c4countdown

Heather Styles just became an octochamp yesterday, so we have two new contestants today; although one of them won't be new to us. Just when you thought there couldn't be more of them this series, we have another apterite today. David Barnard is taking his shot at the chair today, hoping to follow Heather's lead and become an octochamp in his own right. Can he get his first win?

Join James for the recap later.

Must have been great to start with a 9! Well done David.

Equallers TOWAI in R7, MASTICS in R8 and IMPOSTS in R12.

Congratulations on your win David. I bet your nerves were eased with a dream start of a 9.

I had my hand up again for the conundrum at the end but the floor manager quite rightly wouldn't let me go for it 2 days running. It was funny to hear someone else in the audience offer WISDOMTOOTH before Chris Marshall gave the answer WITHSTOOD.

I wasn't around for your future games, so good luck.

Well played David - against a strong opponent, too - UNITEDLY was a cracking spot.

Good first game David. Interestingly both of our first games were against campanologists! In fact I played two! Anthea and Joyce. That's where the similarity ends though as your first word was a 9 and mine was an invalid 7!
Alternative 7 in r8 is MISCAST and I was wondering about DAUNTILY in r4 but probably wouldn't have risked it.
2nd numbers alt is (75 - 5) x (7 +3) which (like Susan's) was easier than David's imaginative method!

Nice solid start, David. A word of advice (although I know you've already recorded!)....don't say "I'll play it safe...1 large" because if you fail to score points it looks rather silly!

Grant Waters wrote:I was wondering about DAUNTILY in r4 but probably wouldn't have risked it.

And with good reason, UNITEDLY was the only 8 there.

Very good début, David. Very unlucky with MOPPIEST, I remember Craig Chittenden trying it in Series 62, and it not working for him either.

But, still a very good performance, and let's hope for another 7, for a (possible) 7th octochamp!!!

Great debut, David. Must have been a great feeling to start with a nine and it's just as well you got it, as your opponent was pretty decent too. Looking forward to seeing your progress, hopefully for another seven games and into the finals.

Wow, odd. Since Series 63 all the even numbered serieses have had people with as little as 4 wins get to the finals, whereas the odd numbered ones needed 7 to get through. Maybe, if David and 1 other person become octochamps, Grant won't even get through...