c4countdown

Fred Mumford

I've just had to go look in the mirror. I don't think I am either of you.

Fred Mumford

Mark Deeks wrote:I KNEW IT.

Well I fucking hell didn't.

Fred Mumford

Gavin Chipper wrote:Also, can't you get together with someone else and murder the people on each other's lists?

In a Strangers On A Train vein? Indeed, good point.

The more you look at it, this rule just hasn't been very well thought out at all.

Fred Mumford

Doesn't rule 4 actively encourage cheating?

Fred Mumford

And now Debbie Reynolds has passed away, one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher. Reynolds often appeared on TV chat shows, where she would usually do impersonations of Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Fred Mumford

Marc Meakin wrote:Someone will need to verify this , but I am sure there was hedgehog flavour crisps back in the eighties.

Yep - as with most flavours though, not a patch on the real thing.

Fred Mumford

Most of his losses came towards the end of his career, long after he should have called it a day. His losses to Frazier and Norton were avenged, he has a winning overall record against them. The years when he should have been at his peak were stripped from him, yet even so in his first (unbeaten) ph...

Fred Mumford

magician guy who was married to someone called Debbie? Was he on TV? I have no idea. You're lucky to have missed out - for a long time it seemed he was never off the TV. I remember watching him die horribly on TV at Silverstone after being hit by a car driven by Jackie Stewart in a magic stunt gone...

Fred Mumford

I would have needed that time machine to consider McColm an all time great when I wrote it. I was talking more about talent levels, of course the modern player can improve their game to a point way beyond what the early Countdown champs could achieve. But that's a bit like saying Nico Rosberg is bet...

Fred Mumford

I'd have thought she is too old to risk having that sort of operation.

Fred Mumford

So Thom Yorke now hates your girlfriend?

Fred Mumford

I did make a tape of all my fave C64 tunes once I knew its days were numbered (ie that I was getting an Amiga). Must dig it out. Rob Hubbard also did an excellent synth piece of music that was featured on a freebie tape that came with one of the issues of Zzap! 64. Worth checking out if you are a fan.

Fred Mumford

Quite a few adverts show customer data at the bottom of the screen such as "84% of 189 women agree" and so forth. This can easily (if you're stupid or not paying attention) be misread or misinterpreted as "84 out of 189", which isn't exactly a ringing endorsement. Why don't they ...

Fred Mumford

I remember a game song with the lyrics ' war, never been so much fun' can't remember the game though The rather excellent Cannon Fodder. In the Rob Hubbard debate, I thought Action Biker was his best tune. Tony Crowther did a good job on Suicide Express, especially considering he was a game writer ...

Fred Mumford

I was certainly impressed, although when you think about it the chance of a 0.213 gap between any 2 drivers isn't all that unlikely I suppose. Also, given that the average IQ on that forum is approximately 100 lower than this one (assuming Steven M McCann is no longer a member here), the chances of ...

Fred Mumford

Gavin Chipper wrote: Are you RPM40? I did wonder if it was someone from this forum that also posted there. It still took the coincidence of the 0.213s gap though.

No, so on reflection maybe that really is freaky. I would imagine the crossover between that forum and this one is pretty small in terms of common members.

Fred Mumford

Not as freaky as the fact that that's the website I was just posting on a few minutes ago just before I came to this one.

Fred Mumford

But every single copy of the film I can track down has her with perfect teeth, no braces. However, I assume this is my brain going wrong rather than some mysterious woo style conspiracy to change reality. My brain must have gone even more wrong than yours then, because not only do I remember the br...

Fred Mumford

Steven M. McCann wrote:It may be a self fulfilling prophecy, but I spot more "nines" in the last letters selection than any other letters selection.

Me too, and after a detailed mathematical and statistical analysis of why this might be, I have concluded that it's because I only get home at quarter to four.

Fred Mumford

Marc Meakin wrote:worst films I have seen
Raise the Titanic

Not only a shit film, but went so far over budget that producer Lew Grade famously remarked that it would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic.

Fred Mumford

Jon Corby wrote: fucks sake spoilers

The set's been that colour for about 7 years.

Fred Mumford

JimBentley wrote:I did consider that option but thought that Jon would leave that sort of joke - i.e. one made by someone with a less advanced sense of humour - to someone else

Then he should have left it a bit longer. It's not as if I get chance to login every fucking day.

Fred Mumford

Lol, I can see how you made that mistake, but I think you'll find that's actually David Dimbleby.

Fred Mumford

At the end of Tom Cappleman's run, I noted that he had won 77 of his 120 octorun rounds which I thought might have been the record.

Paul won 82.

Fred Mumford

Yeah, he sure knows what he's doing. I think he is very slightly behind Dylan and Jen's max rate, but he's playing safe on the numbers rounds and not risking dodgy words, so The Record Holder might be in trouble. It's a hell of a standard to maintain for 4 more shows though.

Fred Mumford

Shooting Stars did do the Great Wall of China question because I saw it! The bit that made it silly was questioning whether it could ONLY be seen from space. Ulrika said true and Vic pointed out that you could be stood right next to it. I think the General Ignorance of QI can cover any topic whilst ...

Fred Mumford

My only real prediction was that Jen would get to the final, based on a comment she had made about never having made it to a final, which I interpreted as some kind of double bluff.

Fred Mumford

Mark Deeks wrote:I think another one of the originals was that Billy Bragg could breath underwater.

Can we test this one?

Fred Mumford

Stuart Maconie came up with most of those NME ones I think (that wasn't meant to be my deliberately silly factoid by the way). The internet doesn't always allow things to be debunked easily. In my field of interest there are countless times I read things that are pure nonsense but are taken as gospe...

Fred Mumford

Another motorsport obsessive here, so Colin Chapman, Jim Clark, Stirling Moss, Jimmy Bryan and Mike Hailwood for starters.

In other fields, Ray Davies, Richard Feynman, Herge and Alfred Hitchcock are the first that spring to mind.

Fred Mumford

Tony Atkins wrote:Rachel did badly on the impossible six small - best is 108 not 96 - you add the 1s to the 2s and not to each other before multiplying.

Yeah, you'd think she would know that 3x3 is more than 2x2x2.

I know it must be difficult under the lights with all the pressure and so on, but still. Fuck me.

Fred Mumford

I think Jennifer was simply quoting from the website. I doubt any celebrity insulted her after they had died. She may not even have a brother.

Fred Mumford

Harry H Corbett who was the the original Sooty and Sweep man told my little brother and I to fuck off. We did not know what he meant as we were six and four at the time. I'm quite intrigued to know which Harry Corbett did this - Harry H Corbett of Steptoe & Son or Harry "No H" Corbett...

Fred Mumford

Fabulous end to a wonderful competition, well done to all who took part. It was obvious that the games would be of a ludicrous standard, but it was maybe a little surprising how many of them had twists and turns that hopefully alleviated any worries about the entertainment element of an all Apterite...

Fred Mumford

Out of interest, what did Jen say that you guys thought was particularly spoilerish? She said something a couple of weeks back about the fact that she had never made it to a final, which was clearly a bluff that totally gave away that she made it to the final in this competition. Fortunately for ev...

Fred Mumford

Jon O'Neill wrote:CoCs never fail to disappoint.

Harsh.

Fred Mumford

Sent you a PM Graeme - don't want to spoil it for others if I'm right.

EDIT - hmm, it seems to be stuck in my outbox though - is your inbox full or am I doing something wrong?

Fred Mumford

My parents assumed he'd thrown the game because of this SRSLY? Why on earth would Callum want to throw the game? And wouldn't it have been deeply insulting if he had? It's not as if you need any help to win games of Countdown! Great performance though, v well done - even if I kind of knew you were ...

Fred Mumford

Clive Brooker wrote:What numbers solution requires the highest intermediate solution?

100 75 50 25 3 3 => 996 ?

Fred Mumford

Bit surprised that there were no matchups involving people from the same series if it was a truly random draw, but then that's just based on gut feel which is a notoriously shit way of estimating probabilities.

Fred Mumford

You could argue that 2 out of the 3 biggest names in the competition met in the prelims (Giles Hutchings v Heather Styles). Only Antoinette Ryan is as big a name as those two.

Fred Mumford

Not sure if that was what you were hoping for in terms of being more interesting - the small numbers are fairly predictable in each case, but at least there's a bit of variation with the large ones. Cheers Jon. The 4 large one is interesting (a relative term of course) - it shows once again that 4 ...

Fred Mumford

Which impossible numbers games by category are the furthest from being solvable? I worded that terribly, but if I give 1 1 2 2 3 3 => 999 as the 6 small one, and presumably 25 1 1 2 2 3 => 999 as the 1 large one then you get the idea. Hopefully it gets more interesting with 2 large and above. Thanks...

Fred Mumford

Thomas Carey wrote:Fuck's sake Fred

Ah yes, the Bernard Cribbins follow up single that got banned.

Fred Mumford

There are 2850 possible 6 smalls, 5808 of 1 large, 3690 of 2 large, 840 of 3 large and 55 of 4 large, so 13243 different selections in total. As to how to work it out, it's all about factorials. For example, the number of 6 small is 10!/(6!4!) plus 10!/(5!5!) x 5!/(1!4!) plus 10!/(4!6!) x 4!/(2!2!) ...

Fred Mumford

No, I double checked on the wiki, it's definitely Rachel.

Fred Mumford

How on earth did Matt miss IMPARTED? it was practically spelt out in the selection! I've noticed this sort of thing from top players on several occasions. I guess it's because many of them write the letters down in a circular formation, and therefore might miss something that looks obvious to someo...

Fred Mumford

Jon Corby wrote:Where you been Fred?

You're much more observant than I am, I didn't even realise I had been away.

Fred Mumford

What was the max in R12? The wiki suggests 8, but offers nothing longer than 6.

Fred Mumford

I bet Martin lost.

Fred Mumford

I think some of your observations/remarks in this thread are needlessly crass/bitchy I was all ready to defend myself, but when I read some of it back, I actually agree :( Apologies for any offence caused - especially as all of the potential CoC candidates could beat me by at least 50 points whilst...

Fred Mumford

C1 would then have a perverse incentive to declare 1 away to score 7 points rather than declare his exact solution to score 10. If the score going into the conundrum is 95-85, C1 could still finish with 105, but if the score is 95-88, he can only get 98. This is the Countdown equivalent of the infa...

Fred Mumford

I hope just being a Grand Finalist doesn't guarantee a CoC place this time around, otherwise the places are all filled - the finalists from series 67 to 73, plus Eoin and Oliver. Losing the grand final doesn't make a player the 2nd best of the series - in many cases, great players fell short before ...

Fred Mumford

James Robinson wrote:Me and Jack Worsley amazingly double-maxed the final

Yes, you seem to max or nearly max every episode. You really ought to go on the show, you'd be unbeatable.

Fred Mumford

So what's happened to Jonny Rye?

Fred Mumford

Johnny Canuck wrote:Helen Grayson really should join Apterous.

Her death was reported on this forum quite recently.

I personally consider her and Harvey Freeman to be the 2 best players of the 9 round era.

Fred Mumford

Dylan 76, Jen 70.

Fred Mumford

I make it that Tom beat his opponent in 77 of the 120 rounds of his octorun.

As not even Dylan or Jen did as well as that, I'm guessing it could be a record.

Fred Mumford

If it was that low scoring a game I think I'll give it a miss.

Fred Mumford

The sensible definition of max you mean. It's not just me anyway. I agree completely, that's why it's the definiton I use too. A max should be "doing the best that it's possible to do" rather than "scoring the most available points, even though you might not have done so if your oppo...

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