c4countdown

Julian Fell

Yes not liking James Whitaker much, but hey. It's five days and then they won't have him back again (I'm sure the Countdown office has been inundated with complaints / negative comments about him already), so it's not the end of the world.

Julian Fell

Haha only just seen that! lol

Are those quotes from Kirk on his article genuine? If so they're legendary!!

Julian Fell

Best thread on the forum

Julian Fell

Ginger Jono wrote:Maybe we'll do a seance where we all put our hands on Kirk's crotch to summon Howard's spirit.

you legend Jono

Julian Fell

By the way Ben (or anyone), how do you decide who sits on which table for the first round at CoLIN? Is it just random or are there seedings etc?

Julian Fell

Yeah like you David - after watching the show, I hadn't been beaten by DC or Carol, and I'd beaten DC four times, so I thought I might have had a perfect game or maybe missed one or two beaters at most. Then I put the selections into CountMax and found that I'd missed four maxima! D'oh! So it sounds...

Julian Fell

Ah right I'm glad Damian's cleared that one up, thanks for info David

Julian Fell

The generally under-rated Nicole Hutchens gave Stewart Holden a real scare in his quarter-final... I'd say she's the best female contestant I've seen since I started watching circa Series 50. Yes... although Stewart did miss quite a lot in that game. But yes she's a decent player. June Mitchell gav...

Julian Fell

Quality game. I agree - it was a great comeback by Sarah. Maybe not quite in the Julian Hough or Richard Pay league, but still, to be 32 points down at the halfway point and finish by forcing a second (and third and fourth?) conundrum, is pretty impressive! Both contestants looked like they could g...

Julian Fell

Ben, one thing I've noticed through reading a lot of old recaps in a short space of time, is that there really are no absolutely consistent rules that you can pin down as to how DC will treat mass noun plurals. Your argument as to ordering stifados in a restaurant etc. is plausible, and in the offic...

Julian Fell

Although, Dinos, one of the main attractions of Countdown (cited by Damian, among others) is that unlike in most other game shows, most of the rounds are NOT on the buzzer and you get a generous stretch of time to work out the "answer" to each one, so it's great for the type of people (lik...

Julian Fell

Carol's hosted Have I Got News For You? When was that? Wish I'd seen that episode - and the one with David Mitchell... Anyway like Tarquin said, with DC guests you can never please everyone. I think Phil Hammond is absolutely brilliant and am at a loss as to how anyone could think differently, but J...

Julian Fell

Just using the brute force method of dividing 800/15*9 we get the number 480 which 12 players achieved in the nine round period. Like Jono said (or implied anyway), this whole subject was done to death by Gevin and others on the old mailing list(s) shortly after the switch to 15 rounds... for my pa...

Julian Fell

So you should Martin - you were pretty much his closest challenger!

Julian Fell

Yes well said Mr O'Donnell... how many women members of the forum are there? Karen Pearson... who else? Another point which I didn't make before: the most recent CofC, generally acknowledged as the best ever, didn't feature a single female participant! So yes I think exceptional female contestants a...

Julian Fell

Re Ben's earlier comments about COOT - yes I remember what a hassle it was to get everybody to play their games on time when I organized an online tourney back in the summer of 2004 (which has now been given the amusing acronym 'JOLT'), and that was with only 12 people taking part. How many players ...

Julian Fell

Ah that's a surprise Ben - I thought it would be Kirk who won that, having lost three games on crucial conundrums? He must have been a close second I would imagine?

Julian Fell

Women have always lagged behind men in terms of Countdown achievement, but I think the gap has grown much bigger since the 15-round era started. Some stats for the 15-round era, which began 6 and a quarter years, and 12 series, ago: - No woman has won a series (last to win a 9-round series was Kate ...

Julian Fell

I'm not a recapper but I prefer Jim's notation of: Series number, Game number, Date in brackets...

Julian Fell

Conor wrote: I did that too. 2 scores in the nineties (99 and 99), and 6 scores in the one-hundred and tens.

Ah fair enough, my mistake. It's still v rare though, so well done David.

Conor you would describe 880 as just "very good"? I'd describe it as fantastic, myself...

Julian Fell

Sorry to deprive you of the chance to beat me David but I've already declined Ben's invitation, with apologies - I can hardly compete with the best with only one month's regular practice behind me. Paul G has been invited but I don't know if Ben's heard back from him. Thanks for advice re MSN, I'll ...

Julian Fell

Thanks v much for info Ben. And is CoBRIS linked to the Bristol Countdown Club - is it a bit like those special 'Champions' days at the Edinburgh Countdown Club? Or is it separate?

Julian Fell

Yeah you're certainly right about Chris' natural ability Tom - the number of times when I was watching him on TV, that he beat me with non-obscure but difficult-to-spot words - I remember FORENAME, LAUGHTER, GORMLESS, ADMIRALS, of course GUNSMITH... and then he went and got an awesome, Carol-beating...

Julian Fell

Yes, I don't think he meant you but it'd be great to see you up next ... just not in this series :x Yes I'm really looking forward to seeing you on TV Charlie - though don't be rushed into it; I don't need to tell you that you only get one shot, and that you should wait till you're as good as you t...

Julian Fell

Seriously, fantastic stuff David - I hope Conor was being tongue-in-cheek when he described 880 as "very good". I think Damian once said he didn't think 875 (by Chris Wills) would ever be beaten! I think you're also the first-ever octochamp to score 110 or more in six different games of hi...

Julian Fell

Yes, you were incredibly calm mate. I was flabbergasted because I was still so nervous. My game with you felt like torture. I am going to have to work on chilling the f**k out before the finals that's if I haven't topped myself before then. Yeah I found the finals MUCH more nerve-racking than the o...

Julian Fell

Hey you can't say someone who comes up with DYSPNOEA has little flair! ... but I see where you're coming from Matthew, I like your version.

Would anyone else like to contribute some comparisons to this quite magnificently entertaining thread?

Julian Fell

Letters, rather obviously. I find the numbers quite repetitive, and I rarely find them memorable or particularly exciting. I would probably have said the same thing - except it's strange, in series 58 so far, I've for the most part been really enjoying the numbers - there've been a lot of games whi...

Julian Fell

A lot of really interesting points coming out here - best thread on the forum? Excellent post Paul H - couldn't agree with you more. The pleasure on the letters comes from getting a word which takes you 20-25 seconds to see, one that hasn't come up before, or follows no pattern. The -ING or -IEST wo...

Julian Fell

Hi Charlie & everyone

I've never been to any of these events because I was out of the loop when they started - can I ask, when did CoBRIS start, and also, which Redhill is it that CoRED was in? The one in Nottinghamshire?

Julian Fell

Ok fair enough Gevin, I take your point. It probably would be better to have the format as you suggested (though would make it more difficult for me!), and maybe if the Countdown production team had had more time to plan the 15-round format, they would've come up with a better balance of letters and...

Julian Fell

Hi Tom! Really nice to hear from you! I'm pretty much in exactly the same position as you - I also stopped watching around 2004, and only occasionally read recaps... until at the start of last month, I decided for some reason to get back into watching regularly. I certainly agree with you that the g...

Julian Fell

I'll try doing a few: Graham Nash - Ivan Lendl A great competitor considered, perhaps unfairly, a great "overachiever". Looked at in isolation, none of the facets of his game seemed to be especially formidable, yet the sum was always much greater than the parts and his focus and consistenc...

Julian Fell

Ginger Jono wrote:Cheers for posting Dan, I enjoyed playing along.

Yes likewise. And it's good to see that some of you were beatable at least! Those performances from Kirk and Jono towards the top of this thread are a bit scary-good...

Julian Fell

Sorry to be dense but is this year going to be the first year that CO-Lei and COLIVER are run, or have they been done before?

Julian Fell

This is an interesting debate (though nothing to do with the original thread title!) - I think you're right Charlie about most (ordinary) viewers preferring the letters - though that said, the number of times random people have remarked to me, "I'm not much good at the letters, but I always get...

Julian Fell

It doesn't take a genius to work out which choice I voted for! :) But I do take your point Kirk, I think you're basically saying that the numbers tend to require more imagination/creativity than the letters, I think that's a fair comment. Unfortunately imagination has never been my strong point! Tho...

Julian Fell

All right all right... my post wasn't that offensive Dave, was it? I thought it was quite light-hearted, obviously not... I didn't mean it to sound like I was having a go at you, so, sorry if it did. You do a great job with the recaps; another thing I noticed in doing my research is that you've ofte...

Julian Fell

Just seen Friday's game - well done again David, top stuff, I'm glad you finally got your nine - it's been coming for a while! I make it 763 points you've got with one game to go, so you've got a decent chance of finishing even above the likes of Chris Wills and Stewart Holden in the octochamp-total...

Julian Fell

I used it because Soo has got all the percentage of maximum scores for Ocotchamps on his website. Although I see no reason why it is a particularly bad statisitc to use, as opposed to just an averagely bad one (in that they're all bad). Care to explain? Well, player A gets the maximum in every lett...

Julian Fell

Lol I liked these Matthew! (especially the flattering comparisons for me!) Nice one... I shall try and think of some myself, though I don't know much about any sports other than tennis and football... For now I would say that Craig Beevers is more like the Chelsea team of 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons...

Julian Fell

Yes I have to agree with Damian here - that post of yours was a bit intolerant Stuart, even by your standards. I've never noticed such a problem with Des O. I'm not saying he's perfect, but at least make the criticism a bit constructive, eh?

Julian Fell

Any of those would be good, or at least I'd give them a shot at being good. I'm not sure how much control the production team have over the guests though, didn't Damian once say they just get given a list by YTV or something? No - surely not Damian? You said in 'Spreading the Word' (my bible, lol.....

Julian Fell

It was in series 47 that the J went missing wasn't it? - and for more than a few weeks. I think it didn't appear for most of the series. Not that I noticed it myself - I don't keep track of these things - but I remember a lot of people saying. So you were half right Joseph. But I'm pretty sure that ...

Julian Fell

Round 11: E O A P N P T O H C1: ETALONS (7) C2: ATONES (6) DC: TANNOYS (7) Other: SYNTONE (7) Shurely shome mishtake, the letters don't match up to the words at all. Yes I've been doing a bit of research looking at old recaps recently, and I've noticed this happens quite a lot with Dave C - I'm beg...

Julian Fell

Oh yeah I remember what else I was going to say now - re some of the other names mentioned as "best untrophied player", David Williams is a good one... he's a bit of a forgotten figure now, which is undeserved - he had one bad game in his series semi-final, and because of that, got a rotte...

Julian Fell

Corby doesn't count as untrophied because his Countdown career isn't over yet. I guess you could say the same thing about a future Supreme Championship but that's much more speculative, and wouldn't measure much anyway. Charlie - re another Supreme Championship - Damian has firmly knocked that idea...

Julian Fell

Anyway really well done again David, you missed almost nothing today, until part 3 (when the game was over as a contest anyway). The way things are going, you look to be on course for an octochamp score around the 850 mark, which would give you a good chance of being no.1 seed come finals week... I ...

Julian Fell

I would have nicked it off you on the conundrum again... the conundrum gave me the win 93-90. Whilst I don't want to get all Stewart Holden on your ass, and whilst I would say that, broadly, scoring yourself at home against the contestant on TV is legitimate, it does seem very dubious to me to brin...

Julian Fell

I just wondered if anyone else thinks, like me, that Des could maybe vary his start-of-show routine a bit more? Don't get me wrong, I do like Des and think he does a great job, and has a good rapport with Carol. But for the last 10+ shows in a row he's done exactly the same thing to open the episode...

Julian Fell

Jo Brand I think - Damian said in 'Spreading the Word' that she was one of the very few DC guests who could probably beat a good proportion of contestants...

Julian Fell

Charlie Reams wrote:I suspect Julian will get that one.

Lol... yes

Julian Fell

Ah right. I seem to be good at misinterpreting your posts Jon don't I? Oh well...

Julian Fell

Yes I know Charlie, I did read your email and you made some good points in favour of the Wiki, which I accept. I'm glad that you're not getting rid of the Corral or the daily recaps. I didn't really think you were, and I didn't say that you were, either, in fairness. My post was directed more to the...

Julian Fell

At their respective peaks, the best are Gallen and Beevers. I totally agree that Paul Gallen and Craig, at their peak, are the best ever - though Paul G was at his peak only in the CofC, where he was (I thought) completely transformed from the very beatable player who played in series 52. Whereas C...

Julian Fell

With the possible exception of Allan saldanha. Based only on the Saldanha games I've seen on The Countdown Page, I would say Paul Howe on the form he showed was a much stronger player; Saldanha did miss plenty but was also very capable of streaks of brilliance. Of course, Saldanha also gets a load ...

Julian Fell

How many people would buy the book if they knew the same information is available for free? To be scrupulously fair, I suppose you could say that about a lot of books now that we're in the internet age... it just depends on how much time you're prepared to spend looking for said information... stil...

Julian Fell

Awesome. I love to see records get broken, and especially by such a great bloke as DO'D. Yes, especially when that record has stood for nearly 5 years (since 19 February 2003). I reckon it could be much longer than that till 13 gets beaten... Today was also the second-highest winning margin ever I ...

Julian Fell

Hmmm... well, as you know Charlie, I have my reservations about the Wiki... ok if you're going to put everything on there, but do keep the Corral going as well, with the original typed-out game reports for people to view if they want - these add a bit of colour, background information and the like (...

Julian Fell

Absolutely David, that's the challenge for a top Countdowner - to learn the patterns so that you're more consistent with your word-spotting and don't miss any 'obvious' -ING, -IEST, -IER etc. words, whilst also retaining the 'pure' ability to spot words which don't follow any pattern, like, er... SU...

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