c4countdown

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...

Graeme Cole

I seem to have moved a little bit down and to the left from where I was in 2011. I'm now -4.13, -6.15.

Graeme Cole

I just came here to correct Ken Bruce's arithmetic seven years on. £25 * 52 is £1,300, not £1,560.

Or perhaps another £5 a week got lost in editing?

Graeme Cole

Quite likely to have been asked before, but in case it hasn't, and you know; Graeme, how many Octochamps have solved all 8 conundrums in their heat games? Eleven. They are Darryl Francis, Harvey Freeman, David Williams, Julian Fell, Kai Laddiman, Daniel Pati, Jonathan Rawlinson, Thomas Carey, Paul ...

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

What is the biggest decrease in score of a champion from one game to the next, in which they had won both of the games? Stewart Holden went from 137 to 79. Might not be the record though. This pair of games is in second place, beaten only by Hamish Williamson. (All of this only counts games up to t...

Graeme Cole

Hi Graeme, What is the biggest decrease in score of a champion from one game to the next, in which they had won both of the games? .This is applicable to all types of 15R's. I'd have a punt and say it was Jodine Lawrence from S79, who got 117 in her debut, and 75 in the next game, but thought I'd a...

Graeme Cole

I met up with someone at a park today (staying two metres away from each other except to test our eyes). This is the first time I've done something like this since lockdown. This is allowed now isn't it? But I was saying how stupid it was that I've encountered people that I know when I've e.g. gone...

Graeme Cole

The question now is how long does this story go on for before people actually move on - we're not going to get anything more out of the government on this, since they've clearly stated they're now trying to draw a line under this. Let's bear in mind we're 4 years away from a general election and th...

Graeme Cole

Ah, thanks. Perhaps you're right, without claiming to have read every single word of the actual legislation around travel, it would appear the Barnard Castle trip (but not the London-Durham and Durham-London) trip was probably illegal. Feel free to substitute "and probably even illegal" for the wor...

Graeme Cole

I agree with 100% of your post apart from that it began with a quote of me, when as far I can tell no part of your comment bears any relation to any part of my comment. Have I missed a link somewhere? Sorry, I should have been more specific. I was referring to your description of his actions as "le...

Graeme Cole

Ultimately, the guy's actions were the irresponsible but legal behaviour of a private individual. Perhaps it's reasonable that a private individual who also sometimes operates in a public role is subject to more scrutiny of their private behaviour than most others. But what's the absolute cap on a ...

Graeme Cole

Answers and full results here.

Graeme Cole

How does it decide which path to show if there are two (or more) paths of an equal length? For instance, Kate Ogilvie's "official" path goes via Richard Saldanha, Ross McKenzie, Chris Davies, then Kirk Bevins. Another path of that length would be the same root as Scott Mearns: (Mearns), Terry Knowl...

Graeme Cole

For those of you who don't follow the relevant Facebook group, I've made a WikiQuiz quiz with 50 initial snippets of UK game show theme tunes, with which you have to identify the show. It starts easily enough, but the later ones are quite obscure. The quiz is open until 10pm Monday. Register: Intros...

Graeme Cole

What does this have to do with Countdown, Mark? The pub was the Fox and Hounds, which is the pub we go to after COLIN. I should know, I was there. And how can you play pool when you're not supposed to be around other people in person? If the dream was set immediately after COLIN, then the lockdown ...

Graeme Cole

29th May or June? This all seems very strange. June would seem most likely. As alluded to above, two 30BC episodes seem to have been pulled, and presumably the original dates given for the CoC assumed they wouldn't be replaced with other episodes, which we now know they will be. The first replaced ...

Graeme Cole

I'm under 70, let's do this. In all seriousness it's genuinely not a bad idea to have former contestants doing the presenting. They know the program better than any stand-in celeb might do and thus would have a shorter acclimatisation period, those of us who gratuitously chalk up media appearances ...

Graeme Cole

Surprised the ISOLATED round wasn't excised from the repeat given the public's utter hatred of anything remotely connected to Covid. Is this a snipe at someone? If so, who? And why? And if it wasn't, then......what the hell was it? I am confused by your post. Let me try again. Given that any refere...

Graeme Cole

Thomas Carey wrote: ↑
Wed May 13, 2020 6:51 am

Rhys Benjamin wrote: ↑
Tue May 12, 2020 3:42 pm
CoCQP5: Jack Worsley vs Kirk Bevins
Domino's is the pizza place for the ExtravaganZZa Feast® pizza, when we combine beef with loads of pepperoni, ham, Italian sausage, fresh onions, green peppers, mushrooms, and black olives, all topped with extra 100 percent real mozzarella cheese.

What?

Graeme Cole

OK thanks. I did think about heat but is there some sort of "ideal" scenario where heat isn't a thing? With your ideal zero-friction ice, there would be no heat generated between the wheels and the road, but there would have to be friction, and therefore heat, between the brake pads and the wheels....

Graeme Cole

A locked wheel sliding along has less kinetic energy than one rolling along at the same speed - to do with kinetic energy being 0.5mv^2. It's proportional to the square of the velocity so the rolling wheel might have the same average speed as the locked one but the faster moving parts above the mid...

Graeme Cole

What colour does your synaesthesic side tell you apterous is? For me it's not brown, it's a sort of pale blue. But that could just be because of the background colour.

Graeme Cole

Charlie Reams wrote: ↑
Fri May 08, 2020 8:16 am
You can post whatever you want in here, since it isn't configured to send me an alert. It's also completely pointless since I won't see it. Enjoy!

That's a shame, because Apterous is currently down.

Graeme Cole

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Wed May 06, 2020 4:01 pm

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑
Wed May 06, 2020 3:19 pm

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:54 pm

a)
We're still waiting for the conclusion to this thrilling post.
I think it was just a reference to this and this.

Thank you for not only clarifying the meaning of this post but also reintroducing me to the discussion leading up to the legendary 2013 eating competition.

Graeme Cole

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:54 pm

Mark Deeks wrote:How are sardines not a food?
a)

We're still waiting for the conclusion to this thrilling post.

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