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)