Spoilers for Monday 19th May 2008

[Michael Wallace]

Today's show started with some god-awful 'joke' from some guy called 'chris corby', let's hope that the show picks up from here

[Michael Wallace]

does FAUCETS not count for being American? (or have I just mis-seen the letters in round 9?)

[Joseph Bolas]

I think you can have UNSORTED as an equaller.

[Joseph Bolas]

3rd Numbers Alternative: (100 - (10 - 7)) x (50 / 25)

EDIT: Is it me or was Carl trying to do a Jeffrey by buzzing in before he knew the answer?

[DaveC]

R2 alternative DOPAMINE
R6 equaller RAPTURE

R14 a round the world way of reaching JB's slicker solution.

100- (75/25) = 97

7- (50/10) = 2

97 x 2 = 194.

R10 the 945 was reachable via...
100+25*7= 875+75=950-5

I threw it at the solver and that's as close as it's possible to get.

DC

[Ben Pugh]

SCIAENID equaller.

I missed the opening, did they mention about the challenger being on before when his opponent cheated (saying PROMATE and then claiming she had PRONATE)?

[Ben Pugh]

does FAUCETS not count for being American? (or have I just mis-seen the letters in round 9?)

FAUCETS does count, even though it is an American word. American words count but American spellings of words where there is a different spelling more traditionally used in British English aren't allowed, most of the words that I can think of where that applies are ones where there is vowel before an E not featured in American English, like FOETUS.

[Michael Wallace]

SCIAENID equaller.

I missed the opening, did they mention about the challenger being on before when his opponent cheated (saying PROMATE and then claiming she had PRONATE)?

They said that he'd been on before but that someone had "miscounted" (or something like that). I was not aware of this promate/pronate business, it sounds delicious.

[Ben Pugh]

SCIAENID equaller.

I missed the opening, did they mention about the challenger being on before when his opponent cheated (saying PROMATE and then claiming she had PRONATE)?

They said that he'd been on before but that someone had "miscounted" (or something like that). I was not aware of this promate/pronate business, it sounds delicious.

It was only last series.

http://www.thecountdowncorral.com/cd/re ... recap=1254

In round 4, both declared that they had risky 7s, the challenger said they had PROMATE but DC and Des didn't hear properly so they said something along the lines of 'did you say PRONATE?', the challenger looked somewhat surprised and then said she had PRONATE and then Des/DC said it was in, Countdown favourite etc. Carl then went on to lose.

[Michael Wallace]

ohhhh, that rings a bell now, actually - so when they said today that someone had 'miscounted' was that just a politer way of saying 'someone cheated'

[Joseph Bolas]

In round 4, both declared that they had risky 7s, the challenger said they had PROMATE but DC and Des didn't hear properly so they said something along the lines of 'did you say PRONATE?', the challenger looked somewhat surprised and then said she had PRONATE and then Des/DC said it was in, Countdown favourite etc. Carl then went on to lose.

But Carl lost by 19 points, so even if they had picked up on the PROMATE indcident, Carl still would've lost anyway.

[Howard Somerset]

Good to see that Carl has had a chance to come back after the PROMATE / PRONATE incident.

True, he lost that game by 19 points, but it's quite possible that the incident put him off his stride; it occurred in the first section of the show.

I wonder if his win in series 57 will count, and so leave him now on two wins.

[Martin Gardner]

MELANOID as another equaller.

Martin

[Joseph Bolas]

True, he lost that game by 19 points, but it's quite possible that the incident put him off his stride; it occurred in the first section of the show.

Surely if there was a problem, Carl could've just interrupted the recording and pointed it out?

[Jon O'Neill]

Maybe he didn't realise. Fact is, the guy got cheated, and now they're back on. Just like Amey. Sorry Joseph.

[James Hurrell]

Imagine he would start again this series just like Martin May in Series 56/57

[Jon Corby]

Good to see that Carl has had a chance to come back after the PROMATE / PRONATE incident.

Quite agree, he deserved another bash as he was cheated out. You can't just subtract the points from the cheated round, as he may have declared differently due to being behind etc etc.

It would have been nicer though if PAULINE HUGGINS had been publicly shamed, either by just mentioning what had happened (rather than the "counting mistake" cover-up) or possibly by her being suspended in a cage next to the clock for the duration of the show.

[Richard Priest]

3rd Numbers Alternative: (100 - (10 - 7)) x (50 / 25)

EDIT: Is it me or was Carl trying to do a Jeffrey by buzzing in before he knew the answer?

Possibly but it wasn't crucial so I don't know why he would have done that.If it was kosher it must have been one of the quickest conundrums in history!

[Malcolm James]

Jim Bentley wrote 19th Nov 2007

Bit of a minefield, this round, as I would have taken Carl's offering
as "PORTENT" - it was Des who said "PORTANT", stressing the hard 'A',
which made Alison disallow it without giving him the chance to spell
it. Then again, that's just what we saw on telly, so it might just be
a load of bollocks.

Sounds as though this whole round was a complete c**k-up. The swing on this round could have been 14 points.

[Jon Corby]

Sounds as though this whole round was a complete c**k-up. The swing on this round could have been 14 points.

I don't think so - unlike Pauline, Carl had his word written down. Had they disallowed PORTANT when he actually had PORTENT written down, I don't think anyone would be so meek as to not challenge this.

[Martin Gardner]

That was my question, and it's quite an important one to Jason Cullen as he's #8 seed, do the points from his games in Series 57 count in this series? If they do, then he's two wins away from getting the #8 seed spot, if they don't he's three games away. Not only that, if he lost after 4 wins, he'd actually have 4 wins and 2 losses so he'd automatically have a higher points total than Jacu, because he's played six games, not five!

Martin

[Joseph Bolas]

That was my question, and it's quite an important one to Jason Cullen as he's #8 seed, do the points from his games in Series 57 count in this series? If they do, then he's two wins away from getting the #8 seed spot, if they don't he's three games away. Not only that, if he lost after 4 wins, he'd actually have 4 wins and 2 losses so he'd automatically have a higher points total than Jacu, because he's played six games, not five!

Doesn't Des say how many wins the champion has got or anything like that after the conundrum?

[Howard Somerset]

I think Des sometimes says how many wins the current champion is on, but as often as not, I've also heard him ask the champion just how many that makes it.

Regarding Martin's point about counting 4 wins and 2 losses, I would guess that the defeat in series 57 would not count towards any points total, because they are effectively regarding the series 57 defeat as a void match by bringing him back.

It's still interesting, though, as to whether the series 57 win will count when seedings are determined.