c4countdown

Jen Steadman keeps improving her average, with a 14 maxer yesterday. Can she get a 4th? Even if she doesn't, she'll probably be in the current top 8 win or lose, but obviously the more wins the better.

Join James for the recap later.

Another excellent ton, well done Jen.

Today's episode reminded me of the 80's game show: "Beat the Teacher".

WD again Jen! Everyone missed a 7 in round 10, so looks like 13 max game.

Ian was definitely unlucky, especially going for sandings when SENDINGS was ok.

Round 12: Jessica's believes that Ian's offering of SANDINGS should be allowed as the OED lists the word as a noun under the verb part of SAND on page 1575 of our edition of OED. Even though Lexplorer says not.

Well done Jen. impressive performance. Rumours in the Scrabble world by one certain bearded, Jewish, Scotsman are suggesting that your next opponent is one of ours. He's being so cryptic that we are not sure. If we are right the man in question (Ray Tate) participated in a Charity Fund Raising Scrabble 24 hours doodah with Craig Beevers.

Mauro/Jessica

throaty for a dc-beater - not sure what round it was in

Lol, spotted CORONAE when I was there in person, missed it today. Getting old.

Andy Platt wrote:Lol, spotted CORONAE when I was there in person, missed it today. Getting old.

Taxi for Platt.

Jojo Apollo wrote:

Andy Platt wrote:Lol, spotted CORONAE when I was there in person, missed it today. Getting old.

Taxi for Platt.

This.

Superb yet again, Jen! Your opponent was a brilliant laugh too.

MPINGOS in round 11 to equal NOISOME.

Wasn't ASSENDING there for a 9 in one round?

Dave Preece wrote:Wasn't ASSENDING there for a 9 in one round?

Unfortunately it's ASCENDING.

And there's the reason I probably wont go on Countdown, LOL!

Thanks everyone! My opponent was so entertaining, can't wait to watch this episode in particular when I get home from travelling. By some weird coincidence he hails from the same teeny tiny Suffolk village as my uni housemate, and actually taught her at school. Small world!

szodiac wrote:Well done Jen. impressive performance. Rumours in the Scrabble world by one certain bearded, Jewish, Scotsman are suggesting that your next opponent is one of ours. He's being so cryptic that we are not sure. If we are right the man in question (Ray Tate) participated in a Charity Fund Raising Scrabble 24 hours doodah with Craig Beevers.

Mauro/Jessica

Sorry to ruin the crypticness, but he is indeed my opponent tomorrow. I thought it was slightly odd that he had a proper Scrabble board backstage, but it was only when we started chatting that I realised he was a serious Scrabbler. Him saying he'd beaten the world #1 several times wasn't exactly tonic for the nerves

Jennifer Steadman wrote:

szodiac wrote:Well done Jen. impressive performance. Rumours in the Scrabble world by one certain bearded, Jewish, Scotsman are suggesting that your next opponent is one of ours. He's being so cryptic that we are not sure. If we are right the man in question (Ray Tate) participated in a Charity Fund Raising Scrabble 24 hours doodah with Craig Beevers.

Mauro/Jessica

Sorry to ruin the crypticness, but he is indeed my opponent tomorrow. I thought it was slightly odd that he had a proper Scrabble board backstage, but it was only when we started chatting that I realised he was a serious Scrabbler. Him saying he'd beaten the world #1 several times wasn't exactly tonic for the nerves

Eddie was saying that to me while we were in the audience during this episode, but more on that tomorrow.

Fantastic performance yet again, Jen. I actually still remember you asking me and Eddie as you walked off the set how many maxes you'd got, which was very touching, then we pointed out that THROATY had been missed by everybody, but then you got a nice extra round of applause which was a lovely touch.

BURPEES/PUEBLOS/REPULSE in round 1 and obviously THROATY in round 10.

Well done Jen. You look so awkward (no, awkward isn't right but I'm too lazy to find better) about receiving public flattery! And yeah that guy was a beauty today. Whattaguy.

szodiac wrote:Round 12: Jessica's believes that Ian's offering of SANDINGS should be allowed as the OED lists the word as a noun under the verb part of SAND on page 1575 of our edition of OED. Even though Lexplorer says not.

Relevant entry for SAND:

ODE3 wrote:verb [with obj.] 1. smooth or polish with sandpaper or a mechanical sander: mask off the area to be painted and sand it down | (as noun sanding) some recommend a light sanding between the second and third coats.

Yep, I agree. I don't see anything in the book that says you can't pluralise the noun SANDING (no "mass noun", no "in singular"), and it seems perfectly reasonable to do so. Suppose you sanded it down between the first and second coat as well as after the second. You did two sandings.

Also Susie's offering of AIRDATE^ in R2 isn't valid as it's two words, although it used to be one.

Well played again, Jen.

Following on from Rachel's suggestion that Jen is the best female player... today's 130 was the highest ever score by a female contestant. (I'm never really sure if we should focus on gender-divided records like that - doing so might carry an implication that women can't compete with men so need their own set of records. On the other hand, it's still a notable milestone and a memorable achievement, breaking a record that's stood for ten years. Discuss.)

Graeme Cole wrote:Following on from Rachel's suggestion that Jen is the best female player... today's 130 was the highest ever score by a female contestant. (I'm never really sure if we should focus on gender-divided records like that - doing so might carry an implication that women can't compete with men so need their own set of records. On the other hand, it's still a notable milestone and a memorable achievement, breaking a record that's stood for ten years. Discuss.)

I don't think we should get obsessed with it, but it's something that can be mentioned. Although one might argue that in a totally non-sexist society, the distinction is as arbitrary as whether someone has an even or odd number of hairs on their head, the fact is that real-life humans in real-life situations notice these things, and notice that there are men and there are women and not everything about them is the same.

Corby told me I was wrong.

Sandings is definitely fine Matt you nonce, the description even states "a ... sanding". If you can have a [noun], you can pluralise it. You've just invented the whole "sanding down" thing.

Also, well done Jen on breaking the "highest score by a female" record. What was it before? I'm guessing somewhere in the 50s or maybe 60s?

It only takes a casual look at the list of series winners and octochamps to realise that pretty well all the very best players have been male. The last female series winner was in 1998 and in the 15-round era only Grace Page in 2002 has even broken 800 points. Assuming that she doesn't trip up in the next few days, Jen's performance is the best by a female contestant by a country mile.

Cracking play; cracking score!