c4countdown

Martin Gardner

RETINOID (equaller)

Martin

Martin Gardner

For me at least, very common word does not equal very easy conundrum. For me, conundrums using letters like aeinrst are easy ones.

Martin

Martin Gardner

In fairness, probably not the best game ever.

Martin

Martin Gardner

I assume that's the only time that someone's got three twice in the same game.

Martin

Martin Gardner

I got FAKIES for six.

Martin

Martin Gardner

24. WINETAILS - WAISTLINE

To leave:

17. CATCHFOLE
18. TANNERFOO
20. VARYGRADE
21. STAUNCHED
47. PANDAREPS
49. PACAFLEET

Martin Gardner

Which should leave: 1. ANNEWORLD 2. TIMECOMET 5. TNTCAIQUE 11. FELIXNERO - REFLEXION 13. TOPCAREER - PROCREATE 15. JAMIANURA - done by someone else 17. CATCHFOLE 18. TANNERFOO 20. VARYGRADE 21. STAUNCHED 24. WINETAILS 28. GOFTCHICK 30. PRATSUZIE - TRAPEZIUS 32. BRAVERINK - RIVERBANK 36. GROWTHDIN -...

Martin Gardner

Joseph Bolas wrote:
Matthew Green wrote:WARTORN?
Not sure about that, but I thought you might've been able to have ORNATER.

ORNATER^ was disallowed just a few days ago, and WARTORN^ isn't in either, it must be war-torn or war torn.

Martin

Martin Gardner

ESTUARY and STATURE

Martin

Martin Gardner

I dont want to sound negative but theres no way that this guy (who is ok but nothing more) whos on at the moment should be getting to the final, that would make it a weak series IMO. Yes that does sound very harsh. He is averaging about 91 points per game which is not fantastic, but Tony Warren who...

Martin Gardner

With today's results, the final 8 are just about sorted. 1. David O'Donnell vs. Ben Hanks 2. Michael MacDonald-Cooper vs. Peter Davies 3. Tim Reypert vs. Richard Priest 4. Barry Smith vs. Jonathan Coles* * The only this won't happen is if Jonathan scores 125 or more tomorrow, in which case he passes...

Martin Gardner

Well he's won although not exactly in style, so that's six wins. I think if he wins tomorrow he's mathematically qualified for the finals and if he didn't, the incoming player would have to win all six with a higher points total to be #8 seed, so that's unlikely. That's to say by his eighth show we ...

Martin Gardner

AGONISTS as well

Martin

Martin Gardner

Well today's game was a very good game, often when you get two good players you end up with neither of them getting a very good score because they beat each other in some rounds, and of course a maximum of zero in round 14. So I thought it was of good quality and nearly all of the maxes were found b...

Martin Gardner

Maximum is zero on the last numbers, 15 away is the closest according to crossword tools.

Martin.

Martin Gardner

For what it matters, there were a lot of DC-beaters posted while I was the champion on the show, although I didn't like it much, so what? It's soon over and nobody made me read the forum. In fact I often tend to have breaks from forums like this one. I did have a few "poor scores" as well ...

Martin Gardner

I've been away doing exams but I'm back now. First of all, no I wouldn't want to put anyone off going on the show and yes it's a really relaxed atmosphere and the people are ALL very friendly, but I did have a friend who was really good at Countdown and was just petrified of appearing on the show, s...

Martin Gardner

I'll put my name down, just in case there was any doubt about that.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Second number alternatives :

5 + 8 = 13
6 + 2 + 1 = 9
9 * 13 = 117
117 + 50 = 167

Martin

Martin Gardner

Oh yeah I was gonna say. I also don't think the televised show is for everyone either. Some players that are good at home just wouldn't cope with the pressure in the studio. I suppose actually we see a lot of that anyway. But still I wouldn't recommended that everyone that's good at Countdown go on ...

Martin Gardner

I thought I'd start a new thread to reply to comments made on the spoilers thread. I think people on this forum might underestimate or even forget how difficult it is to play in studio conditions. It's about as far away as you can get from playing at home. Although I've never thought about it before...

Martin Gardner

It was a low scoring game, but when you're there it's harder to concentrate with the cameras and an audience of 100 or so people watching. And 30 seconds goes very fast when you're trying to come up with a word. It's fine saying you had 8 or 9 letter words now but did you get those in 30 seconds ca...

Martin Gardner

According to the recap, the game that ended 52 - 50, the max was 140 so 52 / 140 = 37.14%

Martin

Martin Gardner

I'm not normally critical like this but with 3 nines available 61 is a hell of a low winning score, perhaps a record? Congrats to the winner nonetheless though. :) Lowest percentage winning score, perhaps yes. I think the lowest ever winning score was 52 - 48 or very similar, check the Corral for d...

Martin Gardner

jasoncullen wrote:I thought it was -OR ending

CONFESSOR - actually yes it is, that's listed.

Martin

Martin Gardner

jasoncullen wrote:ESTIMATOR?

Is indeed listed on Countmax.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Martin Gardner wrote:
jasoncullen wrote:INHALER?
I got INHALER, there are two more DC beaters that nobody's got yet, I got them from solvers so I won't publish them.

Martin

Actually one of them was CONFESSER and that isn't in Countmax, ah well.

Martin

Martin Gardner

jasoncullen wrote:INHALER?

I got INHALER, there are two more DC beaters that nobody's got yet, I got them from solvers so I won't publish them.

Martin

Martin Gardner

By the way in the TREMBLIER round, what did the challenger offer? It sounded like MINER to me, but of course there's no N, so what did he say?

Martin

Martin Gardner

CRAPULENT is the NEUTRAL round. And yes TREMBLIER is excellent, nor did I get UNDERFOOT

Martin

Martin Gardner

That was my question, and it's quite an important one to Jason Cullen as he's #8 seed, do the points from his games in Series 57 count in this series? If they do, then he's two wins away from getting the #8 seed spot, if they don't he's three games away. Not only that, if he lost after 4 wins, he'd ...

Martin Gardner

MELANOID as another equaller.

Martin

Martin Gardner

dinos_the_chemist wrote:Shit. The fit Cambridge bird lost

That's good news for Cullen and Hanks then, as that's two games gone without someone winning 4 or more games.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Just out of interest I worked out my "duplicate score" - i.e. if you were doing duplicate and you got the points for all the words and numbers even if you get beaten by someone else in the room. Mine works out as 805. i.e. 746 plus 59 points in rounds where I got beaten by my opponent that...

Martin Gardner

His job is to sell the show, and after all wouldn't you like to go home saying you'd only lost by 1 point? I see no harm in it.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Once again, I'm sure Carol was writing the solution before Phillipa was giving it. I'm sure she had +8 before Phillipa said it. And then the X appeared before Phillipa said times. Yeah I've noticed she does that, I find that quite annoying. In the same way, they again disallowed PILATES* before the...

Martin Gardner

Mine comes out at 800.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Joseph Bolas wrote:INNERMOST

I got this, it was my first conundrum when I was on the show!

Martin

Martin Gardner

I'm not that surprised Peter lost although he looked pretty good in his first game, he hasn't looked as good since. I'm not sure if he ever got a score over 100 did he? I think he's probably beaten Ben Hanks on points which is bad news for Ben - there are just enough shows left so that he can get kn...

Martin Gardner

That leaves us with:

7. GINTREATY - YATTERING?
8. SOFAURINE
12. HUGDELAMP
17. LOATHEBUB
20. QUEERJACI - JACQUERIE or JACQUIERE for a guess, I can't think what else would work!
21. HOAXEDLIP
23. IDONTOXEN
24. IFORAPRON - RAINPROOF

Martin Gardner

I wouldn't normally want to boast about this as playing at home is completely different from playing in the studio, but from my very comfortable armchair I'd have done 119 out of 120, just missing PISCINAE in the first round.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Interesting there are three nines in that round, INTERLOPE, INTERPOLE and REPLETION, but only one 8, which is LEPORINE. I suspect this might be the only selection of nine letters with this property.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Michael Wallace wrote:RECOILS as a rather boring equaliser

LICENSOR for 8 in that round. The only beater I could get.

Martin

Martin Gardner

One thing I love about poker is the Ice-Cold Decks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNz-Duyx3Lc Yeah that one is on my blog somewhere. What I do dislike about those one-table TV formats is it's so much luck based. Rather than saying Texas Hold'em is a game is a game of luck, I'd say there's not enou...

Martin Gardner

No UPFORCE in round 4? Downforce was a recent conundrum, can't it have an opposite? And what was the verdict on ZODIACS, as I risked that also (despite having spotted DISCOED on Friday, I missed it today. The Z always distracts me!) Tim. ZODIACS seems to be fine but no UPFORCE - I can see why you'd...

Martin Gardner

Can we please get this over with? I'm looking forward to chancing my hand in the next tournament.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Ben Pugh wrote:INTERPOLE as an equaller.

In fairness they had that as well, but well spotted anyway.

Martin

Martin Gardner

AIRDROME hasn't been mentioned either. To be honest, it was a very strange game. It started with a nine, then went horribly wrong as Peter offered a five when a nine was there, a four when there were at least two sevens and numerous sixes and then another six when there was a nine plus various seven...

Martin Gardner

Sometimes I get the impression when they do that that they've not shot it in that order, and they've edited back that way to make it easier for the viewer, but in actual fact they did ask both contestants their word before making any ju- erm decision.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Karen Pearson wrote:Gougere* in Round 4? I'm afraid I still don't have access to my dictionary to check. If I've spelt it correctly, it's a sort of casserole topped with a ring of choux pastry.

Countmax doesn't give GOUGERE* although the Scrabble dictionary does.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Yeah I missed today's - who won?

Martin

Martin Gardner

I noticed this week, one of the questions was "was does biannual mean?" a) once every two years b) every other year c) twice a year Well, don't a) and b) mean the same thing, and since they can't both be correct, they most both me wrong. And sure enough the answer was c). Does anyone disa...

Martin Gardner

Has to come close to the record for the most maxes missed by Dictionary Corner in one game. Oddly enough they got TRIMERIC once before - I should know because it was the second quarter-final of Series 49 - which I was playing in (I had RECITE). I also remember ANTEROOMS coming up in my Countdown ten...

Martin Gardner

I got a reply from Jeff in private, apparently there are no series quarter-finals like there are in this country, it's more of a "continuous" thing. Every few years they have championship of champions style thingies when they invite back some of the best players from the past, but it's not...

Martin Gardner

Jason Larsen wrote:Jeff:

Can you speak some simple French to me?

Non!

Martin

Martin Gardner

I have a couple of things to say about that game. First off, I'm glad that Peter won. That victory was once again very impressive. But, I think Andy should be brought back because Carol misheard the selection for one of his letters in the second letters round. As his second letter choice in that ro...

Martin Gardner

I noticed this week, one of the questions was "was does biannual mean?" a) once every two years b) every other year c) twice a year Well, don't a) and b) mean the same thing, and since they can't both be correct, they most both me wrong. And sure enough the answer was c). Does anyone disag...

Martin Gardner

Yeah I am first year undergraduate doing French and politics with Spanish as an elective subject. I think everything'll be fine although I'm quite nervous, luckily there are no exams in the third year as that's my year in France!

Martin

Martin Gardner

mary grylls wrote:ANILINE was there, but I wasn't sure that their dictionary would have it. I would have risked it though.

That's the only seven, yes.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Oh and thanks to Countmax, there's a solitary seven from AEIILNNTT, which I knew but didn't get. I'll leave someone else to find it.

Martin

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