CoLei5 - Saturday 14 April 2012
Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 10:35 am
As you might've seen and heard, there was a Countdown in Leicester yesterday, just a week after the very successful CO:REA down south.
20 competitors from far and wide participated, including 5 people (including myself) who went to Reading the week before.
As with all of Jeff Clayton's tournaments, the first 3 rounds were randomly-drawn 15-rounders.
My first 3 were against Mike Brown, Barry Evans, and Jon Wilford, a friend of Series 63 contestant Steven Turvey, who returned after competing last year.
After being behind for a good part against Mike, the tables were turned after I solved a 6 small, then got the niner PLACENTAE.
The second game against Barry was even tougher, mainly thanks to the fact that the letters seem to be rejumbled after every round, hence the high amount of X's, H's & J's. I won by the narrow margin of 6 points, thanks mainly to Barry having a quicker reflex action. But, there was controversy to come.......... Earlier in the game, Barry had SALINES disallowed, so at the end, we did a through dictionary check, but with it being declared as a mass noun in the ODE3, Jeff put his foot down and ruled that the result should stand, mainly due to the fact that it wasn't a compound or something like that. (I'm sure someone can make it clear.)
My 3rd game with Jon was less controversial, and I won by 48 points. So, after the 15-rounders, I was top of the standings. The only others to win 3 out of 3 were Jack Worsley & Matt Bayfield. The rest of the top 8 was made up of Richard Priest, Mike Brown, Stewart Gordon, Shrinidhi Prakash and Karen Pearson.
So, in the quarters, I had Karen, and immediately the game seemed to be put to bed when I got the niner TOLERATED, meaning that Karen had to try some desperate measures to try and get back in, but they didn't work, and I won with a nice score of 75.
In the semis, it was the umpteenth rematch with Matt Bayfield, and thanks to my early spot of URODELES, Matt was playing catch-up all the way through, but the gap never extended or contracted, so it went to a crucial, and luckily I solved BENDUSTWO in a second, to set up another CO-event final with Rich Priest.
The final, as you would expect was high tempo, and with Andy Platt using the solver to see how we were going, we were amazed to find that we maxed all 8 letters rounds, but unfortunately for Rich he only got 1 of the 4 numbers games........... So, after I got the first conundrum too, the final conundrum was for that very rare chance to get a MAX GAME in a CO-event final. But, I was nowhere near solving ATOMCHICA, but Rich had the last laugh, solving it with 4 seconds to go, so the match 103-73 in my favour.
It was another fantastic event, and I'm so over the moon to win my 3rd CO-event out of the last 4 events.
Luckily for all you guys, since the next event is COHUD, someone else will get their day in the sun soon.
20 competitors from far and wide participated, including 5 people (including myself) who went to Reading the week before.
As with all of Jeff Clayton's tournaments, the first 3 rounds were randomly-drawn 15-rounders.
My first 3 were against Mike Brown, Barry Evans, and Jon Wilford, a friend of Series 63 contestant Steven Turvey, who returned after competing last year.
After being behind for a good part against Mike, the tables were turned after I solved a 6 small, then got the niner PLACENTAE.
The second game against Barry was even tougher, mainly thanks to the fact that the letters seem to be rejumbled after every round, hence the high amount of X's, H's & J's. I won by the narrow margin of 6 points, thanks mainly to Barry having a quicker reflex action. But, there was controversy to come.......... Earlier in the game, Barry had SALINES disallowed, so at the end, we did a through dictionary check, but with it being declared as a mass noun in the ODE3, Jeff put his foot down and ruled that the result should stand, mainly due to the fact that it wasn't a compound or something like that. (I'm sure someone can make it clear.)
My 3rd game with Jon was less controversial, and I won by 48 points. So, after the 15-rounders, I was top of the standings. The only others to win 3 out of 3 were Jack Worsley & Matt Bayfield. The rest of the top 8 was made up of Richard Priest, Mike Brown, Stewart Gordon, Shrinidhi Prakash and Karen Pearson.
So, in the quarters, I had Karen, and immediately the game seemed to be put to bed when I got the niner TOLERATED, meaning that Karen had to try some desperate measures to try and get back in, but they didn't work, and I won with a nice score of 75.
In the semis, it was the umpteenth rematch with Matt Bayfield, and thanks to my early spot of URODELES, Matt was playing catch-up all the way through, but the gap never extended or contracted, so it went to a crucial, and luckily I solved BENDUSTWO in a second, to set up another CO-event final with Rich Priest.
The final, as you would expect was high tempo, and with Andy Platt using the solver to see how we were going, we were amazed to find that we maxed all 8 letters rounds, but unfortunately for Rich he only got 1 of the 4 numbers games........... So, after I got the first conundrum too, the final conundrum was for that very rare chance to get a MAX GAME in a CO-event final. But, I was nowhere near solving ATOMCHICA, but Rich had the last laugh, solving it with 4 seconds to go, so the match 103-73 in my favour.
It was another fantastic event, and I'm so over the moon to win my 3rd CO-event out of the last 4 events.
Luckily for all you guys, since the next event is COHUD, someone else will get their day in the sun soon.
