c4countdown

Gavin Chipper wrote: Who the Hell's Michael Kelly and which show did he get 100 for presenting despite Bruce Forsyth also being the highest at 75?

100 is the score for any incorrect answer. You knew that, of course.

Can you do a graph of buzz times for each five year period or something along those lines? If the 10-second peak only occurs in the 1980s and maybe 1990s, it would definitely suggest recording error.

Four players have never been beaten on numbers: Nick Deller, David O'Donnell, and preliminary-round rivals Jack Hurst and Mark Deeks. It's a statistic, but in my case it's one well worth ignoring. I only played 8 rounds, had at least a couple of fairly straightforward fails, and none of my opponent...

Jon O'Neill wrote:Someone in Aptochat suggested that the person who is behind should get to pick it. I like this suggestion.

Hmm. It leads me to wonder whether it's preferable to go into R14 3 points behind and picking, or 3 points ahead and letting the other guy pick - and how that might affect R13 of a tight game.

Yes, you are right. It probably creates more problems than it solves, all things considered. Ah well. It was interesting while it lasted. Putting it in Rachel's hands is awkward, but there's nothing wrong with a bit of random chance. I'm given to understand that the typical C4 viewer at that time o...

In reply to a question I asked in e-mail, Damian's told me a piece of information that I don't recall seeing anywhere and think it only fair to share: "Gameplay - there won't be a toss. The draw will determine who sits where, so contestant camera left, next to DC guest, will be the left side of...

Who was last on the longest time ago? Looks like Robert Richland. His last 'proper' episode was 26 June 1984, and even his two Countdown Masters appearances in 1989 and 1990 seem to predate any other contestant's last appearance. I reckon the next in line are David Webb on 25 September 1991, me on ...

I hope I'm wrong, but I wonder if a lot of the games in this championship will be like watching a boxer making an ill-advised comeback. We remember how good they used to be and wince when they can't do it any more. Maybe quite a few potential contestants will decline for this reason. I reckon most ...

OMFG. That is all.

Quinne James wrote:I just want to express my appreciation for the absolutely nonsensical amount of work Charlie has done on the site in the last few days, and especially today. Cheers.

Seconded. Give that man a Spoon of Awesome.

Theoretically really good at CSW, especially letters, but that just means someone gets an unexpected first round win. In.

I want Geoffrey to say that for real. [Edit - Oh, as it's me... yeah, BOUFFE and BEPUFF are CSW-only.]

I've still got scans of the Contestant Guidelines I got in Series 28 (Summer 1994), and at that stage we were told "You are requested to ask for at least three vowels" - so 'between 3 and 5 vowels' must have become a firm rule sometime after that.

I prefer rest, parsing the clue as In "teresting": remainder

It depends on context. If it's the filling in a jam tart, it's apricot every time for me - the four non-apricot tarts in a typical pack of six are pretty much ballast. Strawberry or raspberry are perfectly good on toast or with a nice croissant, though.

The variants help page is a bit behind the times and quite a few of the newer variants aren't described. Is an update planned at some point?

Ben Wilson wrote:This will last until precisely ten minutes after CB sees it and it only works if you ignore the huge max next to it, but... yeah.

And this should give Mr. B even more to think about on the same subject!

The random draw for the first round (R32) has been completed. Here are the fixtures: P) Nick Deller* v James Robinson *Nick Deller has been given an extended deadline to play his first round match, therefore I will be flexible with the deadline for Fixture P. Other R32 fixtures must be finished by ...

In please, but if I have an R128 match, I'd not be able to play it until 16th May because of holidays. Is that OK?

Ah, go on, I'll have a go.

CSW pencils are cheap. Just sayin'...

'yeasts' - it's possible that yeast is only defined in the mass noun sense in ODE, but having searched for it in the recaps it looks like it turns up as a plural in the definition for TORULA.

Is a 9th stand-in contestant not called in anyway in case of last minute problems? I imagine that's still the case. I was the "9th seed" back in 1994; series finals recorded on a Tuesday and Wednesday, having dropped from #8 to #9 as a result of games recorded on the Monday. Still asked t...