c4countdown

Graeme Cole

Get them to write down their answers immediately if you're going to base the decision on the video. Yes, that's the first step. If both players are right then you can look at the video and give the points to one player or the other, or scrap and redo if by some freak coincidence it's still inconclu...

Graeme Cole

Get them to write down their answers immediately if you're going to base the decision on the video. Yes, that's the first step. If both players are right then you can look at the video and give the points to one player or the other, or scrap and redo if by some freak coincidence it's still inconclu...

Graeme Cole

This is similar to, but not really based on, stuff that's happened at co-events. It's a crucial conundrum in the final of an event. You, the host, reveal the conundrum scramble: DINOTIARA. Both players hit the table at about the same time. They both claim to have buzzed first, but you can't be sure ...

Graeme Cole

The husband of someone I used to work with helped build the current Countdown clock.

Graeme Cole

Not counting simply correcting a mistake made by the organiser when entering the score, does anyone know of any occasion when a game's score, as shown on the scoresheet, was changed after the scoresheet was handed in? To semi-answer my own question, I think I have a vague memory of taking a scoresh...

Graeme Cole

My answers: 1. c. Alice was the first to find a correct solution to the conundrum. The fact that it wasn't the intended solution is neither here nor there. 2. b. Doesn't matter that the conundrum had an alternative solution. Alice was still the first to find a correct solution. 3. b. There's no requ...

Graeme Cole

A couple more I just remembered: 5. It's a letters round. The host puts an A on the board but mistakenly announces it as "E". Nobody says anything. After the 30 seconds, Bob offers a word which is valid but uses an E which isn't there. The host definitely said "E" while putting the A up - this is no...

Graeme Cole

A few conundrum oddities have actually happened at events. I've been meaning to post about them in here for a while but haven't actually remembered to do so until now. Any identifying information has been changed, because I'm not trying to criticise the people who had to rule on these immediately wh...

Graeme Cole

I didn't think it was that great. I mean it was OK but it wasn't very "Inside No 9". There was no twist or was I missing something? (Other than the bit that happened quite early on so doesn't really count.) I was looking at the clock - "10:28" - surely something has to happen now to make this episo...

Graeme Cole

There appears to be a problem with duplicate names too. For example, David Barnard's route is given as: David Barnard... played Ian Williams in Series 67... ... who played Simon Cartwright in Series 46... ... who played Ben Wilson in the quarter-finals of Series 46... ... who played Conor Travers i...

Graeme Cole

How far has this been updated to? As of this morning, it includes all games up to the end of 2019 . BTW, Dinos is broken due to name changes! What, still? Yesterday I noticed and fixed a couple of cases where the database thinks someone is two different people, and Dinos was one of them. As far as ...

Graeme Cole

Ian Volante wrote: ↑
Fri Feb 07, 2020 8:09 pm
How far has this been updated to?

As of this morning, it includes all games up to the end of 2019.

Graeme Cole

We had 9R for around 19 years, Old 15 for approx 12, and New 15 only for the last 7... would it be fair to say that the changes from 9R to 15R, and subsequently to New 15R, were all about evolution to a best format... or were these done principally to keep the show fresh? Will "New 15R" become the ...

Graeme Cole

Kinetic Pixel, who have provided Countdown's scoring systems and displays etc since 2017, have a short but interesting writeup about it on their website. We even get to see what they're hiding in that curtained-off bit at the back of the studio.

Graeme Cole

Callum Todd wrote: ↑
Tue Feb 04, 2020 10:44 am
I hope that you won't find the contents of the Code of Conduct, once it is produced, to be either "paranoid" or "crap", but may I ask: if not the 21st, then from which century would like us to draw our ideas?

Best C4C comment for ages.

Graeme Cole

Wasn't the main piece of critical feedback from the first episode that it was an order of magnitude too long? This is why it seems odd that now the second episode has come out, it's exactly the same length, but this time there isn't even an abridged version. (Edit: I have been some quantity of muppe...

Graeme Cole

The Lib Dems did get 1.4m more votes than the 2017 GE. So that's evidence of the effect. But who's to say the elasticity(/plasticity?) of Tory Remainers' vote is the same as Labour? It's a hard thing to know. I'd be interested to read more statistical analysis of all the above. There are some sweep...

Graeme Cole

Fiona T wrote: ↑
Fri Nov 22, 2019 11:22 am
Molineux looks pretty big - where are we going when we get there?

ta

Centre circle. Then a coin toss will decide which end is the Open and which the Finals.

Graeme Cole

When did this mass delusion start, that people who work in TV aren't allowed, or shouldn't be allowed, to make political statements away from TV? This only applies to broadcast journalists who work in news and current affairs. Coincidentally, people only seem to want to enforce this rule when the th...

Graeme Cole

Not sure that 930 was a good example for using the 937.5 method as two standard method solves are possible too! ((75-50)x25)+(3x100)+5 ((25-3)x50)-100-75+5 Doesn't mean it isn't a good example. One of the most important things to know about the 937.5 rule is that often it isn't the easiest way to s...

Graeme Cole

The classic disadvantage of raw scoring is that if you fail to score in a round, it's very difficult to catch up, so it heavily discourages offering risky words. And assuming the contestants therefore play it safe, the conundrum is much more likely to be crucial unless one player has dominated the ...

Graeme Cole

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Wed Nov 13, 2019 8:42 am
I can't find the standings.

Here they are.

Graeme Cole

The classic disadvantage of raw scoring is that if you fail to score in a round, it's very difficult to catch up, so it heavily discourages offering risky words. And assuming the contestants therefore play it safe, the conundrum is much more likely to be crucial unless one player has dominated the g...

Graeme Cole

Well, I’ll leave that until the broadcast, since I missed going to the recordings, cos of the stupid trains, I don’t have first hand knowledge of it, so some of it will be new to me too. Whatever happened to your insider knowledge? :roll: I have had some, but some of it sounds very confusing to me,...

Graeme Cole

Jon O'Neill wrote: ↑
Wed Nov 06, 2019 8:35 pm
Corby is 2.94 or roughly 35% to be next Prime Minister

I wondered why he hadn't been on the forum so much recently.

Graeme Cole

I was looking at odds of who is going to win the election, but (after a quick search admittedly) I couldn't find what I was after. There were odds on which party would have the most seats, odds on each party getting an outright majority, odds on specific minority governments etc. But you need to pu...

Graeme Cole

Mark Deeks wrote: ↑
Sat Oct 26, 2019 8:34 pm

Have a guess.

Is it Jon Elmer?

Graeme Cole

I saw this bloke on TV today who looks just like Countdowny person Jimmy Carr.

(Edited - someone changed the wiki image)

Graeme Cole

Joseph Krol wrote: ↑
Mon Nov 29, 2010 10:10 am
Hello, and welcome to the one and only JK Recap. I’m sure this episode is on YouTube somewhere. I’ll try to find the link for you sometime.

Looks like the video of this episode was (re-)uploaded today. Will D. Downing's unique strategy is explained after R2 at 7:07.

Graeme Cole

Zarte Siempre wrote: ↑
Thu Oct 03, 2019 6:08 pm

George Armstrong wrote: ↑
Thu Oct 03, 2019 5:25 pm
But if it is indeed the case that only your best 8 performances then I didn't know that.
It's the nearest value to 2-thirds of the tournaments in a given year.

Which this year is 9, there being 14 events.

(If I've miscounted, please let me know and I will refocalise the Focaliser.)

Graeme Cole

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Tue Sep 17, 2019 9:45 pm
OK. But what's the idea with using random threads to post your posts in?

Authentication. If he didn't then we might not believe it was really him.

Graeme Cole

Both of the losers of the S80 semifinals never declared a 9 during their time on the show. Is this the furthest any player has advanced without doing so, or do some runners-up (even winners?) fit the bill? (exc. CoC, Masters or special games). It's happened before many times. Joyce Cansfield, Darry...

Graeme Cole

An "octave" no more has eight notes than a week has eight days.

Graeme Cole

Edit - Something that the database probably could answer - what is the break down of probabilities of each length of word being the max, and for each length, what is the average number of words of the max length? I can only do the first bit. For each letters round the database stores the most point...

Graeme Cole

1. In light of today's players scoring 0 on the numbers rounds overall, is this a new record? Today was the first 15 rounder with no points scored on numbers. This applies to both 15-round formats - previously the lowest total numbers score for an episode was 7 for the current format (four numbers ...

Graeme Cole

Strikes me that an easyish way to make cheating more difficult might be to prevent copy from the letters, and paste in to the answer box. I can't think of a single instance where you'd legitimately need to do this. I copied and pasted my declaration in round 16 of this duel in 2017. Entirely legiti...

Graeme Cole

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Mon Aug 12, 2019 7:25 am

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Mon Aug 05, 2019 9:15 pm

I still think PR is preferable to what we have now. And we'd also have a decent number of Greens etc.
However, you have to watch out for nonsense like this.

I still think Caroline Lucas' proposed cabinet is preferable to what we have now.

Graeme Cole

"All participants attending the event must sign a code of conduct" Would a better solution not be that signing up to the event constitutes a commitment to abide by it, rather than asking for signatures at the start of the day? Yes, I agree. If applying a code of conduct to events is as easy as putt...

Graeme Cole

Congratulations to Corrina on eight wins. Here's an unusual Countdown first, which I post merely as a curiosity and not as any kind of comment on the ability of either player - I just thought it was interesting. When a player declares the length of their word but then doesn't offer a word, as Chris ...

Graeme Cole

Toby McDonald wrote: ↑
Tue Jul 23, 2019 8:41 pm
MANSWORE in R10

Bravo.

Graeme Cole

Bit of a tedious comment but I think the "crucial conundrum" lighting has changed. I quite enjoyed today's game- likeable contestants and a bit nip and tuck..... You're right, it's red. The final's crucial conundrum lighting was the usual purpley-magenta colour, also known as Calpol. This episode w...

Graeme Cole

Fantastic final, both of you. I'm glad I avoided spoilers for this final, although after Elliott's octorun if anyone had spoilered it I probably wouldn't have believed them that anyone else could have won the Elliott Mellor show. Huge congratulations, Dinos. And Elliott, despite today, you're one of...

Graeme Cole

Hang on, why are we talking about MOHAIRS when we should be talking about Nick's claim that Fiona's octotal was 520?

Graeme Cole

It's completely ridiculous the number of times Susie has switched on MOHAIRS; in its most recent appearance, she allowed it: http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_6376 I can recall Tom Conlon (Horace) having mohairs disallowed in 2013, but something makes me think it's been allowed on the show since. ht...

Graeme Cole

Ashton Hancock wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 17, 2019 3:58 pm

Ronan M Higginson wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 17, 2019 3:51 pm
I WILL NOT BE FORCED BY AN 11 YEAR OLD KID TO ATTEND A STUPID DIRTY FAKE EVENT. TAKE ME OFF THE LIST!!!!!!!!!!
I am not 11 and this is a real event

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realise. Happy 12th birthday!

Graeme Cole

Ronan M Higginson wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 17, 2019 3:51 pm
I WILL NOT BE FORCED BY AN 11 YEAR OLD KID TO ATTEND A STUPID DIRTY FAKE EVENT. TAKE ME OFF THE LIST!!!!!!!!!!

Ronan, stop worrying. Just because your name is on a list, what's he going to do, bundle you into a van and take you to Rotherham against your will?

Graeme Cole

Ashton Hancock wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 17, 2019 3:47 pm

Ronan M Higginson wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 17, 2019 3:46 pm
I'M NOT COMING ASHTON, KNOCK ME OFF THE LIST
You said you are so you can’t pull out now Dinos was only joking

I'd love to know how you plan to enforce this.

Graeme Cole

Yesterday Ashton was publicly claiming that his event was a FOCAL event, and in PM to me he insisted Jeff had approved it. It didn't take much effort to find out that this was a lie. You can imagine how surprised I am at this latest development. Graeme stop this I know Dinos and Jen doesn’t he is m...

Graeme Cole

Yesterday Ashton was publicly claiming that his event was a FOCAL event, and in PM to me he insisted Jeff had approved it. It didn't take much effort to find out that this was a lie.

You can imagine how surprised I am at this latest development.

Graeme Cole

Ashton Hancock wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 17, 2019 1:35 pm
I am delighted to announce that Dinos Sfyris will be my Co-Host for this event

Can't wait to see his reaction when he finds out.

Graeme Cole

Games to be played: At least 12, plus a separate Grand Final for the top 2. What, 12 games in total? Normally people are more interested in how many games each person will play. COLON doesn't advertise itself as "198 games plus the final", because that number depends on how many people show up. Usu...

Graeme Cole

At this point posting a public message seems the obvious next step I agree with this..... and I can't see anything in Cathy's post that seems unreasonable in the circumstances. ...but not this. You don't think essentially saying I think you might be a paedo is a bit too brusque, considering? If con...

Graeme Cole

Right well congratulations Cathy for beating up on the vulnerable minor; had Ashton actually been a lonely or unwell man in accordance with your theory, and you pushed him over and flexed over him in this way, imagine what a lovely person you would have come across as. While I applaud your obviousl...

Graeme Cole

I shook my laptop and this fell out. STANDINGS Players are ranked by wins, then points. P W Pts 1 Rob Foster 6 6 373 2 Bradley Horrocks 6 5 359 3 Tom Carey 6 4 360 4 Tom Cappleman 6 4 345 5 Jonathan de Souza 6 4 315 6 Ben Wilson 6 4 310 7 Graeme Cole 6 4 303 7 Oli Garner 6 4 303 9 Jeff Clayton 6 3 3...

Graeme Cole

ENSILAGES in Round 10. Countdown has finally gone green by dropping the usage of paper (At long last!) and going with a permanent whiteboard! The writing is harder to see on the new permanent whiteboard. :( Couldn't they use the magnetic numbers with the blue background and symbols instead? It look...

Graeme Cole

Found a couple recorded as 30s ( http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_4419 and this wonderfully ironic entry http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_761 ) Those two and these two are the only correct 30 second buzzes I have in the database. http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_1349 - probably just after the time ...

Graeme Cole

Does this all call into question the accuracy of the buzzing system in other close situations? I've always wondered if there might be a bias towards one of the buzzers anyway, and as long as it's pressed within, say, 0.2 seconds of the other one, it will "win". I can believe that if both buzzers ar...

Graeme Cole

Who is going to take over for maternity leave ? Might not be necessary. Countdown is recorded unusually far in advance of broadcast at the moment - usually it's a few weeks, currently it's a few months (perhaps for this very reason?). They've got so many episodes in the bank they could have a huge ...

Graeme Cole

The conundrum originally wasn't this and the slowness was in part due to me being a bit flustered by a bit of controversy. It was originally MOUSEFLLY, and both of us buzzed in at virtually the exact same time (around a second) - there was some debate as to who was first before it being decided tha...

Graeme Cole

Well, I guess most people felt sorry for John, as I did - until he picked 3 large in the penultimate round. What was he playing at? OK, I appreciate he almost certainly didn't know the record was in reach, but it must have been obvious that Elliot was on for a fantastic score. Why potentially make ...

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