Spoilers for Thursday 12th June 2008

[JasonCullen]

Post spoilers here

[Joseph Bolas]

Post spoilers here

David's on today, so how can you be sure there is any spoilers .

[Howard Somerset]

I'm sure OVATES was available in one of Jonathan's games a week or two ago. It was the definition that I remembered, not the word.

[Howard Somerset]

I was hoping the GROUPEE was available as an equallier, but it's spelt GROUPIE

[Ray Folwell]

1st numbers : 7 x (50 + 75 + 8 + 100/25) (took > 30 secs though)

[Peter Mabey]

(75+8)/50=12
(100+12+25)7=959

[Peter Mabey]

(75+8)/50=12
(100+12+25)7=959

Sorry, meant 75x8 etc.

[Ross Allatt]

My last spoiler turned out to be a fail, but in the round where David got Diamines, I would have had a shot at MISNAMED. Its in the Shorter Oxford; no idea if in NODE or not.

Ross

[Joseph Bolas]

Did Susie allow IODINES?

[JasonCullen]

Like in my 4th heat game, IODINES has come up and has been accepted by Susie but it is not allowed by CountMax

[Howard Somerset]

My last spoiler turned out to be a fail, but in the round where David got Diamines, I would have had a shot at MISNAMED. Its in the Shorter Oxford; no idea if in NODE or not.

Ross

Yes. It's in the dictionary now in use.

[Michael Wallace]

was it just me who felt it was a bit weird of Des to ask David "how risky" his 8 was *before* asking Ben for his declaration?

[Dinos Sfyris]

I wondered if you'd spot DIAMINES David. Nice one and IODINES. You're making me proud!

For the last numbers I did ((9x3)+75+7)x8-7 = 865

[Joseph Bolas]

Like in my 4th heat game, IODINES has come up and has been accepted by Susie but it is not allowed by CountMax

They should've accepted my INSOLATED then if they are accepting loads of mass nouns

[JasonCullen]

by jasoncullen on Mon Jun 09, 2008 2:46 pm
TSARINA? Watch out for this word in the near future - but slightly different

My bad everyone

[Peter Mabey]

Are EQUINOIDS (PSEUDO-HORSES) in NODE2?

[Joseph Bolas]

I love these conundrums

[JasonCullen]

My uncle got GARIBALDI in the audience but Benji stole his moment of glory

[Joseph Bolas]

My uncle got GARIBALDI in the audience but Benji stole his moment of glory

IMO I thought it was an easy one .

[Matt Coates]

me too Jay

[JasonCullen]

IMO I thought it was an easy one .

Well all the other contestants in the green room did not get GARIBALDI but ironically the comedian who warms up the crowd was talking about GARIBALDI biscuits before this game begun. I should of seen it coming really

[Howard Somerset]

Are EQUINOIDS (PSEUDO-HORSES) in NODE2?

Not in the ODE2r, which is the one now in use.

[Richard Brittain]

A solid performance today by DoD, but the scoreline flattered him because Ben Hanks put in a strong performance bar 2 or 3 rounds. As I've come to expect in modern series finals, the game threw out a lot of difficult letters selections which restricted scoring but also allowed for some exotic words to be formed. DoD didn't quite look infallible, but I would still back him to win the series because of his ability to spot words like 'diamines' and 'tzarina'. And well done to Ben(ji) on his Countdown run, showed himself to be a very good player, especially on the letters. Obviously unlucky to have to face DoD in the QFs, but also unlucky today with some disallowed words. The contest was tighter than the scoreline suggested, but I'm happy because the margin of victory fits in with my initial predictions given in another thread!

[Martin Gardner]

I thought David was excellent today and seemed to beat Dictionary Corner in a couple of rounds like NORTENA and TZARINA. He certains looks streets ahead of the other players. The only round I could beat him on was the conundrum, which I didn't think was easy at all and I'm even surprised I got it.

Martin

[Ben Pugh]

VOETSAK. I think it means 'fuck off'.

It's one of those nice South African words like SITKAMER and POTJIE in the OED whose only use is to come up on Countdown.

Good game from DoD today, spots like DIAMINES and NORTENA confirmed why I think he's going to win the series, he's able to pull out obscure words out of fairly common letter selections.

[Julian Fell]

David - really, really well done for today. Although you got a relatively low score, I thought you coped exceptionally well with a load of horrible selections (on both letters and numbers). I know I couldn't've coped with those sort of selections in my own series QF - how much harder have they got in the last five or six years?! Not to mention the pressure of being in the studio, being no.1 seed, facing a strong opponent etc.!

You beat me with REGROUP and NORTENA (which was absolutely brilliant, I'd never heard of it); and on the first numbers round, and with TZARINA, which I still missed even though Jason had told us all it was going to come up! (please don't do that again though Jason, or anyone else...)

I did beat you on a few rounds, but overall I would only just have forced a crucial conundrum against you, and I had the advantage of being at home under no pressure... excellent stuff and you showed why you're the favourite.

Ben, I didn't see your original run, but you came across really well today, and put up a good fight... am I right in thinking you had an exam on that same morning? Amazing recovery powers if so.

(With regard to IODINES, and other mass noun plurals which have been allowed on the show, not being listed in CountMax - you could tell Jim to add them to his dictionary, but then again, the next time they come up Susie will probably change her mind and disallow them, as she did with OPALINES, TYMPANIES, CARMINES etc., so it'll have to be changed again... it's an impossible situation to keep track of, really)

[JasonCullen]

and with TZARINA, which I still missed even though Jason had told us all it was going to come up! (please don't do that again though Jason, or anyone else...)

I am sorry Julian . It wont happen again

[Craig Beevers]

Hadn't seen this game so catching up on it now, bit of a mixed bag really. Obviously two of the rounds were very difficult to get the maximum on, plus the dead conundrum which didn't matter. Second numbers was a bit counter-intuitive, one of those where a run-of-the-mill contestant would probably get within 10 as they'd never bother adding/subtracting anything to the big number and just look to get 825/900 and mess around with whatever is left. Those numbers games are a lot harder under pressure of course.

So anyway no century from David so I assume he was kicked out of the studio and I expect we'll be seeing Amey Deshpande in the semi-final instead.

[Benji Hanks]

Indeed, I was sitting in an exam roughly 4 hours before this was filmed

Thanks for all the kind words, I'll wait to see what bits were cut before I make many comments, but like I said, I had fun

[Julian Fell]

Craig did you miss anything when you were watching the game at home?

Been thinking a bit more about David's performance - he beat me (watching at home) on 4 different rounds and I think there are only two other occasions that's happened to me in the 15-round era... ok he missed a few things but it's a quarter-final, you're going to be nervous (unless you're Craig!). So, very impressive all in all.

And is it just me or were the rounds in the second quarter-final a lot easier than in David's game?

[David O'Donnell]

So anyway no century from David so I assume he was kicked out of the studio and I expect we'll be seeing Amey Deshpande in the semi-final instead.

Just saw this ...

[Benji Hanks]

Yeah, I hope you dedicate your win to me, given that without me you wouldn't have been able to write you were shaking so much