Spoilers for Wednesday 15 June 2022 (Series 85, 1st Semi-Final)

[Toby McDonald]

WIRIER in R5

Brilliant game, well done Dan and very unlucky Ryan.

[Philip A]

Tough puzzles, as the maxes show.

[Ryan Lam]

We're down to the last four, and Ryan's dressed in a smart office attire, just like probably what you imagine a banker would be like while Dan kindly pointed out he wishes to complete a PhD, so good luck to him as well! Thanks to Philip on the Daily Chat for pointing out how Jay "destroyed" Anne's career with his anecdote at the very end We'll never know whether she had already made up her mind to quit when this episode was recorded back in mid-April, but if she hadn't by that point, that eerie premonition sure will haunt her...

Letters: Before the anecdote, I sensed both were fighting out for the Grand Final spot as hard as they could, matching their words (even in R5 where they had burper disallowed. Comeon Anne, stop demoralising them by asking why did they choose to risk it, that's not important!!!) After Jay finished what he had to say, R8 saw still even points but with different words (finally!) The last third saw no let up, no difference as both Dan and Ryan got points there, especially in R13 with CHEEPED. Evenly matching out all the way in a Finals match, less the first Semi-Finals is nothing but incredible!

Numbers: I was expecting a lot today here and boy did it not disappoint. Instead of expecting all puzzles to be of a 6 Small selection, Dan goes for 4 Large, the complete opposite! R3 wasn't that difficult, and R6 was evenly matched out which didn't surprise me. Then, came R9 (which if you used a solver, you would almost never get the solution within 30 seconds), and Dan gets overtaken by Ryan at a crucial moment! Damn, the excitement just got much higher at that point! Finally, the all important R14 where if Dan wanted to have a chance to win came, and he solves it, dodging a massive bullet for now!

Conundrum: It all comes down to this, it's go big or go home! My memory suddenly jolted, because I had seen this scrabble multiple times on the Daily Duel on Apterous so I knew the answer almost immediately. I hear a buzzer, , it's Dan, and he has the answer! I literally screamed "YES!!!" when that happened because he managed to secure a spot in the Grand Final, better late than never!

I think we never had this close of a first Semi-final in years now, with the #1 Seed (who of course wins the first Quarter-Final) easily defeating whoever wins the last Quarter-Final. In fact, I think this is the closest we'll ever get to Zarte Siempre and Philip Aston's Grand Final four years ago in terms of matching the score (except for R9 of course) and the conundrum being the decider. At one point, I bet a lot of us were thinking Dan could have possibly been doomed but he pulled through. This also meant my prediction of a 30 point margin was way off with the difference only being 3 points. Commiserations to Ryan, the conundrum surely IS NO MERCY especially in a setting like this, but to improve significantly on your last appearance here is a testament to your performance on the show! You didn't let that one slip-up in the conundrum to the late Peter Lee back in 2012 define you (although I had wished Countdown would have acknowledged his passing), a decade later you matched him in terms of reaching the Semi-Finals! You're truly a worthy opponent with your skills and there's no shame in losing to Dan, for you held him back considerably and never gave up, and I hope that can be emulated in other contestants' too

Judge Robert Rinder is here on the very first time on Countdown and will be seeing the end of this Series too! It must be a prestigious affair to invite someone working in law to come over! Find out shortly who gets to duel Dan on Friday, the returnee of the show Matt, or a newcomer on this Series, Steve!

Progress:
QF1 (09 June): Dan Byrom (#1) vs Craig Fawcett (#8) (106 - 27)
QF2 (10 June): Matt O'Connor (#2) vs Dan Hall (#7) (106 - 58)
QF3 (13 June): Steve Hyde (#3) vs Ronan Mackrory (#6) (106 - 83)
QF4 (14 June): Ryan Carlsen (#4) vs Adrian Fletcher (#5) (92 - 63)
SF1 (15 June): Dan Byrom (QF1 Winner) vs Ryan Carlsen (QF4 Winner) (97 - 94)
SF2 (16 June): Matt O'Connor (QF2 Winner) vs Steve Hyde (QF3 Winner)
GF (17 June): Dan Byrom (SF1 Winner) vs (SF2 Winner)

[David Williams]

Just me who was taken aback by CRONEYISM, then? How does that get into the dictionary? CRONEY doesn't exist as an alternative spelling of CRONY.

[Gavin Chipper]

Just me who was taken aback by CRONEYISM, then? How does that get into the dictionary? CRONEY doesn't exist as an alternative spelling of CRONY.

Didn't know that. Weird.

[Philip A]

Personally, I don’t think lesser-known spellings of words should be used as conundrums. Only Apterites or Oxford Dictionary Premium/Lexico users are going to learn them. CRONYISM is the head word, CRONEYISM is the sub-entry in ODO.

As a separate point of interest, ODO gives 3 other spellings for onstead: onsteed, onesteead, onsteead.

[Philip A]

Also, I would have requested spelling of CHEEPED, in case players had written down cheaped x!

[Gavin Chipper]

Personally, I don’t think lesser-known spellings of words should be used as conundrums. Only Apterites or Oxford Dictionary Premium/Lexico users are going to learn them. CRONYISM is the head word, CRONEYISM is the sub-entry in ODO.

As a separate point of interest, ODO gives 3 other spellings for onstead: onsteed, onesteead, onsteead.

CRONEYISM is much more easily inferred as a word than DISBURSAL. I consider it a more reasonable conundrum. If you see it, it's pretty much definitely the answer. Why allow lesser-known words but not lesser-known spellings?

[Philip Wilson]

Finally solved round 9, looked on wiki and its different, so: (((100 + 2) x 4 x 50) + 75) ÷ 25 = 819. I hope!
Just took 2 weeks though!