Search found 333 matches
- Tue May 14, 2024 5:04 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Favourite Number Plays/Players
- Replies: 14
- Views: 433
Re: Favourite Number Plays/Players
Generous of you Jon, but I'd put your 813 solution even higher. It's just such an extreme version of the 937.5, and to even think of it in 30 seconds yet alone execute it. I'd give myself some chance of getting one like the 952 in time, but I'm never getting your one. (Obviously Jack's actually righ...
- Tue Apr 23, 2024 10:23 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 181
- Views: 41493
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
Perhaps tournaments that have fewer than 6 rounds should use points scored to rank players rather than wins - for all rounds, so when a draw is done, you're matched by points. Wins are still more important than points scored though - tight games shouldn't be punished The final table would presumabl...
- Mon Apr 22, 2024 12:08 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: CO:Rea - 20 April 2024
- Replies: 53
- Views: 32841
Re: CO:Rea - 20 April 2024
Some absolutely batshit crazy final standings from this event https://greem.co.uk/cgi-bin/colive/tourney.py?tourney=CoRea2024 Helen Harding 87 pts per game 42nd Place Paul Talmey 81 pts per game 10th Place Tom Stevenson 112 pts per game 26th Place Martyn Pegram 73 pts per game 25th Place With a lar...
- Sun Mar 17, 2024 9:00 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: REALLY obvious things you've just realised
- Replies: 646
- Views: 337111
Re: REALLY obvious things you've just realised
It's possible I was aware of this at the time but forgot, but India apparently overtook China as the most populous country last year. Both countries combined constituting more than a third of the world population is insane Similarly, the US still being third if you added another billion people to it
- Fri Feb 16, 2024 2:26 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1753
- Views: 774253
Re: Ask Graeme?
I make Conor as being 23/31 or 74.2%, so an initial beater
- Tue Feb 13, 2024 10:51 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
- Replies: 1617
- Views: 743168
Re: Questions you've always wanted answered
Enfield council do it for free, seemingly based on concerns about fly tipping (source: https://www.enfield.gov.uk/news-and-eve ... o-strength). But a brief Google search suggests that's rare even among London boroughs.
- Fri Jan 19, 2024 9:47 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
- Replies: 1617
- Views: 743168
Re: Questions you've always wanted answered
How is it that a poem or song written in a foreign language is translated into English it still seems to rhyme Because the translator has chosen to make it rhyme (because that's "how poems are" in English), almost certainly meaning it's not what you'd have got if they just translated it n...
- Fri Jan 19, 2024 4:05 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 181
- Views: 41493
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
That's incredibly unlikely to happen - and looking through a selection of recent events with full round results confirms that. Tom, I'm not sure where you are getting your data from to make this claim of "incredibly unlikely to happen" from, but I think you are just wrong here. It literal...
- Fri Jan 19, 2024 3:11 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 181
- Views: 41493
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
It's unlikely though that the top 3 after 1 round of Lincoln style will be the actual strongest 3 (given different random rounds to play), so most likely 2 of the very top players will still be on the top table for the following round. I'm inclined to disagree with this. Any single combination isn'...
- Fri Jan 19, 2024 1:39 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 181
- Views: 41493
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- The final round of games should most likely pit the best players against each other. Which, if any, of those 5/6 principles does the current system fail on? The Swiss system used at COLIN and other players doesn't really do this. As far as I understand the top players after round 1 go against eac...
- Thu Jan 11, 2024 3:52 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: COLIN XIX- Countdown in Lincoln, 27-28 January 2024
- Replies: 44
- Views: 25142
Re: COLIN XIX- Countdown in Lincoln, 27-28 January 2024
Tim finally found a way to break the Tim Down curse and get an actual good seeding then
- Mon Dec 11, 2023 5:12 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 181
- Views: 41493
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
Having the players turn away/close eyes while the host sets up would help with most of them. Then they're free to set it up without having to do some complicated manoeuvre to get it in the right place while never being visible along the way.
- Mon Dec 11, 2023 2:02 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: December Decathlon: 9th December onwards in the App
- Replies: 23
- Views: 7777
Re: December Decathlon: 9th December onwards in the App
Note: In async gameplay, both players play from the same set of rounds but don't see each other's solutions until the entire game is completed and a high score is submitted. Standard round-by-round scoring applies, so the single player leaderboard scores seen in the app are not what counts. If both...
- Tue Nov 28, 2023 9:46 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: FOCAL Finals and MK Open - 25th November 2023
- Replies: 48
- Views: 22233
Re: FOCAL Finals and MK Open - 25th November 2023
[*] FLOWERAGE: Too easy for finalists. :( (Spotting this would have got me into the final, and I had basically all the time to do so because George only buzzed with it on about 28 seconds) [*] ASYNDETON: Good pick! It missable, but if you know it it's quite a fast solve, and most players at finals ...
- Thu Nov 23, 2023 10:38 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
- Replies: 1617
- Views: 743168
Re: Questions you've always wanted answered
I would have thought there were a lot more words ending in -OUS than starting in OUT-. So why is it that if you have O U and T there's nearly always an OUT- word, but if you have O U and S there's almost never an -OUS word? A couple of thoughts: - The larger number of -OUS words (if it's even true)...
- Tue Nov 07, 2023 9:39 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Countdown+Quiz Braintree: Saturday 4th November 2023
- Replies: 15
- Views: 10052
Re: Countdown+Quiz Braintree: Saturday 4th November 2023
Thanks Jeff, was a fun day, and some good imagination in the quiz.
- Sun Oct 01, 2023 4:30 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Setting Conundrums at Co Events
- Replies: 15
- Views: 5084
Re: Setting Conundrums at Co Events
Ruth's approach at London was initially to play a bunch of cons on your app and save off some interesting ones, but they tended too easy. As she's not a current member, my next suggestions was to look at past games on Apterous from a random date ages ago, and use those. She then made her own scrambl...
- Tue Sep 12, 2023 10:38 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Joke Items
- Replies: 252
- Views: 92701
Re: Joke Items
Care to expand? As awards you can get when you're young go, seems reasonably on the non-joke side
- Wed Aug 30, 2023 12:56 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
- Replies: 27
- Views: 13386
Re: Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
Reuslts: Round 1: Steven Turnbull 31 58 Jonathan Wynn Jonathan Wynn 62 34 Jonathan Seal Jonathan Seal 54 55 Steven Turnbull Phil Stanton 32 67 Tom Cappleman Tom Cappleman 67 44 Eeshan Malhotra Eeshan Malhotra 68 33 Phil Stanton Matthew Tassier 54 46 Coral Heath Coral Heath 31 72 Ronan Higginson Rona...
- Wed Aug 30, 2023 12:53 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
- Replies: 27
- Views: 13386
Re: Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
Final standings: 1 Ahmed Mohamed W 6 6 0 406 2 Ronan Higginson L 6 5 0 407 3 Jack Hurst 6 5 0 389 4 Jonathan de Souza 6 5 0 372 5 Adam Latchford 6 4 0 398 6 Jonathan Wynn 6 4 0 386 7 Tom Carey 6 4 0 381 8 Tom Cappleman 6 4 0 365 9 Dan Byrom 6 4 0 363 10 Eeshan Malhotra 6 4 0 331 11 Matthew Tassier 6...
- Wed Aug 16, 2023 8:04 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
- Replies: 27
- Views: 13386
Re: Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
Are you?Ronan M Higginson wrote: ↑Wed Aug 16, 2023 3:24 pmNot coming then?
- Sun Aug 13, 2023 5:16 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
- Replies: 27
- Views: 13386
Re: Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
Do you know which letters sets will be in use? If it's the Board Game sets, do you know when you'll have them from? The consistency in the letter packs was because I sat down and sorted through every one of them in the weeks beforehand and gave them equal distribution (yes, I'm sad). I kid you not,...
- Thu Aug 10, 2023 9:34 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Countdown ELO Ratings
- Replies: 24
- Views: 6633
Re: Countdown ELO Ratings
Rob already in the lead not even counting his results since covid - will be interesting to see how that grows
- Wed Aug 09, 2023 9:01 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
- Replies: 27
- Views: 13386
Re: Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
Not particularly - I'll note you down as a possible in our plans.Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Wed Aug 09, 2023 4:30 pm I'm considering signing up for this and if I do I'd be up for the meal. Is there a deadline (for either)?
- Wed Aug 09, 2023 1:11 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
- Replies: 27
- Views: 13386
Re: Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
Up to 27 sign ups now.
We'll be booking a meal for afterwards (hopefully either at Fantozzi, a nearby Italian, or Pizza Express). If you've not expressed interest on the Facebook post and would like to join for the meal, let me know.
We'll be booking a meal for afterwards (hopefully either at Fantozzi, a nearby Italian, or Pizza Express). If you've not expressed interest on the Facebook post and would like to join for the meal, let me know.
- Mon Jul 31, 2023 2:30 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
- Replies: 27
- Views: 13386
Re: Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
Just under 4 weeks to go for this
- Fri Jun 23, 2023 9:44 am
- Forum: Other game shows
- Topic: Puzzling
- Replies: 13
- Views: 3975
Re: Puzzling
Enjoyed the questions, hopefully Lucy settles in a bit more as presenter.
Amazingly unfortunate timing of the Titanic-themed intro to a round. Sure that triggered some panic somewhere when they realised.
Amazingly unfortunate timing of the Titanic-themed intro to a round. Sure that triggered some panic somewhere when they realised.
- Thu Jun 22, 2023 2:14 pm
- Forum: Other game shows
- Topic: Puzzling
- Replies: 13
- Views: 3975
Re: Puzzling
Jack H and I also both applied. I got to second audition, he got on shortlist then asked to be standby. Looking forward to seeing how well I'd have done if I had got on
- Wed May 24, 2023 6:54 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Deathwatch 2017
- Replies: 467
- Views: 271665
Re: Deathwatch 2017
I realise 2016 had so many heavy hitters in the world of entertainment that its lead at the top will be tough to beat, but, 2023 is serving up some real names in the death game this year. Rolf Harris, Jerry Springer, Martin Amis, Jim Brown, Len Goodman, Harry Bellafonte, Barry Humphries, Dick Fosbu...
- Wed May 17, 2023 10:03 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
- Replies: 27
- Views: 13386
Re: Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
For anyone wanting to make a weekend of it, COMSO is also in London the next day: http://www.c4countdown.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=15906
- Thu May 11, 2023 8:26 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
- Replies: 27
- Views: 13386
Co:Lon - 26 August 2023
The key details Host: Ruth Cappleman Venue: St Andrew's Church Centre, Southgate Doors open: 11am for an 11.30am start Finishes by: 6pm Cost: £10, payable by PayPal (paypal.me/ruthcappleman/10GBP) - please please remember to select the “Friends and Family” option What to expect There will be three r...
- Tue Apr 18, 2023 3:56 pm
- Forum: Other game shows
- Topic: Mastermind
- Replies: 17
- Views: 18252
Re: Mastermind
I'm going to be filming for the next series of Mastermind on the evening of 24th July. If anyone (nearby or otherwise) fancies coming along to Media City for non-Countdown filming and to keep me company in the green room let me know. I can have 3 guests in the green room, as well as up to 7 additio...
- Mon Apr 10, 2023 5:42 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
- Replies: 1617
- Views: 743168
Re: Questions you've always wanted answered
A lot of things blamed on Brexit - but Why when I travelled to France recently did I need to get my passport stamped? I've just been to both Australia and South Korea - neither have ever been members of the EU, and neither required my passport to be stamped. Actually I think I've answered my own qu...
- Wed Mar 08, 2023 4:38 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Countdowners in the news
- Replies: 243
- Views: 155676
Re: Countdowners in the news
Given his opponent's annoyance on "only" scoring 10 on his specialist subject, the other way round at the end could have been quite something.
- Wed Mar 08, 2023 4:37 pm
- Forum: Other game shows
- Topic: Only Connect
- Replies: 169
- Views: 112074
Re: Only Connect
Alex Hardwick. Love him or hate him?. Looking forward to Mondays final but one contestant is dividing the public. I found his flirting with an opponent in an earlier round cringey but otherwise he is a good player if eccentric. My family however can't stand him I know her and Elia fairly well from ...
- Tue Feb 28, 2023 8:02 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for 27th February 2023 (Series 87, Heat 26)
- Replies: 7
- Views: 1430
Re: Spoilers for 27th February 2023 (Series 87, Heat 26)
Which makes this particularly fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqGiY2o ... lsongenius
- Sun Feb 12, 2023 2:15 pm
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Sporcle multiplication tables
- Replies: 20
- Views: 4864
Re: Sporcle multiplication tables
My best was apparently 1:20, now 1:11.
- Tue Jan 31, 2023 11:58 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: You Are The Ref
- Replies: 355
- Views: 174982
Re: You Are The Ref
Another interesting one from the weekend: A player declared a word in one game, but misspelled it so got no points. The next game the same word turned up in a selection (though this time the singular rather than plural). The player declared it, and stated that they'd checked with the previous game n...
- Sun Jan 29, 2023 7:28 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Safeguarding at and around co-events
- Replies: 68
- Views: 9166
Re: Safeguarding at and around co-events
If you extend DBS check to also include "and has not broken the FOCAL code of conduct" (or whatever strength of that statement is suitable), you've got as strong a position as you're likely to get for there being nothing wrong that is known about. You could apply that to the organisers, an...
- Fri Jan 20, 2023 9:07 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Friday 20 January 2023 - The 16th Championship of Champions Grand Final
- Replies: 47
- Views: 5204
Re: Spoilers for Friday 20 January 2023 - The 16th Championship of Champions Grand Final
Excellent game both - always nice to have some back and forth to keep things interesting. Insanely good conundrum performance Ahmed. And lovely solve on the 290 James - I'd gone the same way as I assume Ahmed did, taking the 1s off the wrong large number. The numbers have been fairly flat through th...
- Fri Jan 06, 2023 10:33 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Friday 6 January 2023 - CoC XVI, Prelim 5
- Replies: 34
- Views: 4964
Re: Spoilers for Friday 6 January 2023 - CoC XVI, Prelim 5
Great finish to what Colin was right to call a great week of Countdown, well done to all involved
- Thu Jan 05, 2023 8:45 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Thursday 5 January 2023 - CoC XVI, Prelim 4
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1998
Re: Spoilers for Thursday 5 January 2023 - CoC XVI, Prelim 4
Another great game for the tournament. And we both commented at home how nice it is to have everyone in the studio clearly having a good time with the game.
- Mon Nov 28, 2022 10:02 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Monday 28 November 2022 (Series 86, Heat 116)
- Replies: 26
- Views: 3255
Re: Spoilers for Monday 28 November 2022 (Series 86, Heat 116)
Definition 2 that Fiona copied in looks like it'd allow -er/-est. If you can be well found (= equipped) then you can be founder or foundest than something else
- Mon Oct 31, 2022 9:43 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Apterous Pro Ranks
- Replies: 34
- Views: 9044
Re: Apterous Pro Ranks
Pro Ranks also only uses 15 rounders (which may not have been true back in 2010) so that monster game has completely no effect on them.
- Tue Oct 11, 2022 10:14 am
- Forum: Other game shows
- Topic: 1% Club series 2
- Replies: 16
- Views: 4911
Re: 1% Club series 2
Already closed: https://www.itv.com/beontv/articles/the1clubseries2 (just went to apply myself based on your post, but too late).
- Thu Sep 08, 2022 2:06 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Next Champion of Champions series
- Replies: 197
- Views: 30220
Re: Next Champion of Champions series
I see from Facebook that invites to the next one have started going out (specifically, Steve Hyde, semi finalist last series has got one). Who else has been invited, beyond presumably the last batch of finalists?
- Tue Aug 30, 2022 5:48 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: CO MSO Sunday 28th August 2022
- Replies: 12
- Views: 4097
Re: CO MSO Sunday 28th August 2022
Third place play off a repeat of 2017 and 2018 - Jonny doing well at holding Tim off the medals
- Mon Aug 29, 2022 5:39 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Settlers of Catan
- Replies: 17
- Views: 1596
Re: Settlers of Catan
I've a friend who's particularly keen on Catan so played a couple of times recently, having previously played it a lot over a decade ago. Do you have a good concept of what top tactics are, beyond the very obvious? I feel like I end up getting cities later than those who generally go on to win, but ...
- Wed Aug 03, 2022 4:09 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Commonwealth Games
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1394
Re: Commonwealth Games
Assuming the Commonwealth Games has always been open to all Commonwealth members (which based on the attendance it probably has), it did need the King to be head of state at first. But that changed in 1949, so it's in fact never been the case of needing the Queen as head of state.
- Wed Aug 03, 2022 12:53 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Commonwealth Games
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1394
Re: Commonwealth Games
Commonwealth countries and their territories. Why wouldn't RSA be there?Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 12:39 pm What is the current criteria of what countries thay can compete in the Commonwealth Games?
Im surprised RSA are included
- Sun Jul 24, 2022 6:23 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Countdown G.O.A.T.
- Replies: 18
- Views: 2400
Re: Countdown G.O.A.T.
It's an interesting question generally - if you're bringing things like Apterous and co-events in, then it'd be hard to make the case for anyone who's only done the show itself and so not had the longevity and spread of opponents that recent players have. Especially when you consider the sheer quali...
- Tue Apr 26, 2022 2:38 pm
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Down for the count
- Replies: 9
- Views: 4257
Re: Down for the count
Got them all (last one took much longer than the first three)
- Tue Mar 22, 2022 10:23 am
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Wordle
- Replies: 81
- Views: 14787
Re: Wordle
On Wordle and the multiple simultaneous Wordles, you seem to get the required number of goes plus 5. So Wordle gives you 1 + 5 = 6. Octordle gives you 8 + 5 = 13. Etc. Other than plain Wordle, when I play these I always start with the same four words that use up 20 letters and then that still gives...
- Mon Feb 07, 2022 3:24 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
- Replies: 1617
- Views: 743168
Re: Questions you've always wanted answered
On the subject of royalty, anyone living a longish life that was born after Prince George can potentially expect to see 5 British monarchs in their lifetime. Was there a period in time previously when someone could have done the same? Plenty of occasions when people would have seen at least that ma...
- Tue Feb 01, 2022 2:22 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Countdowners in the news
- Replies: 243
- Views: 155676
Re: Countdowners in the news
Oliver Garner on BBC2 this morning (and BBC World right now) talking about Wordle. They captioned him as 'former Countdown contestant', which is a bit like captioning someone like Medvedev as 'likes to play tennis'. Is captioning the right word here? I don't know. About 50:30 here for anyone who wa...
- Wed Jan 19, 2022 9:21 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1753
- Views: 774253
Re: Ask Graeme?
How big is the biggest group of people such that everyone in it has played everyone else in an Apterous game at least once? Might have missed it, but didn't notice an answer to this yet. I imagine this would be a good jumping off point. Based on numbers I can see in my rival list, the point where a...
- Fri Dec 17, 2021 11:00 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: First impressions of Anne
- Replies: 141
- Views: 25610
Re: First impressions of Anne
For people who have been watching throughout, have you got used to Anne's randomly timed chats with the contestants? I still notice it, but I'm pretty much used to it. And she's not openly hostile like perhaps she might have been a couple of times near the beginning. But generally, while she wouldn...
- Fri Dec 17, 2021 10:44 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: First impressions of Anne
- Replies: 141
- Views: 25610
Re: First impressions of Anne
Having also not watched for a while, Wednesday's did feel noticeably awkward, even compared to yesterday's. I think the constant needling of Ahmed for not knowing the meanings of the words, while also leaving Adrian to struggle through the definitions himself, led to a slightly weird tone. For peopl...
- Thu Dec 16, 2021 8:01 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Thursday 16th December 2021 (Series 84, QF 2)
- Replies: 12
- Views: 1778
Re: Spoilers for Thursday 16th December 2021 (Series 84, QF 2)
Great game there. Ruth had commented at the end of the last numbers that there seemed to be a lot of concentration for a clearly impossible one. Glad to see Stu had been making good use of it
- Mon Dec 06, 2021 3:15 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Conundrums with multiple solutions
- Replies: 26
- Views: 3272
Re: Conundrums with multiple solutions
Example 5 The scramble is USEMARGIN. Alice buzzes and says GERANIUMS. The host says it's wrong. Bob buzzes and says MEASURING. The host says it's correct. Alice argues that GERANIUMS should be accepted. Result: Alice's answer was not a correct conundrum answer because it's a regular plural. 10-0 to...