c4countdown

Phil H

Rhys Benjamin wrote: ↑
Mon Mar 29, 2021 7:43 pm
I don't think the general standard on the show is that much higher.

I agree with this, although on a micro level, I don't remember any "how did they get through the audition?" players in the last couple of months.

Phil H

Rhys Benjamin wrote: ↑
Mon Mar 29, 2021 7:43 pm
a player is more likely to be a returnee than a newbie

What? Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, that surely can't be true.

Phil H

A couple of times Dan probably didn't help him points-wise by picking a final consonant...

Phil H

Still short odds to join the 1000 club; less so to beat Elliott's octototal, but not out of the question. Needs an average of better than 136 in his next two games.

Phil H

L'oisleatch McGraw wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 25, 2021 3:53 am
He was allowed do it on TV without being DQed...

I didn't see either of his TV episodes, but according to the wiki, he didn't attempt the conundrum in either of his games?

Phil H

Each "retirement for personal reasons" damages the reputation of the show I agree about the "personal reasons" wording to a certain extent - "withdrew after suspicions were raised" would surely avoid any suggestion of libel, or if the aim is to be completely neutral, then personally I'd prefer simp...

Phil H

I'd be willing to bet that most viewers didn't understand the teaser. You cannot possibly know that. You can only extrapolate from yourself and the very limited selection of people you know. I would see it as dumbing down with a vengeance to explain that Miss Fylde was a beauty queen from Lancashir...

Phil H

Normally I get a cold at some point during winter, but haven't so far this year. Probably not a coincidence.

Phil H

If I ever had a particularly strong attachment to any of it though I've long outgrown it, and I don't expect it to stay as it always was forevermore; it's to be expected that these enduring franchises will modernise themselves over time. Unless there's something particularly egregious about it that...

Phil H

Callum Todd wrote: ↑
Thu Feb 04, 2021 5:18 am
I've just googled news for Scrabble, Mattel and Thomas the Tank Engine, and don't see anything. What's happening exactly?

I'm guessing they've given it some kind of 'woke' makeover, given that Rhys seems to want to turn every conversation these days into that conversation.

Phil H

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑
Tue Jan 26, 2021 1:24 pm
wait until you find out about the word gay.

"Gay means happy, a pussy is a cat; a shag is a seabird and that is that."

Phil H

I quite like a steak à cheval, and was rather disappointed to learn two minutes ago that it doesn't actually contain any horse.

Phil H

... was this really ever a "thing"? Do doctors really have worse handwriting than anyone else? Being sober about it, I think it's just one of many near-ubiquitous forms of rudeness which is more common where a power differential exists, and that medicine is one of several areas where there's a non-...

Phil H

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Tue Jan 12, 2021 8:16 pm
Isn't stuff generally printed now?

Naive.

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Tue Jan 12, 2021 8:16 pm
Concentrate on more important things and get off my case you despicable excuse for a human being.

Harsh.

Phil H

Why does our culture treat this mainly as an eccentricity to be laughed off?

Surely it's arrogant at best and dangerous at worst?

Phil H

The pretend handshake at the end was good.

Phil H

Didn't disappoint...

Phil H

[double post]

Phil H

Peter Mabey wrote: ↑
Thu Dec 17, 2020 3:09 pm
I had the 1947 edition of the Oxford Companion to Music as a birthday present... pretty recent.

Next you'll be telling me most people don't use wind-up gramophone players any more!

Phil H

And anyone who knows what the Plastic Elvis thing is, knows how ridiculous it is that people are getting hung up on that term, as though it were a slur or an insult. I asked because I don't know what it is, and you use it like a stick to beat people with. It seems to cheapen debate. I'm interested ...

Phil H

I was feeling well pleased with myself for having "solved" the conundrum with CREAMABLY.

Phil H

Jennifer Steadman wrote: ↑
Wed Dec 09, 2020 9:40 pm
Pretty sure there were odds available for both Ned Pendleton and Tom Barnes to be named host when Jeff quit?

It's not the most, um, robust market to be pinning any sort of hopes on. (Obviously, because Mark wasn't on the list.)

Were either anywhere near 16-1?

Phil H

Well sport - football especially - is a good example where up until very recently, gay players generally were not publicly 'out'. I think you're young enough that possibly the worst sort of discrimination was before your time, and so hopefully your employment prospects won't be affected by your sex...

Phil H

Fiona T wrote: ↑
Tue Dec 08, 2020 8:14 pm

So what's the difference between diversity and token diversity? Genuinely confused why - if the efforts to improve diversity are real - it's token?

Don't know that it's worth rising to the bait...

Phil H

Decent game today, although the desperation to blow smoke up Nicola's arse for even getting close to the great Leo was bit much.

Phil H

Paywall / free trial where you have to remember ti cancel = not reading it. What's the gist other than the obvious from the headline? I'm guessing "The Scottish govt are terrible both for almost approaching the England death rate at one point and not being freedom-loving enough to go the whole hog,...

Phil H

No one has stopped to think about mental health. No one has even considered the fact that there are 20,000 lockdown deaths not down to COVID directly - almost half as many as COVID itself. I knew we had different political sympathies but I don't usually disagree with you quite so often or so strong...

Phil H

Ian Volante wrote: ↑
Thu Sep 10, 2020 11:49 am

Ooh, I've not seen much 90m+ throwing for ages. No thanks to the BBC who really don't like throwing events! I must look out for this bloke.

Volante-like cheekbones to boot.

Phil H

The worst events are the high jump and pole vault due to their binary nature - setting the target in advance and then just seeing whether you can make it or not. It's what allowed Bubka to break the world record countless times by touring the big events and upping the record by a centimetre at a ti...

Phil H

Obviously nearly breaking a record is never going to be as sexy as actually doing it, but I was quite excited about Johannes Vetter's 97.76 in the javelin on Sunday - only 72cm behind Jan Zelezny's 98.48, which I've heard being called the most impressive of all athletics world records.

Phil H

"Despite the lack of big names, the British Athletics Championships peaked at 1.4 million viewers on BBC2 at 8.25pm Friday - more than BBC1 and ITV at the same time."

(from @benbloomsport on twitter)

Phil H

I don't know how big darts is generally, but take away my Countdown friends and the Kirk Bevins effect, and I'm not sure I know anyone who gives a shit about it. A few weeks ago I went to my local pub hoping I could ask for the French domestic cup final featuring Paris Saint-Germain (football) to b...

Phil H

I don't think it's necessarily a contradiction to say that the NHS is both underfunded and has aspects of significant inefficiency. But I do agree that it's worth asking more specifically where the money might be spent, rather than simply agreeing that "more money" for "the NHS" = better.

Phil H

I might be weakening a little on this; it feels different now that so many of them have been through the mill. But I haven't quite weakened enough to actually join in with the clapping yet.

Phil H

This is a good interview on the use of police powers and lack of consistency between "guidance" and law: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/better-human-podcast/id1481010283 And a much shorter summary of the interviewee's points can be found here: https://davidallengreen.com/2020/03/the-coronavir...

Phil H

We all need something to make lockdown less boring, I guess.

Phil H

My step daughter cleans our doctor's surgery. She enjoyed the adulation. I do quite like the aspect of including people like cleaners and care assistants whose jobs aren't given the same social status. Another line being thrown around a lot at the moment is something like "it should be nurses that ...

Phil H

Well, I've opened the windows and I can certainly hear it in my flat, even though I live in a notoriously reserved area of a notoriously reserved city.

Phil H

Marc Meakin wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 26, 2020 6:58 pm
I guess Phil H can do a slow hand clap

I might use that timeslot to get my groceries. Probably the safest time to do so. Maybe that'd even be a better way to honour the NHS than clapping.

Phil H

It's what separates us from the animals. It is therefore a huge source of national pride. It's just about the only thing I have any national pride in. I'm embarrassed to say I don't know if it was the first universal healthcare system of its kind - it might well have been - but it's often said that...

Phil H

I don't have anything against individual workers unless they've given me a reason to, but it's not uncommon to hear people say things like "after this, they should never have to pay taxes again." Okay, maybe they didn't mean it literally, but still, what the fuck? Off the top of my head, a friend te...

Phil H

This might be unpopular but at least it's topical: I find the extent to which the NHS are valorised above almost everything else in this country rather weird and at times sinister. Yes, its creation was a massive step forward for the UK. Yes, it has been badly neglected and underfunded by recent gov...

Phil H

This champion geezer is pretty good. Very solid on the letters. I think I've beaten him in one letters round over two games but the numbers have let him down a bit. Yep. I'd predict him to win eight and finish as number 3 seed so far. That's a pretty tight target to aim for! I've obviously become t...

Phil H

Folks, aren't we getting a bit carried away with the "identity theft" business? I'm no lawyer but I'd have assumed it only becomes a crime if you try to make payments using someone else's money, get a loan in someone else's name, or suchlike.

Phil H

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 13, 2020 6:24 pm
This champion geezer is pretty good. Very solid on the letters. I think I've beaten him in one letters round over two games but the numbers have let him down a bit.

Yep. I'd predict him to win eight and finish as number 3 seed so far.

Phil H

May I politely suggest that the moderators consider moving the non-genuine events to the off-topic forum so that a noob coming across the forum is not confused about what's real and what isn't? I'm really insulted that you assume this is non-genuine just because inanimate objects are taking part. I...

Phil H

Martin Peters wrote: ↑
Wed Mar 04, 2020 8:17 pm

Why are you doing this ?

Mainly to give myself, and perhaps others, a break from the forum being spammed to fuck.

Phil H

It's actually at MY HOUSE... do you see what I did there? But I tweaked it to be down with the kids. Looking forward to my debut as a Co-event host! Confirmed entrants: Me Four empty pizza boxes Eight empty cans of Strongbow Dropdeadfred (from the incel forum I go on) All the models from the top ten...

Phil H

Fiona T wrote: ↑
Thu Feb 13, 2020 11:42 pm

You're from Glasgow? Cunt is a term of endearment, no?

I once had an argument on the bus with someone who said something about "Asian cunts" and then claimed he meant the word in an entirely neutral way.

Phil H

Jennifer Steadman wrote: ↑
Thu Feb 13, 2020 11:06 pm
Yes, but what I really want to know is how people's monologue specifically manifests. I'd say about 20% of mine is in the third person.

I've developed a habit of saying to myself, "He was a fucking arsehole/cunt/etc" and then realising it's myself I'm annoyed with at the time.

Phil H

The first time I played Apterous after contributing to this thread, I found my internal voice a lot more noticeable than previously!

Phil H

Oh, and on the subject of the top players, I don't actually know my 25 times table in the same way I know my 7 times, so I have to check on myself when I'm looking for 425 - "That's 17*25, right? 400 would be 4*4, which is 16, so yeah, 17 for 425." I don't quite say every word of that in my head, bu...

Phil H

Interesting stuff again. I think what Callum describes is more or less what I experience and what I assumed to be standard. It's quite common for people to say that their internal voice seems to disappear when they are reading at their most fluently. I once did an evening class about the "psychology...

Phil H

Artistry isn't it? That's the word I was looking for! Thanks. I stand by my comment about Countdown/Scrabble/Chess vs. Football/snooker/martial arts in these terms. Countdown, Scrabble and Chess are effectively turn-based games (I know Countdown's 'turns' occur simultaneously, the conundrum especia...

Phil H

To a large extent, the factors that might be considered to make Countdown less worthy of respect are the things I like about it. Compared with Scrabble, participation levels are much lower, prizes are (I'm guessing) relatively trivial, and games are far shorter, making the element of luck greater (t...

Phil H

Unsurprisingly, Feargal Delaney was indeed Irish - I recall watching his game while on holiday in Ireland. Likewise Gary McEnaney, who filmed on the same day as me.

However, I'm fairly sure Wayne McSorley, who beat Matty Artell, had an English accent.

Phil H

Very good shout I think, David. On a more mundane note, I think Norm Ahmad might have been the Apterite with the highest rating at the time (1550-1600 iirc) not to make the series finals since I joined in 2015. Anyone know if Matt Croy or anyone else before Norm would have been higher? (I assume Zar...

Phil H

Tiger Lily Hutchence/Geldof was another which surprised me, at least.

Phil H

I'm surprised not to have heard David Lammy mentioned yet. I don't feel I know enough about him to champion him, but he's certainly impressed me on occasion. Then again, I have my doubts about whether an apparently pro-Brexit electorate would ever elect a black Prime Minister, and Labour might have ...

Phil H

A bit like Jen, I've got rid of a decent number in my time and have only regretted one or two. I haven't thought much about the getting it down to 100 thing, but I don't think I'd find it too difficult. For those who say they never unfriend, how have you managed to avoid ever friending someone who ...

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