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Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 6:42 pm
by JackHurst
1)Most maxes/ most points scored by a non series finalist?
2)Least maxes/ least points score by a series finalist. (Not including finals games)?
3) did the answer to 1) do better than any series champs did in their heats?
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 7:40 pm
by Gavin Chipper
JackHurst wrote:1)Most maxes/ most points scored by a non series finalist?
2)Least maxes/ least points score by a series finalist. (Not including finals games)?
3) did the answer to 1) do better than any series champs did in their heats?
Not an exact answer to your question 3, but
David Franks failed to make the quarter finals of series 47 but would have been the number 1 seed for series 46 based on his first six games. But there must be lots of people who did better in their heats than series champions but failed to make the knockout stages themselves.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2015 11:02 pm
by Ciaran McCarthy
Gus Aaron who played against Kevin Steeds, Nick mentioned Gus was on show for 10 years ago.
I just wondering does Gus became first person in history who fail to win the game for his debut twice? Because he lost again in 10 years ago and he lost again yesterday.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 1:28 am
by Johnny Canuck
Have multiple copies of a rare/unique letter ever come up in the same round? I vaguely recall a recap from Series 5/6/7 (don't remember which) featuring a round that had two Xs in it.
SUPER CANDY FIGHT CLUB
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:18 pm
by George Pryn
Who is the octochamp that declared the fewest Es (excluding conundrums)
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 2:56 pm
by James Laverty
***INCLUDES SPOILERS***
Are today's and Friday 20th's shows the first to have back-to-back tiebreak conundrums?
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 7:10 pm
by James Robinson
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 11:14 pm
by Graeme Cole
Gavin Chipper wrote:Thanks Graeme. Nice work as always. Also, sorry to be a pain, but would it be possible to do that including just winning games as well, so not including their final, losing game?
15 rounds:
1 win: Andrew Greenway (47)
2 wins: Rob Jennings (110)
3 wins: Ken Jenkins (202)
4 wins: Ben Nicholson (285)
5 wins: Brian Roles (371)
6 wins: Nicki Sellars (483)
7 wins: Peter Zyss (548)
9 rounds:
1 win: Alan Woollard and Kevin Fry (27)
2 wins: Sheila Alder (71)
3 wins: Adam Gilinsky (112)
4 wins: Phillip Alder (167)
5 wins: Alan Johnson and Maureen Harmer (216)
6 wins: Phil Bennett (280)
7 wins: Joan Orchard (298)
Maxes in 15 rounds:
1 win: June Madell, Rose Benson, David Preedy, Bev Jones and Jeremy Miles (1)
2 wins: Dave Walters (3)
3 wins: Ken Jenkins and Adam Flinn (9)
4 wins: Margaret Lawless (13)
5 wins: Brian Roles and Neil MacKenzie (23)
6 wins: Graham Hill (30)
7 wins: David Stanford (31)
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 11:16 pm
by Graeme Cole
Adam Gillard wrote:Don't know if there's enough data on this, but...
What's the highest number of maxes achieved by DC in a 9-round / 15-round game, and how many times have they achieved it?
There isn't really enough data on this, as DC might not offer a darrenic max they spotted if a contestant declared it, and the database I use doesn't have DC offerings in it.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 11:17 pm
by Gavin Chipper
Excellent work. Thank you.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 11:44 pm
by Graeme Cole
JackHurst wrote:1)Most maxes/ most points scored by a non series finalist?
2)Least maxes/ least points score by a series finalist. (Not including finals games)?
3) did the answer to 1) do better than any series champs did in their heats?
1. Zarte Siempre (61 maxes) and David Franks (744, as Gevin pointed out)
2. Mark Murray scored
0 maxes in his first run then became series champion 15 years later, but I doubt this is what you meant. Peter Fenton qualified for the series 68 finals after scoring a total of 16 maxes in three heats.
3. In only six games, Zarte scored 61 maxes, which was greater than the 60 maxes achieved by Richard Brittain and the 53 achieved by Nick Wainwright in their octoruns. David Franks' 744 points beats Nick Wainwright's 726.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 11:51 pm
by Paul Erdunast
I don't know if this is the right topic given it's not about countdown history but about words, but:
Do you have the ability to answer what the flattest possible rounds with maxes of: 8, 7, 6, 5, and 4 - where flat is defined as most alternate words as the max? Would be v interesting!
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 11:59 pm
by Graeme Cole
Ciaran McCarthy wrote:Gus Aaron who played against Kevin Steeds, Nick mentioned Gus was on show for 10 years ago.
I just wondering does Gus became first person in history who fail to win the game for his debut twice? Because he lost again in 10 years ago and he lost again yesterday.
No, plenty of players have lost their first game in more than one run. I make it 31 players up to the end of series 71. Names, episode numbers and dates are listed here in order of second appearance:
Code: Select all
FIRST APPEARANCE SECOND APPEARANCE
Margaret Reid 46 1983-05-06 313 1985-11-15
Barbara Wylde 1284 1992-07-28 1369 1993-03-02
Martin Howell 1436 1993-09-02 1547 1994-08-05
Paul Henderson 1466 1994-01-13 1573 1994-09-12
Alex Davis 2222 1998-03-20 2341 1998-09-03
James Squires 1281 1992-07-23 2531 1999-05-27
John Britton 3551 2003-09-23 3692 2004-04-28
Ola Odutola 2603 1999-09-20 3901 2005-04-06
Margaret Read 2284 1998-06-16 4398 2007-07-16 (not to be confused with Margaret Reid above)
Terry Rattle 3171 2002-01-21 4428 2007-08-31
Garry Preston 883 1989-07-31 4712 2008-11-14
Karyn Cooke 4515 2008-01-10 4800 2009-04-21
Mike Moran 2319 1998-08-04 4852 2009-07-02
Chris Bergman 1034 1990-08-14 4854 2009-07-06
Ross Mackenzie 2381 1998-10-29 4877 2009-09-03
Phill Thorne 4973 2010-02-05 5124 2010-10-04
Andrew Mossford 5091 2010-08-11 5201 2011-02-09
James Hall 5224 2011-03-21 5283 2011-06-10
Ian Williams 3102 2001-10-16 5597 2012-11-27
Brenda Widger 458 1986-10-30 5741 2013-07-26
Raymond Tate 1959 1997-03-11 5763 2013-09-05
John Blaker 2631 1999-10-28 5781 2013-10-01
Eric Emslie 1203 1992-01-06 5787 2013-10-09
Glyn Linder 951 1990-01-18 5913 2014-04-28
Harold Blythe 2236 1998-04-09 5926 2014-05-23
Simon Gillam 1232 1992-02-14 5927 2014-05-26
Brian Boonham 2233 1998-04-06 5931 2014-05-30
David Morgans 3809 2004-11-04 5994 2014-09-18
Samantha Cooper 3626 2004-01-20 6011 2014-10-14
Ita Moynihan 2958 2001-02-28 6019 2014-10-27
Josephine Keane 2917 2001-01-02 6032 2014-11-13
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 12:10 am
by Graeme Cole
Johnny Canuck wrote:Have multiple copies of a rare/unique letter ever come up in the same round? I vaguely recall a recap from Series 5/6/7 (don't remember which) featuring a round that had two Xs in it.
Nowadays there are only one each of the "difficult" letters in the pack, so double occurrences of these letters in the same game are unheard of, let alone two in the same round. So initially I was sceptical that this would ever have happened. However, there it is, two Xs in
round 5 of this game from 1984.
Two Qs have never appeared in the same round. Two Js appeared in
round 2 of this game. Rounds with two Zs have happened twice:
round 1 of this game and
round 2 of this game.
Re: SUPER CANDY FIGHT CLUB
Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 12:19 am
by Graeme Cole
George Pryn wrote:Who is the octochamp that declared the fewest Es (excluding conundrums)
Counting only 15 round games, Jonathan Liew with 66.
You're joint eighth with 72.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 11:14 pm
by Gavin Chipper
Assuming this hasn't already been asked, who was the "best" number one seed, number two etc. with "best" meaning most wins followed by highest total score. Also can this extend beyond the top eight, so we can see people who missed out. Like "Wow, this guy was only the 12th seed in this series but would have been number 2 in that one!" Maybe down to 16? Also, worst seeds.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 3:25 am
by Jordan F
Because something of a similar nature was mentioned in a spoiler thread, in the 15 round era, how many people have been ahead by 10 or more, picked 1 or 2 large in the final numbers game, and lost? Or is it just something that happens all the time?
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 12:28 pm
by Zarte Siempre
Graeme Cole wrote:Nowadays there are only one each of the "difficult" letters in the pack, so double occurrences of these letters in the same game are unheard of, let alone two in the same round. So initially I was sceptical that this would ever have happened. However, there it is, two Xs in
round 5 of this game from 1984.
Anyone else noticed the issue with some of Carol's maths in that game...?
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 12:53 pm
by Gavin Chipper
Zarte Siempre wrote:Graeme Cole wrote:Nowadays there are only one each of the "difficult" letters in the pack, so double occurrences of these letters in the same game are unheard of, let alone two in the same round. So initially I was sceptical that this would ever have happened. However, there it is, two Xs in
round 5 of this game from 1984.
Anyone else noticed the issue with some of Carol's maths in that game...?
Fixed!
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2015 10:01 pm
by Rhys Benjamin
How many wins and points do you need in the 15 round era to qualify for the finals?
(Yes, I could probably work this out for myself, but I'm a lazy bastard.)
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2015 3:45 am
by Johnny Canuck
I recently discovered via CDB that Helen Grayson, from Series 6, achieved 437/484 = 90.3% of the points available to her in her heat games, which I found astounding. (For comparison, Harvey Freeman only had 84.8%.) Is this the highest percentage achieved by anyone, over the course of their entire heat run, in the 9-round era?
Helen Grayson really should join Apterous.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2015 4:07 pm
by Fred Mumford
Johnny Canuck wrote:Helen Grayson really should join Apterous.
Her death was reported on this forum quite recently.
I personally consider her and Harvey Freeman to be the 2 best players of the 9 round era.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2015 9:24 pm
by Johnny Canuck
Fred Mumford wrote:Johnny Canuck wrote:Helen Grayson really should join Apterous.
Her death was reported on this forum quite recently.
I personally consider her and Harvey Freeman to be the 2 best players of the 9 round era.
Oh, so sorry -- I forgot entirely! I definitely agree that she was a record-setter.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Tue May 12, 2015 12:19 pm
by Edward Byrne
In what games both 9 round and 15 round did a contestant get 0 maxes
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 10:44 am
by John Vivian
Hi Graeme. I was wondering if you'd be able to find out which contestants on the show would have earned the most pencils? (i.e. words which are a max in letters rounds which had never been declared before on the show)
I realise it wouldn't be meaningful to look at this for the early years of the show as the majority of letter maxes would have been pencils... but would you be able to find it out from say, the start of the 15 round era? Or maybe the new 15 round era if there were still loads of pencils being earned by 2001?
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Sat May 30, 2015 2:09 pm
by Matty Artell
Sorry if this has been asked before, I had a look through and couldn't find it - what is the percentage of numbers game solved for each numbers pick amongst all contestants?
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 11:54 pm
by Graeme Cole
Gavin Chipper wrote:Assuming this hasn't already been asked, who was the "best" number one seed, number two etc. with "best" meaning most wins followed by highest total score. Also can this extend beyond the top eight, so we can see people who missed out. Like "Wow, this guy was only the 12th seed in this series but would have been number 2 in that one!" Maybe down to 16? Also, worst seeds.
I'm going to skip this one for now, but at some point I'll make something to work out everyone's wins and points totals and put them online somewhere.
Jordan F wrote:Because something of a similar nature was mentioned in a spoiler thread, in the 15 round era, how many people have been ahead by 10 or more, picked 1 or 2 large in the final numbers game, and lost? Or is it just something that happens all the time?
28 up to the end of series 71, of which 21 were 1 large. If you change the question to say "ahead by more than 10", which I think was what was being discussed in the other thread, it's 22, of which 6 were 2 large.
Rhys Benjamin wrote:How many wins and points do you need in the 15 round era to qualify for the finals?
Depends how everyone else does. In
series 68 the #8 seed had only two wins, but this was a shorter series than normal. In
series 47, all eight quarter-finalists were octochamps. The database doesn't actually store seed positions (that's why Gevin's question is hard), they're only stored on the wiki. Looking at the last ten series or so, if you get, say, 6 wins, then you're reasonably likely to qualify, although it's not unusual for the bar to be higher.
Edward Byrne wrote:In what games both 9 round and 15 round did a contestant get 0 maxes
Too many to list, but it happened 203 times in the 9 round era (take this with a pinch of salt, the maxes are calculated with the wrong dictionary) and 22 times in 15-round games.
John Vivian wrote:Hi Graeme. I was wondering if you'd be able to find out which contestants on the show would have earned the most pencils? (i.e. words which are a max in letters rounds which had never been declared before on the show)
I realise it wouldn't be meaningful to look at this for the early years of the show as the majority of letter maxes would have been pencils... but would you be able to find it out from say, the start of the 15 round era? Or maybe the new 15 round era if there were still loads of pencils being earned by 2001?
Something vaguely related to this has been discussed before, but
not in this thread. Jon O'Neill did a bit of analysis on this too. A pencil on apterous is a word offered as a max that has not previously been offered
as a max, and that's the definition I'm using. Kirk Bevins and Conor Travers share the record for the most pencils, having 73 each. Julian Fell is next with 67, then Harvey Freeman, Chris Davies and Jonathan Rawlinson on 57. Allan Saldanha got 55, Mark Tournoff and Jack Hurst 54, and David O'Donnell got 51. Dodgy maxes disclaimer applies for matches before about 2006.
Matty Artell wrote:Sorry if this has been asked before, I had a look through and couldn't find it - what is the percentage of numbers game solved for each numbers pick amongst all contestants?
In all these figures, I've taken this to mean "of all instances of a contestant attempting a numbers game, what percentage of those attempts resulted in the contestant solving it", for various definitions of "solving". This means if both contestants solve the same numbers game, that counts twice. The figure on the right hand side of each ratio below is twice the number of numbers rounds.
You'd think this mean the number on the right would always be even, but that isn't so - I've excluded declarations that are not known. Occasionally we know what one contestant declared but not the other, e.g.
round 8 in this game.
If you meant "of all the numbers games, what percentage were solved by at least one of the contestants", this isn't what I've done.
Got the target exactly:
6 small: 890/2650 (33.6%)
1 large: 11859/22055 (53.8%)
2 large: 2138/4637 (46.1%)
3 large: 390/958 (40.7%)
4 large: 507/1361 (37.3%)
Got the target exactly when this was possible:
6 small: 890/2242 (39.7%)
1 large: 11858/21534 (55.1%)
2 large: 2138/4555 (46.9%)
3 large: 390/906 (43.0%)
4 large: 506/1226 (41.3%)
Despite what the above numbers appear to show, it's not the case that two impossible numbers games were once solved. What's happened here is that one of the scripts I used to populate the database with the "best possible" solution didn't cope very well with rounds where one contestant's declaration is not known.
Got as close as possible to the target:
6 small: 960/2650 (36.2%)
1 large: 11964/22055 (54.2%)
2 large: 2158/4637 (46.5%)
3 large: 408/958 (42.6%)
4 large: 558/1361 (41.0%)
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 12:15 am
by Matty Artell
Thanks Graeme
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 6:42 am
by Ben Wilson
Awesome Graeme,
How many games have there been where both contestants got at least 10 maxes?* On a related note, which contestant has faced the most opponents to have achieved 10+ maxes? Just for fun, let's say including AMND excluding the 30BC.
*Obviously I'm only asking about 15 rounders.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 6:49 pm
by Graeme Cole
Ben Wilson wrote:Awesome Graeme,
How many games have there been where both contestants got at least 10 maxes?* On a related note, which contestant has faced the most opponents to have achieved 10+ maxes? Just for fun, let's say including AMND excluding the 30BC.
*Obviously I'm only asking about 15 rounders.
As of the end of series 71, 56 games have seen both contestants score 10 or more maxes, of which 18 were in the 30BC.
Code: Select all
SERIES EP TYPE EP ID DATE C1 SCORE MAXES MAXES SCORE C2
S47 QF 3273 2002-06-20 Chris Wills 110 11 10 86 Brenda Jolley
S47 QF 3274 2002-06-21 Mike Pullin 89 10 11 106 Tom Hargreaves
S47 SF 3278 2002-06-27 Kevin Thurlow 93 10 12 109 Tom Hargreaves
CoC XI CP 3391 2003-01-07 Chris Wills 113 12 11 111 David Williams
CoC XI CQF 3401 2003-01-21 Graham Nash 120 12 11 109 Julian Fell
Special S S7 2003-09-03 Brett Smitheram 87 11 13 101 Harshan Lamabadusuriya
S52 P 3809 2004-11-04 Steven Moir 91 10 10 87 David Morgans
S52 GF 3840 2004-12-17 Mark Tournoff 92 10 10 89 Paul Gallen
S53 P 3945 2005-06-13 Richard Heald 96 12 10 84 Paul Lyne
S54 SF 4110 2006-05-24 Conor Travers 124 13 12 100 Paul Howe
CoC XII CP 4119 2006-06-06 Paul Gallen 125 13 10 80 Eamonn Timmins
CoC XII CP 4120 2006-06-07 Matthew Shore 109 11 11 101 Chris Cummins
CoC XII CQF 4121 2006-06-08 Matthew Shore 117 11 13 124 Mark Tournoff
CoC XII CQF 4122 2006-06-09 Paul Gallen 118 13 12 96 John Davies
CoC XII CSF 4125 2006-06-14 Paul Howe 88 10 11 99 Mark Tournoff
CoC XII CSF 4126 2006-06-15 Paul Gallen 118 13 11 102 Conor Travers
CoC XII CGF 4127 2006-06-16 Paul Gallen 111 14 12 93 Mark Tournoff
S55 P 4235 2006-11-15 Phil Matthams 96 11 10 86 Christine Smith
S57 GF 4508 2007-12-21 Craig Beevers 105 13 10 82 Jeffrey Hansford
S58 P 4560 2008-03-19 Andrew Swale 96 10 10 106 Tony Durrant
S58 SF 4625 2008-06-18 David O'Donnell 95 10 10 82 Jonathan Coles
CoC XIII CQF 4741 2009-01-22 Steve Briers 118 12 12 110 David O'Donnell
S60 QF 4837 2009-06-11 Kirk Bevins 115 13 11 90 Julie Russell
S61 SF 4952 2009-12-17 Chris Davies 102 12 12 97 Innis Carson
S62 P 5034 2010-05-10 Lee Graham 86 11 11 90 Gwen Robinson
S63 QF 5175 2010-12-14 Scott Gillies 90 11 10 92 Marcus Hares
S63 GF 5178 2010-12-17 Jack Hurst 113 14 11 85 Eoin Monaghan
S65 P 5293 2011-06-24 Matt Croy 90 12 12 91 Andrew Halliburton
S67 SF 5612 2012-12-19 Rose Boyle 91 11 12 95 Paul James
30BC 30BP 5617 2013-01-09 Mark Deeks 103 11 12 108 Jack Hurst
30BC 30BP 5618 2013-01-10 Ben Wilson 91 11 12 117 Conor Travers
30BC 30BP 5619 2013-01-11 Mark Tournoff 101 11 11 100 Nick Deller
30BC 30BP 5623 2013-01-17 Ed McCullagh 94 12 12 104 Jonathan Rawlinson
30BC 30B1 5629 2013-01-25 Innis Carson 116 13 11 91 Adam Gillard
30BC 30B1 5633 2013-01-31 Graeme Cole 98 13 13 104 Jack Worsley
30BC 30B1 5634 2013-02-01 John Ashmore 92 10 15 130 Kirk Bevins
30BC 30B1 5635 2013-02-04 David O'Donnell 111 13 11 86 Tom Hargreaves
30BC 30B1 5639 2013-02-08 Andrew Hulme 91 11 11 98 Jonathan Rawlinson
30BC 30B2 5641 2013-02-12 Jon O'Neill 122 13 10 91 Darryl Francis
30BC 30B2 5642 2013-02-13 Chris Hawkins 85 11 15 119 Conor Travers
30BC 30B2 5644 2013-02-15 Chris Davies 117 10 10 127 David O'Donnell
30BC 30B2 5645 2013-02-18 Innis Carson 102 13 13 112 Kirk Bevins
30BC 30BQF 5649 2013-02-22 Jon O'Neill 122 15 13 104 Jack Worsley
30BC 30BQF 5650 2013-02-25 Conor Travers 119 15 12 94 Kirk Bevins
30BC 30BSF 5652 2013-02-27 Jonathan Rawlinson 105 11 12 116 Jack Hurst
30BC 30BSF 5653 2013-02-28 Jon O'Neill 102 13 15 120 Conor Travers
30BC 30BGF 5654 2013-03-01 Jack Hurst 111 11 14 146 Conor Travers
S68 P 5686 2013-04-24 Jill Hayward 98 10 10 102 Eileen Taylor
S68 GF 5721 2013-06-28 Giles Hutchings 95 11 10 86 Andy Platt
S69 P 5794 2013-10-18 Mark Hartnett 101 10 11 111 Bradley Cates
S69 QF 5833 2013-12-12 Dylan Taylor 108 14 10 76 Gemma Church
S69 QF 5834 2013-12-13 Jen Steadman 105 12 12 108 Callum Todd
S69 SF 5837 2013-12-18 Dylan Taylor 121 12 10 103 Bradley Cates
S69 GF 5839 2013-12-20 Dylan Taylor 116 13 14 126 Callum Todd
S70 P 5907 2014-04-17 Mark Murray 112 13 11 95 Peter Steggle
S71 P 5962 2014-07-23 Jason Turner 82 10 12 100 Tricia Pay
The second bit: you've "faced an opponent to have achieved 10+ maxes" if you played any televised format against an opponent who had previously achieved 10 or more maxes in a 15 rounder, or who achieved 10 or more maxes in that game and it was a 15 rounder, or who would later go on to achieve 10 or more maxes in a 15 rounder, as of the end of series 71.
Conor Travers leads the pack with 11 (Paul Howe, Matthew Shore, John Brackstone, Paul Gallen, Chris Wills, Ben Wilson, Mark Tournoff, Chris Hawkins, Kirk Bevins, Jon O'Neill, Jack Hurst). Chris Wills and Mark Tournoff played 9 members of the 10-max club. Kirk Bevins and Jack Hurst played 8, David O'Donnell 7, and Tom Hargreaves, Paul Gallen, Charlie Reams, Chris Davies and Jonathan Rawlinson played 6.
If you remove the 30BC from this (that is, disregard it for the purpose of deciding whether you played someone as well as for deciding whether your opponent ever got a 10-maxer or more, effectively pretending it never happened): Chris Wills and Mark Tournoff played 7, Paul Gallen and Charlie Reams played 6, and Junaid Mubeen, Tom Hargreaves, Eamonn Timmins, Kirk Bevins, Conor Travers, Paul Howe and Matthew Shore played 5.
(Edit: another condition on these is that if you played the same opponent twice and that opponent ever got 10+ maxes in a 15 rounder, that counts twice.)
(For a while I wondered which tournament the AMND was, until I realised it meant "AND".)
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 4:18 pm
by Johnny Canuck
What is the earliest recorded instance of a player correctly solving a conundrum with a time under 1 second? Did this ever happen in the 9-round era?
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 7:17 pm
by Graeme Cole
Johnny Canuck wrote:What is the earliest recorded instance of a player correctly solving a conundrum with a time under 1 second? Did this ever happen in the 9-round era?
This has happened 81 times, of which 12 were in the 26 years pre-apterous, and 69 were in the 7 years post-apterous.
The earliest recorded case of a conundrum being solved in under 1.0 seconds (so 1.0 seconds exactly doesn't count) is in
this Masters game, where future series producer Mark Nyman solved PERCOLATE in (apparently) 0 seconds.
A sub-second conundrum solve also happened in
this Masters game, but the match was never broadcast (although that doesn't seem to have stopped us getting a recap of it somehow).
The next sub-second solve was in a
CoC quarter-final by future series producer Damian Eadie.
So apparently the rule is that if you solve a conundrum in under a second, you get to be producer of the show. The queue is pretty long, though. Next up after Damian will be
Emma Brown.
Other notable Countdowners who can expect to run the show some day are Innis Carson (6 times), Eoin Monaghan, Jack Hurst and Kirk Bevins (5 times), and Conor Travers and Giles Hutchings (4 times). Mark Deeks, among many others, did it twice, but of course since he's going to be the next presenter after Nick we can't expect him to be the producer as well.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 7:56 pm
by Gavin Chipper
I'm surprised you put that much effort into such unreliable statistics!
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 8:12 pm
by Graeme Cole
Gavin Chipper wrote:I'm surprised you put that much effort into such unreliable statistics!
Yes, I should have mentioned that this is all subject to a margin of error. Buzz times of just under one second might easily have been recorded as 1.0 seconds, for example.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:57 am
by Johnny Canuck
Brilliant as always, Graeme, and quick as well. Thanks very much. I actually don't think tracking sub-second conundrum solves is all that unreliable, given that a segment of the clock will light up only after exactly 1.0s has passed and otherwise the clock will be dark.
Whenever you'd like another question (please, take some time to rest if you need it)...
I was going through Mike Brown's notes for Series 53 and saw that the octochamp Ross Allatt declared DELATIONS twice during his octorun. Has any other contestant ever declared a given nine-letter word multiple times? If the answer is no, how about any given word?
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2015 7:02 am
by Jack Worsley
Johnny Canuck wrote:I actually don't think tracking sub-second conundrum solves is all that unreliable, given that a segment of the clock will light up only after exactly 1.0s has passed
The problem with measuring conundrum solve times accurately is that there's never been any consistent method for when to start the clock. For example, during Jeff's tenure as host, the conundrum board would normally be fully turned over before the clock even started. If you look at people like Innis and Jack Hurst on the wiki, they solved a few conundrums in about "0.1" or "0.2" seconds but in reality, it would be impossible for any human to solve that quickly. Nowadays, the clock tends to start much earlier. I also don't think the system has ever been automated, so there's always going to be inconsistency.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 6:43 pm
by Johnny Canuck
I know that no letters selection has ever consisted of a valid 9-letter word that is already spelt out in the correct order. However, have any letters selections ever consisted of a concatenation of multiple valid words spelt out in the correct order (e.g., CATDOGCOW or ABADRADIO)?
EDIT: I suspect that, given the density of 2- and 3-letter words in the dictionary, there may end up being zillions of these, such as ITQIAMOTA = IT-QI-A-MOT-A. If this proves to be the case, I'll save you the trouble and refine the question by asking: have any selections ever consisted of a concatenation of exactly two valid words?
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 7:13 pm
by Gavin Chipper
I only found out that Graeme had this database thing from this thread, so my question is: how did Ryan Taylor know to start this thread in the first place?
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 7:53 pm
by Graeme Cole
Gavin Chipper wrote:I only found out that Graeme had this database thing from this thread, so my question is: how did Ryan Taylor know to start this thread in the first place?
There was
this post, which led onto
this, which at the time I thought would cover pretty much everything everyone wanted to know about Countdown stats. (I also thought "I'm reasonably confident this is all correct, but I bet Robbo still manages to find a mistake". He did within 24 minutes.)
Then just in case there were any more queries, Ryan started this thread, which passed 1000 replies a few months ago.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 8:51 pm
by Gavin Chipper
Graeme Cole wrote:Gavin Chipper wrote:I only found out that Graeme had this database thing from this thread, so my question is: how did Ryan Taylor know to start this thread in the first place?
There was
this post, which led onto
this, which at the time I thought would cover pretty much everything everyone wanted to know about Countdown stats. (I also thought "I'm reasonably confident this is all correct, but I bet Robbo still manages to find a mistake". He did within 24 minutes.)
Then just in case there were any more queries, Ryan started this thread, which passed 1000 replies a few months ago.
Excellent, thanks. I was aware of those threads but obviously didn't make the connection.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 10:47 pm
by Johnny Canuck
Has any game ever had a 0-0 score after two rounds?
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:11 pm
by Matty Artell
I don't know if your db has the data to answer this, but which number of vowels gives the most flat rounds?
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:11 pm
by Graeme Cole
Johnny Canuck wrote:I know that no letters selection has ever consisted of a valid 9-letter word that is already spelt out in the correct order. However, have any letters selections ever consisted of a concatenation of multiple valid words spelt out in the correct order (e.g., CATDOGCOW or ABADRADIO)?
EDIT: I suspect that, given the density of 2- and 3-letter words in the dictionary, there may end up being zillions of these, such as ITQIAMOTA = IT-QI-A-MOT-A. If this proves to be the case, I'll save you the trouble and refine the question by asking: have any selections ever consisted of a concatenation of exactly two valid words?
Quite a few selections were a concatenation of exactly two valid words - 40, according to my (outdated) word list, sometimes with rather obscure fours and fives and sometimes with words people have heard of.
Highlights include
LOUNGE DAM (or LOUNGED AM),
SNORE IDOL,
RIM SEALER,
RICK OLIVE and
FETID SAPS.
Johnny Canuck wrote:Has any game ever had a 0-0 score after two rounds?
No.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 11:38 pm
by Johnny Canuck
Graeme Cole wrote:Johnny Canuck wrote:I know that no letters selection has ever consisted of a valid 9-letter word that is already spelt out in the correct order. However, have any letters selections ever consisted of a concatenation of multiple valid words spelt out in the correct order (e.g., CATDOGCOW or ABADRADIO)?
EDIT: I suspect that, given the density of 2- and 3-letter words in the dictionary, there may end up being zillions of these, such as ITQIAMOTA = IT-QI-A-MOT-A. If this proves to be the case, I'll save you the trouble and refine the question by asking: have any selections ever consisted of a concatenation of exactly two valid words?
Quite a few selections were a concatenation of exactly two valid words - 40, according to my (outdated) word list, sometimes with rather obscure fours and fives and sometimes with words people have heard of.
Highlights include
LOUNGE DAM (or LOUNGED AM),
SNORE IDOL,
RIM SEALER,
RICK OLIVE and
FETID SAPS.
Johnny Canuck wrote:Has any game ever had a 0-0 score after two rounds?
No.
Brilliant stuff as always, Graeme. Thank you. You're not like some of the fetid saps I know who just ignore my questions.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 12:29 pm
by Johnny Canuck
Within each format, what are the lowest scores achieved by someone who scored in every round?
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 5:36 pm
by Jack Worsley
Graeme Cole wrote:Johnny Canuck wrote:
Johnny Canuck wrote:Has any game ever had a 0-0 score after two rounds?
No.
I'm a bit surprised about this. How many games have been scoreless after one round, and of all letters rounds ever played, in what percentage of them has neither contestant scored?
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 6:08 pm
by Jennifer Steadman
From Series 67 - 73 (not including 30th Birthday) and excluding those with fewer than 4 wins, who are the 16 players with:
- the highest average score per game
- the highest average maxes score per game
- the highest letters score/max percentage
- the highest numbers score/max percentage
- and the highest conundrum solve percentage?
Not asking for much here. (Sorry.)
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:03 pm
by Graeme Cole
Johnny Canuck wrote:I was going through Mike Brown's notes for Series 53 and saw that the octochamp Ross Allatt declared DELATIONS twice during his octorun. Has any other contestant ever declared a given nine-letter word multiple times? If the answer is no, how about any given word?
A contestant offering the same word twice is very common. For example, in my games I offered LIVELY, GIAOURS and URBANISE twice each, and literally hundreds of other contestants have offered a word they'd offered before.
However, only two contestants have repeated the same nine letter word. You've mentioned Ross Allatt, and the other was Jack Hurst, who offered CATENOIDS twice in the 30th Birthday Championship.
http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_5636
http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_5652
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:06 pm
by Graeme Cole
Matty Artell wrote:I don't know if your db has the data to answer this, but which number of vowels gives the most flat rounds?
The db doesn't store every word that was available in every round. Intuitively I'd say four vowels as that tends to give the longest words, but I could be wrong.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:19 pm
by Graeme Cole
Johnny Canuck wrote:Within each format, what are the lowest scores achieved by someone who scored in every round?
All of them are reasonably high scores...
9 rounder:
Mark Jeary with 55.
Old 15 rounder:
Brian Selway and
David Stainer with 102.
New 15 rounder:
Eileen Taylor,
Ann Robinson and
Neil Green with 111.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:34 pm
by Graeme Cole
Jack Worsley wrote:Graeme Cole wrote:Johnny Canuck wrote:Has any game ever had a 0-0 score after two rounds?
No.
I'm a bit surprised about this. How many games have been scoreless after one round, and of all letters rounds ever played, in what percentage of them has neither contestant scored?
Only 53 games have been scoreless after the first round.
Of the 51,941 letters rounds where both scores are known, 584 were scoreless. So as a percentage that's about 1.12%.
So it's not very surprising that we've never seen a game which is 0-0 after round 2. Based on the above, and assuming everything's uniform and at random (i.e. players don't play safer in R2 if they've had a word disallowed in R1, which in real life they might), if you saw 53 games where the score after round 1 was 0-0, the probability of any one of those games being 0-0 after round 2 would be about 60%.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 8:37 pm
by Graeme Cole
Jennifer Steadman wrote:From Series 67 - 73 (not including 30th Birthday) and excluding those with fewer than 4 wins, who are the 16 players with:
In the following tables, only games between series 67 and 72 count. Series 73 isn't complete so isn't in the database.
Jennifer Steadman wrote:
- the highest average score per game
Code: Select all
Dylan Taylor 119.91
Jen Steadman 117.44
Dan McColm 117.36
Giles Hutchings 115.91
Tom Cappleman 114.45
Glen Webb 113.40
Andy Platt 110.00
Zarte Siempre 109.33
Mark Murray 108.27
Bradley Cates 108.10
Tricia Pay 106.00
Gerry Tynan 104.90
Abdirizak Hirsi 103.33
Antoinette Ryan 102.73
Mark Davies 102.44
Andy Noden 102.44
Jennifer Steadman wrote:- the highest average maxes score per game
Code: Select all
Dylan Taylor 12.73
Jen Steadman 12.33
Dan McColm 12.09
Giles Hutchings 11.55
Tom Cappleman 11.45
Andy Platt 10.82
Andy Noden 10.44
Bradley Cates 10.30
Glen Webb 10.20
Zarte Siempre 10.17
Mark Murray 10.09
Tricia Pay 10.00
Abdirizak Hirsi 9.67
Samir Pilica 9.50
George Ford 9.30
Gerry Tynan 9.20
Jennifer Steadman wrote:
- the highest letters score/max percentage
Code: Select all
Jen Steadman 94.65
Dylan Taylor 94.39
Dan McColm 92.98
Andy Noden 92.21
Tom Cappleman 89.16
Andy Platt 88.40
Giles Hutchings 88.31
Mark Davies 85.88
Tricia Pay 84.68
Glen Webb 83.81
Paul James 83.71
Tracey Mills 83.17
Gerry Tynan 83.03
Mark Murray 82.93
Samir Pilica 82.72
Zarte Siempre 82.38
Jennifer Steadman wrote:
- the highest numbers score/max percentage
Code: Select all
Dylan Taylor 98.62
Tom Cappleman 97.24
Zarte Siempre 96.20
Dan McColm 93.55
Giles Hutchings 92.24
Laurence Killen 91.67
Jen Steadman 91.04
Andy Platt 90.91
George Ford 89.34
Bradley Cates 87.91
Antoinette Ryan 86.96
Gerry Tynan 86.84
Glen Webb 86.08
David Barnard 85.37
Mark Murray 85.35
Callum Todd 84.80
Jennifer Steadman wrote:
- and the highest conundrum solve percentage?
Code: Select all
Rod Chatfield 100.00
Tricia Pay 88.89
Dan McColm 81.82
Giles Hutchings 81.82
Andy Noden 77.78
Tom Cappleman 72.73
Glen Webb 70.00
Neil Green 70.00
Bradley Cates 70.00
Joe McGonigle 70.00
Zarte Siempre 66.67
Jen Steadman 66.67
Callum Todd 66.67
Sean Fletcher 66.67
Roy Taylor 66.67
Paul James 63.64
Mark Murray 63.64
Jennifer Steadman wrote:Not asking for much here. (Sorry.)
As a bonus, here are two more lists showing percentage of letters rounds maxed (so number of rounds maxed divided by number of rounds played, rather than letters score divided by potential letters score)...
Code: Select all
Dylan Taylor 84.55
Jen Steadman 83.33
Dan McColm 79.09
Andy Noden 75.56
Giles Hutchings 74.55
Tom Cappleman 70.91
Andy Platt 70.18
Samir Pilica 70.00
Mark Murray 66.36
Glen Webb 66.00
Neil Green 65.56
Bradley Cates 65.00
Tracey Mills 62.73
Tricia Pay 62.22
Abdirizak Hirsi 61.67
Zarte Siempre 60.00
...and percentage of numbers rounds maxed...
Code: Select all
Dylan Taylor 95.45
Tom Cappleman 90.91
Zarte Siempre 87.50
Dan McColm 84.09
David Barnard 83.33
Jen Steadman 83.33
Andy Platt 82.50
Laurence Killen 82.50
Giles Hutchings 81.82
George Ford 80.00
Gerry Tynan 80.00
Bradley Cates 77.50
Abdirizak Hirsi 75.00
Callum Todd 72.73
Glen Webb 72.50
Tricia Pay 72.22
... and people who appear on every one of these lists...
Code: Select all
Tom Cappleman
Giles Hutchings
Dan McColm
Zarte Siempre
Jen Steadman
... and people who are needlessly worrying too much that they won't qualify for the CoC.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 10:21 pm
by Gavin Chipper
Heather Styles has
pretty much stated that she doesn't think Jen should qualify. It's going to be an awkward train to CONOT.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 10:21 pm
by Thomas Cappleman
Graeme Cole wrote:
In the following tables, only games between series 67 and 72 count. Series 73 isn't complete so isn't in the database.
Pretty sure your lists didn't include series 72
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 10:28 pm
by Graeme Cole
Thomas Cappleman wrote:Graeme Cole wrote:
In the following tables, only games between series 67 and 72 count. Series 73 isn't complete so isn't in the database.
Pretty sure your lists didn't include series 72
Grargh. No, well spotted, they don't. This is because, while the database contains games up to series 72, a pretty important table that deals with when players' octoruns were doesn't. I'll fix that.
Edit: edited.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2015 6:34 am
by Heather Styles
No need for awkwardnesses, Gavin. It would be unthinkable for Jen to miss out on CoC of any discernible quality.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2015 8:40 pm
by Johnny Canuck
Heather Styles wrote:No need for awkwardnesses, Gavin. It would be unthinkable for Jen to miss out on CoC of any discernible quality.
Was the omission of an "a" intentional there?
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2015 9:22 pm
by Heather Styles
Dunno
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2015 9:54 pm
by Matty Artell
In the 15-round ear, what is the average score from challengers when 0 nines, 1 nines, and 2 nines are available? What about for octochamps?
Re: Ask Graeme?
Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2015 9:54 pm
by Matty Artell
Also, I'd like to know about the 15-round era as well as its ear.