between Ahmed and James which was very close.

I think if anything, I'd want to decrease the number of poll options though. I was very inclusive in the last one.