Spoilers for Wednesday 11th January 2023 - CoC XVI Prelim 8

[Ronan M Higginson]

Last of the prelims today, will we see Series 85 runner up Matt O'Connor join Florence tomorrow, or will it be a battle of the Cappleman-Lynes'? Tune in at 2:10pm to find out.

[Philip A]

I didn’t know this, but you can slot a U in VOYAGER to make VOYAGEUR; lesser known as it is a historical term, and comes from Canada.

[Gavin Chipper]

I got MOUTHIES probably helped by MOUTHIE coming up the other day.

[Philip A]

R9 - brilliant from Sam. Brilliant.

[Rhys Benjamin]

Winner!!!!

Last nums: (75 - 1) x 25 x 50 / 100 + 4.

And thanks to Rachel for getting a different method at the end and ruining my moment of glory.

[Gavin Chipper]

Winner!!!!

Last nums: (75 - 1) x 25 x 50 / 100 + 4.

And thanks to Rachel for getting a different method at the end and ruining my moment of glory.

Nice solve. 4-large practice obviously paying off!

[Rhys Benjamin]

Winner!!!!

Last nums: (75 - 1) x 25 x 50 / 100 + 4.

And thanks to Rachel for getting a different method at the end and ruining my moment of glory.

Nice solve. 4-large practice obviously paying off!

Yeah Sam and Matt had the right idea but you can “tweak” this by a factor of 12.5 by taking away or adding to the 75 before multiplying by 25.

That’s how Jono got 813: (75 - 10) x 25 etc.

[Philip A]

Unlucky, Matt. Good spots, but just came up against someone on form on the day. Well done, Sam. 4 highly-anticipated quarter-finals now await.

[Gavin Chipper]

Some great games so far. Tom Stevenson going out was the only shock result so far, though that's going by TV performances. Presumably on Apterous Adam is much better than he used to be anyway.

[Dan Byrom]

Some great games so far. Tom Stevenson going out was the only shock result so far, though that's going by TV performances. Presumably on Apterous Adam is much better than he used to be anyway.

Having played both a lot and being at a similar level to both, I had it extremely close to 50/50 before that game, with Tom ever so slightly the favourite. So I wouldn't call it a shock. But given all the other first round games were won by the favourites, it's still the most unexpected result.

[Adam Dexter]

When you ignore the 937.5 trickery, it's not too hard.

(100+75+50+1)x4+25

[Toby McDonald]

Congrats Sam, the 496 solve was excellent. Bad luck Matt. Looking forward to tomorrow's game.

[Andres Sanchez]

That conundrum has got to be the most fiendish one I've seen in a CoC game. Was watching with buddies and one of our guys said AEROFROST too, devastating that one.

[Phyl Styles]

Winner!!!!

Last nums: (75 - 1) x 25 x 50 / 100 + 4.

And thanks to Rachel for getting a different method at the end and ruining my moment of glory.

I kept checking and rechecking my method, which was also Rhys's, and also seeking a few seconds of glory

[Ryan Lam]

The Final Preliminary of the Championship of Champions XVI, and before we start, if you're not aware by now, congratulations to the Cappleman-Lynes, Sam (whose hair looks curlier from two years before) and Florence for the latter has gave birth to her third child on 03 January, the day after her return and their family has now officially welcomed another member! Congratulations to Colin Murray as well who's been announced as the next permanent host of Countdown with his tenure expected to run all the way until the end of Series 90 in December 2024! Happy 37th Birthday to Rachel too, and you'll now remember that the sqaure root of 1369 equals that thanks to Susie's idea! Also, I kind of expected Matt to be one of those policemen who goes "That's not how it's done" when critiquing police dramas LOL. Rachel's favourite contestant is him eh? Hmm, where did I hear this from earlier?

Letters: Nothing to SEPARATE both of them as per Matt's word in R1, until he tried socages in R4 which is really unlucky as it can't be pluralised! However, that doesn't get in his way as he takes the lead with his spot of MOUTHIES in R5! A TAXING round then follows when Sam had ALATION in R7, but again, no let up as both later get ANDESITE and PARASITE in R10 and R11 respectively. A brilliant spot by Sam with MEIONITE in R12 beats Matt's TONEME to have the margin needed to be safely declared a winner, and by the time R13 came, there were so many maxes it was all but over for the latter.

Numbers: 2 Large it is from Matt as per his favourite, and CECIL gives us a "waste" of 30 seconds Sam then heads with 6 Small in R6 but it's too easy both get it quite quickly on-screen. A tricky R9 followed and well done to Sam who spotted it since most of us only saw 495 in the Daily Chat! 4 Large in the last round even though Sam was over, and I liked Matt's solution because not only was it as wacky as Adam's R3 solve, Rachel knew what was coming after he went into the thousands and ten thousands! Shame the actual solution doesn't require this though...

Conundrum: Not a damn clue as to what a RETRO SOFA can unscramble into. Matt tries aerofrost and for a moment I thought he had it but it's not the correct answer! Cue the answer, FORASTERO which is a cacao tree and I've never heard of this either until the show aired. These conundrums are so tough to crack and I bet the next seven will not be any easier either!

Commiserations to Matt, but you did show you were able to stage a comeback even though it didn't last long unlike your stint when you faced Dan, and what's more, giving us a spectacular Grand Final last year was more than what all of us would have bargained or asked for. All the best to the rest of your policing career ahead of you and may you continue to keep the country and community safe where you are!

There you have it, half the contestants have been eliminated and we're now down to eight. Tomorrow, it's the showdown between Husband and Wife, Sam and Florence. It's also interesting now to point out that the Grand Champions who defeated them correspondingly are also facing each other on Monday! The Runner-Up match comes first to see which parent is the better half! Get ready for more exciting things to come!

Progress:
Preliminary 1 (02 January 2023): Florence Cappleman-Lynes (Series 84 Runner-Up) vs Leo Smith (Series 82 Semi-Finalist) (100 - 69)
Preliminary 2 (03 January 2023): Dinos Sfyris (Series 80 Grand Champion) vs Elliott Mellor (Series 80 Runner-Up) (88 - 110)
Preliminary 3 (04 January 2023): Ahmed Mohamed (Series 84 Grand Champion) vs Edward Byrne (Series 86 Runner-Up) (121 - 76)
Preliminary 4 (05 January 2023): Stu Harkness (Series 84 Semi-Finalist) vs James Haughton (Series 81 Grand Champion) (97 - 111)
Preliminary 5 (06 January 2023): Tom Stevenson (Series 86 Grand Champion) vs Adam Latchford (Series 83 Grand Champion) (95 - 97)
Preliminary 6 (09 January 2023): Martin May (Series 79 Runner-Up) vs Luke-Johnson Davies (Series 82 Grand Champion) (90 - 117)
Preliminary 7 (10 January 2023): Steve Hyde (Series 85 Semi-Finalist) vs Dan Byrom (Series 85 Grand Champion) (70 - 108)
Preliminary 8 (11 January 2023): Matt O'Connor (Series 85 Runner-Up) vs Sam Cappleman-Lynes (Series 82 Runner-Up) (78 - 101)
Quarter-Finals 1 (12 January 2023): Florence Cappleman-Lynes (Preliminary 1 Winner) vs Sam Cappleman-Lynes (Preliminary 8 Winner)
Quarter-Finals 2 (13 January 2023): Elliott Mellor (Preliminary 2 Winner) vs Dan Byrom (Preliminary 7 Winner)
Quarter-Finals 3 (16 January 2023): Ahmed Mohamed (Preliminary 3 Winner) vs Luke Johnson-Davies (Preliminary 6 Winner)
Quarter-Finals 4 (17 January 2023): James Haughton (Preliminary 4 Winner) vs Adam Latchford (Preliminary 5 Winner)
Semi-Finals 1 (18 January 2023): (Quarter-Finals 1 Winner) vs (Quarter-Finals 4 Winner)
Semi-Finals 2 (19 January 2023): (Quarter-Finals 2 Winner) vs (Quarter-Finals 3 Winner)
Championship Final (20 January 2023): (Semi-Finals 1 Winner) vs (Semi-Finals 2 Winner)

[Johnny Canuck]

I didn’t know this, but you can slot a U in VOYAGER to make VOYAGEUR; lesser known as it is a historical term, and comes from Canada.

Bad miss from me - not just a word from my country but from my province

[JackHurst]

Good win for Sam. This game had some really tricky rounds so he did well to control the game like he did. The r9 numbers solve was a great spot under the pressure.

Can't believe we're going to have a husband and wife playing in the QFs of a Countdown C of C!

FORASTERO yet another juicy con.

[JackHurst]

The pressure was completely off for the final numbers game, so it didn't matter so it doesn't really matter, but 925 from the 4 larges and the 1 can be an instasolve if you play enough 4 large and practise the tricks.