c4countdown

John Garcia

Another great score from Hazel
R2 - INFLAMER for 8

John Garcia

R1 - NAPPIEST as an alt 8
R3 - (7 x 8) + 3 = 59; (59 x 10) + 6 - 25 = 571
Ridiculously good standard of play. I couldn't keep up.
Heat 84 btw.

John Garcia

Very sad to see Oliver go: high standard and even contest determined by fine margins; one of those games that felt like a finals match in all but name.

It was a very good game. I think most expected Owen (not Oliver?) to become an octochamp!

Changing your name mid-game is always a losing ...

John Garcia

This has come up a few times before, most recently almost exactly a year ago on 9th October 2025:

https://www.c4countdown.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=216890

p.s. I think I've just worked out that the letters repeat more or less every 365 days.

John Garcia

1st Numbers
Way out of time, but managed to find:
50 - (75/25) = 47; 10 + 7 = 17; 47 x 17 = 799; 799 + 100 = 899

R4: PROBITY for 7

John Garcia

I thought POTAGES would now be illegal, but as DC pointed out it's fine. The OD definition says:

[mass noun]
thick soup: coarse, spicy potage
[count noun] : recipes for soups or potages

But then you look up the entry for SOUP you get:

noun
[mass noun]
1a liquid dish, typically savoury ...

John Garcia

4th numbers: 50, 75, 25, 10, 6, 5 -> 858
75 + 6 + 5 = 86; 86 x 10 = 860; 860 - (50/25) = 858

Make mine a pistachio and mango.

John Garcia

SPOLIATED for 9 in R10

As Colin alluded to, easiest 4 numbers ever?

John Garcia

yeah R14 was a ridiculously good spot.

R8 - AGONISTS for 8

John Garcia

Adam Dexter wrote: Fri Jul 03, 2026 4:37 pm Error in final numbers, and C1 given 7 points that he shouldn't have been.

4L 3 8 -> 272

3 x 100 = 300
100/50 = 2, 8/2 = 4
300 - 25 - 4 = 271

Unnoticed by Rachel, but used the 100 twice!

Well spotted. I was too busy wondering why they didn't do (8 x 25) + 75 - 3

John Garcia

Hi everyone!

My first blog entry can be found here: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/preview/5503772283117315011/3799260100876460426

This is the only time I'm doing this, so please follow me if you can.

If you want people to view your blog you need to publish the post then share the url ...

John Garcia

Sausages?

It's listed as a (non-mass) noun first (1), then (1.1) as a mass noun. So sausages is fine.

noun
1 an item of food in the form of a cylindrical length of minced pork or other meat encased in a skin, typically sold raw to be grilled or fried before eating.
1.1[mass noun] minced and ...

John Garcia

I entirely agree. This felt like a Champion of Champions final in all but name. But I thought all the conundrums in these finals were pitched just right.

I thought the first 3 conundrums in the finals were too easy (I got them in <5, <5 and <15 seconds and I'm not that good at conundrums). I ...

John Garcia

To be clear: this is a change made to Countdown and not a change made to Oxford Dictionaries Premium.

Would have been funnier if you'd said: "To be clear: this is a change made to Countdown and not a change made to restaurant menus"
Seriously though I think it's a good change.
The existence of ...

John Garcia

Great final! Commiserations to Charlie, who was near flawless. Looking forward to the CoC already, where my money will firmly be on Patrick!

John Garcia

R13 - AEROFOIL for 8

John Garcia

I thought conundrum was a bit easy. Can't see anyone beating Patrick.

John Garcia

Was it good refereeing? I've seen people counted out for far less. Maybe they thought it wouldn't matter because Karen also had 750 to clinch the game, but she could have gone wrong and Sam could have got the conundrum...

Fair point. It's a judgement call, but I thought he was just on the very ...

John Garcia

R10 - LACROSSE for 8
Good refereeing in the final numbers allowing Sam to get his solution in.
Also this was one of the rare occasions for me to get a conundrum where either a) I don't know the word, and b) Rachel doesn't get it, or in this case both.

John Garcia

R3 - FARSIDES for a DC-beating very topical 8

John Garcia

R4 - MIDPOINT as an alt 8 to PIEDMONT
R10 - STOMATA for 7

John Garcia

4th Numbers:
100, 75, 50, 3, 5, 8 -> 987
Way out of time, but eventually found:
75/3 = 25; ((100 x 50) - 25) /5 = 995; 995 - 8 = 987.

John Garcia

I presume so. It's on Apterous and this thing .

Ok thanks. My bad. SONNIES as a search doesn't lead anywhere in the dictionary, but SONNY is not listed as a mass noun so it should be ok. I was expecting an auto-redirect but I guess the plural needs to be explicitly specified for auto-redirect ...

John Garcia

Gevin Chapwell wrote: Tue Mar 24, 2026 3:18 pm SONNIES as a beater in one of the rounds.

I had that as a candidate word too, but it's not valid in the current dictionary. Did it used to be in?

John Garcia

Philip A wrote: Tue Mar 24, 2026 2:57 pm In Round 1, Susie’s offering of HEMATIC is invalid as it is an American spelling:

Thanks I missed that error!

Philip A wrote: Tue Mar 24, 2026 2:57 pm But THEMATIC was an excellent get. I had ANTHEMIC

In Round 14 I did ((5+4)*9+1)*4=328

Close game!

I had THEMATIC and did the numbers the same way.

John Garcia

Susie makes an error in this episode. She said CODING doesn’t take an S, but actually CODINGS is perfectly valid according to the dictionary:

[COUNT NOUN]
A code assigned to something for classification or identification purposes:
PAYE codings

Thanks for that. I was sure it was correct, but ...

John Garcia

3rd Numbers:
100, 10, 10, 8, 5, 9 -> 694
Out of time but I found:
100 - (10/5) = 98; 98 * 8 = 784; 784 - (9 x 10) = 694.

John Garcia

OK, it's Jigsaw. I discussed it with a few people and that's what came out of it. It was something I considered but wasn't really aware of most of the connections.

Ok yep you got it! Sorry I'll make it easier next time, or leave the question setting to the experts such as the fellow below ...

John Garcia

Sophie Ellis-Bexter's mum (Janet Ellis?) has been on Blue Peter? If it's that, I wouldn't have got it from most of the clues. But it's not really early 80s specifically anyway so probably not that. Am I in the right ballpark? Blue Peter does sound like a good baddie though.

Correct! Janet Ellis ...

John Garcia

Gevin Chapwell wrote: Wed Mar 18, 2026 5:10 pm Don't know!

Final clue: It's a puzzle

Bonus clue: The TV presenters daughter is a famous pop singer who herself has been a DC guest (more times than her mum who has only been on 1 week).

John Garcia

R3: I thought (50+8) x 4 = 232 and then 100/(75-25) for the 2 to add on was an easier solution
R5: SHALIEST for 8

John Garcia

Gavin Chipper wrote: Thu Mar 05, 2026 1:04 pm Yeah, maybe a 4th...

4. You'll find this in a workshop

If that's still not enough, the Horror film the baddie is from is a franchise (quite a famous one).

John Garcia

It won't let me edit old posts so just to reiterate:

1. Kids TV show from the early 1980's (presenter of which has been a DC guest)
2. Horror film baddie
3. Clothes shop / brand

John Garcia

Gavin Chipper wrote: Tue Mar 03, 2026 10:31 pm Is there a third clue?

Have updated clue 1 to be early 80's. Also clue 3

3. Clothes shop / brand

I can give a 4th if it's still too cryptic.

John Garcia

P.s. that was a fun game Colin invented today. I came up with a similar game, this time a word not a person:
1. Kids TV show from the 1980's.
2. Horror film baddie

John Garcia

R5 - DESOLATED for 9

John Garcia

Luke becomes the 4th octochamp of the series and it's still only February. 0 points from the last 2 rounds means 913 instead of potentially 933 but he's still number 1 seed.

To see him miss today's conundrum was a surprise. I almost get the impression he would do better if he just treated it ...

John Garcia

This “restaurant rule” is rubbish. Scrap it.

Agree 100%. The issue isn't whether you could feasibly use a word in a particular way in real life, but whether it is specified in the dictionary. It doesn't make sense to have a single rule overriding the dictionary for one type of noun (foods), but ...

John Garcia

I didn't get it, but HATORADE was in round 12. Also that final numbers that Rachel got late by doing 473 + 100 = 573, I got two completely different (and I would argue much more straightforward) ways in the time:

100*(4+1)+9*7+10 = 573
(100+9*10+1)*(7-4) = 573

Her way was (9*4+7)*(10+1)+100 ...

John Garcia

Gavin Chipper wrote: Mon Feb 16, 2026 5:09 pm Probably shouldn't put spoilers for later episodes without hiding it in some way. But I'm taking the points anyway.

Oops. Have amended. That's the closest I could get for hiding, unless someone has a better way?

John Garcia

Anybody got an explanation for posset, possetted, possetting and cosset, cosseted, cosseting?
No, I thought not.

Wanna hear something funny? [Spoiler info for Monday 16th Feb]
On Monday's episode possets came up, and Susie mentioned the word possetting in the explanation, only the sub-titler ...

John Garcia

I quite liked the content warning. Was waiting for Susie Dent to explode into an expletive-laden rant, which sadly never materialised. Maybe one day.

John Garcia

How did they not spot that Henry is a P.E. teacher?
Today's episode came with a "Danger Guidance" warning on 4od. I think I know why:
R1: AMNIOTES as an alt 8
R2: PEAKIER for 7
R4: URCHINS for 7
R12: SPOILAGE as an alt 8, but the dict suggests PILOTAGES for 9 would be valid, as it's listed as a noun ...

John Garcia

R13: MARINATE for an 8 seemed fairly obvious
3rd Numbers I did (9+7)x3=48; 48-10=38; (38x10)+1=381

John Garcia

R2 - GALIPOT as an alt 7
R10 - DUNGAREES as an alt 9 to UNGREASED

John Garcia

After talks of The Traitors possibly peaking out in 2026 in the same way as Big Brother, The X Factor and The Apprentice did in 2004, 2010 and 2012 respectively according to popular opinion

Is this the same popular opinion that voted for Brexit? :D
I would argue that Big Brother peaked in 2000 ...

John Garcia

2nd Numbers: 9 - 2 = 7; then 7 x 7 x 7 + 5 = 348 was a much more elegant solution IMHO.
I'm a simple man. I see a cube, I use a cube.

John Garcia

That first numbers could be done more easily with 75×8-7+100/25 = 597.

That's the way I did it too.

p.s. anyone else notice the backhander Rachel gave Megel when he chose 4 large in the 1st numbers:
"Your favourite that you've prepared for, and we've seen evidence of that now"

:D :) ;)

John Garcia

Countdown presenter Rachel Riley was left "in genuine fear for her personal safety" after receiving death threats from a former contestant who developed a menacing grudge. Laura Greenwood made it to the quarter finals of the Channel 4 game show before being sectioned, after which the convicted ...

John Garcia

A significant proportion of the comments on the Daily Mail article also think this is fake:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... s-job.html

John Garcia

Well I think as we discussed off forum, the fact that he solved that easier one in more time than the other harder ones pretty much shows the other ones to be not legitimate. He may have solved some of them in some amount of time, but the filming would have been afterwards and a "reconstruction ...

John Garcia

Well done to Jase, not just for winning, but for keeping his shirt tucked in at the end!
Commiseration to Brett who showed great sportsmanship throughout.
A fitting end to a superb series!

John Garcia

Game of the series IMHO.
Ben was unlucky to choose the disallowed underlap instead of UNDERLIP.
Had he have gone with the correct word we would have had a 116 116 tie before a crucial conundrum.
That would have been the icing on the cake, but as it is, still the best game of the series.

p.s. Ben ...

John Garcia

Can't be sure about legitimacy, but they look legit, and as one of the comments said, you try getting a 4 year old to learn a script and recite it that convincingly - easier to do the maths!

In this instance learning a script is impressive, but way more realistic than what this kid is ...

John Garcia

1st numbers:
Pretty much the usual method
(25 x 4) + 9 = 109; 109 x 9 = 981; 981 - (7x2) = 967

John Garcia

I'm predicting 1 will beat 5 and 2 will beat 3 to set up 1 v 2 in the final, where 1 will win.

John Garcia

2nd Numbers alt:
(3 x 25) - 9 - 5 = 61; (61 x 10) - 4 = 606

John Garcia

Gavin Chipper wrote: Tue Dec 09, 2025 4:45 pm Standard method for that first numbers was clearly 100×50/8-75/25=622. Positively jumped out.

Jumped out to me too. 625 is an incredibly useful product to know with 4 large.

R11: MESHUGA as an alt 7

John Garcia

4th Numbers
100 50 9 1 3 1 -> 617

50 - 3 = 47; 9+1+1 = 11; 47 x 11 = 517; 517 + 100 = 617

John Garcia

R2 - GRUNDIES for alt 8
R8 - PAKORAS for alt 7

Search found 432 matches