c4countdown

Countdown recap for Friday 4 September 1998.

Thanks mainly to the incredible long-running work of Mike Brown, I bring to you the first debut (if you see what I mean) of a certain Junaid Mubeen, being on this occasion 13 years old -- "soon 14" he says. This episode is from Series 39, breaking our usual chronological order, but I thought it was enough of a curio to justify that.

C1: Champion Mike Jones (2 wins, 102 points.)
C2: Challenger Junaid Mubeen.
DC: Alison Heard and Barry Cryer.
CV: Carol Vorderman.
OT: Other words or solutions.

R01: D I Y I P L A O N
R02: E U V L I D S L D
R03: X A E R T O G T P
R04: 25, 100, 50, 10, 5, 1. Target: 997.
R05: C N E I A R N J T
R06: P E R G O A D W H
R07: F U E F R E S Y M
R08: 2, 9, 6, 5, 7, 6. Target: 409.
R09: N E C K B I N G O (conundrum)


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Round 1: D I Y I P L A O N

C1: PLAID (5)
C2: PLAIN (5)
DC: INLAID (6)
OT: DOLINA (6) LADINO (6) DOPILY (6) PLOIDY (6)
Score: 5–5 (max 6)

Round 2: E U V L I D S L D

C1: SULLIED (7)
C2: SLIDE (5)
DC: SULLIED (7)
OT: ILLUDED (7) ILLUDES (7)
Score: 12–5 (max 13)

Round 3: X A E R T O G T P

C1: EXPORT (6)
C2: POTTER (6)
DC: GAROTTE (7)
OT: PORTAGE (7) POTAGER (7) POTTAGE (7)
Score: 18–11 (max 20)

Round 4: 25, 100, 50, 10, 5, 1. Target: 997.

C1: 997. 100x10-50/25-1 (10)
C2: 997. 100x10-(5-50/25) (10)
Score: 28–21 (max 30)

So the end of the first half and, while neither player has produced anything spectacular, the young challenger finds himself in a decent position.

Round 5: C N E I A R N J T

C1: CERTAIN (7)
C2: CANNIER (7)
DC: ANCIENT (7)
OT: ENTRAIN (7)
Score: 35–28 (max 37)

Round 6: P E R G O A D W H

C1: pagoda
C2: WARPED (6)
DC: DOWAGER (7)
OT: WORDAGE (7) GRAPHED (7)
Score: 35–34 (max 44)

Round 7: F U E F R E S Y M

C1: SUFFER (6)
C2: SUFFER (6)
DC: REFUSE (6)
OT: EFFUSE (6) FEMURS (6) RESUME (6)
Score: 41–40 (max 50)

Round 8: 2, 9, 6, 5, 7, 6. Target: 409.

C1: 409. Mistake in working.
C2: 409. Mistake in working.
CV: 409. (7x6+6-2)x9-5 (10)
Score: 41–40 (max 60)

A difficult target, although the simpler solution (9x7+6)x6 - 5 was available. However we head for a crucial conundrum, which is...

Round 9: N E C K B I N G O

Mike buzzes on 1.75 seconds to say BECKONING... which is correct! The challenger has been seen off, but only just.
Score: 51–40 (max 70)

I think here we see the scar that led to Junaid's excellent conundrum ability in his second attempt! Also of some note is the perfect game of the experts, although in fairness only the second numbers game really impressed.


Further summaries are at:
http://www.apterous.org/cdb/series.php?series=39

Interesting stuff, thanks for this Charlie and Mike - although I think a lot of those OT words wouldn't have been in COD; it may be a good idea not to use the automatic find-longest-word function when writing really old recaps

Julian Fell wrote:Interesting stuff, thanks for this Charlie and Mike - although I think a lot of those OT words wouldn't have been in COD; it may be a good idea not to use the automatic find-longest-word function when writing really old recaps

I think the practice is to use the automated function and then email the recap to someone with the correct dictionary for double-checking: you should have known that a smart lad, like Charlie, would have already thought of this problem! He probably hasn't checked them here just to get the recap out.

I don't know of anyone with the correct dictionary for this series, so I figured it was easier to leave everything in and delete the dubious ones later.

TACRINE and TRANNIE aren't listed in COD9. All the other OT words are fine. I'm happy to check similar things in the future; I can't guarantee timeliness, though!

Mike Brown wrote:TACRINE and TRANNIE aren't listed in COD9. All the other OT words are fine. I'm happy to check similar things in the future; I can't guarantee timeliness, though!

Cheers Mike, corrections made.

Interesting... just been looking at Mike's site - guess what happened in Mike Jones' very next game after he beat Junaid? His opponent, Sylvia Pitman, famously scored 0, one of only two occasions in Countdown's 26-year history that that's happened. I wonder if Junaid was still in the studio to witness that? Must ask him if we see him at COLin...

Charlie Reams wrote:I don't know of anyone with the correct dictionary for this series, so I figured it was easier to leave everything in and delete the dubious ones later.

Of course there might also be words in the old dictionary but not in the new one that would win the round but get overlooked.

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Charlie Reams wrote:I don't know of anyone with the correct dictionary for this series, so I figured it was easier to leave everything in and delete the dubious ones later.

Of course there might also be words in the old dictionary but not in the new one that would win the round but get overlooked.

I'd venture that there definitely are winning words in the old dictionary that are not allowed now. Plurals of mass nouns are abundant, plus plurals of words like FIGURA which springs to mind for some odd reason.

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Charlie Reams wrote:I don't know of anyone with the correct dictionary for this series, so I figured it was easier to leave everything in and delete the dubious ones later.

Of course there might also be words in the old dictionary but not in the new one that would win the round but get overlooked.

First time I have viewed the historical recap page.
1998 was about when I started to watch Countdown on a regular basis.I seem to remember in those day that American spellings were allowed.When was that practice stopped?

jeff wharton wrote:1998 was about when I started to watch Countdown on a regular basis.I seem to remember in those day that American spellings were allowed.When was that practice stopped?

It was at the beginning of Series 48, aka 1st July 2002.

Mike Brown wrote:

jeff wharton wrote:1998 was about when I started to watch Countdown on a regular basis.I seem to remember in those day that American spellings were allowed.When was that practice stopped?

It was at the beginning of Series 48, aka 1st July 2002.

Thanks for the info Mike.
I must admit I was pleased that they decided to ban the American spellings,