C1: Champion John Gardner (1 win, 82 points), and surely one of the most likable contestants of all time. According to Nick, he's a dead ringer (vocally, at least) for John Arlott, and he does have cricket connections as he was once a chairman of Somerset cricket club. After John's win yesterday, we again see a new face in the Champion's chair for the third game in a row.
C2: Challenger Jill Hayward, a member of Ellingham water skiing club. Apparently she is also a monoskier. Good 9, that, by the way. She'll be looking to win today to make it FOUR games in a row whereby we see a new face in the Champion's chair.
DC: Susie Dent and Paul Zenon.
RR: Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.
R01: C N M S O E A E N
R02: L R T N O U E S A
R03: 100, 9, 9, 10, 1, 6. Target: 626.
TTT: ARCBASIS - "This plant sounds like it's a bit skint"
R04: N L N R I O E V A
R05: R S N X I O I S U
R06: 75, 4, 8, 2, 10, 3. Target: 482.
R07: K T D Q A O E R A
R08: B F V P G I E O T
R09: 50, 10, 4, 2, 1, 7. Target: 844.
TTT: FIRCONES - "Fir cones come from these sort of trees"
R10: R T H S I A I O R
R11: S H G S A E I Y A
R12: T N D F I O E C A
R13: S N M R O E A S O
R14: 50, 10, 4, 6, 10, 1. Target: 144.
R15: D A R I N G H E N (conundrum)
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Round 1: C N M S O E A E N
C1: CANOES (6)
C2: SEAMEN (6)
DC: MENACES (7)
OT: ANEMONES (8)
Score: 6–6 (max 8)
A level start as the contestants both get off the mark here, and echoes of Jill's nautical connections play out in this round. DC come up with the solid MENACES for 7, but there is a nice 8 there with ANEMONES, which, you guessed it, is a plant.
Round 2: L R T N O U E S A
C1: ROUTES (6)
C2: NEUTRAL (7)
DC: NEUTRALS (8) TURNSOLE (8)
Score: 6–13 (max 16)
Jill misses an opportunity to pluralise NEUTRAL - those of us who are fans of team sports will use the term NEUTRALS regularly, but perhaps Jill sticks to the waves. John can only unearth a 6 in this round and thus he falls 7 points behind.
Round 3: 100, 9, 9, 10, 1, 6. Target: 626.
C1: 627. Mistake in working.
C2: 627. 100 x 6 + 9 + 9 + 10 - 1 (7)
RR: 626. (9 - 1) x 9 x 10 - 100 + 6 (10)
Score: 6–20 (max 26)
This is really unfortunate for John - his method looks completely fine until he thinks he has gone wrong, when really he could have continued. Jill carries on where John left off to sweep up a very solid 7 points in a very tricky numbers round. Rachel needs the entirety of the round to solve it, but she comes up with a cracker.
Teatime teaser: ARCBASIS -> BRASSICA
Round 4: N L N R I O E V A
C1: LOANER (6)
C2: AILERON (7)
DC: OVERLAIN (8)
Score: 6–27 (max 34)
A classic Countdown spot from Jill, who is quickly starting to look like she really knows her stuff. An AILERON is part of an aircraft's wing, but you've probably heard Susie define it so many times by now that you knew that, right? John is still struggling with just a 6 in LOANER, but DC come up with the excellent OVERLAIN for 8.
Round 5: R S N X I O I S U
C1: RUNS (4)
C2: IRONS (5)
DC: RUINS (5)
OT: ROSINS (6)
Score: 6–32 (max 40)
A pretty putrid looking round that yields just one obscure 6. ROSIN is a solid form of resin. Jill takes her fourth round in a row with a very solid 5 in IRONS, but John has the RUNS. This lead is already starting to look pretty insurmountable.
Round 6: 75, 4, 8, 2, 10, 3. Target: 482.
C1: 482. 3 x 2 x 75 + 4 x 8 (10)
C2: 482. 3 x 2 x 75 + 4 x 8 (10)
Score: 16–42 (max 50)
Yep, a few ways to get this, but this is probably the one most people would take. Really solid stuff from both contestants, can John get a bit of momentum back after scoring his first points for 5 rounds?
In the guest section today, Paul does a neat trick involving key cards. He gives Rachel a blank key card and gets her to write a number on it. He then puts it back into the pile and gets her to randomly draw one out. He pretends the trick hasn't worked but he actually had the correct one in his wallet all along. I'm not sure how he did it, my guess would be he knew that Rachel would say 666 for some reason; perhaps he'd been giving her a Derren Brown style working over before the show to get her to be thinking of that number?
Round 7: K T D Q A O E R A
C1: TAKER (5)
C2: karted
DC: KARATE (6)
OT: ORATED (6)
Score: 21–42 (max 56)
Jill tries to pull further ahead and risks KARTED^. It's a very plausible attempt, as you surely you talk about karting, but it doesn't make it in as a verb and Susie has to disallow it. John's TAKER takes a few points out of Jill's lead but he'll still need either a very good performance from here out or a few mistakes from Jill to see a crucial conundrum.
Round 8: B F V P G I E O T
C1: BEFIT (5)
C2: BIGOT (5)
DC: PIVOT (5)
OT: BEFOG (5) BEGOT (5) BOGIE (5) BOITE (5) OGIVE (5)
Score: 26–47 (max 61)
No mistake here from either contestant. One of those rounds where you think there might be a ridiculous 6 hidden away, but there are just a few 5s apparently. One I see come up a lot on apterous is OGIVE, which according to wikipedia is the roundly tapered end of a two-dimensional or three-dimensional object. Interesting stuff.
Round 9: 50, 10, 4, 2, 1, 7. Target: 844.
C1: 845. Mistake in working.
C2: nothing offered
RR: 844. (10 + 7) x 50 - 4 - 2 (10) - edited - thanks GB for pointing it out
Score: 26–47 (max 71)
What looks like a relatively straightforward solve if you're pretty solid with your 50 times table leaves the contestants struggling here. Things aren't quite so easy from the chair, particularly if it is 844 you are looking to get. Rachel cleans up with the most straightforward solve available.
Teatime teaser: FIRCONES -> CONIFERS
Round 10: R T H S I A I O R
C1: RATIOS (6)
C2: RATIOS (6)
DC: AORIST (6)
OT: ARISTO (6) ROSTRA (6) SATORI (6) SIRRAH (6) THORIA (6)
Score: 32–53 (max 77)
Again another of those tricky rounds that maybe looks like it has one or two obscure 7s lying around, but alas it does not, as both contestants max out with the very solid RATIOS. Dictionary Corner offer AORIST which is a term from grammar.
Round 11: S H G S A E I Y A
C1: SHAGS (5)
C2: SIGHS (5)
DC: ASSEGAI (7) GEISHAS (7)
Score: 37–58 (max 84)
Haha, not sure what to say about the contestants' declarations here!
Feel free to insert your own innuendo (see what I did there?). GEISHAS is a pretty good spot by DC, but ASSEGAI is even more impressive. It's a type of throwing spear, as Nick correctly identifies. Full respect to him for knowing an obscure word. Maybe he encountered a few during his recent trip to Africa?In Origins of Words, Susie is talking about alcohol again. Maybe she has some issues that need discussing. Preferably over a large gin and tonic
Apparently, Roman bartenders used to give their patrons glasses with uneven bottoms. This was partly due to the imprecise nature of the glass-blowing process, but it was exploited by the landlords as customers then had to hold their glasses - and clearly it's much easier to casually drink your mead when you're constantly holding the glass rather than having it resting on the table. Cheeky sods. Susie also discusses the origin of the word "hooch", a shortening of a name of a native Indian tribe in Alaska, the Hoochinoo people, who had a reputation for drunkenness. (Sounds like my sort of tribe).
Round 12: T N D F I O E C A
C1: factioned
C2: factioned
DC: ACTIONED (8)
OT: CATENOID (8)
Score: 37–58 (max 92)
Jill decides it's time to go in for the kill with a 9 she admits is a risk. John has seen it as well, but is similarly unconvinced, but he decides that if Jill's going to risk it then he can't afford to let her get away with the game at this late stage, so he follows her in... but no, it's not valid, Susie confirms after checking its full listing in the dictionary that FACTION is only a noun. ACTIONED comes out of DC, and where there's an actioned, there's its nerdy sibling CATENOID too. It's a surface in 3-dimensional Euclidean space arising by rotating a catenary curve about its directrix. Dunno why I defined it really, clearly everybody knows what a Euclidean catenary directrix is....
As a strategical aside, I wonder, with being over 10 points down, whether it would have made sense for John to play safe there? I mean, sure, if you're 11 points up, or indeed fewer than 10 points down, sure, just copy your opponent, with the logical safety net that nothing can go wrong (presuming you have the same word), but when behind, maybe it's better to take a risk? Desperate times and desperate measures and all that. In a weird convoluted way, the calculated risk here might well have been to play safe. If he did, he'd only need to win one of the next two rounds to force a crucial, but now he needs to win both rounds, and that's a pretty big ask when Jill is playing some good stuff and indeed has the final numbers pick. Not that I'm criticising John or anything, it's just an interesting thing to think about. Anyway...
Round 13: S N M R O E A S O
C1: MAROONS (7)
C2: MOANERS (7)
DC: SERMONS (7) OARSMEN (7)
OT: MASOORS (7) NOSEMAS (7) RAMSONS (7) RANSOMS (7) REASONS (7)
Score: 44–65 (max 99)
Yeah, another one of those rounds that maybe looks like it has more in it than it actually does. I reckon both of these contestants are good enough to nail ROMANISES, so it's pretty unfortunate for them that the last vowel has to be an O, but nevertheless, both contestants mop up this round with really solid maxes to keep the scores ticking along. By maxing this round, Jill has now forced a win and cannot be beaten. Hard cheese for John, who I am obviously a big fan of.
Round 14: 50, 10, 4, 6, 10, 1. Target: 144.
C1: 144. (3 - 1) x 50 - 6 (10)
C2: 144. 10 x 10 + 50 - 6 (10)
Score: 54–75 (max 109)
Yep, the easiest numbers selection of the day means the contestants can rest their weary minds a little before the conundrum.
Round 15: D A R I N G H E N
C2 buzzes on 2 seconds to say HARDENING which is correct.
Final Score: 54–85 (max 119)
A good quick solve from our challenger, but strangely she didn't seem to be looking at her screen as the conundrum was revealed. As soon as she looks at the letters she has it, so I wonder if we'd have been seeing a solve time that was more appropriate for the likes of Giles Hutchings or Jack Hurst if she was paying more attention!
It's disappointing to have to see John depart. He comes across very well on screen, a very interesting guy and very charming. But he'll be sticking around in the studio for a while as his wife is apparently on next week! Perhaps if Jill keeps winning then Mrs Gardner might be able to get revenge?!?!
Have a good weekend guys and join us again to watch Jill play out her first game seated in the Champion's chair, but not before watching the second of two 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown specials tonight. I'm pretty sure it's at 9pm, but please don't take my word for it if you're keen to watch it! General TV legend and knowledge guru Richard Osman will be there. Dunno about you, but I can't wait.
Further summaries are at:
http://www.apterous.org/cdb/series.php?series=68
