Spoilers for Monday May 30th 2011

[Jordan F]

Since James is on holiday, we have what may be the first ever spoiler thread from the States here.

It's the final week of the series, and today is the third quarter final, where we have the number 3 seed Tom "I Have A Beard"(unless he shaved between his original taping and this one) Barnes, going up against the number 6 seed Mary "I Have Estrogen" Adie; with the winner facing Edward "I Have Two Ls In My Name" McCullagh on Thursday.

Stats(Not as complete as James', I apologize):

Tom Barnes:
Number 3 Seed
Highest Score: 123 vs Stuart Pecksen on May 12th
Lowest Score: 86 vs Brian Gale on May 18th
Largest Margin of Victory: 112 points vs Christine Buffrey on May 16th
Percentage of Max: 80.35% (822/1023)
Conundrum Success Rate: 5/8

Mary Adie:
Number 6 Seed
Highest Score: 105 (including tie break conundrum) vs Barbara Grice on April 18th
Lowest Score: 58 (in a loss) against Chris Childs on April 22nd (Lowest winning score was 85 against Aidan Casey on April 19th)
Largest Margin of Victory: 46 points vs Anne Senneck on April 20th
Percentage of Max: 69.75% (498/714) (Does not include TB conundrum points)
Conundrum Success Rate: 3/6 not including TB conundrum, 4/7 including TB conundrum

Join who I believe will be Ryan "I Have Red Hair" Taylor for today's recap later.

[Ryan Taylor]

This is so American. I like it!

[Adam Gillard]

But while theres no way someone as good as you would ever lose to a 60+ year old woman who's only practice comes from watching on TV, you could have just declared the same as her on a few rounds when you were way ahead. That would have been the nice thing to do (thats what Keith would have done)

Seriously? Which part of being 60+ and a woman do you consider pitiable?

Gedditnow? Andy made a clever.

[Gavin Chipper]

But while theres no way someone as good as you would ever lose to a 60+ year old woman who's only practice comes from watching on TV, you could have just declared the same as her on a few rounds when you were way ahead. That would have been the nice thing to do (thats what Keith would have done)

Seriously? Which part of being 60+ and a woman do you consider pitiable?

Gedditnow? Andy made a clever.

I was going to bring that back up as well but you beat me to it.

[Charlie Reams]

But while theres no way someone as good as you would ever lose to a 60+ year old woman who's only practice comes from watching on TV, you could have just declared the same as her on a few rounds when you were way ahead. That would have been the nice thing to do (thats what Keith would have done)

Seriously? Which part of being 60+ and a woman do you consider pitiable?

Gedditnow? Andy made a clever.

Haha. Well played sir.

[Rhys Benjamin]

922
100, 75, 50, 25, 5, 4

921 in Round 5:

100 + 75 = 175
175 x 5 = 875
875 + 50 = 925
925 - 4 = 921

All in the time
Told you I love four large

[Eoin Monaghan]

922
100, 75, 50, 25, 5, 4

921 in Round 5:

100 + 75 = 175
175 x 5 = 875
875 + 50 = 925
925 - 4 = 921

All in the time
Told you I love four large

Simply fantastic.

Superb contest today, I think Mary surprised a lot of people but it's great to see her in the semis.

[Martin Gardner]

I'm sure that JimDic, or whatever has succeded, it is online, but I don't know where it is and I had a couple of potential beaters - EGOTIZE and EROTISED. Tom definitely messed up in rounds 1 and 14. Also I think in round 5. TIEFING was a bit of a nervous mistake, you just have to get 282 in round 14, and in round 5 as has been pointed out, it's relatively simple to get 921. Having said that, the standard was really high; as usual, #1 vs. #8 and #2 vs. #7 didn't produce classic games, but this was one. Well done Mary.

[Liam Tiernan]

I'm sure that JimDic, or whatever has succeded, it is online, but I don't know where it is and I had a couple of potential beaters - EGOTIZE and EROTISED. Tom definitely messed up in rounds 1 and 14. Also I think in round 5. TIEFING was a bit of a nervous mistake, you just have to get 282 in round 14, and in round 5 as has been pointed out, it's relatively simple to get 921. Having said that, the standard was really high; as usual, #1 vs. #8 and #2 vs. #7 didn't produce classic games, but this was one. Well done Mary.

EROTICISED?

[Rhys Benjamin]

Simply fantastic.

Who, me?

[Tony Atkins]

922
100, 75, 50, 25, 5, 4

921 in Round 5:

100 + 75 = 175
175 x 5 = 875
875 + 50 = 925
925 - 4 = 921

All in the time
Told you I love four large

I made the slightly harder 923 (100- (75/25)) x (5+4) +50

[Thomas Carey]

I'm sure that JimDic, or whatever has succeded, it is online, but I don't know where it is and I had a couple of potential beaters - EGOTIZE and EROTISED. Tom definitely messed up in rounds 1 and 14. Also I think in round 5. TIEFING was a bit of a nervous mistake, you just have to get 282 in round 14, and in round 5 as has been pointed out, it's relatively simple to get 921. Having said that, the standard was really high; as usual, #1 vs. #8 and #2 vs. #7 didn't produce classic games, but this was one. Well done Mary.

Yeah, it wasn't exactly Tom's best performance. Though Mary had a massive mess-up in R10 (the second numbers).

[Liam Tiernan]

Though Mary had a massive mess-up in R10 (the second numbers).

1 away is hardly a "massive mess-up", Thomas. A slip-up, yes, but the solution wasn't too obvious.

[Ryan Taylor]

This spoiler thread has some of the worst posts ever in it, including this one.

[Rhys Benjamin]

JR style:

Just ROSETTED and TETRODES in Round 13 today.

Pre-game stats:

Firstly, No.3 Seed Tom Barnes - 8 Wins, 822 Points
Highest Score: 123 vs. Stuart Pecksen (3rd Game)
Lowest Score: 86 vs. Brian Gale (7th Game)
9's Achieved: 0/3
Total Points/Max/%: 822/1023 (80%)

Secondly, No.6 Seed Andrew McNamara - 5 Wins, 466 Points
Highest Score: 95 (not including TB) vs. Barbara Grice (2nd Game)
Lowest Score: 58 vs. Chris Childs (6th Game)
9's Achieved: 0/0
Total Points/Max/%: 498/714 (70%)

[Graeme Cole]

JR style:

Just ROSETTED and TETRODES in Round 13 today.

Pre-game stats:

Firstly, No.3 Seed Tom Barnes - 8 Wins, 822 Points
Highest Score: 123 vs. Stuart Pecksen (3rd Game)
Lowest Score: 86 vs. Brian Gale (7th Game)
9's Achieved: 0/3
Total Points/Max/%: 822/1023 (80%)

Secondly, No.6 Seed Andrew McNamara - 5 Wins, 466 Points
Highest Score: 95 (not including TB) vs. Barbara Grice (2nd Game)
Lowest Score: 58 vs. Chris Childs (6th Game)
9's Achieved: 0/0
Total Points/Max/%: 498/714 (70%)

A few corrections: I make it that Tom got 3 out of 8 nines in his run. Also Mary got 498 points, and she isn't called Andrew McNamara.

[Mike Brown]

I'm sure that JimDic, or whatever has succeded, it is online, but I don't know where it is and I had a couple of potential beaters - EGOTIZE and EROTISED. Tom definitely messed up in rounds 1 and 14. Also I think in round 5. TIEFING was a bit of a nervous mistake, you just have to get 282 in round 14, and in round 5 as has been pointed out, it's relatively simple to get 921. Having said that, the standard was really high; as usual, #1 vs. #8 and #2 vs. #7 didn't produce classic games, but this was one. Well done Mary.

You could use Lexplorer on the Apterous site. FTR, EGOTIZE went out a while ago; not sure that EROTISED has ever been Countdown-friendly (as it were). And yeah, good game.

[Liam Tiernan]

This spoiler thread has some of the worst posts ever in it, including this one.

A good example of premature deprecation. You could at least have held on till Rhys had had his say.

[Edward McCullagh]

she isn't called Andrew McNamara.

Only at the weekends... (I miss James too)

[Charlie Reams]

This spoiler thread has some of the worst posts ever in it, including this one.

Agreed.

[Gavin Chipper]

Though Mary had a massive mess-up in R10 (the second numbers).

1 away is hardly a "massive mess-up", Thomas. A slip-up, yes, but the solution wasn't too obvious.

It seemed a funny tactic from her though. I don't know how good she is at numbers in general, but she was more than ten ahead at the second numbers so to pick four large is something you should only do at that stage if you're pretty strong on it. And then having lost points there she did it again with the last one! (Although it worked in her favour that time.)

[Innis Carson]

It seemed a funny tactic from her though. I don't know how good she is at numbers in general, but she was more than ten ahead at the second numbers so to pick four large is something you should only do at that stage if you're pretty strong on it. And then having lost points there she did it again with the last one! (Although it worked in her favour that time.)

Yeah it was baffling, was convinced she'd thrown away the game. Only possible reasoning I can think of is that she thought Tom would probably get the conundrum and hoped to avoid a crucial, a risky strategy to say the least though. That said, she won in the end, so fair play to her.

[Tom Barnes]

Hi All

Firstly congratulations to Mary on the off-chance she reads this. A fantastic performance, and great for the show to have a star contestant who isn't a 16-30 year old male who spends half his life on the internet (I love you all really).

Like a few of you I was very confused, not to mention a little thrown, by her numbers picking tactics, but the way I played them today I guess it wasn't such a bad idea! The last numbers game I thought I had until I checked my working on about 25s and didn't have time to spot the simple 282. The 921 was just a bit rubbish!

Congrats too to Richard on bagging his Countdown mug.

Make sure you tune in to Pendleton-McGurn tomorrow which is another cracker (hope people don't regard this as a spoiler)

[Andy Wilson]

Unlucky Tom, really enjoyed watching that. Fair play to Mary. I was actually shocked that she buzzed for the conundrum and then really casually gave her for fun answer, giving you an extra few valuable moments to try and solve it. Well done anyway, hope you enjoyed the experience.

[Rhys Benjamin]

This is so American. I like it!

I don't. American Science tests got me 99% for not spelling "Sulfur" correctly. (I spelt it as Sulphur)

[Michael Wallace]

This is so American. I like it!

I don't. American Science tests got me 99% for not spelling "Sulfur" correctly. (I spelt it as Sulphur)

Except sulfur is the standard spelling now

[Gavin Chipper]

This is so American. I like it!

I don't. American Science tests got me 99% for not spelling "Sulfur" correctly. (I spelt it as Sulphur)

Except sulfur is the standard spelling now

But only because America is taking over the world.

[Mark James]

But only because America is taking over the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WM73Dg7j70&feature=fvst