c4countdown

Martin Gardner

As Soo pointed out on my countdownwiki page, Julian only missed two maxes - HOISTS when he offered an invalid 7, which obviously would have been the max had it been valid, and VIBRIO which was the only six in that round. Other than that, the other 20 letters games, he was perfect.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Check out the CCCC on the Countdownwiki. For those that don't know, the CCCC was a charity match organised by Chris Cummins and Julian Fell, over two legs, as both were at the time students at Cambridge University.

http://www.countdownwiki.com/Cambridge_ ... _Challenge

Martin

Martin Gardner

DAMN. That is a discrepancy and a half. Especially over such a large sample of games such as an entire ISC career. For some unknown reason I'm always the other way around- averaging around 380-390 online and around 410 IRL. :-/ Then again, I take pride in being a weirdo. :D I averaged 407 at Peterb...

Martin Gardner

Yeah I own a NODE, but I have limited patience for looking through it, but if anyone wants to send me lists in alphabetical order I don't mind.

Martin

Martin Gardner

No offense, no really no offense, but I get the impression Jason doesn't understand what we're talking about and people get impatient when he replies to a message with something that's nothing to do with the original message. I don't dislike him at all but I feel like if I send him a message, he's n...

Martin Gardner

David O'Donnell wrote:I missed the challenger's surname again, Diana x? Anybody know please?

Spencer? Joke.

Martin

Martin Gardner

APIARIST? Oh and the picture on Countdown just disappeared.

Martin

Martin Gardner

I was actually talking about average score rather than ratings. If you look at his participation in the WSC, 2005 : average 358 2003 : average 378 2001 : average 359 For the others I can't find the information on the net, but we're seriously talking about average 100 points more per game on the Inte...

Martin Gardner

Damian E wrote:
Would that finally be enough to tempt you into putting your ass on the line and having a crack?
Surely his ass already has a crack in it?

Maybe his ass doesn't have a crack and that's why he's so full of shit (ha ha!)

Just kidding

Martin

Martin Gardner

I think I managed 5 in a row before tripping up on the last selection of my second game; noting that one of my previous 4-from-the-top games was not solvable at all. In fairness though I was always shit on games with 25 as the only large number, as more often that not the multiplier needed is just a...

Martin Gardner

Good luck to you for that, and well done on your performances. For obvious reasons, don't tell us if you make it or not or we'll be able to guess how many Octochamps there are in this series.

Martin

Martin Gardner

I tried to reply to this earlier but it logged me out. Well, first of all I wouldn't like to comment on great players like Mark Nyman because I've never seen him play. Only one of his game is online, the score of 79 which was the highest ever score at the time. That one is on the Countdown Page. I'm...

Martin Gardner

Yeah and I know what I said sounds harsh - indeed I've not only met him but we've been for a beer together. We even played a game together using the "multi" dictionary on the ISC, but in real life (I won). I can confirm he's a nice guy. But the statistics real life/ISC are really really on...

Martin Gardner

Talking of online cheats, does anyone know Dandls on the ISC? He actually does the English WSC and the French one, although he didn't do either last year. The problem is he's usually in the bottom 10 of both, yet on the ISC he plays like a world champion. Last time he did the English WSC he finished...

Martin Gardner

I have a question, when you're doing an external link like http://www.google.com I know how to do that, but what if I want the name on the screen to appear as something else like just "google" rather than the http before it, etc.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Basically I would have preferred to get a proper job, but couldn't, so I went into full-time education again. The idea is I'll get my degree and a year working in France, so I should be much more employable at the end of it.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Charlie Reams wrote:
Matt Coates wrote:i think we should be keeping accurate records or whats the point
That's like saying "Books often contain errors so what's the point of reading?"

Yeah I've read the Bible too

(joking)

Martin

Martin Gardner

This thread bores me to death. Personally, if I find something boring or offensive, I don't read it, which is why I don't read The Sun. Any it hardly seems like an illegitimate topic for a forum about the game show Countdown. Seriously though Damian, why does it bother you so much? You think on the...

Martin Gardner

I thought that today's contestant did a really good deal to take away £18k. He can't possibly know that he's going to have the three biggest sums left at the end of the game, then take out all three and have 50p and £50 left as the last two boxes. Another system would just to be to look at the avera...

Martin Gardner

Getting back to today's show (09/04/08) I know he got offered £15k and turned it down... that's because they always turn down the early offers. I think the only sense in which you can play tactically is in relation to your opening round. If you get a lot of reds then it's likely that you'll get blue...

Martin Gardner

Just for the Countdownwiki, your name is currently Matt Coates - do you prefer Matt or Matthew?

That's it to be honest.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Alright I'll go for a revised top 10. Remember this is just for fun. I'm only including contestants I have physically seen myself (erm on TV I mean). 1. Craig Beevers 2. Julian Fell 3. Paul Gallen 4. Conor Travers 5. Matthew Shore 6. Mark Tournoff 7. Chris Wills 8. Stewart Holden (could have been hi...

Martin Gardner

Also greatness to me is about success as well as talent. Graham Nash never looked the best but he defeated Tom Hargreaves, Julian Fell and Chris Wills to win the CofC and that puts him quite high in my books. I did think of Graham but I know in his last two games he was not great. In his game again...

Martin Gardner

Yeah very good game, what a shame really. When you buzzed in I thought you definitely had the right answer. Still I wouldn't have known SNEAKED was valid as logically it should be SNUCK but clearly, both are ok. No DC beaters for me but I think MALETA and TAMALE are valid as equallers, although we k...

Martin Gardner

Get off my toes sunshine, COOT IV is soon and I'm organising it. Well, that's what was arranged, anyway. As there is no CO-politics I can't stop you from running your own tournament simultaneously. If that's the case, I'm in. Otherwise, I'm sure we can work out some sort of joint-custody settlement...

Martin Gardner

Extremely impressive nine there...

Martin

Martin Gardner

smjg wrote:How about THINNESS?

Sounds good to me, and FOETAL for an equaller in the next round.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Joseph Bolas wrote:ISOLATES

EDIT: Although in that round I did see BOLASES too (providing its allowed)

I got ISOLATES as well, but not PERINEAL.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Quite a simple one this one, and yes it's been repeat ad nauseum on the other forums but I still think it needs to be update every now and then. I used to watch as a child with my grandma but I can't remember anything about those shows. The earliest I can remember is Series 46 when I started watchin...

Martin Gardner

I didn't know there was another COOT being organised. Since I don't really like organising things online, I'd rather leave it to Jono and perhaps organise another tournament after that if people are still wanting to play, does that sound fair?

Martin

Martin Gardner

I know COMA is now coming to an end and hopefully people are still impatient to play, so I thought I'd start up a new online MSN Countdown tournament. I know organisers are really hard to find so I thought I'd just do it myself. Provided nobody else want to organise one, that is. Anyway leave your n...

Martin Gardner

Yeah a bit like in Scrabble where if you're significantly ahead at the end of the game, avoid at all costs playing an invalid word because it might be the only way to lose the game.

Martin

Martin Gardner

I got CANTORIAL as it came up as a nine in my game against Dave Mackenzie. Also I was wondering about CURARINE (^) which I know is good in Scrabble but less sure for Countdown as Jim didn't put it in his recap. It doesn't seem to be in my NODE but of course that's not the current dictionary.

Martin

Martin Gardner

In a one-off game, I might think about it, but looking at your case where you have 100 games, I would pretty much look at the mean, because it would ultimately get you more money - not just in a mean sense but you would probably win more money. Basically, you might probably get less than the banker...

Martin Gardner

I was just thinking of the situation where there are five boxes left: £1 £250 £750 £3000 £100 000 In this situation he's going to offer more than £3000 so if he offer something like £20 000, there's a 4/5 chance that you will end up with less than that if you go to the end, and a 3/5 chance that the...

Martin Gardner

I'd imagine over 100 games of DOND you could use tactics Yeah, you'd just look at the average of the boxes remaining versus the bankers offer. Easy. But as others have said, you just get one go, so it's down to how much you're prepared to risk. Maybe the median would be more useful than the mean? O...

Martin Gardner

I think people forget as well that the poorer cheats are using anagrams solvers that don't use SOWPODS so even if they do miss a bingo it doesn't mean they're not cheating. And as Soo indicated, if they're using something that finds the words and not the places, they'll often be missing big scores a...

Martin Gardner

Just as annoying as cheats are really good players that don't fill in their profile, so people think they cheat. One player who ended up in my noplay list is now ranked 4th out of 1593 in the French world ratings... but how am I supposed to know that if there's nothing in his profile?

Martin

Martin Gardner

At least one paid-up and respectably rated ABSP member cheats filthily on ISC. I just consider it like playing against a bot. A lot of the time novice players will overrule the computer opponent and end up playing something worse, so if anything it's probably easier than that. Yeah my opponent toda...

Martin Gardner

I'm sure a few of you play on the Internet Scrabble Club (virtually always known as the ISC). The good side is that you can play as many games as you want for free. There are seven different dictionaries as well so the site appeals to a lot of people. I know Jette7 (only in French) is basically a pa...

Martin Gardner

I like Desperate Housewives which is also a really corny, bad show. I used to watch Coronation St. as well which is the same sort of thing, without the beautiful women. Btw speaking of DOND, I thought Kirsty on Monday was the fittest game show contestant ever.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Actually I got 0 out of 22. I finally looked up the answers to the remaining ones and some of them are f*cking hard. As pointed out in a previous post, I'm actually rubbish at anagramming all I can do is remember words I've already seen.

Martin

Martin Gardner

I know DOND is a really bad show but I do sort of like it. It fits in well with my student schedule. I'm trying to work out if there's any sort of maths to it at all, or it's pretty much 100% luck. Basically as far as I can see it just depends on how you play it. A bit like a poker hand, whatever wo...

Martin Gardner

Great stuff, cheers! I'll try not to click on the block user links by accident when editing articles!

Martin

Martin Gardner

I think I'd rather go to Colin as the date there works out well for me. I will follow this thread though.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Is there any chance I could be an administrator then, if you want me to write daily reports? Because the front page is protected. Also there a couple of links that could be changed, i.e. John Davies -> John Davies (Series 49) which I can't do right now because I'm not an admin.

Martin

Martin Gardner

Gevin-Gavin wrote: So what you're saying is that you want her job.

Haha no I did say telegenic, plus I'm not very good at the numbers.

Martin Gardner

Oh yeah forgot about that.... who is it then, Corby?

Martin

Martin Gardner

the Tuesday 01st April, 2008 Helloy, It states in your website under LETTERS ROUND in paragraph 3 "Any word which appears in the Oxford Dictionary of English IS ALLOWABLE[35]." However, on your Countdown show aired 01st April, 2008 the Tuesday, Susie would not permit the five letter word ...

Martin Gardner

David O'Donnell wrote:I had SHRIEVAL in the next rd as an equaller too. I am going to play against the champ from home today then recap it on +1, so far we're even.

LAVISHER is alright as well is it?

Martin

Martin Gardner

dinos_the_chemist wrote:TRENDED as an equaller for DERATED but not sure if I'd have risked it

AERATED as well as an equaller

Martin

Martin Gardner

Surprised that nobody's posted PIROGI for 6 in the PIGS rounds. My NODE gives PIROGI as the plural of PIROG, and as a singular noun, of which the plural is PIROGIES! So PIROGIS doesn't seem to be valid unless it's in the most recent version. Perhaps DOD can tell me, or someone.

Martin

Martin Gardner

SOCIETAL round 1 (equaller)

Martin Gardner

It's pretty cool looking at the 4 large stuff that Jerry Humphries and to some extent Jono have written. It was always my favourite selection and I think it's quite different from six small numbers. For six small numbers you have to be able to multiply very quickly and most of the time you need to f...

Martin Gardner

That's my opinion anyway. And I think the idea she should retire is absurd. I don't think she should retire, and yes "rare" is perhaps a bit much but I wouldn't say she beats contestants "often" either. It's just a matter of fact that she will stop at some time and no I don't th...

Martin Gardner

On a serious note, is Carol's ability to do the numbers declining or is it just my perception. It's quite rare for her to get a numbers game that the contestants don't get these days, when I started watching she was unbeatable and although she's still better than the contestants, I'm starting to thi...

Martin Gardner

jasoncullen wrote:its definitely on wins Joseph over points now

Yes in Series 48 David Nickeas who lost his 8th game to Danny Hamilton had more points than Joe Zubaidi and Julia Wilkinson, check the wiki if you don't believe me!

Martin Gardner

Just to finish up on this, I also won a bottle of Martini in the raffle for £1! My next tournament figures to be Shipley in September for two reasons. 1) I should have a brand new shiny student loan that week and 2) It's about 20 minutes drive from here. I could persuade Marjorie from my club to go ...

Martin Gardner

Charlie Reams wrote:You're right, I screwed up. Still, Richard Priest does have the honour of being the only player with two entries in that Top 10, although I think the 25 will drop out once Series 49 is complete.

Erm Series 58 you mean?

Martin

Martin Gardner

1st numbers

75 / 3 = 25
8 + 5 + 4 = 17
17 * 25 = 425

Seems more intuitive than Carol's method.

Edit : to confuse Carol:

8 + 5 +4 = 17
17 * 75 - 1275
1275 / 3 = 425

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