Andy Platt wrote:Edit: terrible conundrum scramble, was really slow with that because it threw me.
Surely this means it wasn't that terrible?
I think it's good that they occasionally have scrambles where many of the letters are in the right place, just to send a message that you can't always rely on the opposite being true. I believe the apterous conundrum scrambler checks scrambles to make sure they don't look too much like the answer. So, for example, if on apterous you see ING spelt out in the scramble, you know the answer isn't an -ING word. No such help on Countdown.
Andy Platt wrote:Also, how did this Dan guy win on Friday? I wouldn't like to make a habit of criticising contestants as I know it can be tough to deal with being on TV, but he was truly terrible.
Disagree on "truly terrible". He
wasn't that bad on Friday. Sure, we've seen better, but there's been much worse. Today his worst moments seemed to be the misdeclaration of MOVIES and forgetting to put a D on the end of SEDATE (despite still winning the round). Anyone can make those mistakes, particularly the second one. Everyone has good days and bad days. Same argument applies to people who say "how did so-and-so pass his audition" - nobody performs at the same level all of the time.
I think Tony has a point, too. The first recording day of a block starts and finishes later than the others. So if you're on one of those days, you turn up in the early afternoon, finish at about 9pm, and then you have to be back at 9.30 the next morning to be plonked half-asleep in the champion's chair for the first game of the day. All of a sudden it becomes much easier to think words aren't in the selection when they are, and miss numbers rounds you'd otherwise see in 5-10 seconds. (Citation:
my fifth game, where all of the above happened - I only won it thanks to a bit of luck in the third part.)
