Spoilers for Monday 13th October

[Dan Vanniasingham]

Who's going to have started this thread by the time I post this then...

NEUTRON was there in round 4. I remember missing that against Jason Cullen at CoNot, only managing NEURON.

Didn't get that first numbers - nice spot from Carol.

[Joseph Bolas]

I think TIDIES was there as a DC beater.

[John Brackstone]

colluded for 8

[Joseph Bolas]

Well done to Kai for becoming an Octochamp, and finishing on a high note with a century and a brilliant spot with THIRTEENS.

[Dan Vanniasingham]

Super stuff from Kai - fully deserving of a first century and another comprehensive victory. Well done "young man"!

[Paul Howe]

Wahey, congratulations Kai on becoming an octochamp and solving all 8 conundrums He seems like a nice lad who was really enjoying himself, good to see.

Couple of unmentioned DC beaters: FOULARD and MISTEACH/TACHISME, and ANSERINE for a nice equaller in the PANNIERS round. I didn't get THIRTEENS though

[Allan Harmer]

Well done! Kai - The magic hundred caps off a great run and a very worthy Octochamp.

Good luck in the Grand Finals when you get to play with the big boys and girls!

Al.

[DaveC]

R1 SOMEDAY as equaller,
R4 also OUTRAGE and NEGATOR as beaters.
R5 alternative, ( 100 * 8 ) - ( ( 75 - 1 ) * 2 ) = 652
R6 TIDIES/TIDIED may have already been mentioned.

I was beating him 57-11 after R8, which ordinarily means game over. R10, R11, R13 go by and it's crucial conundrum time.

Really pleased he got his 100+ on his 8th game, that's the time to do it.

DC

[David O'Donnell]

In addition to the beaters posted I think there was also: FIGURAL (and maybe FIDALGO [the Portuguese version of HIDALGO]) and TACHISME/MISTEACH was there in another round.

Edit: I forgot to type, well done! How rude of me!!

[Brian]

Well done to Kai, a really bright little lad. A breath of fresh air!

[Kirk Bevins]

R4 also OUTRAGE and NEGATOR as beaters.

I never know whether to reply personally or on the forum but hey. There was no A in round 4 so those words were not valid. NORTENO was a beater in that round. APOSTLE as an equaller in round 3. I missed THIRTEENS, quality spot. I was pleased with getting ANSERINE - a word I learnt in training last week.

Congrats to Kai - a wonderful display in his final game - I'm pleased for him to get the century he was after. What did he say to his opponent just before the conundrum? Something like "please don't buzz!" or something or I could be making that up.

[Joseph Bolas]

Congrats to Kai - a wonderful display in his final game - I'm pleased for him to get the century he was after. What did he say to his opponent just before the conundrum? Something like "please don't buzz!" or something or I could be making that up.

I thought it was a bit unfair for Des to go on about how Kai had got every conundrum up to his 8th game and the fact that he had scores in the 90's but never got a century, which if he gets the conundrum, he would finally get a century on his Octochamp win. That may have stopped Richard from buzzing in.

[Kirk Bevins]

Congrats to Kai - a wonderful display in his final game - I'm pleased for him to get the century he was after. What did he say to his opponent just before the conundrum? Something like "please don't buzz!" or something or I could be making that up.

I thought it was a bit unfair for Des to go on about how Kai had got every conundrum up to his 8th game and the fact that he had scores in the 90's but never got a century, which if he gets the conundrum, he would finally get a century on his Octochamp win. That may have stopped Richard from buzzing in.

Pah.

[DaveC]

R4 also OUTRAGE and NEGATOR as beaters.

I never know whether to reply personally or on the forum but hey. There was no A in round 4 so those words were not valid.

I'm not a huge fan of public correction to a "preliminary version". I have developed a tendency to post a hastily produced and somewhat unpolished review before going out, only to polish it up somewhat perhaps the next day. It remains my view that it is better to PM any minor mistakes spotted on reviews so they can be quietly corrected and that is that. Other people take a different view and that is fine. That has been debated to the point of going round in circles... the usual indicator that it is time to stop I think. Outside the "reviews" thread I couldn't care, not that I'll be starting threads there beyond another couple of weeks, so it matters not. Debating stuff is always interesting though as long as we resist the temptation to get too annoyed with one another.

---

For a number of years it has been my tendency to play in such a way that a record of the game exists afterwards on a couple of A4 pieces of paper. They then get thrown out at the end of the series typically. The idea was that when there were missing reviews at the end of the series I had a record that allowed me to post the reviews, thus guaranteeing there was a full set of reviews soon after the series. I tended to keep it all rather secret to avoid being relied upon too much in this respect. Such a service seems unnecessary now, perhaps with 4OD and so on. But it has led to a way of playing that involves quite a bit of writing stuff down.

I've noticed that I do occasionally mishear the letters, especially "N" and "M", leading to the occasional misdeclare. I've seen people on the show declare a word requiring letters that aren't there a few times, so I'm not alone in that. I am now somewhat curious, who amongst us writes the letters down and works from that, and who amongst us just looks at the letters on the board? I notice from "Crucial!" that Mark has tended to write the letters down in a 3 x 3 grid and work from that.

A little musing curiosity why not... seeing though there's too much shite buzzing round my head to sleep as usual.

DC

[Matthew Green]

Well done Kai. But does anyone else think that if he'd picked 4 vowels instead of 3 some of the time he might have got 6 or 7 centuries instead of just one?

[Dinos Sfyris]

Another well done to Kai I had NORTENO and GIAOUR but missed THIRTEENS despite thinking "Hmmm THIRTIES is nearly there again like last week!" Also for the first time in a while I was beaten from the comfort of my own home, and by an 11 year old! Actually I think Junaid managed it once as well (he's not 11 though). If Charlie were airing today rather than tomorrow I'd certainly have put a bet on 3 successive octochamps!

[Dinos Sfyris]

Also for the first time in a while I was beaten from the comfort of my own home

Scratch that. Just read the recap and I must have miscounted! Still he kicked my ass in the 2nd half!

[Paul Howe]

For a number of years it has been my tendency to play in such a way that a record of the game exists afterwards on a couple of A4 pieces of paper.

Keep them all in a file, then if you ever go on the show make a point of reading it prominently in the green room, will scare the crap out of your opponents!

[Jon O'Neill]

I tended to keep it all rather secret to avoid being relied upon too much in this respect.

I remember Zef asking you to hold one to ransom. Good times.

[Paul Howe]

I am now somewhat curious, who amongst us writes the letters down and works from that, and who amongst us just looks at the letters on the board? I notice from "Crucial!" that Mark has tended to write the letters down in a 3 x 3 grid and work from that.

A little musing curiosity why not... seeing though there's too much shite buzzing round my head to sleep as usual.

DC

Ha, I meant to answer this before and somehow ended up posting something completely different. I prefer just looking at the letters on the board, but I always wrote them down in a different order in case something jumped out. Whenever I wrote out a word, I always wrote the remaining letters before and after it to help spot pre/suffixes. At home I don't bother with paper, except when I was practising to go on and trying to create an authentic studio experience.

[DaveC]

For a number of years it has been my tendency to play in such a way that a record of the game exists afterwards on a couple of A4 pieces of paper.

Keep them all in a file, then if you ever go on the show make a point of reading it prominently in the green room, will scare the crap out of your opponents!

Nah, they get dumped at the end of the series. About a years worth of games would probably leave one of those wide A4 folders looking pretty full. I've tried to reduce the number of folders and box files and so on as much as possible. If anyone else has trouble rising in the morning no alarm clock on earth can wake you up like when two 4ft shelves let go of the wall in the early hours of the morning.

I don't see any TV appearances on the horizon unless I can think of a better Weakest Link joke than my crap horse jumping remark. I'm far too motivated by sports as it stands to put any serious effort at Countdowning. Last time I was on TV I told a crap joke too... to Richard Whiteley's English teacher.

Zef and the "bit of review held ransom", amongst other mad goings on, funny in hindsight. Now you know why you don't see me on MSN any more.

DC

[Dan Vanniasingham]

I too meant to reply on the points raised - so I shall now.

I've never been comfortable writing the letters (or numbers) down, so only do so at Co-events where a declaration is required (and where it can be tricky to see the letters). I still have my scrawny handwriting from my 2 appearances, fitting each game onto a single page, often just writing down one word as it turned out. These days I'll jot down opponents words and any beaters too. I suspect I'm missing a helpful tool here, as the various writing methods can only help once practised sufficiently. I've also noticed vowel and consonant order can affect my ability to spot words. But, having said all that, if I do find the desire to put in hardcore study and become a genuine Co-event challenger (rather than a back-door longshot one hit wonder ), I'd likely persist with the only method I know - stare at the screen.

Like Matthew, I also noted Kai's tendencies for 3 vowel selections, but am less certain they would've hindered his scores. He's an excellent player, and superb for his age, but I didn't get the impression he'd studied obscure words - so assumed he had a typical countdowners vocabularly. Picking 4 vowels may have opened up more words which he'd not come across as much - costing him points. Perhaps he'll work on this ahead of the series finals, but I'm more inclined to believe he plays for fun and will continue in that vain.

[Julian Fell]

To begin with I never used to write anything down, but as my audition approached I realized I'd have to start doing so. So I started writing all the rounds one below the other on one piece of paper (like most people do), and immediately my ability level changed from Roger Federer to Alex Bogdanovic (not sure if they're any good at Countdown, but you know what I mean). But then I realized that if I wrote each round down on a separate page, I wasn't distracted by the previous rounds, and my ability level went straight back up again. This then developed into the strips of paper which Richard W made a fuss of on the show. Nowadays I just cover previous rounds with a sheet of paper - but I would definitely suggest to people to do something similar, see if it helps you concentrate better.

All these methods like writing letters in a square or a cloud or a random order... all I can say is that if I tried those things, I'd immediately become beatable by Apterous Prune; but, a lot of really good players whom I greatly respect do such things, so I suppose it's what works for you. I just write them in a line the way they come out - and it has to be said that you'll look a bit silly if there was a word spelt out or almost spelt out in the selection as it came out, but you didn't see it because you'd written the letters down in a different order (that happened to Jerry H in his COGST game against me).

Edit to say: can't say I noticed Kai always choosing 3 vowels myself, but I'll take Matthew's and Dan's word for it. Agree with Dan's assessment

[Gavin Chipper]

I'm actually surprised that people can find the words they do without writing anything down. If I see something like ING, I will write down the other letters to find ING words, or if they're suitably place in my initial array of letters just cover them up. I'm always covering up letters that I've written down as I spell out words to see if they're actually there. I find it amazing that people can just look at nine in a line and just come out with all those words.