Back here after putting up the recap on the Wiki on behalf of Johnny! The other (and less interesting) Semi-Final today with Dinos vs Brendan, with the latter going for a less formal look today with just a polo shirt! Also, if you were observant enough during the credits Rachel was actually beating to the rhythm of the closing theme!
Letters: Again, it's good to start the show brilliantly, with ROSALIA from Dinos in R1 and he ups the game further with OOCYTES in R4 and METOPIC in R7 too! However, terribly unlucky with his odontal in R10 and ironically as Fiona pointed out here, he did attempt this word on Apterous some seven years ago. Well, I can't blame him for not knowing that...
Numbers: As usual Dinos sticks to the six small combination and Brendan with the three large for now. The former succeeds with the moderate R3 and both eventually got there with the ridiculously easy R6 (Though some admit on the Daily Chat with 3L they took some time to spot that way out). Oh no, Dinos messes up in R9 and gives Brendan the opportunity to close the gap!
Finally, with the margin still at 15 points before R14 Brendan bravely decides for 4L and I was so afraid this was going to flop as this was his first time trying this combination! Fortunately, he had a happy ending but with Dinos solving it too his fate was sealed.
Conundrum: A confident Dinos shouts POTPOURRI less than five seconds in and voila, it's the correct answer! (I yelled "Oh!!" so hard at my screen when it was revealed.) On all counts I would have blanked out without any clue.
I had considered revising my margin for this game after seeing Brendan's performance on Monday but I thought otherwise and eventually settled with my original margin with Dinos winning by around 20 points. With the margin eventually at 25 points, that's not a bad prediction after all and I don't regret my decision as I had contemplated with a new margin as extreme as 40 points.
Brendan, as I echo Rachel's words, "it's a sad day to lose" you knowing that you have been extremely cheerful on-screen and even with Steven and Dinos hammering you, you took it in your stride, for all ten of your appearances, both in 2018 and 2019! Hopefully you will be able to introduce the more frequent shoppers at your local supermarket to Countdown sometime in the future!
In less than 24 hours from now the public will know who lifts the coveted Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy. Will Elliott really be unstoppable and take the title of the highest ever Xicount beating Zarte's record just over a year ago, or can Dinos make a crucial dent and be the "Mike Daysley" of this Series, stunning everyone? As the latter said at the end of today's episode, "Should be a good game". It better be and don't miss it!!!
Progress:
QF1 (20 June):
Elliott Mellor (#1) vs Mark Decouto (#8) (
109 - 73)
QF2 (21 June):
Dinos Sfyris (#2) vs Sandra Pilson (#7) (
118 - 71)
QF3 (24 June):
Brendan Whitehurst (#3) vs Steven Turnbull (#6) (
58 - 57)
QF4 (25 June):
Maggie Barlow (#4) vs Fiona Titcombe (#5) (
98 - 78)
SF1 (26 June):
Elliott Mellor (QF1 Winner) vs Maggie Barlow (QF4 Winner) (
120 - 80)
SF2 (27 June):
Dinos Sfyris (QF2 Winner) vs Brendan Whitehurst (QF3 Winner) (
103 - 78)
GF (28 June): Elliott Mellor (SF1 Winner) vs Dinos Sfyris (SF2 Winner)