c4countdown

Into the 2nd week we go, still with just 2 people on the leaderboard for this series, so far.........

Aiming for top spot is our very own Graeme Cole, already at half-octochamp level. Can he make it 5 in a row today

In DC this week, is our first debutante of the series, the impressionist, Jon Culshaw. We have already seen his partner in crime, Debra Stephenson, in the last series. And since we had Alistair McGowan recently too, we just need Ronni Ancona for a full house.

Ryan will try and make a good impression with his recap later, I'm sure.

Apterous seems to think FEINTER is fine, who's right?

R5

((7+5)*8*6) + 1 = 577

Innis Carson wrote:Apterous seems to think FEINTER is fine, who's right?

Knew this would come up.

I really don't know. FEINT, as well as being a verb, is also an adjective denoting writing paper with lines on it (you might buy a pad of "feint ruled" paper). It's one syllable, which suggests you should automatically be able to put -ER and -EST on the end. The problem is, I can't think of an example where it makes any sense for FEINT to have a comparative, so your guess is as good as mine whether it should have been allowed.

Graeme Cole wrote:

Innis Carson wrote:Apterous seems to think FEINTER is fine, who's right?

Knew this would come up.

I really don't know. FEINT, as well as being a verb, is also an adjective denoting writing paper with lines on it (you might buy a pad of "feint ruled" paper). It's one syllable, which suggests you should automatically be able to put -ER and -EST on the end. The problem is, I can't think of an example where it makes any sense for FEINT to have a comparative, so your guess is as good as mine whether it should have been allowed.

The lines on this paper are feinter than the lines on that paper? But the lines on this paper are feintest?

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be allowed.

TRIPLE NINE WOOT

Joseph Krol wrote:TRIPLE NINE WOOT

The others were GRANITISE and SERIATING.

Nice one Graeme. Good contest. Glad you got the con and thus won by 19 points too, meaning your opponent's missing GRAINIEST became just a trivial matter rather than a game-changing moment of blindness.

Loved the Jools Holland impression.

Matt Morrison wrote:Nice one Graeme. Good contest. Glad you got the con and thus won by 19 points too, meaning your opponent's missing GRAINIEST became just a trivial matter rather than a game-changing moment of blindness.

Cheers. I nearly didn't spot GRAINIEST myself. I had INGRATES and TASERING, then saw GRAINIEST after about 15-20s. Even then I wasn't sure about it ("something can be grainy, but can you put -IEST on it?"). It seems obvious now, but it took a while to convince myself it was a word.

Great contest there, well played.

Well done Graeme. I'm pleased that the decision to disallow FEINTER (whether correct or incorrect) didn't make a difference to the outcome. PHEEEEEWWWWWIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE.

Graeme Cool.

cant remember which round it was but the max was six and i got a six they had not mentioned - GROUSE.

FEINTER was also disallowed when Jonathan Coles offered it against Jon Corby in the last CoC, but like Jono I'm not sure why lines shouldn't be FEINTER than other lines either...

Well done Graeme, good run.

I think it must be difficult to concentrate game after game, because Graeme missed a couple of easy spots, but he pulled it around big time. Shame about Graham. He'd have beaten most other competitors.

Richard Priest wrote:FEINTER was also disallowed when Jonathan Coles offered it against Jon Corby in the last CoC, but like Jono I'm not sure why lines shouldn't be FEINTER than other lines either...

Well done Graeme, good run.

Thanks. I think the word FEINT refers to the paper itself, the fact that it's got lines on it, not to the lines.

Quite a strange game this - FEINTER being disallowed while apterous allows it, similarly GRUELS being allowed while apterous disallows it.

DC also mentioning REGULO when the S could have been added.

Graeme - who were you keeping your fingers crossed to during the GRAINIEST round? Fabulous comeback and a great conundrum solve - is it me or are Graeme's conundrums decidedly trickier than the average conundrums? First 2 conundrums which his opponents got were rated 5 and 8 (GALLANTRY and MATRIMONY), then came Graeme's first conundrum spot with SPECTATED (rated 7), followed by the nasty REALISTIC (rated 9)... and today's equally tough CARBONARA (rated 8). Thankfully Graeme found it to keep the run going - very well played sir.

If FEINT is a one-syllable adjective then unless the dictionary specifically says something to the effect that you can't have the comparative, then FEINTER should be allowed. It doesn't matter if it seems to make little sense. That's the rules (I always thought), and vaguenesses like this make the game worse. We shouldn't start "philosophising" about words when there's no need to. Anyone remember the RIGHTEST incident?

Marcus Hares wrote:Graeme - who were you keeping your fingers crossed to during the GRAINIEST round?

Goodness knows. I didn't bring anyone with me. The monitor at the far corner of the studio, I think.

Joyce Phillips wrote:I think it must be difficult to concentrate game after game, because Graeme missed a couple of easy spots, but he pulled it around big time. Shame about Graham. He'd have beaten most other competitors.

Yes, it does get tiring - this one was in the morning after not much sleep, and the previous day's filming finished in late evening. In round 3 I thought about MEMENTO but for some reason decided the letters weren't all there. And the second numbers game is one I should have seen. That's not to take anything away from Graham though, he was a decent player who didn't miss much. At the beginning of part three I thought I'd had it.

Philip Jarvis wrote:Loved the Jools Holland impression.

Jon Culshaw got me to do another one along similar lines a few minutes later. Then when we did the retakes they had me do it again. What you saw there was the first, and probably least enthusastic, of the three.

Gavin Chipper wrote:If FEINT is a one-syllable adjective then unless the dictionary specifically says something to the effect that you can't have the comparative, then FEINTER should be allowed. It doesn't matter if it seems to make little sense. That's the rules (I always thought), and vaguenesses like this make the game worse. We shouldn't start "philosophising" about words when there's no need to. Anyone remember the RIGHTEST incident?

Does the (N)ODE say when the comparative doesn't exist? Purely as an example, I looked up the definition of GILT, and I couldn't see anything to indicate that you can't have GILTER or GILTEST.

My take on FEINT (adjective) is that it's a deliberate misspelling of FAINT, done to add a bit of mystique to a commercial product, and that it still doesn't have any meaning outside that narrow context. If you had two packs of feint paper and you wanted to compare the visibility of the lines, I think you would say that the lines on one are fainter than on the other.

Feint as an adjective is given in my (now out-of-date) ODE as an alternative to faint, so if the comparative fainter is allowed, feinter should be too. But is fainter allowed? I haven't the feintest! Faintest is!

Graeme Cole wrote:Yes, it does get tiring - this one was in the morning after not much sleep, and the previous day's filming finished in late evening.

I know the feeling! (Don't mention 252...)

252

Tony Atkins wrote:

Graeme Cole wrote:Yes, it does get tiring - this one was in the morning after not much sleep, and the previous day's filming finished in late evening.

I know the feeling! (Don't mention 252...)

Was you on the show Tony?