Thursday 7th February 2013 (30th Champs, Round 1, Game 15)

[James Robinson]

So, the luck of the draw with my recaps this week means that my 2 episodes have featured 3 Scrabblers and one of the greatest Countdowners ever.

Unfortunately, my Scrabble luck is pretty rubbish, considering that when I played it when I was younger, I always lost to my sister and my best friend, who is dyslexic...........

So, when it comes to expert Scrabble knowledge, I suggest you look elsewhere.......

But, luckily this is a Countdown contest, so lets see how these 2 Scrabblers get on in my territory.

Enjoy.

Countdown recap for Thursday 7 February 2013.

C1: Series 6 Champion & CoC III Semi-Finalist Darryl Francis (16 Games, 14 Wins, 904 Points.) An Apteforumite and retired IT manager from Brampton, Cumbria. He is also a good Scrabbler too.
C2: Series 21 Champion, CoC VI Quarter-Finalist & Supreme Championship Group Finalist Barry Grossman (14 Games, 11 Wins, 810 points.) A market researcher and Scrabble Expert from Hertford.
DC: Susie Dent and Kate Adie.
RR: Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.

R01: R A X E S I N M T
R02: R P T O U E G L S
R03: N E Q T O D A B E
R04: T S G S A I E D U
R05: 25, 3, 7, 2, 10, 5. Target: 437.
TTT: NILBUYIT - "Nobody buys this, it's something you're born with"
R06: O I A L N S F C S
R07: Z N O W I L E N T
R08: L S P U A I H R I
R09: C E M O F A N U G
R10: 75, 7, 7, 2, 6, 1. Target: 845.
TTT: ADULTWOE - "It sounds like Billy the Kid has been banned"
R11: P I R U I T E N Y
R12: L R V D O I E T C
R13: J D I T A G E S W
R14: 100, 2, 9, 3, 9, 7. Target: 218.
R15: T I T A N P I N E (conundrum)


And now a brief interlude before our main feature:

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Enjoy the show.

Round 1: R A X E S I N M T

C1: MINARETS (8)
C2: MINARETS (8)
DC: INMATES (7) RAIMENTS (8)
OT: MATRIXES (8)
Score: 8–8 (max 8)

A very good start for the Scrabblers with the same fine 8.

Round 2: R P T O U E G L S

C1: grouplets
C2: POSTURE (7)
DC: TROUPES (7) TROPES (6)
OT: GROUPSET (8)
Score: 8–15 (max 16)

Uh-oh, SCRABBLE ALERT!!!!!! SCRABBLE ALERT!!!!!! Amazingly, as in his preliminary with David Webb, Darryl goes for a 9 in round 2, and like before, it doesn't make it into the OED.............

Round 3: N E Q T O D A B E

C1: DENOTE (6)
C2: DONATE (6)
DC: DEBONE (6) batoned
OT: ATONED (6) BEANED (6) BEATEN (6) BOATED (6) DEBATE (6)
Score: 14–21 (max 22)

Plenty of 6's around, although DC try to get a 7 in there, with no success.

Round 4: T S G S A I E D U

C1: GAUDIEST (8)
C2: DIGESTS (7)
DC: GUSSIED (7) DEGUSTS (7)
Score: 22–21 (max 30)

A very good 8 from Darryl gives him the lead, albeit by 1 point, but a lead's a lead.

Round 5: 25, 3, 7, 2, 10, 5. Target: 437.

C1: 436. Mistake in working.
C2: 438. ((10 + 7) x 25) + (5 x 2) + 3 (7)
RR: 437. ((7 - 3 + 25) x (10 + 5)) + 2 (10)
Score: 22–28 (max 40)

Oh dear, like in his last game, Darryl gets his multiplication wrong and it lets Barry retake the lead, while Rachel takes us one step further.

Kate talks about her first major news story in 1980 when she was covering the Iranian hostage siege in Kensington.

Teatime teaser: NILBUYIT -> NUBILITY

Round 6: O I A L N S F C S

C1: FALCONS (7)
C2: sialons
DC: FLACONS (7) FIASCOS (7)
OT: CAISSON (7) CASINOS (7) CASSONI (7) FISCALS (7) FOLACIN (7) OILCANS (7) SOCIALS (7)
Score: 29–28 (max 47)

SCRABBLE ALERT!!!!!! SCRABBLE ALERT!!!!!! Another Scrabble word on show, and another change in the lead, as Darryl's numbers mistake is quickly negated by Barry.

A CAISSON is a structure used in underwater work, consisting of an airtight chamber, open at the bottom and containing air under sufficient pressure to exclude the water.
A CASSONE (plural CASSONI) is a large Italian chest of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, usually highly ornamented.
FOLACIN is quite simply, another name for folic acid.

Round 7: Z N O W I L E N T

C1: lionet
C2: lionet
DC: LINNET (6) TOWNIE (6) TOWLINE (7)
Score: 29–28 (max 54)

SCRABBLE ALERT!!!!!! SCRABBLE ALERT!!!!!! SCRABBLE ALERT!!!!!! SCRABBLE ALERT!!!!!! Dear, oh dear, oh dear. Another calamity from the Scrabble brigade. At least DC can restore some dignity with the darrenic 7.

Round 8: L S P U A I H R I

C1: PULSAR (6)
C2: spirula
DC: SPIRAL (6) AIRSHIP (7)
OT: RUPIAHS (7)
Score: 35–28 (max 61)

SCRABBLE ALERT!!!!!! SCRABBLE ALERT!!!!!! Luckily, this recap is visual, rather than audible, otherwise you'd probably all be deaf by now But, for the 3rd round in a row, it's Barry who sets it off with his spirula..........

A RUPIAH is an aluminum coin, paper money, and monetary unit of Indonesia, equal to 100 sen.

Round 9: C E M O F A N U G

C1: congue
C2: CAMEO (5)
DC: ACUMEN (6)
Score: 35–33 (max 67)

ALERT!!!!!! ALERT!!!!!! A full house for the alarm in this half, but it's Darryl's turn to feel the noise, as the alarm is on his side, although it's a bit quieter, because it turns out that his word is not only not in our dictionary, but not in ANY other dictionary

Susie's Origins Of Words talks about the origins of the places "Perry", "Derby", "Keswick", "Needham", "Hungerford", "Slough" and "Bovey Tracey".

Round 10: 75, 7, 7, 2, 6, 1. Target: 845.

C1: 843. ((6 - 2 + 7) x (75 + 1)) + 7 (7)
C2: 842.
RR: 845. (7 + 6) x (75 - (7 + 2 + 1)) (10)
Score: 42–33 (max 77)

Eeeeeeeeek, a nasty little numbers game appears, and it's only good news for Darryl, as he gets 1 nearer than Barry, but with the gap only at 9 points, this low-scoring affair is heading towards an intriguing finish.............

Teatime teaser: ADULTWOE -> OUTLAWED

Round 11: P I R U I T E N Y

C1: TURNIP (6)
C2: PURITY (6)
DC: PENURY (6) TURNIPY (7)
Score: 48–39 (max 84)

Not much joy in terms of finding longer words, apart from the well bizarre TURNIPY found by DC for 7.

Round 12: L R V D O I E T C

C1: CORDITE (7)
C2: VERDICT (7)
DC: CORVID (6) DIVORCE (7)
OT: CORTILE (7) EVICTOR (7)
Score: 55–46 (max 91)

Flatness all around. This game is heading towards a climactic finish................

A CORTILE is an open internal courtyard inclosed by the walls of a large dwelling house or other large and stately building.

Round 13: J D I T A G E S W

C1: AGISTED (7)
C2: WAISTED (7)
DC: DIGEST (6) WIDGETS (7)
Score: 62–53 (max 98)

An almost identical round to round 4, but you can't be GAUDIEST without the U, so just 7's for our contestants, as we head into the final numbers game..............

Round 14: 100, 2, 9, 3, 9, 7. Target: 218.

C1: 218. (100 + 9) x 2 (10)
C2: 218. (100 + 9) x 2 (10)
Score: 72–63 (max 108)

Nice and simple for once. Roll on the crucial conundrum.

Round 15: T I T A N P I N E

C1 buzzes on 11.5 seconds to say INPATIENT which is correct.
Final Score: 82–63 (max 118)

That's a super impressive spot from Darryl, and a fitting way to win a match filled with a mix of Scrabble confusion, with some bright lights inbetween.

He'll be back for his 2nd round match on Tuesday, when he'll be taking on Series 53 semi-finalist Jon O'Neill. Join Jack (for once ) for that game.

Heather will be around tomorrow for what could be a juicy little cracker in the making with the last Round 1 match in a battle of the runner-ups, Andrew Hulme of Series 61 and Jonathan Rawlinson of Series 66.

I'll be back on Wednesday for the Round 2 match between Conor Travers and Chris Hawkins.

So, till then, have a good weekend, and bye bye.

Statistics Corner

Darryl:
Total score - 82
Raw score - 82
Total % of max - 69
Raw % of max - 69
Total average score per round - 5.5
Raw average score per round - 5.5
Number of maxes - 8

Barry:
Total score - 63
Raw score - 77
Total % of max - 53
Raw % of max - 65
Total average score per round - 4.2
Raw average score per round - 5.1
Number of maxes - 5

Further summaries are at:
http://www.apterous.org/cdb/series.php?series=-16

[David Williams]

Round 3: N E Q T O D A B E

C1: DENOTE (6)
C2: DONATE (6)
DC: DEBONE (6) batoned


Plenty of 6's around, although DC try to get a 7 in there, with no success.

Susie mentions BATONED as if it's perfectly normal for her to bring up plausible words that are not actually in. But I think we all know why.

I was thinking, I wonder how often Susie says "if anyone was thinking of x at home, it's not in"? I'm thinking of agent nouns here or UN- or RE- words here. My dad often likes to play along at home and when DC don't mention something he just assumes it's not in but obviously DC do miss stuff sometimes. I'm thinking specifically of UNCRAFTED here which my girlfriend's dad got and I had to check ODE3 to let him know it wasn't in.

It's a fair point - I also thought of UNCRAFTED and wasn't sure - but it's a bit of an ask for her to think of words that don't exist. But if she had thought of UNCRAFTED, I agree it would be worth mentioning it.

The fact that this was said a few days after the show was filmed shows just how responsive Mr Countdown Team is to our offerings.

[Countdown Team]

[quote]The fact that this was said a few days after the show was filmed shows just how responsive Mr Countdown Team is to our offerings.
/quote]

Can you explain in a bit more detail? What was said? Who, how, where?

[Andy Platt]

James do you think you are being a tiny bit harsh on the invalid words there dude?

The concept has been discussed quite a lot and I think we ought to admire the scrabble players for having a bloody good go under a different lexicon rather than castrate them every time they make an unfortunate misjudgement.

Would you be cool with entering a scrabble tournament and having someone write a recap of the game in which a couple of experts tear you to shreds over missing LOGICIZE for a bingo?

Edit: I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say you were simply trying to inject enthusiasm into the recap, but to be fair it can come across as condescending or harsh.

[David Williams]

The fact that this was said a few days after the show was filmed shows just how responsive Mr Countdown Team is to our offerings.
/quote]

Can you explain in a bit more detail? What was said? Who, how, where?

Substitute "written" for "said" and my meaning might be clearer. The exchange between Kirk and me is from the January 29th programme. And a few days later I certainly would have gone for BATONED, and Susie does exactly what we wanted to see, by mentioning that it's not valid. Seeing that the show would have already been recorded when the comments were made, you appear to have added time travel to your accomplishments. Or possibly she does it all the time and we hadn't noticed.

[Countdown Team]

Oh that makes sense now.
BATONED was only really mentioned because i think everyone was confident it was in and only a last-second check of the dictionary made us realise otherwise, hence Susie bringing it up as we'd not really bothered to look for any alternatives.

Not really sure how Susie would be able to say things like "if you were going to try UNCRAFTED, then it's not in", unless we spotted or tried uncrafted in the first place. There was a show recently where VIBRATONE was a plausible 9, but the word wasn't in and we did consider mentioning it but didn't want to waste the time. It's a type of musical instrument but probably a trademark.

Maybe we can try and include more "if you were thinking about xxxxxx" , if and when the chance presents itself. I think Nick Hewer and the corner guests between them do offer up queries on words a fair bit though and we'd rather focus on the educational benefits of revealing new words on the whole, as opposed to saying what isn't in. There's also the chance that by highlighting which words are not in, it might made the dictionary appear harshly inadequate.

[David Williams]

Pretty much the way I thought it would be. Personally I'm not very interested in DC giving shorter words than the contestants unless they are new or interesting, but at the moment they'd spend whole programmes saying "We've got nothing"! I can see it's actually quite difficult to think of plausible words that aren't there. LIONET is presumably a part of basic vocabulary if you play Scrabble, but it just looks nonsensical to me, particularly with TOWNIE, and by extension TOWLINE, staring you in the face.

[Matt Morrison]

Damn good response Damian.

[James Robinson]

James do you think you are being a tiny bit harsh on the invalid words there dude?

The concept has been discussed quite a lot and I think we ought to admire the scrabble players for having a bloody good go under a different lexicon rather than castrate them every time they make an unfortunate misjudgement.

Would you be cool with entering a scrabble tournament and having someone write a recap of the game in which a couple of experts tear you to shreds over missing LOGICIZE for a bingo?

Edit: I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say you were simply trying to inject enthusiasm into the recap, but to be fair it can come across as condescending or harsh.

I'll admit that my take on enthusiasm can sometimes be mistaken for harsh criticism.

But, if I was to enter a Scrabble tournament that someone was to recap, then yeah, I'd probably not like a Scrabble expert having a dig, but on the other hand I wouldn't complain either, because as I mentioned at the top, I know that I'm not that brilliant, so I'd just take it on the chin.

[Countdown Team]

That's the nature of this competition though, David.

We can spend 29 seconds trying to dig out the max word, and sometimes eventually get it, only to find that Conor, Kirk, Innis, Graeme, Jack x 2 or whoever has also got it. There's not really any opportunity to then go back and revisit the selection for smaller words. It's hard enough to get the max word without also needing to find a reserve list of several smaller ones, of which one might be considered to be of interest to somebody.

The guys playing are the best there is, so if DC has to suck a few lemons along the way then so be it. Normal service will be resumed come March 4th. In the meantime, it's great to marvel at what words the players are offering and how few words they miss. Never been a fan of offering lesser words unless they a really worth bringing up, otherwise it can look a bit churlish and detracts from the contestants.

[Neil Bellers]

Fascinating discussion everyone. I feel that Countdown is THE programme to inform us which words in this complicated language of ours are currently valid, according to agreed formats, and which are not. We can accept that there is a borderline area where some not yet in the dictionary are pushing to just about be accepted from ‘the word on the street’ (an old Scrabble joke by Tim Vine if you have ever watched his on-stage act).
I am also a chess fan and to follow that can be made severely over-complicated by constant analysis of past games and even while they are being played, at the top level. Then at the main tournaments both players seem to be obliged to return for a ‘public grilling’ , which is overdone in my opinion, about what could or could not have been the best options according to the best play. Let’s just say that not everyone, in fact hardly anybody, can be on top form all the time and just accept that. Us lesser mortals enjoy watching the skill and also the risk element, coupled with the sporting behaviour.
Thanks again, and well done to all for such a high standard of competition and judging.