c4countdown

Graeme Cole

Rhys Benjamin wrote: ↑
Fri Nov 13, 2020 9:39 am
Andrew, who asks for letters more than one at a time, gets comments from Richard as to how fast he picks the letters.

Ahead of his time, many years before co-events started doing this. I almost expected him to ask for a CV7.

Graeme Cole

Rhys Benjamin wrote: ↑
Fri Nov 13, 2020 9:39 am
Richard describes Countdown as having "really upset the ratings, and the petty officers aren't too pleased either". I don't get it either.

Rating and Petty Officer are naval ranks.

Graeme Cole

How the mighty have fallen.

Graeme Cole

Did anyone notice that after Andy's incorrect conundrum guess, the contestants suddenly had yesterday's nameplates? After the end of the round they were back to normal.

Graeme Cole

Rhys Benjamin wrote: ↑
Sat Oct 31, 2020 6:40 pm
I've met Boris & Carrie's dog and I have a phobia of dogs. He wouldn't hurt a fly.

Stop dodging the question - would he eat a speech?

Graeme Cole

Jon Corby wrote: ↑
Sun Oct 25, 2020 1:59 pm
I wouldn't think it unfair if somebody else had their own letters from, say, the board game, and used these as a visual aid either. However, if they then started moving these cards around mid-game, that wouldn't be allowed.

If it's good enough for Will D Downing...

Graeme Cole

There’s always going to be a certain amount of trust required though in such things. And for 99% of people, it works perfectly. That’s why I find the few that abuse it so contemptible. Suddenly everything has to change just to accommodate them. It’s genuinely ridiculous that a group of people whom ...

Graeme Cole

A similar analysis of his opponent's looks to the side would likely give much clearer "evidence" if one wished to believe he was cheating (again, I'm not suggesting this is the case and don't for one second believe it to be the case). Just to clear something up. I was using an overlay to type in nu...

Graeme Cole

If you think that means I should shut up and accept your verdict that no cheating occurred Whose verdict is it that no cheating occurred? I don't think anyone from ZoomDown has said "I am satisfied that game was completely legitimate". Rather, I get the impression they've accepted there's reasonabl...

Graeme Cole · Re: Three words Whose 11.5.2.6.18.20.1.1.19 features beer?

Whose 11.5.2.6.18.20.1.1.19 features beer?

Graeme Cole

I would be interested to see some stats along the lines of "max % for top seed versus max % for the other seven seeds" for each series. This might be one way to evaluate players who were most "ahead of their time" in comparison to other strong players from the same era. I think this is vaguely simi...

Graeme Cole

Was looking at this game: http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_6645, and the champ stops scoring from R7-onwards. Has any champ stopped scoring points before that point? If you're talking about 15-round heat games and only counting players not in the first game of their run, no. That's the only 15-roun...

Graeme Cole

One thing I've been wondering- who's played the most number of old 15 rounders without having ever played any other format? I'd be surprised if it wasn't Jack Hurst. Similarly, who's played the most number of old 9 rounders without having ever played any other format, including 14 rounders or maste...

Graeme Cole

How many 9-letter words have appeared on the show exactly once (both including and excluding as a conundrum)? I’m thinking of DIARRHOEA for a start. I'm taking "appeared on the show" to mean "either or both of the contestants offered the word", mainly because I can't do it if I define it as anythin...

Graeme Cole

Is 82 the biggest range in terms of scores in which a player has got in any 15 rounder? Thinking about how Sam's 1st opponent got 115 the game before and then 33 the next. Wondering if that is the largest range? According to the database which only goes up to series 81, the largest min-max range by...

Graeme Cole

How many times has an error been made in dictionary corner, whereby they allowed a word not in the relevant dictionary, or disallowed a word that was...? I can't claim credit for this, but I think what you want here is the category on the wiki entitled Episodes affected by administrative errors . H...

Graeme Cole

Apologies if it’s already been asked but what is the longest valid word that’s come out in the selection stage? LOUNGED certainly came out in one of Julian Fell’s games. I don't have a definitive word list, but I'd expect this is it (round 8 in this game ), possibly along with other equally-long wo...

Graeme Cole

What is the longest run of teapots there have been? There have been 5 in a row (and counting) at present. Getting rather expensive in the porcelain dept! If you only count heat games and ignore intervening finals, seven teapots in a row is the record. It's happened on three occasions: Episode 2902 ...

Graeme Cole

What is the longest DC guest run? Phil Hammond just did eight. Kenneth Williams’ gig in Series 1 and 2 comes to mind but that might not be it. This is it. Kenneth Williams was the DC guest in 39 episodes in a row spanning most of series 1 and some of series 2 . The next longest run is 17, on two oc...

Graeme Cole

Matt Morrison wrote: ↑
Fri Oct 16, 2020 9:45 pm
I wish I'd been on by now so I could do one with Heather. Best of luck to everyone who puts themselves forward for this, great opportunity!

Where does it say both players have to be former contestants?

Graeme Cole

Why won't the oven work unless the clock is set? My (Neff) oven does this too. It's to rid the world of the scourge of people's oven clocks blinking midnight. On a related note, why does my oven display midnight as "24:00"? And why is it only midnight that gets the 24 treatment? It goes 23:59, 24:0...

Graeme Cole

Numbers round 75 1 4 6 7 7 -> 777 Clock finishes: [P1] 770 [P2] 777 [P1] 75 - 1 = 74 [P1] 6*7 = 42 [P1] 74*42 = ... [Rachel] 74*42 is? [P1] hesitates [Nick] We're going to have to hurry you along now P1, we can't allow hesitation [P1] Well 74*42 is 777X4 (whatever that is), so I was going to divide...

Graeme Cole

By Graeme's logic you could set something like RAXELNAST and not give the points when somebody buzzes in with RELAXANTS which would be ridiculous. Remember that TV viewers aren't aware of the plural rule, so they would be outraged. Also I'm aware that some people in the community take answers in th...

Graeme Cole

The Shambolic/Choliambs example I don't think should set a precedent here. To me it looked like an oversight from the production team, or a deliberate (sneaky) attempt to challenge Kirk who was at the time on course to break Records and was easily cruising to victory in every game in his Octorun. S...

Graeme Cole

(Maybe the wrong place to ask this) So I know (I think) there are two conundrum rules: - No plurals - Only one valid solution Are there then any possible 9 letter selections with two valid 9 letter words which could be used as a conundrum? So imagine SHEEPLANT was a valid word. ELEPHANTS is also va...

Graeme Cole

Yes Graeme... the 'change things for a day' in and of itself would be a weird and pointless idea. The opponents of the 'black takeover day' would likely consider it not simply worse, but MUCH wrse because they will be black. This is not about changing things around at random or for whimsy, but rath...

Graeme Cole

To all those up in arms about this... Suppose, as an experiment, Channel 4 announced that just for one day, Countdown and some other shows were going to change their entire presenting team for new people. Maybe it'll go well, maybe it won't, but whatever happens it's only one day and the following m...

Graeme Cole

Has there ever been an episode in the 15-round era in which every letters selection contained only 3 vowels? There have been six: http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_3876 http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_3954 http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_4381 http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_4682 http://wiki.apter...

Graeme Cole

3 of Conor Travers' prelim opponent's have since re-appeared as contestants on the show. Is this the most re-appearing contestant's from a particular octochamp's prelim run? I first misinterpreted this question as "which opponent of an octochamp has had the most separate runs", so I might as well a...

Graeme Cole

What is the furthest, starting at round one, that two games have got, being identical in their selections. - With letter/number order in a round important - Without letter/number order in a round important No two letters selections on Countdown have ever been exactly identical (same letters in the ...

Graeme Cole

You are the tournament organiser. You clearly overhear Cock and Dick agreeing with each other not to buzz for the conundrum, so as to deliberately draw the game, giving them 5½ wins each, putting them both through to the final. What action, if any, do you take? Is this hypothetical or has this (or ...

Graeme Cole

Publishing the results as soon as they come in has another, more important function - error correction. When a result gets put in the wrong way round, or someone gets 20 points less than they should because someone's 5s look like 3s, the sooner this gets caught and corrected the better. If you only...

Graeme Cole

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Sat Jul 25, 2020 9:39 am
Videprinter?

The bottom section of this screen, which, unless the organiser overrides it, Atropine shows from when the first result in a round is entered until the last result in the round is entered.

Named after this, although apparently I spelt it wrong.

Graeme Cole

It's the "coming to an agreement" thing that makes this bad, not the individual decisions by each player to play conservatively in the hope of not dropping too many points, which itself is of course within the letter and the spirit of the rules. But in Gevin's example they also came to an agreement...

Graeme Cole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egeV4mZ31Xs This may have been what I was thinking of when posing the problem. You find the nearest mirror, and you look deeply and searchingly into your reflection as it looks back at you with shame, disappointment and disgust for running a tournament with a structu...

Graeme Cole

It's the last round of a co-event. At this event, draws are allowed and they count as half a win, like at MK. As usual, the top two after six games play each other in the final. The top of the standings table looks like this: P W Pts 1 Alice 6 5 405 2 Bob 6 5 401 3 Cock 5 5 325 4 Dick 5 5 317 5 Rand...

Graeme Cole

From the start of the current 15-round format to the end of series 81... Single player: 78 is the most common score (68 times) followed by 80 and 82 (64 times each). Final score (ignoring order, writing the winner's score first in all cases): 74-69 (6 times) followed by 78-62, 80-70 and 98-77 (5 tim...

Graeme Cole

Reading further on the ABSP publications list, I found the Guide for Tournament Directors which towards the end implies the existence of an "Incidents Database", a collection of past rulings which tournament directors can use to help decide how to deal with various disputes that crop up. I can only ...

Graeme Cole

Ian Volante wrote: ↑
Wed Jul 22, 2020 12:04 pm
Is this just up to series 81 then?

Yes, sorry, I should have mentioned. I update the database after the end of each series.

Your range is 29 and your coefficient of variation is 9.68%.

Graeme Cole

Good question Gevin. Anyone who wants to come from Britain would have to be quarantine for 14 days prior to the event... so from that point of view, technically, if someone was determined to travel for this, it would be possible to attend. So, yes based on that weird loophole, it is still a FOCAL e...

Graeme Cole

To head off the inevitable questions of "where am I in the list?" I might as well post both lists in full so you can find your names. Sorted by range: name lowest highest range -------------------- ------- ------- ------- John Hardie 99 110 11 Tom Hargreaves 98 111 13 Thomas Carey 109 122 13 Jack We...

Graeme Cole

This counts all octochamps in the 15-round era, lumping in old 15 rounders with new 15 rounders to annoy pedants. Only the heat games in the octorun are considered. Smallest difference between lowest and highest score in an octorun (top 10 plus ties): name lowest highest range -------------------- -...

Graeme Cole

Obviously I don't know to what extent they use this discretion - maybe they only correct it if they think one or both players deliberately entered nonsense on the scoresheet to gain an advantage. Thinking about this further, correcting a scoresheet after handing it in probably isn't a super-rare pr...

Graeme Cole

This is excellent.

Graeme Cole

(I think Scrabble and chess have a system where both players sign the scoresheet, after which the result can't be corrected - handing in the scoresheet would seem to be the equivalent for co-events.) Reference: FIDE Laws of Chess (see article 8.7) and ABSP Scrabble Rules (see section 10.1 and 10.2)...

Graeme Cole

(I think Scrabble and chess have a system where both players sign the scoresheet, after which the result can't be corrected - handing in the scoresheet would seem to be the equivalent for co-events.) Reference: FIDE Laws of Chess (see article 8.7) and ABSP Scrabble Rules (see section 10.1 and 10.2).

Graeme Cole

On the subject of what is an invalid conundrum... 1. If the conundrum has no valid answer, the conundrum is invalid. (However, if the intended answer is invalid but there's a valid answer, the conundrum stands.) 2a. The answer is a +S plural. These are specifically excluded by the guidelines sent to...

Graeme Cole

Amazing scenes on Challenge as Ben Wilson's older self makes it into the Millionaire hot seat.

Graeme Cole

As well as the reasons Sam mentions, the length-declaration stage serves another purpose: it's the contestants' only opportunity to declare they haven't written their word down. Even if you were unconvinced that the tactical advantage of declaring second improved the game, you couldn't get rid of th...

Graeme Cole

Any idea of the highest intermediate number of a number round solution for which you must go via that number? That's worded horribly. I hacked about with my solver for most of the evening and then found an efficient-ish way to look for this. So far I've only looked at 4 large, as that's where I thi...

Graeme Cole

People who have really specific dislikes that aren't particularly rational or likely to have any biological basis but are also shared by a suspiciously large number of people, suggesting that they just copied off each other. The main two I'm thinking of here are a fear of clowns and a dislike of th...

Graeme Cole

How often does Countdown have to edit due to offensive words.....and is the scoring contrived so the person playing said word is not penalised. Round 7 of this game . From the selection CTDAEIFSH, Jack Hurst offered SHITFACE. (To avoid the inevitable comments: SHITFACED^ is hyphenated and CATFISHED...

Graeme Cole

About the worst case scenario I can think of is if a white person was playing a black person, and played NI__ER in their first turn, before explaining that the two blanks were both Gs. That would be horrendous but it still wouldn't be against the rules... you'd just lose your turn and probably bing...

Graeme Cole

There is a list. They've presented it here in a clever way that prevents them actually having to write the words out. To answer the question further up, FAGGOT isn't in this list because it has a non-offensive sense. I don't think it's all-or-nothing. They could remove the most offensive racial slur...

Graeme Cole

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Fri Jun 26, 2020 3:43 pm
Change my mind.

No.

Graeme Cole

Fair point. I think you have to have made your decision on what word you're going to offer when you declare your length. I would prefer a situation where someone who had the ability to write down every combination of letters on their paper in 30 seconds couldn't draw every letters round that they d...

Graeme Cole

Sorry, in this case you only have two options, say MAWSONITE and AWMSONITE. You know your gonna pick one of them, by decide to wing it when asked. They declare first, saying MAWSONITE and getbapproving looks from dictionary corner. What would you do in that instance? Purposely pick the wrong one or...

Graeme Cole

Why is the other thread named "Joke Items" and not "Invention scorner"?

Graeme Cole

When the word "straight" came along in its sense meaning "not gay", was there any great objection to it? Did some heterosexual people "reject that label"? "cis" meaning "not trans" is just the same thing. I'll include Graeme in here too. I think it's slightly different with "cis" because it's not a...

Graeme Cole

I don't use cis in the same way I don't have to announce myself as heterosexual. I'm not sure I even understand this. If you were gay you'd have no obligation to "announce" yourself as gay either. Nobody's suggesting anyone should start introducing themselves to people as "hi, I'm Marc, I'm cis", a...

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