c4countdown

So, we now have a full week on Countdown again, since the Grand National is now over and done with.

And not a moment too soon, as we have another hot property now occupying the champions' chair in Giles Hutchings fresh from his 129 début last Wednesday.

Is he destined for greatness, or are we putting too much into it..........

Julia Bradbury will be finishing off her 5 days in DC this week, before the switchover on Wednesday.

But, someone who isn't changing over is Graeme Cole, who will be joining us later with his recap.

The COREA runner up wins again and get 6th place on the largest margin list, though shame about him missing 530.
The unlucky Mike Lee gets 8th place on the low scores list for his pains.

Well done Giles!

Another solid performance.

Methinks Mike Lee gave up after Giles went 18 up after the first round

Nice of Giles to let Mike have a few points here and there otherwise it would have been a massive whitewash.

Some great words from Giles though - keep it up. Although much depends on the quality of opponents, which for this series, IMO, have been very weak.

Jessica got HEARSAY as a beater in round 10.

Mauro/Jessica

Not often I get to see the show at broadcast time, so that was nice. Great play again Giles, if you can keep anything like this level of scoring up then an insane 8-game score could well be coming.

Nothing I haven't just said in private chat but awesome again, don't worry about the numbers. Conundrum speed absolutely immense, again!

Mauro wrote:Methinks Mike Lee gave up after Giles went 18 up after the first round
Nice of Giles to let Mike have a few points here and there otherwise it would have been a massive whitewash.
Some great words from Giles though - keep it up. Although much depends on the quality of opponents, which for this series, IMO, have been very weak.
Jessica got HEARSAY as a beater in round 10.
Mauro/Jessica

Kind of agree with you about the giving up thing - I got that impression too.
HEARSAY is good. SEEDLING & SLEIGHED were there in one of the rounds too as alternatives to what DC offered.

Not watched yet obviously. I AM AT WORK. But did Giles really give this guy points? I did not think we were ok with that. Or maybe we are. I forget.

SPOILERS HERE (the text is white) During the 530 round, I was stuck on using 125*4 to get it, as with the previous round. I really didn't see the obvious way of 106*5 or 600-75-4-1. Well, I only missed getting 117 (biggest margin ever)

Here's how I did today... with my filming just a week today, I am full on in practice mode.

R1 - DOMINATES
R2 - FOAMED
R3 - On Target (4 + 3= 7 x 25 = 175. 2 + 2 = 4. 175 - 4 = 171)
R4 - LOAFERS
R5 - BURPED
R6 - On Target (6 + 1 = 7 x 75 = 525 + 4 = 529)
R7 - BALMIER
R8 - GROUTS
R9 - 1 Away (4 + 1 = 5 x 100 = 500. 25 + 6 + 500 = 531)
R10 - HAIRY
R11 - DRAWERS
R12 - slinged (Disallowed. I had a ton of trouble with this selection, unusual for a one containing ING)
R13 - PANTED
R14 - On Target (100 x 3 = 300. 7 x 2 = 14 + 300 = 314)
Conundrum - Giles beat me (and pretty much the entire country I'm guessing) so can't comment on how I would have done against Mike.

Calculating this, I would have been winning 94-16 going into the conundrum against Mike while Giles would have beaten me 119-82.

NOTES:
- Rachel looked great in her pink and white dress today.
- Here's a tip... never use 'So' to begin a sentence in front of Susie. Apparently it really irks her.
- Mike didn't even bother declaring his word when Giles announced he had nine in Round 1... and he seemed to give up from there. I felt sorry for him, he had some bad luck even if he did put forward some obviously incorrect words.

No-one (that I've seen from a cursory glance) has pointed out BILINEAR in r7...

Zarte Siempre wrote:No-one (that I've seen from a cursory glance) has pointed out BILINEAR in r7...

Yeah, I got that too. Actually had a max game, if I hadn't thought the conundrum was SATINIZED, rather than SANITIZED.

3rd Numbers Alt.: (6 x 100) - (25 x 3) + 4 + 1 = 530

Well done again though, Giles. Another good performance.

Zarte Siempre wrote:No-one (that I've seen from a cursory glance) has pointed out BILINEAR in r7...

Nice one I thought I had a beater with NIMBLIER in that round

Well done Giles, another solid ton win.

I was hoping for ^ENGLISHED in R12, but it needs a capital E

szodiac wrote:Methinks Mike Lee gave up after Giles went 18 up after the first round

Nice of Giles to let Mike have a few points here and there otherwise it would have been a massive whitewash.

Think that's a tad unfair and I don't think Giles was 'letting' Mike have a few points here and there. Mike had to take a few risks against a contestant like Giles but unfortunately they just didn't come off for him on the day. He was probably resigned to losing quite early on but to say he gave up is a bit harsh.

Sorry, should also have said very well done to Giles - another very strong performance and scary conundrum solve!

Peter Mabey wrote:I was hoping for ^ENGLISHED in R12, but it needs a capital E

I thought of that as well - "to english" is an old verb meaning "to translate into English", and as far as I'm concerned verbs derived from proper nouns can be spelt with small initial letters (e.g. "hoover"). I probably wouldn't have risked it though.

Would "anglicize" with a small "a" be allowed?

'English' is a common term from billiard sports, referring to spin applied to the ball. I remember this being discussed in aptochat quite recently. It's used with a small 'e' (and as a verb; 'englished' is valid in CSW) in pool circles, but ODE lists it as a noun under the headword 'English'. Well done so far Giles, looking forward to more - TUGRIKS in particular was excellent. I'd agree that Mike didn't give up, he was clearly disheartened but to say he gave up is a really harsh assessment of the game.

Guy Barry wrote:Would "anglicize" with a small "a" be allowed?

It has been, although in this case, it was with the S, rather than the Z: http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_5003