¡Buenos tardes Countdown folkos! Being the Monday recapper I don't ever get the pleasures of recapping either semi-finals or a final but I do have that awesome task of opening a brand new series, hurrah! As for last series, well, I thought it was pretty damn good in terms of standard with several strong players and some incredible and memorable moments. For me, these included Adam Gillard becoming the 6th person to join the 900+ club as well as the accolade of achieving a century in each of his 8 preliminary games. The very exciting quarter-final matches between Tom Barnes and Mary Adie and then later Andy McGurn and Ned Pendleton. We also can't forget the historic 119-7 victory of Tom Barnes over Christine Buffrey notorious for that 112 point winning margin and of course congratulations yadda yadda to Edward McCullagh - superb stuff man! So yeah, I enjoyed Series 64 so here we go with series 65 and notably Jeff's last series as he won't make it to 66.
C1: Champion Liam Herringshaw (4 wins, 331 points.)
C2: Challenger David Brown.
DC: Susie Dent and Shobna Gulati.
RR: Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.
R01: R O U G O L R A M
R02: T F E N G O N X E
R03: U M T I G H A C E
R04: T M S O E N P I R
R05: 75, 10, 1, 5, 4, 1. Target: 396.
TTT: DECKBARS - "Have these spiders been out in the sun too long?"
R06: T O E V F W B O R
R07: U G N D E B L O E
R08: C N S T O E O S U
R09: D R A K R I I L A
R10: 100, 50, 1, 4, 8, 2. Target: 312.
TTT: SUEGREEN - "Sue Green is certainly not a woman of her word"
R11: P L E A J M O L T
R12: Y R C I E E I S W
R13: S O R D Q O D I H
R14: 25, 2, 8, 4, 3, 7. Target: 612.
R15: C I T E S H I L L (conundrum)
And now a brief interlude before our main feature:
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Liam Herringshaw starts series 65 as the current champion after winning three comfortable games plus one bum-squeaky game back in May. He is, in case you've forgotten, a palaeontologist (I hope I've spelt that right) which is basically (as he joked in his first show) what Ross Geller is in Friends. I Googled Liam before this game and stumbled upon his blog, aptly named The Daily Liam and billed by himself as "the antidote to the Daily Mail" (cheeky sod!). Interestingly we get quite a bit of insight into his time on Countdown and some other useful information (if you are that way inclined). I have summarised the main points below from his blog in case you don't have time to read it:
- - his first post about Countdown was on the 17th May 3 DAYS BEFORE his show was errr shown.
- he appeared on University Challenge in 2001 which was filmed in the same studios as Countdown.
- he also was part of the Palaeontological Association side in the 2004 University Challenge: The Professionals
- he does know about apterous™ (from Ned and Tom) but has played just one game
- he stole a piece of paper from the 'Kammy Do It?' sketch for Soccer AM
- he blogs about AV (like our forum thread) and also ponders over the new host situation
-and in this game, his opponent saw M as N because he forgot his reading glasses (had the M not been the 9th letter in the selection then Liam would probably not be sat here today!)
Trying to rock Liam from the Champ's Chair is David Brown who is a Scotsman from Ayrshire. He supports Kilmarnock and has a bit of a soft spot for Jose Mourinho who will presumably never go to Scotland to manage. Quite fittingly David Brown does have some pets which include TERRAPINS so that could come in useful today. OR WILL IT? (for Morricock - if they ever read these).
Enjoy the show, guys and gals.
Round 1: R O U G O L R A M
C1: GLAMOUR (7)
C2: MORAL (5)
DC: RUGOLA (6)
OT: UROGRAM (7)
Score: 7–0 (max 7)
In true palaeontological fashion Liam has a rock solid start (sorry, that's twice in thirty seconds now (depending on how fast you reading)). RUGOLA is a much nicer word though of course and seen as I don't know what it is I am going to go by Gillard's philosophy that if you haven't heard of it then it's probably a plant. So RUGOLA is a plant (probably).
Round 2: T F E N G O N X E
C1: OFTEN (5)
C2: tengo
DC: TENON (5) TENGE (5)
OT: GENET (5) NONET (5) TENNE (5) TONNE (5) XENON (5)
Score: 12–0 (max 12)
David comes up with TENGO^ which I believe is a Japanese internment camp specialising in ballroom dancing.* Thanks to David's shaky start, Liam finds himself in a comfortable position after just 2 rounds.
*TANGO+TENKO, christ, keep up already
Round 3: U M T I G H A C E
C1: CHEAT (5)
C2: CAUGHT (6)
DC: EIGHT (5)
OT: GAMETIC (7)
Score: 12–6 (max 19)
But there is life in Mr. Brown as he gets on the board and stops Liam fro mscoring too by beating him with CAUGHT. You could say he CAUGHT him up. *tumbleweed*
I spotted GAMETIC by the way. Just saying.
Round 4: T M S O E N P I R
C1: PROMISE (7)
C2: MOISTEN (7)
DC: PIMENTOS (8) IMPOSTER (8)
OT: NEPOTISM (8) ORPIMENT (8) POINTERS (8) PROTEINS (8) REPOINTS (8) STOMPIER (8)
Score: 19–13 (max 27)
Argh Countdown hell for many people. Moments like this make me vomit seeing only 7's picked from a selection as fruitful as this. Not to worry I get over it quickly enough and prepare for the numbers. Liam is still winning by the way.
Round 5: 75, 10, 1, 5, 4, 1. Target: 396.
C1: 396. (75+4)*5+1 (10)
C2: 395.
Score: 29–13 (max 37)
And he's winning by even more now as David is flummoxed by a numbers game which I would say equates to calcite on the Mohs scale. Piss poor.
Shobna Gulati I'm sure Shobna (or Sunita) was saying something about Coronation Street since I heard the name Ken Barlow but I was pretty much looking at her breasts the whole time to be able to take in what her mouth was saying. I almost missed the TTT but thankfully I de-tranced myself in time.
Teatime teaser: DECKBARS -> REDBACKS
Round 6: T O E V F W B O R
C1: FOOTER (6)
C2: wovet
DC: REBOOT (6)
JS: WOOFTER (7)
Score: 35–13 (max 44)
David decides that because he isn't losing that he will invent some words that sound like words. Except for the fact that this doesn't really sound like a word. Maybe it's some obscure word that he uses with his Scottish pals or something? He seemed quite sure of it. TWOFER was also available here which is a word I am rather fond of (in a non-gay way) wheras Jeff is in a non-non-gay way and spots WOOFTER which I believe is one of the words that Jim Davidson used towards Brian Dowling (BB1 winner) leading him to being booted off Hell's Kitchen. If it wasn't then just pick your own synonymistic word for homosexual and the chances are that Jim Davidson has used it at some point in his life.
Round 7: U G N D E B L O E
C1: BUNGLED (7)
C2: LOUNGED (7)
DC: BLUDGEON (8) BELONGED (8)
OT: ENGLOBED (8)
Score: 42–20 (max 52)
Both champ and challenger manage easy-enough-to-spot-except-for-Christine-Buffrey 7's whilst Susie and Shobna give us an 8 each describing BLUDGEON as what Richard Hillman was known for, particularly that classic bit of TV where he goes to kill Emily Bishop and utters that awesome line "you should have stayed at the party Maxine".
Round 8: C N S T O E O S U
C1: CENSUS (6)
C2: COUNTESS (8)
DC: CONTUSES (8)
Score: 42–28 (max 60)
My mind keeps wandering to TV events but I'm forgetting that this game of Countdown is still very much on after David shows his skillz by plucking out COUNTESS as if from nowhere. Even though a COUNTESS is often posh I think DC piss on his bonfire by coming up with the much posher (in a wordy sense) CONTUSES which is a term for bruising (of the skin).
Round 9: D R A K R I I L A
C1: RADIAL (6)
C2: LAIRD (5)
Score: 48–28 (max 66)
Just as I thought David was going to spark into life Liam comes up with the darren in this round to more or less stamp his authority back on this game and show David "That's Why We're Champions, That's Why We're Champions" something which, as a Kilmarnock fan, David won't get to sing often. Let's stop this singing and move over to Susie...
Susie's Segment: Susie has a theme for us this week and her theme is ANIMALS. Today she highlights words which interestingly enough come from animals, such as ASPIC (a jelly that derives its name from the asp) and that the word QUEUE used to mean a "long tail" such as "hey, look at that horse over there, it has a rather long queue". Time for numbers...
Round 10: 100, 50, 1, 4, 8, 2. Target: 312.
C1: 312. (2+1)*100+8+4 (10)
C2: 312. Mistake in working.
Score: 58–28 (max 76)
Oh dear dear dear. Both gents are nicely sat back in their chair just letting a good 18 seconds of their life tick by and one assumes that they both have it. Whadda you know, David makes a boo boo. Quite a big boo boo and that is just about the game to Liam in my eyes.
Teatime teaser: SUEGREEN -> RENEGUES
It's a good job Jeff pronounced this because I didn't have a scooby. I was thinking it was René-goose or something. Egg on my face.
Round 11: P L E A J M O L T
C1: MALLET (6)
C2: MALLET (6)
DC: PALLET (6)
OT: PELOTA (6)
Score: 64–34 (max 82)
Three sixes in this round and Liam Herringshaw will tell you all about why 6 is more than 3 times better than 2.
Round 12: Y R C I E E I S W
C1: ICIER (5)
C2: SCREW (5)
DC: CERISE (6) SCREWY (6)
OT: EYRIES (6)
Score: 69–39 (max 88)
I was pretty chuffed by getting SCREWY in a horrible looking letters round proven by the fact that Liam and David (can I call you Daffyd?) had 5's. Why oh why did you not add the Y? (I don't know why she swallowed a fly. Perhaps she'll die.)
The score is not-so delicately poised at 69-39 and only a 9 in this next round will leave David with a shot at a comeback. Fat chance of that happening.
Round 13: S O R D Q O D I H
C1: DROIDS (6)
C2: SORDID (6)
DC: ODDISH (6)
Score: 75–45 (max 94)
And with a Q and no U in the round then a 9 was impossible(?)* Liam has sealed victory although quite frankly he never looked like losing this one.
*Is there a 9 letter word that has a Q and no U? I dunno.
Round 14: 25, 2, 8, 4, 3, 7. Target: 612.
C1: 611. 8*3*25+4+7 (7)
C2: -
RR: 612. (8*25+4)*3 (10)
Score: 82–45 (max 104)
There's just time for Rachel to show that she's still got it (her numbers skillz) and for Liam to pull further ahead.
Round 15: C I T E S H I L L
C1 buzzes on 3 seconds to say CHILLIEST which is correct.
Final Score: 92–45 (max 114)
And to top it all off, Liam hammers home the very easy (2/10 difficulty) conundrum to take his score to a very eye-pleasing, mouth-watering, earth-shattering and armpit-sweating 92.
So what do we know that we didn't know (4)5 minutes ago?
- - Liam now has 5 wins and is the first person to win a game in series 65
- Rachel and Jeff continue their "size" banter
- Liam really likes rocks and showed us a Devil's Toenail from the Jurassic period
- Shobna Gulati wears white rimmed spectacles (come-stained)
- TENGO is not a word and nor is WOVET (not even in Scotland)
- The word "dogged" comes from the word "dog" which is an animal of the dog family
- The Daily Mail is better than The Daily Liam (well, more people read it anyway)
See you next week peeps!
Ryan
xx
Further summaries are at:
http://www.apterous.org/cdb/series.php?series=65
