Friday 31 October 2008. Series 59 Game 75

[Allan Harmer]

Countdown recap for Friday 31 October 2008. Series 59 Game 75

This is my first review, which I will be doing on alternate Fridays with Joseph Bolas.
I am looking forward to doing this and hope to make the reviews as light hearted and informative as possible

C1: Champion Dan O'Hara (1 win, 86 points.) Retired Welfare Officer. He has appeared in Mastermind and Grand Finals of 15 To 1. Yesterday he crept up on dog lover Lynne Owens and bit her ankles like a little terrier, whilst mugging her in the last round to be in front, for the only time in the game, right on the wire!
C2: Challenger Andy Crompton from Manchester. Teacher of English as a second language to foreign students. He enjoys cricket and moonlights as a TV extra - Watch out Andy Millman!
DC: Susie Dent and Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes. Now affectionately known to the CD team as 'Ran The Man'. The tales of his exploits so far fully justify this lofty title!
CV: Carol Vorderman.
OT: Other words or solutions.

R01: I O E N R S B R I
R02: S Y L E A O T M R
R03: P D N T E O A M E
R04: D D H I E E R H P
R05: 2, 8, 2, 75, 50, 25. Target: 382.
TTT: THESLURS - "MADOC AND RENDELL MISSING AND WITHOUT PITY"
R06: L S Q O A T V E L
R07: T G T S G I A E O
R08: N R P L I A I A E
R09: D M T D A O E B O
R10: 7, 5, 5, 6, 2, 25. Target: 665.
TTT: RIPESOUR - "MOTHER'S BEST LAKE PERHAPS"
R11: F W D S E O I U C
R12: N A N Z O S R O R
R13: N X S R C U E I O
R14: 5, 5, 4, 2, 6, 100. Target: 835.
R15: T I N T I N H E E (conundrum)


And now a brief interlude before our main feature:

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Enjoy the show.

Round 1: I O E N R S B R I

C1: SOBER (5)
C2: BONIER (6)
DC: BRINIER (7) IRONERS (7)
OT: IONISER (7) IRONIES (7) IRONISE (7) NOISIER (7)
Score: 0–6 (max 7)

Round 2: S Y L E A O T M R

C1:(x) movers - The Champ is struggling to keep up with the pace. Are yesterday's exertions beginning to take their toll?
C2: MOLEST (6)
DC: MORTALS (7) MALTOSE (7)
OT: MASTERLY (8) AMYLOSE (7) , ARMLETS (7), MASTERY (7), MOTLEYS (7) MYRTLES (7), SMARTLY (7) STROMAL (7)
Score: 0–12 (max 15)

Maltose is malt sugar and Amylose is a linear polymer of glucose, to maintain the sweet thread.
Stromal is a connective tissue cell of an organ apparently

Round 3: P D N T E O A M E

C1: POTMAN (6)
C2: PANTED (6)
DC: PEDANT (6) TAMPONED (8) 'Ran The Man' politely passes Tamponed to Susie to announce. what a gent! - after pronouncing Pedant as 'Peedant'. Not that I'm being picky about it!
OT: NEMATODE (8) PENTODE (7)
Score: 6–18 (max 23)
A Nematode is one of the most common phyla of animals, with over 80,000 different described species (of which over 15,000 are parasitic). They are ubiquitous in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial environments. I thought you'd like to know that.

Round 4: D D H I E E R H P

C1: -
C2: PRIDED (6)
DC: PRIDED (6)
OT: DERIDE (6) HERDED (6)
Score: 6–24 (max 29)

The Champ is reeling on the ropes after finding a rogue vowel in the pick. So no declaration from him.

Round 5: 2, 8, 2, 75, 50, 25. Target: 382.

C1: 400.
C2: 383. (2+2)*75+50+25+8 (7)
CV: 383. MANY WAYS (7) Carol struggles in vain to find the elusive target, which caused 4 separate threads to be started simultaenously in the Spoilers section, as our eagle-eyed enthusiasts on the Forum try to be first up with the solution. You can't win them all Carol!
OT: 382. (50-2)*8-2 (10)
Score: 6–31 (max 39)

'Ran The Man' tells us the amazing story about running 7 marathons on 7 Continents in 7 days, just 3 months after suffering a massive heart attack and undergoing bypass surgery. He managed to be running uphill just 2 months after the surgery. Wow! Us mere mortals cower at the thought!

Teatime teaser: THESLURS -> RUTHLESS

Round 6: L S Q O A T V E L

C1: SOLVE (5)
C2: VALETS (6)
DC: SOLVATE (7)
OT: LOAVES (6), OVATES (6), VESTAL (6) VOLETS (6) VOLTES
Score: 6–37 (max 46)

Round 7: T G T S G I A E O

C1: STOGIE (6)
C2: GOATS (5)
DC: EGOTIST (7)
OT: TOASTIE (7) OATIEST (7)
Score: 12–37 (max 53)

Round 8: N R P L I A I A E

C1: PLAINER (7)
C2: AIRPLANE (8)
DC: AIRPLANE (8) PRALINE (7)
OT: PERIANAL (8) AIRLINE (7)
Score: 12–45 (max 61)

Round 9: D M T D A O E B O

C1: BOOTED (6)
C2: BOOTED (6)
DC: BOATED (6) MOATED (6) DOOMED (6) BOOMED (6)
OT: TABOOED (7) MOOTED (6)
Score: 18–51 (max 68)

Susie keeps up the homage to 'Ran The Man' by telling us all about the history of tying each other up and bivouacing on mountains. You can't beat a bit of bondage on a mountainside!

Round 10: 7, 5, 5, 6, 2, 25. Target: 665.

C1: -
C2: 669. Mistake in working.
CV: 665. ((5*25)+(6+2))*5 (10)
Score: 18–51 (max 78)

Teatime teaser: RIPESOUR -> SUPERIOR

Round 11: F W D S E O I U C

C1: FOCUSED (7)
C2: CODES (5)
DC: FUCOIDS (7)
OT: DEFOCUS (7)
Score: 25–51 (max 85)

Susie uses the Pen Cam to give us the definition of Fucoids which is - Brown seaweed or a fossilized cast or impression of such an organism. The camera surreptitiously hides the word above it in the ODE, which our astute Forum posters pointed out is 'FUCKWIT'

Round 12: N A N Z O S R O R

C1: SOON (4)
C2: (x) zoons
DC: RAZOOS (6)
OT: RAZORS (6) ZORROS (6)
Score: 29–51 (max 91)

Both contetsants struggle with this selection. The Champ roars back into contention with four invaluable points!

Round 13: N X S R C U E I O

C1: (x) cruiser
C2: EXCURSION (18)
OT INSOURCE (8) COINERS (7) CONURES (7) CRONIES (7)
Score: 29–69 (max 109)

The Champ wants a Cruiser to sink his opponent but doesn't have the letters for it. However the challenger produces an massive '9' with Excursion to get game set and match and Teapot! this is something of a surprise as he repeatedly failed to find a max.in most previous rounds. But what a time to pull out your personal best!

Round 14: 5, 5, 4, 2, 6, 100. Target: 835.

C1: 835. (100+5)*(6+2)-5 (10)
C2: 835. (100+5)*(6+2)-5 (10)
Score: 39–79 (max 119)

Round 15: T I N T I N H E E

C1 buzzes on 12 seconds to say INTERNEE which is incorrect.
C2 buzzes on 28 seconds to say NINETEENTH which is incorrect.
The answer was NINETIETH.
Score: 39–79 (max 129)

The Champ has a last vain stab at the Conundrum and the Challenger almost gets it but the Stogie goes to the lady in white in the audience who comes up with the correct answer so she can smugly sip water from her CD Mug!

As a coda, 'Ran The Man' finally reveals his 'Achilles Heel' and tells us that the one thing that really frightens him is travelling as a passenger with his wife driving at 70 mph through London in her Mini. I know how he feels!

I sensed a bit of deja vu with Debbi Flack's defeat earlier in the Series when looking a cert for Octochamp status. As with Debbi's victor, The Champ failed to follow up his respectable performance against Lynne (The Dog Lover) Owens, who looked nailed on for more wins as she was a very competent contestant.

Further summaries are at:
http://www.apterous.org/cdb/series.php?series=59

[David O'Donnell]

I don't think GOATIEST is valid, I may be wrong though as I don't have the ODE or a solver.

[Allan Harmer]

I don't think GOATIEST is valid, I may be wrong though as I don't have the ODE or a solver.

Thanks David - The solver gave me that one so it must be out of date. I'll watch out for that in future.

I have made the correction.

[David O'Donnell]

I don't think GOATIEST is valid, I may be wrong though as I don't have the ODE or a solver.

Thanks David - The solver gave me that one so it must be out of date. I'll watch out for that in future.

I have made the correction.

I could be wrong, it has been known . I take it someone checked BRIONIES^ as a variant of BRYONIES too assuming that BRYONIES would be valid.

[Joseph Bolas]

An awesome recap Allan

[Howard Somerset]

Great recap, Allan. Love all the remarks that you've included. Really brings the programme to life.

Just a couple of comments. I notice you've taken out GOATIEST. But I believe OATIEST is there as an equaller. And in Carol's solution for round 10 there's a misplaced closing bracket.

[Allan Harmer]

Thanks for you rcomments Howard - I still have the L Plates up so please bear with me whilst I get used to the tools.

[Jon O'Neill]

Good start mate. Looking forward to the next one.

[Dinos Sfyris]

An excellent recap! Wish I could be bothered to add as much detail, but when you're getting up at 6am on a Friday to recap from the repeat, I think its an achievement just to catch the challenger's name (which I sometimes manage!)

Look forward to the next one

Dinos

[Allan Harmer]

An excellent recap! Wish I could be bothered to add as much detail, but when you're getting up at 6am on a Friday to recap from the repeat, I think its an achievement just to catch the challenger's name (which I sometimes manage!)

Look forward to the next one

Dinos

Thanks a lot Dinos - The old Sky + Box really helps so you can pause and start it as and when you want.