c4countdown

David Williams

A long time ago, in a forum far, far removed from this one, I well remember a discussion as to whether your octochamp score was better than mine. (I thought it was.) It's a shame to lose one of the few people here I've actually met, but all the best for the future. Having said that, I have a feeling...

David Williams

I think the order is immaterial, but I can't understand why anyone would have anything other than four consonants and three vowels for their first seven letters. Those seven are going to be in the final nine whatever order you pick them in, and if you see, say, an unusual eight letter word that just...

David Williams

A phrase has more than one word.

David Williams

I'd be a bit surprised if there's a pack of paparazzi following her around 24/7. Seems more likely another Lidl customer saw an opportunity to make a few bob. I'd actually see it as good news that anyone would think this was newsworthy. It won't last, surely.

David Williams

You've lost me. (Which, I guess, means you won. Again.)

David Williams

It takes time. Time is money. Not doing it saves time. So it saves money.

Incidentally "cost-cutting" is not a phrase.

David Williams

There are so many posts here it's almost impossible to ensure you don't say something that hasn't already been said, but surely I remember one of the not-a-clique-at-all-goodness-me-no saying that the audience shot was difficult to do, mikes a problem, whatever. That sounds like cost-cutting to me.

David Williams

One of the first games I ever saw. I remember wondering about REPASTING, which could either be having a meal or what you do to dried out wallpaper, and then Mark Nyman (I think) coming up with the slightly bizarre TRAPESING. It sticks in my mind because twelve months later I was on, the same letters...

David Williams

He's probably not very good at spelling.

David Williams

Ditch the lot of them. A complete waste of time and space, every single one.

David Williams

There seems to be a consensus as to what is cheating on apterous. So is it any different in posting words or numbers missed on the programme itself? The recapper will give a computerised perfect record of the game in due course, so what's the point in posting something unless you found it yourself? ...

David Williams

No-one seems to have picked up that Susie rejected MESSERS because it was capitalised and has no final E. She was thinking of Messrs (plural of Mr)! It did occur to me that there might be an agent noun lurking under MESS that she hadn't checked.

David Williams

Wasn't it you, Martin, who when Richard Whiteley said something along the lines of "You must have been very excited at your win last Friday", replied "I haven't had a wink of sleep since". I can also remember Terry O'Farrell, who'd obviously said he was a horse racing fan, being ...

David Williams

A
AS AT
SEA SAT ANT
SEAR SEAT ANTS ANTI
RAGES STARE ANTES STAIN PAINT
GRATES ASTERN TISANE PAINTS
STRANGE RETSINA PANTIES
ANGRIEST PAINTERS
TRAPESING

Quite poetic!

David Williams

A AS/AT SAT SEAT/STAR STARE ASTERN/SATIRE RETSINA PAINTERS/ANGRIEST TRAPESING

Just read this properly. Thought it was too easy! Back to the drawing board!

David Williams

Welcome, Tony. Nottm Forest Supporting Father of 8. "Football is not a matter of Life and Death.....It's more important than that!!" Brian Howard Clough, OBE (21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) I've disagreed with many things I've read here, but not often with anyone's signature! Bill Shan...

David Williams

Kirk, I'm so sorry about being confusing. Obviously I should have said "about 10" and "about 7", spelled out the numbers in full, referred extensively to my previous post. If you're confused, given the number of times you've contributed to this thread, then everyone else must be ...

David Williams

37 does indeed divide into 111, but I would caution against trying to use that fact. I've said before that factorising is dangerous, as you have nothing at all to declare if it doesn't quite work. And making 37 is going to use at least three of the numbers. If it's an even target you might be able t...

David Williams

I wonder where the ethical cut-off point comes before you ask for an adjudication. Something like LEOTRD - just a slip, forget it? But DIOPTR - could be hedging his bets, unsure whether it's RE or ER at the end? What if he's written DIOPTRE and DIOPTER? What about something like 2+4 x 100 2+3 = 6 59...

David Williams

Yes. But what is the technique? It's not what it was years ago.

David Williams

There have been a couple of references to this (and some bizarre letter selections), and I'd be interested to know the current system. When I first watched it was uncommon to have two letters the same in any selection, apart from an occasional two Es. This had to mean that the selections weren't ran...

David Williams

Is it just me, or was the conundrum a bit unfair? In a CoC crucial conundrum you have to press immediately you see something, and I would expect nearly every player of CoC standard to "see" CAFETERIA and buzz immediately. If Tony had been just a little slower, I expect Kai would have buzze...

David Williams

Suppose you think one from the top gives you 10% chance of winning the round, 10% chance of losing, and 80% chance of sharing the points. Six small you judge as 40% win, 40% lose, 20% draw. I you're 11 points ahead, one from the top gives you 90% chance of staying there. If you're 11 points behind, ...

David Williams

I'd be interested to know what you (and others) are like at remembering faces. I've heard there's some sort of inverse relationship with maths skills. I'm absolutely hopeless. I don't particularly forget people's names, I simply don't recognise them. I couldn't do an accurate photo-fit to save my li...

David Williams

I found it all a bit weird - somehow unnerving that these strange people on a strange set had hijacked some well-known contestants and were pretending to present Countdown. Not helped by thinking the numbers and letters boards seemed to be different heights, and wondering if it was always like that....

David Williams

You will be good - eventually. But most contestants know they aren't going to be series champion, and would be more than happy to win just once. They aren't going to commit hours and hours to practising, but they might be helped by a few tips to suggest the most productive use of a bit of spare time...

David Williams

Totally agree. And, unless things have changed, you can't see the score, so keep a note of it. The other thing you can't see is your opponent's name plate. When I was on there was no Green Room, just separate male and female changing rooms. My first show was the first of the day, so the first time I...

David Williams

You see something like this in almost every programme. 100 7 6 5 2 1 target 639 Both contestants go (6x100) + (7x5) + 2 + 1 = 638 CV gives 6x(100+5) + 7 +2 or 6x(100+7) - 2 - 1 Tip 1. Once you've made the 600 the 6 is still available to multiply by any of the other numbers (or combination thereof). ...

David Williams

PHAETON + S = STANHOPE

A crossword compiler's favourite. Many might say that phaetons and stanhopes are pretty much the same thing, but I'm sure that to carriage cognoscenti there are differences so profound that they are complete opposites. A bit like Blair and Thatcher.

David

David Williams

When I started watching, TZIGANES used to come up frequently - a very useful way to use a Z. But it seems to have disappeared completely.

David

David Williams

At the risk of jeopardising my position in the table, we seem to have a clear demonstration of the inverse relationship between quality and quantity.

David

David Williams

An educated guess would be that the target was indeed 851, but the contestants both actually got 853, and CV got 851.

David Williams

I've never written the numbers down, but it must make sense to do so. While the letters are going up you can start thinking of words, but there's absolutely nothing you can do with the numbers until you know the target. So use the time the only way you can. Now all I need to do is think of a way of ...

David Williams

After my audition I developed a method of writing down the letters on a sort of invisible grid. Vowels (in order) on the top line, NRST on the next, down to QXZK in the bottom left hand corner. It helped me to concentrate on the most promising lines, not missing likely suffixes and prefixes etc. Mos...

David Williams

Dominated by a clique? I wasn't keen when "outsiders" like Zef and Gevin seemed to be singled out for trivial things, whereas some of the "insiders" had free rein, but that doesn't seem to be an issue these days. So not a problem. Put off by swearing? Possibly, but in practice I ...

David Williams

The pairing to beat is Natascha Kearsey and Pete Cashmore, who met in the series, the series semi-final and the Champion of Champions final. Pete won the semi, Natascha the other two. One of the quirks of Countdown, of course, is that if Pete had won the first game a future Champion of Champions wou...

David Williams

Lara Searle wrote:I take offense to that comment I'm afraid.

I think you'll find your job description is quite insistent that you take OFFENCE!

David Williams

The ODE is not a model of consistency. But, to be fair, I think if I was asked the two in isolation, I'd say HAULER/HAULIER were two different words, but ALUMINIUM/ALUMINUM were different spellings of the same word. The chances of anyone noticing that actually the difference is just the same are pre...

David Williams

Will there be any changes to the format, I wonder? If we are to believe that Rachel is to get the same money as Carol was being offered (surely not - that really would imply they wanted to force Carol out), then presumably she gets second billing and takes over all that Carol did. Or is Susie now &q...

David Williams

Memory can play tricks, but before the NODE words like RAIMENTS and BUTANES were surely regularly disallowed even though the dictionary didn't specifically forbid them. Having mass nouns specified was a big help to DC. Just a shame the OED made such a botch of it.

David Williams

Carol essentially has a mundane role where she has done the same task many thousands of times. She somehow contrives to do it so well that she has made herself a star by doing it. Even when she's laughing too loud at some duff celebrity you know it's because her only thought is to make every episode...

David Williams

Anyone worried by the possibility of encountering poor taste might do well to avoid HIGNFY. And the Countdown stuff was all from Hislop and Merton. People do act differently in different situations. Who would ever have seen Jo Brand as a favourite Countdown celebrity? But that's not really my point....

David Williams

It's a veritable Countdown extravaganza, including TWO connections they obviously weren't aware of.

David

David Williams

I also used to attend the Goldstone Ground in the late 1950s and early 1960s - 9d to get in, Mike Tiddy and the 3-3 draw with Burnley (top of Div 1 at the time). But I don't remember any paticular rivalry with Portsmouth, or indeed anyone else. I think I'm right in saying that Brighton is the most r...

David Williams

How can they all have good luck?

David Williams

Well, I enjoyed it. It's the going down to a quarter size table rather than trying to cover one large coin with four small ones that's obvious when pointed out, but hard (for me, anyway) to see.

David

David Williams

Paul, All I'm trying to say is that if I have 400 coins and arrange them in a particular way I can completely cover a square of a certain multiple of the radius of one coin. If I could then demonstrate that it's impossible to fit 101 coins into that square without two touching, I'd have solved the p...

David Williams

I don't exactly have a solution, but here's what I've got. "Think like a mathematician". This could mean start from the other end. Find a way of covering a table with 400 coins, then demonstrate that you can't get more than 100 on without two touching. If your coins have radius sqrt(2), th...

David Williams

If Arthur Smith found all his own words, then he also found time to write them down for Susie, because whenever he came up with something unusual she had the dictionary open at the right page. Maybe it's a coincidence, maybe they did a re-shoot to make the programme flow better. The problem is that ...

David Williams

Damian, I'm sure I'd be a lot less restrained than you are if no-hoper bystanders were sitting over my shoulder criticising my work. If you really think that current blockbuster programmes have any relevance to Countdown, a big factor is the humiliation of celebrities. Feed them duff words and ridic...

David Williams

I've apparently made 15 posts to this forum of which the last two could be said to be critical. You think they are negative, I'd like to think they were at least a little constructive. In the eight years I've been watching the show's audience has fallen by three quarters, which is doubtless reflecte...

David Williams

One thing that we tend to take for granted here is that Carol's on her own, but Dictionary Corner get help. I imagine most regular viewers would suspect that celebrities get given words. I'd guess, however, that lots would assume no help at all is given to Carol and Susie, but equally lots would thi...

David Williams

Wasn't the last numbers game a shambles? Carol has an unfortunate habit of not bothering to listen to the contestant once she thinks she knows what they're going to say. It seemed to dawn on her that something wasn't quite right, but as the solution was pretty obvious she made a big point of saying ...

David Williams

I see the requirement is for "excellent numeric and literacy skills" (sic) which might suggest a change of role. Also that there is no indication of salary. But if you haven't already done so, Damian, why not drop a line to Loz Sands? No-one is going to replicate Carol, but I think Loz wou...

David Williams

When I replied to my invitation for CoC I think I told Mr Eadie there was a drink in it for him if I avoided Mr Wills in Round 1 - with inevitable consequences. I think the only seeding was that all the series champions were kept apart.

David W

David Williams

http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.142 Did Magellan get home safely? No, for he was killed in a fight with islanders in the Philippines. He died on 27 April 1521 on Mactan Island, Cebu, the Philippines. So although he had masterminded the first expedition to sail around the world, he did not...

David Williams

Interested to know what people mean by "support". In my book it means a bit more than feeling pleased when they win. I've been to between forty and fifty Liverpool games a year for the last forty years.

David

David Williams

ROMAN
DEN
STOP

David Williams

I don't think anyone has really articulated the answer to this particularly well, and I'm not sure I can either. So it's probably easier to rubbish the incorrect answer! Ten people wake up in a hospital ward suffering from amnesia, but with all their logical faculties. The shortest looks around the ...

David Williams

The real problem here is the deficiencies of the dictionary. The entry for, say, LAGER (mass noun) has a glaring omission - the subsidiary (count noun) meaning as a glass of the said alcoholic beverage. If the lackey were to be employed in Oxford getting the next issue of the dictionary right we cou...

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