c4countdown

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PREPARE YOURSELVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are now in the final week of the 30th Birthday Championships, which it's fair to say has been nothing short of LEGENDARY

And after that unbelievably awesome match on Friday, the standard for this final week has been set, but can it be exceeded any further It almost seems impossible

But, if any game can, this game definitely can, as it's the battle between the original 2 members of the (15 round) MAX CLUB.

In the red corner, is the Series 54 champion and owner of the best woolly wardrobe collection displayed on screen in this series, Conor Travers.

And in the blue corner, is the Series 60 champion and part-time darts referee, and the only bespectacled contestant left, Kirk Bevins.

Here are the "champion" stats:

Firstly, Series 54 Champion & CoC XII Semi-Finalist Conor Travers - 17 Games, 16 Wins, 1,894 Points. (Average: 111.41) (I've not included the 12-round 25th Birthday Special)
Highest Score: 124 vs. Andrew Christley (6th Game), Paul Howe (Semi-Final) & John Hunt (CoC Prelim)
Lowest Score: 98 vs. Matthew Shore (Grand Final)
9's Achieved: 7/12
Total Points/Max/%: 1894/2151 (88%)
Letters Points/Max/%: 1324/1483 (89%)
Numbers Points/Max/%: 430/498 (86%)
Conundrum Points/Max/%: 140/170 (82%)

Secondly, Series 60 Champion Kirk Bevins - 14 Games, 14 Wins, 1,553 Points (Average: 110.93 - Not Including Game In Series 51 Or Tie-Break Conundrum)
Highest Score: 130 vs. Peter Bennett (4th Game) & John Ashmore (30BC Round 1)
Lowest Score: 81 vs. Chris Davies (Special Game)
9's Achieved: 6/10
Total Points/Max/%: 1553/1761 (88%)
Letters Points/Max/%: 1081/1201 (90%)
Numbers Points/Max/%: 382/420 (91%)
Conundrum Points/Max/%: 90/140 (64%)

In DC all this week, for only her 2nd stint in DC, is the comedienne and part-time Loose Woman, Jenny Eclair.

Graeme will be around later for what should be an super brilliant recap.

P.S. I will be liable to explode this week, if the brilliance of this series carries on like this

James Robinson wrote:In DC all this week, for only her 2nd stint in DC, is the comedienne and part-time Loose Woman, Jenny Eclair.

I'm actually quite surprised that they've chosen Jenny for this week.

I don't not like her, mind - but, this being the final week of what is basically the second Supreme Championship, did they not consider Gyles at any stage? Or any of the modern-day regulars, like Paul Zenon or Tim Vine?

I agree Arthur, nothing against Jenny but she is a surprising choice.

Arthur Bennett wrote:

James Robinson wrote:In DC all this week, for only her 2nd stint in DC, is the comedienne and part-time Loose Woman, Jenny Eclair.

I'm actually quite surprised that they've chosen Jenny for this week.

I don't not like her, mind - but, this being the final week of what is basically the second Supreme Championship, did they not consider Gyles at any stage? Or any of the modern-day regulars, like Paul Zenon or Tim Vine?

I have to agree, surprising choice. Although I trust the production team to get the best guests available.
Maybe someone else pulled out?

In fairness without giving too much away I do remember her putting a lot of energy and enthusiasm into it, even if she isn't the most intellectual

From the stat's, the ONLY chink in Kirk's armour is his % of conundrum solves/points, being a probable close game, this could be a KEY KPI?

*Takes a deep breath*

Gah property show is on! Seems to be running 5 minutes over.

Adam Gillard wrote:Gah property show is on! Seems to be running 5 minutes over.

TV Guide states 2.45pm start this week. Hope my recorder catches those last 5 minutes.

Mauro

please please please keep facebook spoiler free

Two great spots from Conor so far to win those 2 letters rounds.

I just tried to fast-forward through the adverts, forgetting that I was watching live :/

Adam Gillard wrote:Two great spots from Conor so far to win those 2 letters rounds.

To facebook!

Incredible, Conor literally unbeatable again. How many maxes in a row is that? Well done to Kirk tom for being gracious in defeat.

I think that was a max game, 2 in a row, Conor is just ridiculously good

Excellent game! I'm guessing that was another max from Conor; great play regardless! Kirk, you played very well - FORERIBS and UPTEMPO from Conor were sublime and I don't think you should be too miffed about not spotting them; I certainly didn't. You were one of a select few to beat the predictor so far (against Innis), which is something to be proud of. Congratulations on your run and the second max game to boot! Conor will be tough to beat!

Have they actually clipped 5 minutes from the show in possibly its most illustrious week ever?

Adam Gillard wrote:Two great spots from Conor so far to win those 2 letters rounds.

It's all that Conor needed, Kirk needed Conor to falter - he didn't and heads for his 2nd max game. Well done guys. I saw Kirk's disappointment in his face from round 8 and at the same time pleased for Conor.

Mauro

Adam Gillard wrote:
Have they actually clipped 5 minutes from the show in possibly its most illustrious week ever?

No, just added 5 minutes to the finish time which is now 3.30 - and just enough time on my recording

Mauro

Excellent battle between the maximum men, well played lads. Also many congrats on the maximum again (if confirmed), Conor.

Brilliant stuff again. Well played Conor and commiserations Kirk. Rachel said she was expecting nothing less than maximums from both of you

I have to admit I would have gone for READOUT in R11 but sadly it is hyphenated

David Barnard wrote:I think that was a max game, 2 in a row, Conor is just ridiculously good

I believe that it's now 41 maxed rounds in a row for Conor.

A brilliant performance from both of you, particularly Conor who was as close as you can get to unbeatable today. FORERIBS and UPTEMPO were both brilliant spots. To get two max games in a row under all the pressure is absolutely remarkable! Unlucky Kirk, it would have taken something special to win that game.

Ludicrous.

I'm... in awe.

If he would have hansforded the conundrum he would have been technically unbeatable provided he buzzed instantaneously

One Word: Bloody Awesome!

Great game today guys.

Great stuff Conor, I thought Kirk would win this at the start but you are unbeatable, literally. Hope you go on to win this now. Incredible!!!

David Barnard wrote:If he would have hansforded the conundrum he would have been technically unbeatable provided he buzzed instantaneously

I thought he did.

Fucking amazing.

It's happened.

The Kirk II has been beaten.

szodiac wrote:

Adam Gillard wrote:
Have they actually clipped 5 minutes from the show in possibly its most illustrious week ever?

No, just added 5 minutes to the finish time which is now 3.30 - and just enough time on my recording

Mauro

No, they haven't.

It was 50 minutes before, now it's down to 45. So, it's 2:45 - 3:30 now, and for the foreseeable future.

This was like Stone Cold beating The Rock. Always sad to see my favourite getting beat, although when it's Stone Cold, I don't mind much. Sheamus will have his work cutout against Stone Cold on Thursday and I'm really looking forward to see if Finlay can win tomorrow to set up a semi-final against Dude Love. Although I think I can say we're all hoping that Taka Michinoku doesn't win this whole thing.

I can't tell if I'm reading too much into what Ryan said, or if I know exactly what he's saying :S

Thanks everyone! Kirk was one of the first people I spoke to in the c4c community, and I've probably played more games against him than anyone (except a certain Jon O'Neill) and learnt so many exotic words from him, so to be able to play him on screen was an amazing experience. I was happy to get the chances to get 10+ ahead especially with a winner in the first round, as it put the pressure on Kirk. I was feeling really good during this game, but if anyone was going to pull some ridiculous word out that I'd never heard of to get back in the game it'd be Kirk, but thankfully the later rounds were high probability and a bit flat. (Just from today's game I learnt REMORAS, NEDDIES and ALCIDS). And I was also fortunate that both the 6 small and 4 large picks yielded very easy games - the numbers are much harder in the studio. I'd set myself the target of getting to the quarters and the last week of games and in getting a max game achieved more than I'd expected, so I would not have minded losing to a great player and top guy like Kirk.

JUST UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!!! WORDS ARE STARTING TO FAIL ME FOR THE EXCELLENCE OF THIS SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back-to-back max games for Conor, consecutive max games on the show, staggering discovery of words, and Kirk finally loses a game (again).

Tony Atkins wrote:

David Barnard wrote:I think that was a max game, 2 in a row, Conor is just ridiculously good

I believe that it's now 41 maxed rounds in a row for Conor.

Just think if he hadn't tried for soignees in his match with Mark, then it would've been back-to-back-to-back max games

The standard was exceptional, yet again, and will surely continue for the final 4 matches.

Bad luck, Kirk, but being behind from the off needed a sort of Worsley-like recovery to have a chance of winning, but at least you kept up with Conor and still got 12 maxes.

Conor, super awesome yet again, only a mega miracle will probably stop you now, but having got nearly everything wrong in guesswork, I'm not taking anything to chance

I have a feeling that this is gonna be the best week of Countdown yet, which after the previous 7 weeks, is definitely some achievement

James Robinson wrote:JUST UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!!! WORDS ARE STARTING TO FAIL ME FOR THE EXCELLENCE OF THIS SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pretty soon, we're going to need new font sizes, too.

Was psyched to get 12 maxes today. Almost certainly my highest amount ever.

Tried EXTRADO^ in round 11 and was disappointed... is EXTRADOS (presumably a singular noun of Greek origin) still in?

Also, compared to the others we've seen recently, did anybody else find that conundrum quite easy? No offense or slight to Conor -- you were under a lot of pressure and getting it in 0.5 seconds is just insane.

David Barnard wrote:If he would have hansforded the conundrum he would have been technically unbeatable provided he buzzed instantaneously

Seeing as, of all the show's max games, this was the one in which the conundrum was solved the fastest, it could be considered the most perfect game ever. Congrats Conor!

Adam Gillard wrote:You were one of a select few to beat the predictor so far (against Innis), which is something to be proud of.

Kirk actually said after beating Innis that for some reason it didn't quite feel enough. But then it was pointed out that he had beaten the predictor and he was ecstatic.

Anyway, great game (as most of the these are) and a gruesome performance from Conor to get that second max in a row.

Rachel's comment at the end was a bit funny I thought, about getting a time machine and getting all the players at their peak. I'd say that the top players here are all in their top form. Obviously you could pick up Julian Fell, Craig Beevers and Paul Gallen in your time machine and bring them to the tournament - I think they're the only other players who were good enough on the show to compete at the highest level (unless I've forgotten someone). Obviously there's a few Apterites as well.

On the all-time great thing, I think if Conor wins on this form then it's pretty much case closed. For the neutral, I think the best final would be Jack Hurst v Conor. I said before that if Jack (or Ed) won, then they'd be in a brilliant position for all-time great because of their unbeaten status as well as their performance in their series. (Jack Worslet was unbeaten too, but his series performance wasn't quite as good.) But now if Jack Hurst wins, then even with his unbeaten record, there'd still be the caveat that he's probably not really as good as Conor. And if Conor wins, obviously he has been beaten, but then clearly so has everyone else in this tournament. The only unbeaten players are unbeaten because they didn't go the full distance in their Countdown careers.

I think we can also put to bed any claims for Fell, Beevers and Gallen. All three retired and whatever level they reached, I don't think it's as good as Conor now anyway. I'm not sure under what "metric" you could say they were the greatest.

Hang on, does Kirk now have THREE teapots?

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Adam Gillard wrote:You were one of a select few to beat the predictor so far (against Innis), which is something to be proud of.

Kirk actually said after beating Innis that for some reason it didn't quite feel enough. But then it was pointed out that he had beaten the predictor and he was ecstatic.

Anyway, great game (as most of the these are) and a gruesome performance from Conor to get that second max in a row.

Rachel's comment at the end was a bit funny I thought, about getting a time machine and getting all the players at their peak. I'd say that the top players here are all in their top form. Obviously you could pick up Julian Fell, Craig Beevers and Paul Gallen in your time machine and bring them to the tournament - I think they're the only other players who were good enough on the show to compete at the highest level (unless I've forgotten someone). Obviously there's a few Apterites as well.

On the all-time great thing, I think if Conor wins on this form then it's pretty much case closed. For the neutral, I think the best final would be Jack Hurst v Conor. I said before that if Jack (or Ed) won, then they'd be in a brilliant position for all-time great because of their unbeaten status as well as their performance in their series. (Jack Worslet was unbeaten too, but his series performance wasn't quite as good.) But now if Jack Hurst wins, then even with his unbeaten record, there'd still be the caveat that he's probably not really as good as Conor.

I think we can also put to bed any claims for Fell, Beevers and Gallen. All three retired and whatever level they reached, I don't think it's as good as Conor now anyway. I'm not sure under what "metric" you could say they were the greatest.

You've contradicted yourself a bit there.

The problem with Countdown is basically it was only a matter of time before people reached this sort of level. It is a simple game which with Apterous can be practised as much as anyone wants to. At the very top level it comes down to who misses 1-2 maximums or more often the conundrum - which if people decide to Hansford you can't do anything about unless you're willing to cheat yourself. The sample size of TV episodes is nowhere near statistically significant. You could have re-run the event a dozen times with a different draw and you'd get another load of max games and another half a dozen people taking the whole thing out.

It's funny that Countdown on TV is the only thing that really matters, but it is somewhat reduced to a crapshoot because of the skill of top players. To genuinely find the best player you'd need a far longer format which obviously isn't going to be on TV.

Anyway was glad to catch some of the show earlier. Congrats to both on a top game.

Insane. Keep on shining those quids, motherfuckers.

Craig Beevers wrote:You've contradicted yourself a bit there.

If you mean the bit where I said who could compete at the highest level, I mean that they could compete with the top players, but that their previous level still wasn't quite as high as Conor's anyway, and that coupled with their retirement means not the greatest.

Congrats on back-to-back perfect games, Conor.

And commiserations on losing your 100% record, Kirk - though there couldn't possibly have been a better way to lose it.

Bevins and Travers have to be my all time countdown Idols. Amazing to see them play each other live. Conor looks almost unstoppable now, but lets see what happens.

Ryan, in your wrestling analogy, which contestant(s) are these two guys?:
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=-xIYVw3Z ... ZPJk&gl=GB

Well what can I say? Conor is a machine and yet again I thoroughly enjoyed the episode. I was very nervous in this episode and was annoyed to miss FORERIBS and UPTEMPO (I had UPTEMPO on apterous a few weeks before filming) but Conor's conundrum time was phenomenal and there was no chance of me winning. The better man won here and, as I said on the show, the amount of max games he does online is staggering so I'm glad he's taken that form on TV and shown what he is capable of and got back-to-back max games. I find it incredible how before the tournament started there was one max game and now there's been 5 (and could have been 7 had Rawlinson risked MIDSOLE for 3 televised maxes in a row and had Conor not risked SOIGNEES for 3 maxes in a row of his own)!

Anyway it was an absolute delight to play Conor on TV. Regardless of the result of this tournament I regard him as the greatest ever. On top of his incredible speed of thought and word-sponging abilities he's such a lovely bloke and I'm privileged to have competed against him. I'm also privileged to have shared a green room with the brightest minds Countdown has ever seen and thanks to all of you for being so great.

I was mentally exhausted after this and I can finally get back to normal life again. I remember when Conor lost to Gallen he said he was "relieved"...I know what he means now. The concentration levels round after round, game after game, were killing me and I'm glad I could sit in comfort in the green room and watch the remaining 4 games.

Lastly, I'd like to say thanks to Countdown Team for a wonderful and epic journey. It's been a good one and it felt so special to sit in that chair again, so many thanks for asking me to come back.

What an absolute gent. Good arrows mate!

Brilliant game from both. I remember Conor getting himself a drink before the match and being barely able to get the glass to his mouth as he was shaking uncontrollably. He looked as cool as a cucumber once the recording started.

David O'Donnell wrote:Brilliant game from both. I remember Conor getting himself a drink before the match and being barely able to get the glass to his mouth as he was shaking uncontrollably. He looked as cool as a cucumber once the recording started.

Once he was 8-0 up you mean

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Mon Feb 25, 2013 11:47 pm

Craig Beevers wrote:You've contradicted yourself a bit there.

If you mean the bit where I said who could compete at the highest level, I mean that they could compete with the top players, but that their previous level still wasn't quite as high as Conor's anyway, and that coupled with their retirement means not the greatest.

Why bend over backwards to accommodate Craig here, Gevin? A better response:

Tell me where I contradicted myself. Until you do, I'll assume I haven't. Thanks.

Arthur Bennett wrote: ↑Mon Feb 25, 2013 10:02 am

James Robinson wrote:In DC all this week, for only her 2nd stint in DC, is the comedienne and part-time Loose Woman, Jenny Eclair.

I'm actually quite surprised that they've chosen Jenny for this week.

I don't not like her, mind - but, this being the final week of what is basically the second Supreme Championship, did they not consider Gyles at any stage? Or any of the modern-day regulars, like Paul Zenon or Tim Vine?

Jon Corby wrote: ↑Mon Feb 25, 2013 11:09 am I agree Arthur, nothing against Jenny but she is a surprising choice.

I'm not sure I've ever seen any evidence that they choose the "better" guests for more important games, so I wouldn't expect them to change tack here.

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Mon Feb 25, 2013 9:56 pm Rachel's comment at the end was a bit funny I thought, about getting a time machine and getting all the players at their peak. I'd say that the top players here are all in their top form.

I was considering posting this today, but it's already been done.

Quarter-Final 3 2020 Word Update

The max would have increased by five (from 119 to 124), if played today, as there was a 7 available in Round 6 and there were 8's available in Rounds 2, 3 & 11, that weren't available in 2013.

And yet again, a potential MAX GAME would be denied before the end of the first half....

New Words Now Allowed:

R2: NODULIZE (increases MAX from 7 to 8)
R3: OPINABLE (increases MAX from 7 to 8)
R6: GLADIUS (increases MAX from 6 to 7)
R7: ALLERION, ROTALINE
R11: OUTDARED (increases MAX from 6 to 8!!)
R13: ROMEITES