c4countdown

Graeme Cole

The generations like Gen X, millennials etc., are arbitrary, confusing and ultimately just stupid. It makes no real sense to say that you are in the same generation as someone because you fall the right side of some arbitrary boundary. You might be in a "different generation" to someone b...

Graeme Cole

I prefer option 5 - just buy or take your own. It's really rare for an event not to be within easy walking distance of a supermarket or similar sandwich-vending emporium. The problem with options 3 and 4 is that in the past people have gone to a cafe or pub for lunch and got stuck there waiting ages...

Graeme Cole

The whole digitisation of services has gone too far, and is really just the result of high-ups being lazy and not wanting to do any work or employ anyone. This applies to things such as car parks where you have to pay using your phone, anywhere that insists you download an app in order to use a ser...

Graeme Cole

Did its reintroduction coincide with the new numbers generator? If you mean the "new" display, that came after the old 7-segment one, no. That was introduced at the same time Countdown moved from Granada to MediaCity in 2013 . It's possible that 100 became a valid target at this point and...

Graeme Cole

Is there an Ask Graeme here? When there were two numbers games per show you'd expect it to come up every 450 shows on average - and up to 1996 it did. Now you'd expect it to come up every 225 shows, and it doesn't. Not even close. If we look at all episodes since 100 appeared as a target in 2016, t...

Graeme Cole

100 has come up several times as a target. The whole 101 thing is a myth. Only a really long time ago and in relatively recent history. Here are all the times 100 has appeared as a target... https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_877 (1989) https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_1268 (1992) https://wiki.apte...

Graeme Cole

You're at a co:event. This is a co:event. It's not Countdown. It's not apterous. It's a co:event. So you're at a co:event and it's Bristol style. Conundrum time. It's a crucial conundrum. Pretty important game in the context of the day too. Both players buzz at around about the same time, although ...

Graeme Cole

Callum Todd wrote: ↑Tue Nov 28, 2023 12:31 pm (probably Graeme, as it sounds such a sensible idea)

It's an interesting suggestion but I don't remember making it, so I don't think I can take the credit for it.

Graeme Cole

it's important that the small numbers are revealed before the larges. Particularly in 4 large this distinction is significant. 100% agreed. I also have a strong preference for larges always being on the left, as that's the canonical way of seeing them, and I never write them down. Frankly, it's an ...

Graeme Cole

On writing the numbers down, how much time should there be and when does it become "extra"? It can be quite awkward watching the numbers come up quickly and then having to write them down (backwards, because of the weird Countdown tradition from decades on the television) and a bit of tim...

Graeme Cole

1) Extra Time for Writing Numbers Down: Should a player be given considerable extra time to write the numbers down before revealing the target? This deviation from the show's format happened for Tim on Saturday. It inadvertently provides extra thinking time for everyone. In games like 6 small, this...

Graeme Cole

Written as a separate post as I think this one's important enough to deserve it. I was disappointed to hear recently that someone who used to come to events no longer does, because of certain people and their continued disrespect of boundaries. It's a tiny minority, but it's always the same men's na...

Graeme Cole

Here's a thread for everyone's suggestions on how co-events could be improved. Naturally people normally post these in the thread corresponding to the most recent co-event, because the improvement they thought of is fresh in their mind. However, to avoid these looking like criticisms of one specific...

Graeme Cole

*Graeme Cole once said that in his experience it's the onion, but I think he must hang out with a statistically anomalous bunch of people. Last night I went for a curry with seven other people from this social group, and guess what, the onions got used up first. Basically you're calling this forum ...

Graeme Cole

Bumping this - the tool that was used for hosting the finals yesterday implemented "algorithm 2" as outlined by Jack (although with 9 or 15 rounders (code bugs excepted!) we're never going to get near the end of the pack so algorithm 1 is probably fine!) I think it felt about right - ther...

Graeme Cole

I was going to say the exact same thing. Being a contestant on a TV show, fun though it is, is not worth giving up your job for.

Graeme Cole

Yesterday, Phil Stanton mentioned to me that when the app asks you to pick your numbers, the "Random" button never picks 6 small. I can reproduce this. I've just played four 10xN games, pressing the Random pick button every time, and in 40 numbers rounds I didn't get a single 6 small. This...

Graeme Cole

Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Mon Nov 20, 2023 2:40 pm I will refer to people by their chosen name and not their pronouns

What, you never use the words "him", "her" or "them" to refer to someone?

Graeme Cole

Unfortunately the venue have set a capacity which we've met (actually we went over and have had to reject a couple). However Beachy has made alternate meal plans so worth messaging him. Ofc anyone else is welcome to join us for the karaoke (up until 10pm) Ok no worries cheers for the info Hey Dan. ...

Graeme Cole

Joasia Zakrzewski banned for 12 months for using car in race Stories like this are always hilarious, but what makes this especially noteworthy is she still only came third. Presumably this was to the great amusement of the two who finished ahead of her, who now brag about having beaten every other ...

Graeme Cole

Do you have a quick way to produce a list of teapot owners, who won their first game by <10 points, and solved one of the numbers rounds in the same way as their opponent after declaring second? https://twitter.com/fesshole/status/1710798417805394113?t=SmwfDZeMD38Yg7KOX8EnYw&s=19 Skipping ahead...

Graeme Cole

C2 leads C1 by 15 points going into the last letters game. C1 declares a 9. C2 then declares a risky 9. C1's word is just the letters spelt out as they are in the selection and disallowed. C2's word is a valid 8 with an S on the end - plausible but disallowed. The lead remains at 15 points. C1 then...

Graeme Cole

"Click and collect". What's the point of it? Who's using it? There are two main ways to buy something. You could go to an actual bricks-and-mortar shop, and get it the same day but have the inconvenience of having to go all the way to the shop. Alternatively, you could order it from a webs...

Graeme Cole

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Tue Sep 12, 2023 8:00 am No hidable.

HOBNAILED

Graeme Cole

Matey taking the piss. Suggest the wiki write-up kept to the minimum - don't give him the attention he's clearly after. What a tosser. I've seen a couple of people suggest this was a deliberately low score to seek attention, but what makes you so sure of that? Having watched the episode, all I can ...

Graeme Cole

Incredible that they put so much effort into reproducing Big Ben's iconic clock face, then they put a 7 in the 6 position.

Graeme Cole

I do get why some people like the divisions format as more people can win prizes not just those at the top of the tree, but IMO the big problem with the divisions format is that your final position is largely determined by how you perform solely in the first half of the day. Take the recent CO:NUT ...

Graeme Cole

What are the chances of a 'Golden Game', on Apto or elsewhere? Standard 15-player finds a nine in each round, along with all numbers, and the con. This hypothetical game would have a score of 230. Statisically, what are the chances? I imagine there's not a lot, but is there anything the player coul...

Graeme Cole

Rita Meston scored in all 10 letters rounds on 14th March 2023, despite only finding the longest available word in two of them. Has anyone ever scored in every letters round without finding any maxes in the 15-round era? The following seven players have all played a modern 15-rounder in which they ...

Graeme Cole

6 small: 2650 1 large: 22055 2 large: 4637 3 large: 958 4 large: 1361 This is extracted from a post on numbers success by pick, and is the closest thing I can find to "how often each selection has been picked". So yeah, how often has each selection been picked, and is that possible as a m...

Graeme Cole

I noticed that the vast majority of John Hastings's games went to crucial conundrums on his way to running up Series 42. Is 70% a record for games that went to a crucial with contestants with, say, more than 2 games? (If you discount Hastings's non-crucial 14-round final, it's 7/9 in terms of 9-rou...

Graeme Cole

What's the longest we've gone without an E? Consecutive non-E letters and consecutive non-E vowels. (Not time because that would just be a holiday or something.) I don't think it's too spoilerific to say that today we had four consecutive rounds with no E. 42 letters including 16 vowels, if I've co...

Graeme Cole

What's the biggest points difference between two Octochamps A and B where A got a higher octo total than B, but B had a better % of available points scored in their octo run? Luke Boynton scored 1032/1149 (89.8%) but Ed McCullagh scored 896/979 (91.5%). This is the biggest octotal difference I can ...

Graeme Cole

I've been having this question in my head and thinking about where to post it, and I think here might be a good spot. I've been using WebRack a lot to host weekly games in my Discord and it's been great fun. Recently though I've been introducing some of the variants that Apterous has through WebRac...

Graeme Cole

Based on the standard letter distributions mentioned earlier in this thread (you can just pick the most recent one, and ignore the effects of shuffling), what is the least likely 9-letter word that has been available in a selection at least once? What is the least likely 9 that has actually been sp...

Graeme Cole

Graeme, what is the average max length for letters rounds in the modern 15Rer? And is there much of a difference in the ave maxes between 3/4/5 vowel selections? The mean average max length for letters rounds is 7.46. This covers 20,890 rounds from the start of the modern 15-rounder to the end of s...

Graeme Cole

When I watch it, all I can see is C2 getting the right answer then being told it's wrong. Maybe there was more discussion or clarification we didn't see? When a contestant says something which sounds like both the correct answer and some made-up word in neither the dictionary nor the selection, it s...

Graeme Cole

Is Graham the first returnee to have had the same guest as last time? Junaid Mubeen had Barry Cryer as DC guest in two different series. Zarte also had Jon Culshaw twice - in the prelims of his first series, and the latter stages of his COC victory. Kirk Bevins had Dr Phil Hammond as a guest in his...

Graeme Cole

Unlucky Adam, that could have gone either way. Glad you'll be back for the finals. Good to see Graham get the teapot though, and Colin playing up the whole thing about a certain pasta dish and history repeating itself in multiple ways. It seems appropriate to mention that on this occasion Graham got...

Graeme Cole

Mark Deeks wrote: ↑Thu Jun 01, 2023 12:23 pm Seems like he missed an obvious trick, though. Coulda been the ubiquitous one with a bit more forethought. Silly Gary.

Fortunately for him there was one thing Andy Celsius didn't think of.

Graeme Cole

Let the Hurricane roll on!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: Ubergeek question: Has any max game ever actually been confirmed on screen to have been a max game? I could see them doing this for some of the newer ones. Kirk's max game in the 30th Birthday Championship was announced by Nick Hewer at the time but t...

Graeme Cole

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 9:25 am Interesting stat Graeme. I bet you've been sitting on this for a while.

Improbably enough, no. By a happy coincidence I only thought to work it out last night.

Graeme Cole

As of today's episode, 8,164 episodes of Countdown have been broadcast. Naturally there are significant caveats to this number* because there are so many ways to define what counts as an "episode", but for everything before the current series I've gone with "if it has an entry in my d...

Graeme Cole

It's like the famous saying says (I'm probably paraphrasing here) "I might not agree with what you are saying but will fight to the death for your right to say it" Voltaire When I spoke at the Oxford Union last year about the alarming recent popularity of people filming things vertically ...

Graeme Cole

Johnny Canuck wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 8:43 pm It's -OUR here too, guys

I did wonder what he was talking about here. The hyphen makes it clear.

Graeme Cole

Andrew Neil never called the Government Nazis Nor did Gary Lineker. This is what he said, here and here : Good heavens, this is beyond awful. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I...

Graeme Cole

Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Wed Mar 08, 2023 9:43 am Alex Hardwick.
Love him or hate him?.

I'm sure you wouldn't deliberately misgender someone, but her pronouns are she/her. So now you know.

Graeme Cole

Hi everyone. It's been nice to trawl through the archives (it's been a while) and I'm pleased to say that I can provide insight of varying levels into these discrepancies. Series 4, Episode 163: The wiki matches my notes exactly. Although it's obviously possible that I wrote down an 8 instead of a ...

Graeme Cole

It's not as if they're quietly removing things in order to pretend they were never there. There's been quite a lot of publicity about it. A child reading the book afresh will not necessarily know any of this. They're not getting any of the context of the removal. The publicity is just now. It won't...

Graeme Cole

I'm not entirely convinced that "enormous" is any less offensive than "fat". Seems like an exercise in silliness. Its like some of the words in the expurgated scrabble list which include, BINT, CISSIES and ASPIE And, erm, BOGTROTTER . I can understand why people might have diffe...

Graeme Cole

CSW isn't exactly freely-available, either. CSW word checkers that take a word and give you a simple yes or no are all over the place, but the actual raw word list is more restricted . This is so obviously a comment from someone from outside of the world of Scrabble. The new CSW lists are always fr...

Graeme Cole

Maybe when Damian retires the new person will have the vision to make the change. Okay, let's play. What exactly am i supposed to be changing to and why? The dictionary isn't perfect, but are any of them? It's not long since we had the best C of C ever and two highest scores of 154 in pretty close ...

Graeme Cole

Not sure I understand the reason for Ann's 0 seconds conundrum solve ( "the amount the clock moved" ). Can someone explain please? As I recall, they'd recently built a new clock, which had a few teething problems. Occasionally the music would start but the clock hand wouldn't. This happen...

Graeme Cole

25 points behind going into the last "half" and going on to win. Must be fairly rare. Good game. According to my recently-refreshed wiki-derived database, the last time a contestant was 25 or more points behind after R9 and went on to win was in 2014: https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_5896

Graeme Cole

My first two attempts were over 2:00, but that was by looking at the dot that appeared in the grid and reading off the row and column. Then part way through attempt 3 I realised the actual question appeared in the same place above the grid each time, and you could just use that and ignore the grid. ...

Graeme Cole

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 7:20 pm The blanket rule that allowed "dominater" would have been badly thought out though. It should be DOMINATOR, and not because it's a special case. ATE -> ATOR is the standard method.

Even if you apply that method, over-general rules such as these have more holes than a cheese grator.

Graeme Cole

the said words are all reasonable So are most agent nouns in some context, but many of those aren't specified (e.g. invoicer, tightener, deployer, ...) and we're used to that. Perhaps adjectives that don't have their own entry, and are instead only mentioned as derivatives of a noun, are rare enoug...

Graeme Cole

The other question, which I don't think has actually been explicitly addressed, is what would we do if e.g. Jim applied to enter anther CO-event? That's easy. "No." Because realistically, refusing him entry would be more about not wanting to play with / associate with him than an actual s...

Graeme Cole

Not exactly a show, but Bolton Wanderers just used Jeff Stelling-era Countdown to announce the signing of a useless player… I can say he’s useless, cos Town have had him for 5 months, in which he played 6 times, starting just 3, and in one of them, he played so bad that he basically helped concede ...

Graeme Cole

Can you make online payments using fake ID, I have no idea? Going back to my idea of having a membership for Focal with a nominal annual fee to cover event costs and running potentially a data base giving every player a rating, based on average game score or games won against ranking like in Scrabb...

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