c4countdown

Philip A

R5: BUPKIS (American word meaning ‘nothing at all’)

Philip A

It’ll carry on until just after the jackpot is won. Definitely needs higher prize money to keep people hooked. But the format is still in tact. The original was great initially but it got overexposed and too pantomime, and the Box 23 game was awful. I do think big money game shows should be an occas...

Philip A

Ian Fitzpatrick wrote: ↑Mon Nov 27, 2023 10:04 am Can't stand the man, let alone the show, it was bad enough with Noel Edmonds and I can't see it can be any better with Mulhern at the helm!

I like him.

Philip A

Can’t believe ‘eschalot’ is not in ODP at all!

Philip A

Toby McDonald wrote: ↑Mon Nov 20, 2023 10:42 pm PARAJUTE in R2
KENDOIST in R7

These are excellent gets.

R12 alt: ACETOGEN

Philip A

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 11:47 pm COTTAGED was a weird miss. I suppose they didn't want to say it, but I'm sure it's come up before.

The definition as a verb is horrible, so might have been omitted/edited out on the fly.

I had TRIAZOLES in R4. Interestingly, this 9 has only ever appeared twice in over 8,000 episodes.

Philip A

29 sevens in Round 5, but surprisingly nothing more than seven.

Philip A

Bizarre indeed. I think it’s worth pointing out that the premium.oxforddictionaries.com website, which is the dictionary used for Countdown, does actually contain some (not all, though) content from the Oxford English Dictionary website. I subscribe to both, and found the following information: - Su...

Philip A

r5 alt: UNLEASH r10: Surely ROOFING can be pluralised to give ROOFINGS? I tried ROOFINGS as well and to my surprise, it’s not in the Apterous dictionary due to ROOFING being a mass noun; it’s clearly uncountable, because the definitions don’t begin with the indefinite article ‘a’. Some years ago, C...

Philip A

R7: GLADDIE

Unusual way for 920 = (75-2-1)*10+4*50

Philip A

5 Octochamps now, and all have qualified for the finals. Will Rachel Copley, David Edwards and Hywel Jones hang on and join the rest?

Philip A

Congratulations, Caroline! First female octochamp for over 2 1/2 years. Look forward to seeing you represent Guernsey in the finals next month.

Philip A

BARCODES instead of the now invalid plural of the mass noun BROCADE in R2 (only BROCADED and BROCADING are listed now).

Philip A

I've marked MARLIER^ as no good (someone please verify in premium), although I believe it should be brought in. Reggae is the marliest music genre, marlier than any other. It directs to ‘marly’ but no -ier/-iest forms. Unless Premium has them, I'm kind of surprised that Susie came forward with it g...

Philip A

Johnny Canuck wrote: ↑Mon Oct 30, 2023 6:13 pm I've marked MARLIER^ as no good (someone please verify in premium), although I believe it should be brought in. Reggae is the marliest music genre, marlier than any other.

It directs to ‘marly’ but no -ier/-iest forms.

Philip A

R3 alt: (75/(4-1)+2/2)*8=208 R9 alt: ((25-1)*10+2)*4=968 R13 alt: (100-25+5)*9-3=717 R11 alt: HYALINE I think that your first 2 calculations are wrong? r3 turns out to be 128 r9 turns out to be 1152 I could be wrong (it wouldn't be the first time....) BODMAS is used in bracketed solutions; innermos...

Philip A

R3 alt: (75/(4-1)+2/2)*8=208
R9 alt: ((25-1)*10+2)*4=968
R13 alt: (100-25+5)*9-3=717

R11 alt: HYALINE

Philip A

R7: PINACOLS

R9 alt: ((100-8)*5+6+3)*2=938

Philip A

For the first time in 12 years, a brand new official Countdown puzzle book is out now at all good book shops. Bought myself a copy from Waterstones in Barnstaple this weekend. It has 7 1/2-minute Quizzes, Speed Quizzes, Take on the Show, Themed Conundrums, Themed Letters, Black-Belt Maths, Special M...

Philip A

If Countdown was on ITV, this is exactly what it would look like! Host is alright, but I can see why it was considered too brainy for the market stateside. The UK had their own versions of American gameshows in the 1980’s, and many of them were equally successful. A few of these have since been rebo...

Philip A

Before Countdown and Channel 4 existed, there was a funny old word game on Monday evenings which served as an alternative to the often compelling 9 O’Clock News on the other side. When BBC Two launched as the UK’s second television channel in 1964, they wanted a unique and identifiably different pan...

Philip A

No definition of ATTABOY was given. This is bizarre. Why is it bizarre? Because normally when DC give a word people are likely to be unfamiliar with, they do give one, of course. Could be that it’s considered a common expression and it’s not a new word? (Contraction of ‘that’s the boy’, apparently)...

Philip A

Stewart Gordon wrote: ↑Thu Oct 19, 2023 9:11 pm No definition of ATTABOY was given. This is bizarre.

Why is it bizarre?

Philip A

Less efficient method for 935 = (4*50-25+3*4)*5

R8 alt: REEDLING
R10 alt: MARCHESI
R13 alt: SATOSHI

Fran playing well so far.

Philip A

Thankfully the challenger didn't win, I couldn't have coped with another day of 5 vowels straight off on each of his selections! I think there is nothing wrong with 5 vowels at all, and there’s nothing wrong with the order chosen. 5 vowlels still appear in everyday words such as AUDITIONS, INANIMAT...

Philip A

Sam Cappleman-Lynes wrote: ↑Tue Oct 17, 2023 9:25 am
Philip A wrote: ↑Tue Oct 17, 2023 9:16 am Think it might be the only U-less Q 9?
Here are all the U-less Q words of 9 letters or more:

ACQHIRING
MGQASHIYO
MGQASHIYOS
MQHASHIYO
MQHASHIYOS
NASTALIQS
NOTARIQON
NOTARIQONS

Nice work. Thanks.

Philip A

More Apto than Countdown, but what is the longest Q without U word? I have it down as MGQASHIYOS which is 10 letters.

Are there any other U-less Q 9s?

Philip A

Not sure why this hadn't been started already. "There will not be back-to-back nines from Flo-Glo, because we've got a Q, no U at all." Has this actually been confirmed, that there are no 9-letter Q-without-U words in the dictionary? For some reason, MGQASHIYO is a possible regular conund...

Philip A

Mark James wrote: ↑Wed Oct 11, 2023 5:21 pm https://twitter.com/fesshole/status/1710798417805394113

Not quite in the news but what do we think? Someone claims to have cheated on Countdown. I agree with the reply that says no one who has been on Countdown would call the numbers game the maths section.

It’s a tongue-in-cheek account, mate.

Philip A

R3 alt: (100-4*5)*3+7-5=242
R4 alt: OVERAGES (surpluses of money)
R13 alt: SARCOID

Philip A

R2: TUTORAGES
R8: ZOONITE

Philip A

I’ve kept it to 4 options as I think these are the 4 best ones on the channel.

Philip A

11 weeks to go in this series.

Standings so far:

1 Harry Savage 8 939
2 Ben Bazzard 8 822
3 Paul O'Brien 8 781
4 George Baker 8 734
5 Rachel Copley 7 712
6 David Edwards 7 700
7 Hywel Jones 6 585
8 Adrian Clarke 5 490

Philip A

R4: PROLAMINS

R6 alt: (50+3)*(8+4)+3+4=643

The first teaser looks like a DC Comic villain: Nick O’Teen.

Philip A

Toby McDonald wrote: ↑Thu Oct 05, 2023 9:47 pm PHENOGAMS in R2

That is excellent.

Philip A

Philip Wilson wrote: ↑Thu Oct 05, 2023 5:51 pm Lardiness then??

Also 4*2*100-75-1=724 for first numbers. The champ solved one really similar to that yesterday too.

ISLANDERS was the only valid 9. https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_8100

Philip A

ELECTION RESULTS = LET’S RECOUNT LIES

Philip A

R1: FRONDOSE
R9 alt: 50*9+(9*3-6)*10=660

Philip A

In Dictionary Corner – yes, she’s still going – Gloria Hunniford!

Philip A

In Round 2, there were 25 sevens, but no eights or longer: ... Dunno if that’s the most possible sevens from a set of 9 letters? Using the current dictionary (at least, as it exists on Apterous), the most sevens from a selection that doesn't contain any eights or nines is 35, from IHARKNESS: ARNISE...

Philip A

R4: SEDIMENTS
R10: ENCHAIN

Funny that COURANT appeared twice: in R13 and in the conundrum. I maxed the last game but didn’t find this game as easy.

Philip A

r7: OUTFLARES r10: OUTRACES r12: TROWELED r13: could there not be BROMINES? BROMINE is an uncountable mass noun with no [count noun] usages given, because it’s the chemical element – whereas carbon copies or carbon pieces can be called carbons – so Apterous excludes bromines x as well (so to help y...

Philip A

Well played, Paul. You’ve been great to watch, and so have all your matches. 5 centuries in 6 matches is very good going. See you in December!

Philip A

I always think it's a bit strange when both contestants get the same x away from the target with different methods when spot on is quite doable. One for the coincidences thread. Methodical thinking is a lot harder in a studio environment compared to anagrams. I also think the former requires more t...

Philip A

R1 alt: SCUTAGE

R3 unorthodox method: (10+1)*3*(50/5)+9=339

R5 alt: COMRADE

R7: PODESTAS

R8: ALMURIES

R9 alt: 612 goes into 6 too. (9*10+3*4)*6=612

R13: GOLDITE

Philip A

Niall Cusack wrote: ↑Tue Sep 19, 2023 2:44 pm I was hoping I'd get the conundrum right this time but no dice

Glad to have made a tiny piece of history I guess and best of luck to Paul in the finals if he makes it which I'm sure he will. A really lovely fella.

Bad luck this time, but well played nonetheless. You’ll be back, I’m sure.

Philip A

Drama! Only the 3rd time in 22 years of 15-round Countdown have both contestants matched scores pre-Conundrum; the first two occurrences happened in separate Champion of Champions.

Philip A

Alas, I blew my maximum run on ‘confuter’ which does appear in some dictionaries, but not in Oxford Dictionaries Premium. Maybe in the future, it will get in eventually.

Philip A

R6 alt using 49*11 (or 7 squared by 11):

(9-2)*7*(5+6)=539

R8: ANTBEARS

R9 alt: 854/7=122 so (5*10+75-5+2)*7=854

Philip A

R13: JERBOAS https://www.google.com/search?q=jerboa& ... irefox-b-m

Philip A

In Round 2, there were 25 sevens, but no eights or longer: DILUTER, DIOPTRE, DROPLET, ETOURDI, EUPLOID LEPROID, OUTLIED, OUTLIER, OUTRIDE, PELTOID PERIDOT, PETROIL, PILOTED, PLOITED, PLOUTED PLOUTER, POITREL, POLITER, POULTED, POULTER POUTIER, PROTEID, PROTIDE, PTEROID, TRIPLED Disclaimer, I didn’t ...

Philip A

OVERSWAM and MEVROUWS also in R10.

Philip A

It’s the Grand Final tomorrow. Worth watching.

Philip A

Remind me never to get operated on by Susie Dent! She was wrong about the midline. I'd happily be operated on by Justin Moorhouse with his superior knowledge of human anatomy. midline: a median line or plane of bilateral symmetry, especially that of the body Having Googled this, I don’t think she w...

Philip A

OVERAMPS in R1 (and so close to SUPERNOVA).

UNRAILED also in R2.

Philip A

After 3 decades, Hollyoaks is leaving Channel 4’s 6:30 pm time slot and will instead be shown on E4 (by end of September apparently). Episodes will also be uploaded on Channel 4’s online streaming platform for the first time before being shown on the E4 channel, as part of reflecting the streaming h...

Philip A

R1: INERRANT

Philip A

R8 alt: OMURAJI

Philip A

I think George Baker has been great to watch.

TEENDOM in R4.

Philip A

coronates x, aargh! Just why is it not in Oxford Dictionaries Premium? So unlucky for the challenger who played really well.

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