c4countdown

http://www.wscgames.com/2011/index.html

This kicks off on Wednesday and lasts until the best-of-something final on Sunday. Plenty of interest for Countdown fans- Mark Nyman, Craig Beevers and apterites Mikki Nicholson & Calum Edwards will be amongst those representing England, Countdown legends Stewart Holden and Paul Gallen make up team Northern Ireland with another series champion, Gareth Williams, representing Wales. 'Letters and Numbers' finalists Naween Fernando and Countdown Masters champion Andrew Fisher are part of Team Australia.

Should be an exciting week.

Ben Wilson wrote:http://www.wscgames.com/2011/index.html

This kicks off on Wednesday and lasts until the best-of-something final on Sunday. Plenty of interest for Countdown fans- Mark Nyman, Craig Beevers and apterites Mikki Nicholson & Calum Edwards will be amongst those representing England, Countdown legends Stewart Holden and Paul Gallen make up team Northern Ireland with another series champion, Gareth Williams, representing Wales. 'Letters and Numbers' finalists Naween Fernando and Countdown Masters champion Andrew Fisher are part of Team Australia.

Should be an exciting week.

Excellent, hadn't realised it was that time again. How come Stewart's representing Northern Ireland now? I realise he lives there at the moment but thought he'd still be English for the WSC. Can anyone just move anywhere and represent their country (assuming that country has a place)? There must be loads of UK/US etc. players that wouldn't make their respective teams but would easily be good enough to take the Belgian place, or Polish (or any other "weaker" country).

JimBentley wrote:

Ben Wilson wrote:http://www.wscgames.com/2011/index.html

This kicks off on Wednesday and lasts until the best-of-something final on Sunday. Plenty of interest for Countdown fans- Mark Nyman, Craig Beevers and apterites Mikki Nicholson & Calum Edwards will be amongst those representing England, Countdown legends Stewart Holden and Paul Gallen make up team Northern Ireland with another series champion, Gareth Williams, representing Wales. 'Letters and Numbers' finalists Naween Fernando and Countdown Masters champion Andrew Fisher are part of Team Australia.

Should be an exciting week.

Excellent, hadn't realised it was that time again. How come Stewart's representing Northern Ireland now? I realise he lives there at the moment but thought he'd still be English for the WSC. Can anyone just move anywhere and represent their country (assuming that country has a place)? There must be loads of UK/US etc. players that wouldn't make their respective teams but would easily be good enough to take the Belgian place, or Polish (or any other "weaker" country).

Sort of- that country has to have a national association recognised by mattel and/or Wespa (can't remember the specifics) and they have to have a defined selection process. If a country does well enough at the wsc, they gain a place, conversely if they do poorly, they lose a place (but can never lose all their places). Representation is defined by residence- the best example of this would be Nick Ball, who plays for Canada this year but has represented the US and England in the past.

So you could be the best player in the world but be in a country that doen't have a "proper" scrabble association and you wouldn't get in? I'm Sealand-based myself.

This brings me back to the athletics discussion - why are people so obsessed with the idea that people have to "represent their country" in individual competitions?

Gavin Chipper wrote: This brings me back to the athletics discussion - why are people so obsessed with the idea that people have to "represent their country" in individual competitions?

It makes some broad sense in this case I think. You need to have some way to decide who gets in and there isn't enough international Scrabble played to operate a meaningful world rankings system, so they group people by country and give places proportionate to how well that country has done in the past. Obviously the use of national boundaries as opposed to any other boundary is a bit arbitrary but that tends to be the granularity of the assocations. I'm sure if there were, say, a Benelux Scrabble Association then they'd be allowed to compete as a "country". I can't think of a better alternative system, anyway.

At the end of day 2 England's Brett Smitheram and Mikki Nicholson are occupying the top 2 places with Craig not far behind them. Finally a team we can have some national pride in.

at lunch on day 3 Craig is in in third after 29 games (w20 l9) 5 games to go until the top two are decided for the best of five final tomorrow

Craig was leading after 26 rounds and then lost 6 of the next 8.

Nice to see lots of countdowners of a fairly recent vintage - Craig, Paul G, Stewart + Mark Nyman all doing well. Well played chaps.

http://50.63.8.131/2011/standing/1/34.html

Well done to Nigel Richards too who I believe is the only person to win this tournament twice. Don't follow scrabble that closely but this guy seems to be miles ahead of everyone else.

On HIGNFY last night there was a piece about a man who demanded a search after a "G" went missing. It's the only place you might find WMD in a rack these days.

Paul Howe wrote:Well done to Nigel Richards too who I believe is the only person to win this tournament twice. Don't follow scrabble that closely but this guy seems to be miles ahead of everyone else.

Yea pretty much. There used to be a problem with him not being in a position to qualify due to being a New Zealander living in Malaysia, so that probably played a role in him taking til now to win his 2nd World Championship. Him having virtually absolute certainty over words and so also being able to study more words is such a big advantage.

Rhys Benjamin wrote:On HIGNFY last night there was a piece about a man who demanded a search after a "G" went missing. It's the only place you might find WMD in a rack these days.

Yeah there was an article in the Metro about someone demanding his opponent to be searched because he suspected him of hiding a G.

Craig Beevers wrote:Him having virtually absolute certainty over words and so also being able to study more words is such a big advantage.

What do you mean by this? Absolute certainty?

Jon O'Neill wrote:

Craig Beevers wrote:Him having virtually absolute certainty over words and so also being able to study more words is such a big advantage.

What do you mean by this? Absolute certainty?

Yep - bizarre comment in need of explanation.

In related news, the British National Scrabble Championship is going on right now and has gone to the deciding game. Countdown legend Wayne Kelly is taking on never-appeared-on-the-show Gary Oliver. Watch the final game here- http://www.centrestar.co.uk/games//ukns ... 5/000.html

Ben Wilson wrote:In related news, the British National Scrabble Championship is going on right now and has gone to the deciding game. Countdown legend Wayne Kelly is taking on never-appeared-on-the-show Gary Oliver. Watch the final game here- http://www.centrestar.co.uk/games//ukns ... 5/000.html

Nice to see he won it too:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-15616889