c4countdown

Graeme Cole

As well as many political opinions, I share a birthday with Tom Harwood. Which would be nice if I didn't have a huge inferiority complex. I guess it's time for me to decide whether I want to model my political views after Neil Kinnock or Lady Gaga I guess it's time for me to decide whether I want t...

Graeme Cole

Let's not forget her basic inability to ask questions in a coherent manner on The Weakest Link. E.g. if the question was "What is Countdown - a gameshow or a type of shoe?" she would say "What is Countdown, a gameshow or a shoe?" like all three things were part of a list and it led to confusion. Th...

Graeme Cole

Based on the reverse declaration discourse going on at the moment... It is the final numbers game in a 15-rounder, and C1 is trailing 76-84. The selection is 100 75 50 25 10 1 --> 813. C1 is sure they can do 811, and may be able to do 813 but isn't sure. The time runs out and the host asks C1 for t...

Graeme Cole

I was ashamed that same sex marriage was being pushed for, that it made its way onto the political agenda, and very disappointed that many gay people were campaigning for it as though it were an advancement of gay rights. Personally I think it is a backward step... and a rather petulant one at that...

Graeme Cole

Callum Todd wrote: ↑
Wed Feb 19, 2020 4:30 pm
Any hints and tips for a chess rookie?

You can go any distance uppie-downie or leftie-rightie.

Graeme Cole

I'm 9 episodes into this inaccurately-named "speedrun" of chess by Daniel Naroditsky. He's a grandmaster, playing on chess.com under a pseudonym, starting with a very low rating, playing against players of similar ratings*. As he plays, working his way up the ratings ladder, he talks through the ta...

Graeme Cole

I'm 9 episodes into this inaccurately-named "speedrun" of chess by Daniel Naroditsky. He's a grandmaster, playing on chess.com under a pseudonym, starting with a very low rating, playing against players of similar ratings*. As he plays, working his way up the ratings ladder, he talks through the tac...

Graeme Cole

The recap writer has returned an error 500 for some weeks now. Can someone technical explain that? 500 means "Internal Server Error" and usually indicates some misconfiguration on the server or an error in the script that generates the page. None of this seems particularly relevant however, as the ...

Graeme Cole

I understand that due to Nick Shielding and Colin Murray being unavailable ther will be no filmiming of Countdown Next week. Hopefully we wont have to get repeats because of this Who is Nick Shielding and why is he unavailable? I'm told they have enough shows recorded to last until 4th March, anyway.

Graeme Cole

What is the record for the same number of matching declarations in a game? 11, between Jack Hurst and David O'Donnell in this 30BC game . I've taken "matching declarations" to mean that in a letters round the players declared the same word and scored the same number of points, and in a numbers roun...

Graeme Cole

What is the record for the same number of matching declarations in a game? 11, between Jack Hurst and David O'Donnell in this 30BC game . I've taken "matching declarations" to mean that in a letters round the players declared the same word and scored the same number of points, and in a numbers roun...

Graeme Cole

R6 alt: 3 times the sum of the rest.

Well played both. Still surprised that BIG-HEADS hasn't lost its hyphen.

Graeme Cole

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Mon Dec 21, 2020 5:18 pm
I thought getting the host rather than the Carol to pick was a nice touch.

Why not also refer to Colin as "the Richard"?

Graeme Cole

There are two options for the next permanent Countdown host: the right choice (Colin Murray) and the wrong choice (anyone else). Great game, well done to Tom and George. Could, not Would. Would have been if they just chose to go with the result of the first. But yeah I see your point. I don't think ...

Graeme Cole

My solver doesn't have anything precomputed - when you put in a selection, it works out all the expressions you can make from that selection (by representing each expression of N numbers as a tree, and combining them with the remaining numbers to make (N+1)-number expressions), and therefore what t...

Graeme Cole

Published yesterday: an interesting new Computerphile video about the Countdown numbers game, and a method of generating every possible solution using Reverse Polish Notation. Analysis of this kind has been done on this forum before, but one thing that I hadn't realised was that even targets are sta...

Graeme Cole

Congratulations Luke and commiserations to Sam. MAEGBOTE was a great spot. Thanks also to all the finalists and the production team for giving us series 82 in such difficult circumstances.

Graeme Cole

Just posting to say well played to Luke and Ian, and that I also got CREAMABLY. There's enough of us that it almost qualifies as a R15 alt.

Graeme Cole

The reason I am not happy to simply let this go, is that it is a point of principle. Forget all the bluster, hot air, and white people pretending to be offended by things they are not offended by... this boils down to one simple question for me: If I go back into that post from last week, and remov...

Graeme Cole

There is NO WORD in the English language (including the dreaded N-word) that is so taboo that in cannot be used in any context. There are countless examples online... If you wanna do a cursory search for the n-word, you will find hundreds of thousands of articles, forum posts, etc. that contain the...

Graeme Cole

So having harassed Dominic Cummings for not technically breaking the rules, Beth Rigby and Kay Burley break Covid rules. You couldn't really make it up. Just remembered I wanted to reply to this post. Dominic Cummings did break the rules. Even if you argue that his trip from London to Durham was al...

Graeme Cole

DC doesn't have to announce every possible max This is slightly my fault as I've told them it makes it a lot easier to write the recap if I don't have to split DC/OT words, because the recap writer churns them out as DC-words-then-OT-words when we actually list them in alphabetical order regardless...

Graeme Cole

Paul Anderson wrote: ↑
Sun Dec 06, 2020 12:18 am
I’m quite triggered at the suggestion we don’t know what we’re doing

I don't know if this refers to my or Eoin's post, but just in case, this is obviously not what I was suggesting.

Graeme Cole

On a real TV show with real producers who know what they are doing, PACKIES (with not even a hint of a racist or unpleasant definition in the dictionary) would be shown, and would not be bleeped out. As it happens, something similar might have happened on Countdown, which as I'm sure you know is a ...

Graeme Cole

Maybe other like-minded people share your moral code, but why should it be imposed on the majority? What on Earth makes you think you're in the majority here? Know, not think. When John Chew pushed through a "Naughty list" whereby certain 'offensive' words were blacklisted in the US version of tour...

Graeme Cole

Tom Chafer-Cook is the only double-barrelled champion, and he played Bradley Horrocks, so yes. Can confirm. I think T-Cap misread the question but got the right answer anyway. Erm, yes, so did I. I thought it was only asking about finals. There's exactly one episode in Countdown's history where bot...

Graeme Cole

Thomas Cappleman wrote: ↑
Thu Dec 03, 2020 5:10 pm

Martin Hurst wrote: ↑
Thu Dec 03, 2020 4:30 pm
If the series 82 final ends up being Luke v Sam, will it be the first CD episode ever with both contestants having double-barrelled surnames?
Tom Chafer-Cook is the only double-barrelled champion, and he played Bradley Horrocks, so yes.

Can confirm.

Graeme Cole

What’s the highest number of points conceded for an octachamp? Great question! Another good question inspired by this is which players have the highest and lowest aggregate score difference over all of their games. Elliott Mellor had an aggregate margin of 854 over his octorun opponents. Glenn Lean...

Graeme Cole

Patrick Thompson wrote: ↑
Wed Dec 02, 2020 4:17 pm
What’s the highest number of points conceded for an octachamp?

Assuming we're counting only points scored by opponents in the relevant heat run, the highest is 585 by the opponents of David Edwards.

Graeme Cole

New 15 rounder: 0 wins: Alan Flanagan, Ross Lander (82) 1 win: Jean Wright (151) 2 wins: Peter Fenton (262) 3 wins: Jill Hayward (374) 4 wins: Margaret Lawless (359) 5 wins: Zarte Siempre (656) 6 wins: Gemma Church (602) 7 wins: Callum Todd (747) 8 wins: Dylan Taylor (974) Could we have an update o...

Graeme Cole

Any non-finalist who averaged over 90 in their games? (excluding those who couldn't make the finals) The following list is sort of that - I haven't got a way to exclude people who qualified for the finals but didn't turn up for whatever reason. Furthermore, I've taken the relevant series finals to ...

Graeme Cole

How many times has the max been 100 or more, and how many times has at least one contestant hit 100 or more? (Basically, "century success rate", please.) I know no one ever got a century in 9-rounders but I'd like to see how often it was possible...! Up until the end of series 81... Format Times ce...

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...

Search found 1751 matches