c4countdown

Jon Corby wrote:You're thinking of donating the book you wrote, aren't you Gev?

Don't know what you're talking about.

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:You're thinking of donating the book you wrote, aren't you Gev?

Don't know what you're talking about.

Surely everybody already owns a copy?

JimBentley wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:You're thinking of donating the book you wrote, aren't you Gev?

Don't know what you're talking about.

Surely everybody already owns a copy?

I'd certainly hope so, but just in case...

By the way, has anyone else noticed that this thread is in the Historical Recaps subforum?

Gavin Chipper wrote:By the way, has anyone else noticed that this thread is in the Historical Recaps subforum?

That's presumably because Ben first activated it in the Historical Recaps thread.

James Robinson wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:By the way, has anyone else noticed that this thread is in the Historical Recaps subforum?

That's presumably because Ben first activated it in the Historical Recaps thread.

Nope, for some unknown reason all co-event global announcements have been 'adopted' by historical recaps. Doesn't really matter much, and they'll get shifted into the events subforum once they're done anyway.

James Robinson wrote:Barring an FA Cup 4th round appearance by Huddersfield Town against a super good club, count me in

So much for that then

Ah well, LINCOLN, HERE I COME

If anyone requires a lift I'll be driving from Stoke-on-Trent to Lincoln on the morning of the event, and returning fairly soon afterwards, my car can fit up to 5 although Dylan is already down for a lift home. Just PM me.

Travelodge price for Friday and Saturday nights is now £109 Last year some of us stayed in a B&B www.eaglesguesthouse.co.uk which I thought was quite nice. It's nearer the pub than the Travelodge is.

For me this all hinges on who Fulham get in the fourth round, and working out how to get up to Lincoln for the main event. Hangover not a realistic option for me, sadly. Not able to travel up on the Friday, either. The trains don't help, as the trains up from London are timetabled to get into Hykeham at 08:41 (miles too early) and 11:19, and I don't think 11 minutes is enough time to run the however-long-it-is to the hall, even if it does turn up on time.

Plus I think my Dad would be annoyed if I were to drag him up to another CO-event*.

*Sightseeing tour

Rhys Benjamin wrote:For me this all hinges on who Fulham get in the fourth round, and working out how to get up to Lincoln for the main event. Hangover not a realistic option for me, sadly. Not able to travel up on the Friday, either. The trains don't help, as the trains up from London are timetabled to get into Hykeham at 08:41 (miles too early) and 11:19, and I don't think 11 minutes is enough time to run the however-long-it-is to the hall, even if it does turn up on time.

Plus I think my Dad would be annoyed if I were to drag him up to another CO-event*.

*Sightseeing tour

Trains to lincoln are- I'm assuming- much more frequent, and you can get a taxi from the station to the venue or, if you're feeling less flush, the 27 bus goes very near the venue and is (supposed to be) one every 10 minutes.

Last year's attempt at an eating competition had promise but due to a lack of proper planning it never really got the attention or the time it deserved. But before we try and plan it more properly, are you even interested this year Gevin? Seeing that you're a serious politician now I don't know if you consider yourself above this now, and by extension, superior to Mark.

Matt Morrison wrote:Last year's attempt at an eating competition had promise but due to a lack of proper planning it never really got the attention or the time it deserved. But before we try and plan it more properly, are you even interested this year Gevin? Seeing that you're a serious politician now I don't know if you consider yourself above this now, and by extension, superior to Mark.

I don't want to do it again this year, not because I'm above it, but because I think retiring as the joint unbeaten world champion seems the right thing to do. There's a whole new generation now hoping to emulate my (and Mark's) achievements. Maybe Mark wants to take on one of these newcomers or maybe two of these unknowns want to battle it out. Whether they'll ever reach the same dizzy heights as when the competition was run to vegetarian rules remains to be seen.

But I am superior to Mark anyway.

I'm honorary winner for even accommodating that silly rule to be honest.

Mark Deeks wrote:I'm honorary winner for even accommodating that silly rule to be honest.

You were lucky the officials didn't disqualify you for turning up an hour late or however long it was.

But are you up for a battle with the champion of the new generation (whoever it may be) or are you retiring undefeated like me?

Important question:
Who wants to take the trophy? I can hand it over somewhere in North/Central London or off office hours.

Somebody better volunteer! (PM)

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Mark Deeks wrote:I'm honorary winner for even accommodating that silly rule to be honest.

You were lucky the officials didn't disqualify you for turning up an hour late or however long it was.

But are you up for a battle with the champion of the new generation (whoever it may be) or are you retiring undefeated like me?

Shouldn't. Would.

Evening all

Serious note for a moment- it's been brought to my attention by more than one person that some people have stated an intention to run a book on the outcome of COLIN (specifically betting on who will be the winner). Obviously I can't stop people from doing stuff like this in their own time, but (again, obviously) I don't have a gambling licence and neither does either COLIN venue, so no bets or exchanging of money can take place at COLIN itself. It you want to run a sweepstake, say, everyone puts in £1, draws a name at random and the winner takes the pot, then that's no problem and I'll even help run that, but for-profit betting is a definite no-no.

In happier news, with 18 days to go there are 32 signed up for COLIN and 29 for the hangover with several people yet to send me their entry fee. Last year COLIN X set a record for entry numbers with 47- there's still time to break that this year...

Any kind of betting seems decidedly dodgy when you consider how small the staking community is/would be, and the potential overlap/collusion with those able to influence the outcome. I certainly wouldn't like to underwrite it.

I want to know how many millions to 1 I would be.

This post may help the betting, in the hell-freezing-over parallel dimension where I allow it to go ahead. It's time to post the provisional seedings! With Jack not defending his title this year, the number one seed spot was up for grabs... and then Innis entered*.

Obviously this list is subject to change as more players enter and will be altered as appropriate.

1 Conor Travers
2 Innis Carson
3 Jack Worsley
4 Dylan Taylor
5 Kirk Bevins
6 Giles Hutchings
7 Mark Deeks
8 Callum Todd
9 Jon O’Neill
10 Graeme Cole
11 Jen Steadman
12 Zarte Siempre
13 Jon Corby
14 Rob Foster
15 Jamie McNeill
16 Jonathan Rawlinson
17 James Robinson
18 Ryan Taylor
19 Matt Baywatch
20 Mark Davies
21 Jonathan Wynn
22 Dinos Sfyris
23 Richard Priest
24 Andy McGurn
25 Tom Rowell
26 Heather Styles
27 Jim Bentley
28 Michelle Nevitt
29 Paul Worsley
30 John Vivian
31 Tom Carey
32 Stewart Gordon
33 Mike Brown
34 Philip Jarvis
35 Tracey Mills
36 Alan Young
37 Jeff Clayton
38 Adam Dexter
39 Lauren Baywatch
40 Matt Morrison
41 James Laverty
42 Gevin Chapwell
43 Rhys Benjamin
44 Lee Fisher
45 Lucy Westwood

*And then so did Conor.

I would comfortably beat 7 of the 10 people seeded ahead of me, that's a fucking joke.

Jon Corby wrote:I would comfortably beat 7 of the 10 people seeded ahead of me, that's a fucking joke.

Love the deliberate mistake.

I mean, you'd have to be a complete cunt to think that a comma is acceptable there.

lol seed

*8 out of the 11

I thought you just meant Jono wasn't a person.

Ben, can you check that there are enough vowels in the board games for my annual 9-round vowel-fest against Jon Corby?

Matt Morrison wrote:Office products (almost definitely Word or Outlook) automatically switch ":-)" or ":)" into a smiley face, but they use a non-standards-compliant way of doing it, I think using the Wingdings font, which means that the smiley face renders as a "J" in pretty much all non-Microsoft products.

It rendering as a 'J' is nothing to do with the brand of the product - rather, it depends on whether it it has been converted to plain text somewhere along the line (as is inevitable in 99% of cases of text copied from a word processor, web page or HTML-formatted email being pasted into a web form).

Less than two weeks to go and 36 are signed up for the main event with 29 coming to the hangover- if you are planning on coming but haven't paid yet please let me have your payment ASAP so I get can a clear idea of what final numbers are likely to be.

The standard gets higher every year. I can see at least one player in the Top 50 of ProRanks who will be in the bottom group of seeds for Round 1.

Heather Styles wrote:Travelodge price for Friday and Saturday nights is now £109 Last year some of us stayed in a B&B http://www.eaglesguesthouse.co.uk which I thought was quite nice. It's nearer the pub than the Travelodge is.

That does sound quite a lot (and it might be even more now), but just to clarify, it doesn't really count as going to COLIN if you don't stay in the Travelodge. One year, Jon O'Neill didn't even go to the event but stayed in the Travelodge and still counted it.

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Heather Styles wrote:Travelodge price for Friday and Saturday nights is now £109

That does sound quite a lot (and it might be even more now)

Back down to a bargain £99.

I agree that it doesn't count unless you stay in the Travelodge. I am staying in the Travelodge and booked ages ago for a good price (smug face), but was posting for the benefit of others less well organised (another smug face).

Heather Styles wrote:I agree that it doesn't count unless you stay in the Travelodge. I am staying in the Travelodge and booked ages ago for a good price (smug face), but was posting for the benefit of others less well organised (another smug face).

Heather Styles wrote:I agree that it doesn't count unless you stay in the Travelodge. I am staying in the Travelodge and booked ages ago for a good price (smug face), but was posting for the benefit of others less well organised (another smug face).

It's just as well. Corby said he was going to check for evidence of a Travelodge purchase before giving out the train tickets.

£91 now, the price is plummeting.

What's the best price anyone got? I got £62 altogether which I believe was better than Corby so it counts as a win whatever anyone else got.

£63 (slightly less smug face). What can my room possibly have, worth £1, that Gavin's doesn't?

Heather Styles wrote:£63 (slightly less smug face). What can my room possibly have, worth £1, that Gavin's doesn't?

You for a starter, Heather. (Although, I'd argue that you were priceless, rather than worth £1.)

I booked my room ten months ago and it was £66 for the two nights. I fully expect £4 and £3 worth of of extra goodies in my room compared to Gevin's and Heather's respectively.

I paid £64 last Feb. Maybe you pay an extra pound the further away from reception you get. Either way, I'm sure we will tour the rooms and see staggered but distinct incremental improvements as we go.

Paid £63 (£59.82 after cashback) at the start of November.

£61, booked in August. #winning

James Robinson wrote:

Heather Styles wrote:£63 (slightly less smug face). What can my room possibly have, worth £1, that Gavin's doesn't?

You for a starter, Heather. (Although, I'd argue that you were priceless, rather than worth £1.)

But Heather is providing herself, so it would be a bit weird for Travelodge to charge for that. Unless they've duplicated her and furnished the room with a spare. £1 for a duplicate of yourself doesn't sound too bad.

It's weird how several of you booked before the event was even officially announced.

That's how us mavericks roll. We don't put up with convention.

I paid £66 when I booked for 2 nights. I booked on 7 September.

Graeme, you should collate stats from this thread and plot a graph of price vs date of booking. Together we can all beat the system...

I'm almost ready to book my place. I might be dragging a spectator along - would that be OK?

Matt Bayfield wrote:I paid £66 when I booked for 2 nights. I booked on 7 September.

Graeme, you should collate stats from this thread and plot a graph of price vs date of booking. Together we can all beat the system...

I think Corby does this already but he does it for competitive reasons rather than for the good of mankind so he's unlikely to share.

Stewart Gordon wrote:I'm almost ready to book my place. I might be dragging a spectator along - would that be OK?

Absolutely fine. If they're willing to act as a reserve in case we don't get an exact multiple of 3, that'd be even more fine.

Gavin Chipper wrote:It's weird how several of you booked before the event was even officially announced.

It's how COLIN gets organised, it's mere coincidence that it's always in Lincoln in January. Several of us separately book Travelodge rooms, and then Ben collates the data and announces the date/venue. I'll leave it for you to decide if it's pot luck or collusion that ensures so many of us book the same one at the same time - but spare a thought for Charlie who, once again, will be spending a weekend alone in March in some Lancastrian Travelodge.

He got the best price, though, so technically he won Co:Lin.

1 week to go ^_^

£63 booked on Nov. 2

In, and my Dad's paid for it. Lovely man.

Is anyone bringing the trophy? I contacted Jack Hurst and offered to meet him in London on Friday, but haven't heard back...

Heather Styles wrote:Is anyone bringing the trophy? I contacted Jack Hurst and offered to meet him in London on Friday, but haven't heard back...

I should be bringing the trophy up.

Conor wrote:

Heather Styles wrote:Is anyone bringing the trophy? I contacted Jack Hurst and offered to meet him in London on Friday, but haven't heard back...

I should be bringing the trophy up.

I think it would be preferable that you hadn't eaten it in the first place...

I got mine for a total of £63 - booked the two nights seperately some time last year (a few months apart). Weirdly it cost more to book two nights together than two seperately - however I may be chucked out of the room Sat morning and have to check into another room Saturday evening.

3 days to go and it looks like entries are going to equal 45 for the Saturday and 31 for Sunday, unless I get a few last-minute entries from people who've said they'll come but not yet paid (you know who you are). Seedings up there are basically finalised now. All that remains is whether or not the weather will hold- it's saying clear skies in Lincoln for Saturday for now. We'll see...

Hotel booked and looking forward to it !