c4countdown

We've reached the end of the week, and Andy Platt has been steamrolling through his 3 games so far, averaging 111 points per game. Can he keep things going with a fourth win today? Realistically, as long as he wins today, he should finish his run as the number 1 seed of the series so far whenever that run may end.

I've been making mistakes on who does the recap lately, so I am going to hold off for now and simply say join somebody for the recap later.

Pretty sure it's me but I'm still not convinced I want to. Anyone else fancy it? I'd ask Conor again but he probably has uni work to prioritise.

Andy Platt wrote:Pretty sure it's me but I'm still not convinced I want to. Anyone else fancy it? I'd ask Conor again but he probably has uni work to prioritise.

I can do today's, but I think we'd prefer to have guest recappers filling in, who aren't involved in the game, rather than regular recappers. Still, if nobody else has claimed it by this evening then I'll do it.

That must have broken some records.

Joseph Krol wrote:That must have broken some records.

According to cdb equal 1st on lowest score and equal fourth on biggest winning margin.

Brutal!

Great 4th win Andy. Shame you didn't get DEVIANTS to nil him out.

Excellent again Andy, I loved your solution in the 905 numbers game when (25-7)*50+4 was available.

Martin Long wrote:Excellent again Andy, I loved your solution in the 905 numbers game when (25-7)*50+4 was available.

Cheers. At least some people appreciate the fun way, because there are certain people who think I'm just being a dickhead, but I think their opinion says more about themselves, to be honest... I did see an "easy way" later on but I was like, well, whatever, let's do it anyway.

Philip Jarvis wrote:Great 4th win Andy. Shame you didn't get DEVIANTS to nil him out.

Lol, I kinda disagree, it would have been bad for the show if it happened. Nice for me, arguably, but there might be things like extra complaints and negative twitter feedback for the team to deal with. The truth was actually that Carl had actually failed his audition, but due to a contestant from Ireland having pulled out due to bad weather, they had to get someone local and available to fill in at the last minute. He was a good laugh though, I'm just watching through now. A couple of things have been edited like at the start he said being a singer beat working in a call centre and Nick was all "hey, you know, Andy works in a call centre" and I was like "haha, yeah he's just getting his intimidating banter in early", thought that would stay in to be honest as it was quite a funny intro. Gonna see if the battery story makes it in at the end

Andy Platt wrote: they had to get someone local and available to fill in at the last minute.

Streuth, wish I'd known, I work only about 5 minutes walk away. On second thoughts coming up against AP in a preliminary round might not be such a good idea.... I'd prefer a chance of actually winning at least once.

What baffled me was why Carl picked 4 large. At least he'd have had a better chance of grabbing some points with 1 large.

Graeme Cole wrote:

Andy Platt wrote:Pretty sure it's me but I'm still not convinced I want to. Anyone else fancy it? I'd ask Conor again but he probably has uni work to prioritise.

I can do today's, but I think we'd prefer to have guest recappers filling in, who aren't involved in the game, rather than regular recappers. Still, if nobody else has claimed it by this evening then I'll do it.

Claimed.

Keith Bennett wrote:

Andy Platt wrote: they had to get someone local and available to fill in at the last minute.

Streuth, wish I'd known, I work only about 5 minutes walk away. On second thoughts coming up against AP in a preliminary round might not be such a good idea.... I'd prefer a chance of actually winning at least once.

What baffled me was why Carl picked 4 large. At least he'd have had a better chance of grabbing some points with 1 large.

Yeah, seems he went 6 consonants in every letters round to deliberately choke the selections, and went 4 large in the numbers - presumably because in his opinion it was the hardest? It made me think he had some sort of game plan in mind, but with hindsight he might have just been better off picking 4 or 5 vowels in the letters and 1 or 2 large on the numbers to open the selections out a bit and make the maxes much more accessible - when stuff like S Z T T H U G O A comes up then it's going to be tough going.

Edit: Aww the battery story never made it either, I thought it was pretty funny and added a bit of humour to the show, clearly it was too long. Carl once swallowed a battery. That's pretty much it. He slipped while changing the batteries in a TV remote and obviously he was holding the old two in his mouth. Had to go to hospital and stuff. Interesting stuff.

Andy Platt wrote:The truth was actually that Carl had actually failed his audition, but due to a contestant from Ireland having pulled out due to bad weather, they had to get someone local and available to fill in at the last minute.

What is it about contestants from Ireland pulling out? Sam McElhinney was called in at the last minute to play against me because someone else from Ireland pulled out. It's ironic that Sam was Irish born and bred but currently is living in Leeds.

Does anyone know anyone who is due to appear in the series who might challenge Andy?

Not after spoilers, just more in the hope that contestants get better, as this could be a one horse race?

Dave Preece wrote:Does anyone know anyone who is due to appear in the series who might challenge Andy?

Not after spoilers, just more in the hope that contestants get better, as this could be a one horse race?

Eyes open on the 3rd April to see how Giles gets on

Happy retirement to the old 15-round format! We'll miss you.

I'm really not sure it'll make much difference, maybe a tad more watchable, for some? Some won't even notice!

Andy Platt wrote:

Martin Long wrote:Excellent again Andy, I loved your solution in the 905 numbers game when (25-7)*50+4 was available.

Cheers. At least some people appreciate the fun way, because there are certain people who think I'm just being a dickhead, but I think their opinion says more about themselves, to be honest... I did see an "easy way" later on but I was like, well, whatever, let's do it anyway.

I agree with Martin - I've just watched it on 4oD 'Entertainment' and Andy's complicated solutions are far more entertaining than what you'd normally see. Not sure if Rachel agrees or not though - she sounded a bit flustered trying to work out whether it was correct or not! She seemed to be thinking 'shall I just take his word for it or not?- Actually, better actually make sure he's right and work it out!'

Seem to remember seeing a clip on YouTube from ages ago where Carol got a calculator out for a similar situation - anyone remember that?

Well done on another resounding win Andy - just worked out that your total winning margin between you and your opponents over the four games is 309 points (443 - 134). If you keep this up, you must surely be on for some kind of record.

I agree with Andy it was a shame they cut Carl's stories out as they were entertaining and made him come across really well despite the scoreline.

Well played to Andy though. You can only beat who you are drawn against. Monday might be more difficult in the landmark first episode of the new format.

I agree with Andy it was a shame they cut Carl's stories out as they were entertaining and made him come across really well despite the scoreline.

Well played to Andy though. You can only beat who you are drawn against. Monday might be more difficult in the landmark first episode of the new format.

Dave Preece wrote:I'm really not sure it'll make much difference, maybe a tad more watchable, for some? Some won't even notice!

You'll notice if you ever go to be in the audience. I was there for the first 3 shows, starting with tomorrow's. I never knew sitting doing nothing for 4 hours could be such hard work, although it wasn't helped by the fact everything just went wrong that day.

Anthony Endsor wrote:

Dave Preece wrote:I'm really not sure it'll make much difference, maybe a tad more watchable, for some? Some won't even notice!

You'll notice if you ever go to be in the audience. I was there for the first 3 shows, starting with tomorrow's. I never knew sitting doing nothing for 4 hours could be such hard work, although it wasn't helped by the fact everything just went wrong that day.

Tell us more!

Andy Platt wrote:The truth was actually that Carl had actually failed his audition, but due to a contestant from Ireland having pulled out due to bad weather, they had to get someone local and available to fill in at the last minute.

No idea where this came from, but in the interests of accuracy......

Carl had an audition on 1.10.12 at 2pm, which he passed. He averaged 7.5 on the letters rounds, scored 17 pts from 2 numbers games and got 100% on the conundrums.

Countdown Team wrote:

Andy Platt wrote:The truth was actually that Carl had actually failed his audition, but due to a contestant from Ireland having pulled out due to bad weather, they had to get someone local and available to fill in at the last minute.

No idea where this came from, but in the interests of accuracy......

Carl had an audition on 1.10.12 at 2pm, which he passed. He averaged 7.5 on the letters rounds, scored 17 pts from 2 numbers games and got 100% on the conundrums.

Interesting stuff - maybe I've remembered incorrectly and it was someone else, but I thought it was Carl. I doubt he'd have made something like that up so more likely is that I remembered that snippet of info as the wrong person. Perhaps as Phil said, it was Sam, but due to the fact that Sam was, objectively speaking (score & max count), the strongest of my first 4 opponents (even if we consider his first game rather than his 4th by which time he'd be more settled), then that would surprise me.

Apologies if I've put inaccurate info about the show on a public forum.

No need to apologise, was just defending Carl in a way, as he clearly didn't play to anything like his full potential on the day, which is a something that happens from time to time.