Thursday, 6th November 2008 (Series 59, Game 79)

[Jon Corby]

Countdown recap for Thursday 6 November 2008.

C1: Champion Martin Bishop (2 wins, 224 points.)
C2: Challenger Daniel Searle.
DC: Susie Dent and Paul Zenon.
CV: Carol Vorderman.
OT: Other words or solutions.

R01: B P T E A U D F A
R02: T R S T R E O I O
R03: D L J T E I A Y A
R04: H R M N P O I E S
R05: 5, 9, 10, 7, 1, 4. Target: 568.
TTT: NILSUGAR - "One should help you get the answer to this"
R06: Q N W K N O I E A
R07: S T N E A I V R A
R08: S T L F N N E O E
R09: L P T O E U G N A
R10: 75, 7, 6, 5, 7, 4. Target: 839.
TTT: WETGRAIN - "If you want to wet the grain, get the can"
R11: L C M I E I G C A
R12: P D N D M S E U O
R13: T D S I U E L X A
R14: 75, 5, 6, 1, 8, 3. Target: 179.
R15: U N C L E I V I S (conundrum)


And now a brief interlude before our main feature:

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Martin is a c4c-er who's been keeping himself to himself on the forum, but putting it about like a goodun on the show itself. He's notched up two wins so far with an average of 112 points, and both games have been littered with maxima on both the letters and particularly numbers which he certainly excels at (choosing 6 small takes some balls once you're sat in the chair!)

Today's challenger is Daniel Searle (any relation Lara?). He's a journalist from Brighton who sings and plays guitar in a band called Glen Belt. He's read the dictionary (I'm assuming ODE, but they're not specific about it) from cover-to-cover. GETTING SCARED BISHOP?

Round 1: B P T E A U D F A

C1: UPDATE (6)
C2: ABATED (6)
DC: BEAUT (5) TABUED (6)
OT: AUBADE (6) BATEAU (6) UPBEAT (6)
Score: 6–6 (max 6)

Round 2: T R S T R E O I O

C1: TORTOISE (8)
C2: RIOTERS (7)
DC: ROOSTER (7) SOOTIER (7) ROISTER (7)
OT: ROOTIEST (8) ROOTSIER (8) RORTIEST (8)
Score: 14–6 (max 14)

Round 3: D L J T E I A Y A

C1: DETAIL (6)
C2: tealady
DC: DILATE (6) JILTED (6)
OT: TAILED (6) JAILED (6)
Score: 20–6 (max 20)

A big risk taken early on by Daniel (tea lady is two words) hands a large early advantage to the champ....

Round 4: H R M N P O I E S

C1: PROMISE (7)
C2: morphines
DC: HEROISM (7)
OT: MORPHINE (8)
Score: 27–6 (max 28)

D'oh! And another unnecessary risk. 'Morphine' is a fantastic spot but he undid all his hard work by pluralizing it. Without the risks he'd be level-pegging (assuming he had a 6 in the previous round behind tealady) rather than staring at a 21-point deficit which won't be easy to recover against a player of Martin's calibre.

Round 5: 5, 9, 10, 7, 1, 4. Target: 568.

C1: 568. (10-1)*9*7+5-4 (10)
C2: 568. (10*7+1)*(9-5+4) (10)
Score: 37–16 (max 38)

Teatime teaser: NILSUGAR -> SINGULAR

Round 6: Q N W K N O I E A

C1: KNOWN (5)
C2: AWOKEN (6)
DC: quoin
Score: 37–22 (max 44)

Oops! Susie finds a phantom U! Not often that happens.

Round 7: S T N E A I V R A

C1: VARIANTS (8)
C2: transive
DC: RAVINES (7) TAVERNAS (8)
OT: ANTISERA (8) ARTESIAN (8) SANTERIA (8) SANATIVE (8) VARIATES (8)
Score: 45–22 (max 52)

Round 8: S T L F N N E O E

C1: notelets
C2: FENNELS (7)
DC: ONESELF (7)
Score: 45–29 (max 59)

Hmm... Susie doesn't explain her logic here for allowing the mass noun fennel to be pluralised (she disallows 'clovers' ffs) but I imagine the word 'sympathy' may feature in it. No-one says 'a fennel'...

Round 9: L P T O E U G N A

C1: TANGELO (7)
C2: PLUNGE (6)
DC: POLENTA (7)
OT: APOLUNE (7) OPULENT (7)
Score: 52–29 (max 66)

Round 10: 75, 7, 6, 5, 7, 4. Target: 839.

C1: 839. (6+5)*75+7+7 (10)
C2: 839. (6+5)*75+7+7 (10)
Score: 62–39 (max 76)

Teatime teaser: WETGRAIN -> WATERING

Round 11: L C M I E I G C A

C1: MALICE (6)
C2: gaelic
DC: ICICLE (6)
OT: CILICE (6) MILAGE (6)
Score: 68–39 (max 82)

Round 12: P D N D M S E U O

C1: POUNDED (7)
C2: POUNDED (7)
DC: SOUNDED (7)
OT: DESPOND (7) MENUDOS (7) MOUNDED (7) SPUMONE (7) UNPOSED (7)
Score: 75–46 (max 89)

Round 13: T D S I U E L X A

C1: DILUTES (7)
C2: EXALTS (6)
OT: DETAILS (7) DILATES (7) DUALISE (7) DUALIST (7) LUXATED (7) LUXATES (7) SALUTED (7)
Score: 82–46 (max 96)

Round 14: 75, 5, 6, 1, 8, 3. Target: 179.

C1: 179. (5*3+75)*(8-6)-1 (10)
C2: 178.
Score: 92–46 (max 106)

Round 15: U N C L E I V I S

C2 buzzes on 3 seconds to say INCLUSIVE which is correct.
Score: 92–56 (max 116)

Well, a comfortable win in the end for Martin, but one which his opponent may look back on and wonder what might have been - not only did he have the misfortune to come up against a very formidable opponent, he took too many risks too early on IMO and this ultimately cost him the game (yes, I can't be bothered to go back and work out how the scoring might have gone had he adopted a more cautious strategy). Nonetheless, he probably made Susie work harder than any other contestant this series, and it seemed to take its toll on her brain; she saw a phantom 'U', allowed a rubbish mass noun plural, and also embarrassed herself during Paul Zenon's show closing trick (for those that didn't see, she was told to look into Paul's eyes and concentrate to try and guess a particular card, during which he donned a pair of comical "spade" spectacles such that each lens was blatantly a massive spade symbol - ie, 2 of spades. Susie offered "Jack of Diamonds". Oh dear!)

Congratulations Martin on a third victory, and I'm fairly confident that in a week's time I'll be recapping the end of your octochamp run which will position you in one of the top two seed spots. You v Reams already looks like being a likely (and awesome) final. Yes I'm getting waaay ahead of myself here, and many have crashed and burned when I've made similar predictions, so if that happens you can blame me!

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

[Lucy Gowers]

I think you could make a case for 'fennels' using the 'restaurant menu exception'.
I've ordered it as a vegetable side dish. If you ordered two portions of it, a conversation in the kitchens along the lines of "Have you plated up the fennels?" would be feasible. I've heard Susie justify 'polentas' using similar examples.

[Joseph Bolas]

I think you could make a case for 'fennels' using the 'restaurant menu exception'.
I've ordered it as a vegetable side dish. If you ordered two portions of it, a conversation in the kitchens along the lines of "Have you plated up the fennels?" would be feasible. I've heard Susie justify 'polentas' using similar examples.

Susie probably allowed it because of the words Daniel came up with in previous rounds, that were disallowed and he had a bit of bad luck pluralising MORPHINE.

[Jon Corby]

I think you could make a case for 'fennels' using the 'restaurant menu exception'.
I've ordered it as a vegetable side dish. If you ordered two portions of it, a conversation in the kitchens along the lines of "Have you plated up the fennels?" would be feasible. I've heard Susie justify 'polentas' using similar examples.

Possibly, but I did get the distinct impression that she only allowed it because she'd already disallowed so much from Daniel, and didn't think it would affect the outcome of the game.

[Lara Searle]

Daniel Searle is no relation to me - as far as I know anyway!

[Lucy Gowers]

I think you could make a case for 'fennels' using the 'restaurant menu exception'.
I've ordered it as a vegetable side dish. If you ordered two portions of it, a conversation in the kitchens along the lines of "Have you plated up the fennels?" would be feasible. I've heard Susie justify 'polentas' using similar examples.

Possibly, but I did get the distinct impression that she only allowed it because she'd already disallowed so much from Daniel, and didn't think it would affect the outcome of the game.

I think you and Joe are probably right but I still don't think it's as rubbish as 'polentas'.

Susie's very good on culinary vocabulary so maybe she knows that in Italian 'fennel' does have singular and plural forms ('finocchio'/'finocchi'). It's to be used with care in Italy though as it's a derogatory slang term for a gay man/gay men. I lived in Turin for a while and it took me ages to pluck up the courage to ask why Juve fans used to taunt rival fans as 'fennels'. I thought it might be something to do with vegetable = thick.

btw Jon, did you keep a copy of that thread on f365 which charted your Countdown run? It was one of the funniest forum threads I've read. What was that description of one of Carol's outfits, something like "Today, Carol is dressed as the concubine on a pirate vessel"?

[Jon Corby]

I think you and Joe are probably right but I still don't think it's as rubbish as 'polentas'.

Susie's very good on culinary vocabulary so maybe she knows that in Italian 'fennel' does have singular and plural forms ('finocchio'/'finocchi'). It's to be used with care in Italy though as it's a derogatory slang term for a gay man/gay men. I lived in Turin for a while and it took me ages to pluck up the courage to ask why Juve fans used to taunt rival fans as 'fennels'. I thought it might be something to do with vegetable = thick.

btw Jon, did you keep a copy of that thread on f365 which charted your Countdown run? It was one of the funniest forum threads I've read. What was that description of one of Carol's outfits, something like "Today, Carol is dressed as the concubine on a pirate vessel"?

I bow to your vastly superior knowledge on the whole subject Lucy; it just seemed flimsy to me (but then I've never ordered fennel in a restaurant) and she also delivered her verdict in a very sympathetic way. That's all I meant.

Heh, I know there's at least one other on here from f365; sadly I don't have a record (I keep meaning to ask if they keep all the old threads (maybe they need to for legal reasons etc) when they periodically cull them) but I would love to read it again, it was immense. Hopefully we'll do it all again for CoC in a few months' time... I've had a shirt especially made to wear on TV as a hat-tip to the guys/girls there who sponsored me (in such unbelieveable numbers) last time around.

Anyway, my modesty is such that I'm now slightly embarrassed that this recap - especially one of Martin's - has sidetracked onto me. I suggest we start up a separate thread, or maybe even have a whole subforum dedicated to me, to discuss such things.

[Jon Corby]

Daniel Searle is no relation to me - as far as I know anyway!

I amused myself with the anagram "nailed Searle" for a short while when his name was displayed

[Jason Larsen]

Before I do my critique, I just have to say, "Look at this, Sweet Lara! It's your long-lost cousin on the show... Just kidding!

Now, to my real critique:

Round 1: Martin, we haven't seen you here for a while! Could you please give us an "update" on how you're doing?
Round 2: Martin, I'm sure you don't play the game like a "tortoise!"
Round 3: "Tea lady" is two words. I'll bet you didn't know that either, Daniel!
Round 4: Morphine is a form of medicine, Daniel! It is usually never referred to in the plural form!
Teatime Teaser #1: Isn't that common sense?
Round 6: Aren't you glad you had "awoken" today, Daniel?
Round 7: Martin, you knew there were many "variants" of Countdown, but Daniel... "Transive?," "What the heck does that mean?"
Round 8: Susie, you were incredibly generous by accepting "fennels!" That was a big break for Daniel!
Round 9: Martin, you knew about fruit crosses! I should ask you, do you prefer fruits that taste two different ways or fruits that taste just one way?
Teatime Teaser #2: Yuck! Watered wheat? Isn't that soggy?
Round 11: Daniel... "Gaelic" is a proper noun, sir!
Round 12: Martin, you may have just "pounded" on the door to victory there!

Good job, Martin! No wonder you're so good at Countdown!

[Mike Brown]

I think you could make a case for 'fennels' using the 'restaurant menu exception'.
I've ordered it as a vegetable side dish. If you ordered two portions of it, a conversation in the kitchens along the lines of "Have you plated up the fennels?" would be feasible. I've heard Susie justify 'polentas' using similar examples.

Or perhaps under the 'types of plants or 'types of food and drink' 'rule'. Having said that, I'm not convinced that's why Susie allowed it, her explanation was pretty non-committal.