Countdownwiki - Crucial

[Martin Gardner]

Hi

If anyone's read Crucial by Mark Tournoff, would they like to write a review for the Countdownwiki, as I haven't yet got round to having a look at it. If you are interested, go to http://www.countdownwiki.com/Crucial_-_ ... 0%99s_Tale.

[Joseph Bolas]

Hi

If anyone's read Crucial by Mark Tournoff, would they like to write a review for the Countdownwiki, as I haven't yet got round to having a look at it. If you are interested, go to http://www.countdownwiki.com/Crucial_-_ ... 0%99s_Tale.

I was going to buy it, but I just can't.

[Jon O'Neill]

Hi

If anyone's read Crucial by Mark Tournoff, would they like to write a review for the Countdownwiki, as I haven't yet got round to having a look at it. If you are interested, go to http://www.countdownwiki.com/Crucial_-_ ... 0%99s_Tale.

I was going to buy it, but I just can't.

Dare I ask why?

[Dan Vanniasingham]

Unless there's an unusual story behind the reason (will we ever know?), I cannot fathom why Joseph has posted the message he has.

I've read through Crucial, enjoyed it, but am generally too lazy to be relied upon to write a review (I've still got 2 COLIN games to type on another thread sometime before COLIN 09). If nobody else steps up though I'll consider it - how long a review are we looking at?

[Jon Corby]

I was going to buy it, but I just can't.

Dare I ask why?

I know the reason, but I can't tell you. I just can't.

[Joseph Bolas]

Dare I ask why?

You can, but I have been trying to remember all morning why I said that last night, so it mustn't have been important .

I don't quite know what is in the book, but I don't think thats it going to help me anyway, if I read it, if I am still making mistakes like missing easy words like PERSONAE and missing easy numbers like the 207 game we played at COLIN .

[Dinos Sfyris]

I was going to buy it, but I just can't.

Dare I ask why?

I know the reason, but I can't tell you. I just can't.

[Kirk Bevins]

Dare I ask why?

You can, but I have been trying to remember all morning why I said that last night, so it mustn't have been important .

I don't quite know what is in the book, but I don't think thats it going to help me anyway, if I read it, if I am still making mistakes like missing easy words like PERSONAE and missing easy numbers like the 207 game we played at COLIN .

Don't be daft, Joe. PERSONAE is not an easy word - that is why Conor won his round with it in a series quarter final! PERSONA consists of common letters but you may easily miss it. The book describes Mark Tournoff's through Countdown, rather than helping people to improve as such. There are a few mistakes in there, in particular when I play Tournoff, he says that Conor beat Chris Wills which is in fact false. I had beaten Chris Wills (and indeed Stewart Holden) and then went on to beat Conor, but lost to Tournoff on, surprise surprise, a crucial conundrum.

[Joseph Bolas]

Don't be daft, Joe. PERSONAE is not an easy word - that is why Conor won his round with it in a series quarter final! PERSONA consists of common letters but you may easily miss it.

AENOPRS are 7 letters that are likely to come up in selections often. If you know PERSONA and also know that you can pluralise it (PERSONAS) and add an 'L' too to get PERSONAL, then surely you should know PERSONAE too and therefore see it when it comes up in a selection.

[Conor]

Don't be daft, Joe. PERSONAE is not an easy word - that is why Conor won his round with it in a series quarter final!

Err, I don't think I did. It was my last heat game.

[Kirk Bevins]

Haha. I couldn't wait till you corrected me - I was just testing to see if you still read the forum.

[Mark Tournoff]

I realise it's weeks since anyone added anything to this thread, but in case anyone's interested, I just wanted to have my say re Kirk's comment that 'Crucial' does not offer help to other people. In fact it was the wish to encourage other people which motivated me to write my story, and there are in fact no less than 66 pages of advice. I can only imagine Kirk, that as a top player yourself you would not have benefited from this advice and therefore overlooked its volume, although I know from the email you sent me after you read Crucial that you must have at least perused it.

There are incidentally a few extracts from correspondence I have received from people I don't know personally on http://www.forestdalepublications.co.uk review page.

Mark T.