Monday 7th January 2013 (30th Birthday Championship, P1)

[Graeme Cole]

Countdown recap for Monday 7 January 2013.

Deploy suitable accompaniment...


This time last year, the prospect of a fourteenth Championship of Champions tournament looked vanishingly unlikely. Sure, there was demand for it, but it seemed to be mostly from this forum. It looked like it would never happen, and then in September, the Countdown production team posted here and elsewhere calling for any interested past contestants to apply, not just for any ordinary three-week Championship of Champions, but an eight-week knockout competition to celebrate 30 years of Countdown. Mr Team's initial reservation was that there might not be enough applicants to fill the 41 available places. This worry was swiftly sent on its way by over two hundred applications arriving in the space of a day.

So the waiting is over, and in the next two months we'll see 41 players from across the show's long history, from Darryl Francis, whose first appearance was in Countdown's twelfth ever episode in 1982, to those kids from One Direction who were in the final last June. And they'll all be competing for the title of Bestest Countdowner Ever. Pretty much nobody can say they're the best at any game show over 30 years' worth of contestants, but on 1st March someone will be crowned just that.

23 players got a bye to round 1, which will have 32 players in it. The correct adjective for the people who managed this is "byetastic". Starting today, nine preliminaries will be played to find the nine contestants who join them. You can find out who's where from the explosion in a Tetris factory. Someone who looks at the diagram wondering who got the byes is said to be byecurious.

Enough of this waffle. Let's get the first preliminary underway.

C1: Series 47 runner-up Tom Hargreaves (12 wins, 1463 points from 14 games) is a recruitment consultant from Reading. Tom was just 16 when he first appeared, and he became an octochamp with a total score of 850. That's an impressive score even by today's standards, but back then it was the highest octotal of all time - albeit because it was also the first octorun under the 15-round format. Anyway, this record stood for two weeks before Chris Wills came along and got 875. And it was Chris Wills who would defeat Tom in the series final. Tom also made the semi-final of the 11th Championship of Champions tournament in 2003, which was his last appearance until today.

C2: Series 62 runner-up Nicki Sellars (8 wins, 901 points from 11 games) is a primary school teacher from Swindon, and was the giant-killer of Series 62 in 2010. She won six heats before losing to Lee Graham. She qualified for the series quarter-finals as #7 seed, where she beat the #2 seed Danny Pledger. As chance would have it, she came up against Lee Graham again in the semi-final, but this time was victorious. No 7th or 8th seed has reached the final since then, and she was the first since 2004. Only Oliver Garner stopped her from becoming the first female champion since 1998 and the first seventh seed champion since 1995.

DC: Susie Dent and Dave Myers.
RR: Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.

R01: G V T S O I A R O
R02: D L H E U I T O A
R03: R P N L U I O J S
R04: D M T E O I D A L
R05: 75, 8, 1, 4, 7, 6. Target: 287.
TTT: DARNDEEP - "Gave in to the whims of the animal, perhaps?"
R06: G K S U E I R V M
R07: P T L R O A E S I
R08: G B R E A O T F X
R09: L H G D I E U R S
R10: 75, 4, 1, 8, 5, 6. Target: 433.
TTT: VIOLAPIN - "It's where you might sit when you're out, or before you're in."
R11: N W C D O A E T U
R12: N D M S O I E A E
R13: P B Y N U I O A M
R14: 25, 1, 1, 5, 6, 5. Target: 931.
R15: M A R C O M U N D (conundrum)

And now a brief interlude before our main feature:

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Round 1: G V T S O I A R O

C1: RATIOS (6)
C2: RATIOS (6)
DC: VIRAGOS (7)
OT: TRAVOIS (7)
Score: 6–6 (max 7)

Six all to start off. A VIRAGO, which can be pluralised either -OS or -OES, is a domineering, violent, or bad-tempered woman. Tom Carey in the spoiler thread suggests TRAVOIS, which is a goods-carrying sledge used by American Indians.


Round 2: D L H E U I T O A

C1: HIDEOUT (7)
C2: LOATHED (7)
DC: THOLED (6)
OT: LITHOED (7)
Score: 13–13 (max 14)

Both players find the max. No, you can't have "outhailed". Not even in Scrabble, which allows such nonsense as "outdream". Susie finds THOLED. THOLE is an old Scots verb meaning to endure without pain or resistance. So it means the same as "tolerate", but despite their similar forms those two words aren't etymologically related.


Round 3: R P N L U I O J S

C1: PURLOINS (8)
C2: PURLOINS (8)
DC: JUNIORS (7)
Score: 21–21 (max 22)

First darren of the series, and both our Countdown veterans spot it.


Round 4: D M T E O I D A L

C1: DILATED (7)
C2: MOATED (6)
DC: DELTOID (7) MALTED (6)
OT: TOADIED (7)
Score: 28–21 (max 29)

First blood to Tom with DILATED.


Round 5: 75, 8, 1, 4, 7, 6. Target: 287.

C1: 287. 75*4-7-6 (10)
C2: 287. 75*4-7-6 (10)
Score: 38–31 (max 39)

And a non-tricky numbers round means it's 38-31 at the anecdote.


Teatime teaser: DARNDEEP -> PANDERED

Round 6: G K S U E I R V M

C1: GIVERS (6)
C2: SKIVER (6)
DC: MUSKIER (7)
Score: 44–37 (max 46)

Nicki is still keeping up, but both players miss the seven MUSKIER.


Round 7: P T L R O A E S I

C1: EPILATORS (18)
C2: POLARISE (8)
DC: RIPOSTE (7) PETIOLAR (8)
Score: 62–37 (max 64)

It comes up reasonably often on Countdown, but it's still one of the harder "standard" nines to spot. Tom manages it though, and with that he goes 25 points clear.

It's about this point that Nick finally mentions the elephant in the room, or to give it its proper name, the teddy bear on the desk, which has been sitting there unremarked upon for the entire game. It's Nicki's mascot, Francis, named after the school at which she teaches.

Round 8: G B R E A O T F X

C1: BORGATE (7)
C2: boxgate
OT: GEARBOX (7)
Score: 69–37 (max 71)

Tom pronounces his word "boar-gate", which is what we call the Matt Croy pronunciation. It's the plural of BORGATA, an organised branch of the Mafia. Sadly Nicki's BOXGATE^ isn't in.


Round 9: L H G D I E U R S

C1: SLUDGIER (8)
C2: GUIDERS (7)
DC: GUILDERS (8)
Score: 77–37 (max 79)

Tom's only missed two maxes so far in this game, and he spots one of the two eights here. Nicki was an L short of GUILDERS, the pre-Euro Dutch currency.


Round 10: 75, 4, 1, 8, 5, 6. Target: 433.

C1: 433. 75*6-(8+5+4) (10)
C2: 433. (75-4)*6+8-1 (10)
Score: 87–47 (max 89)

Someone shuffle the numbers. This is basically the same selection as last time.


Teatime teaser: VIOLAPIN -> PAVILION

Round 11: N W C D O A E T U

C1: COUNTED (7)
C2: untowed
DC: UNCOATED (8)
OT: OUTDANCE (8)
Score: 94–47 (max 97)

Yes, if you dance better than someone you're said to OUTDANCE them. Personally I think that's more clumsy a word than UNTOWED^, which isn't in.


Round 12: N D M S O I E A E

C1: DEMONISE (8)
C2: daemonise
DC: AMENDS (6) DOMAINES (8)
OT: DOMINEES (8)
Score: 102–47 (max 105)

Nicki's gamble doesn't pay off, as DAEMONISE^ isn't a permissible variant of DEMONISE, even though DAEMON is to DEMON. But in this situation, if you're 37 behind with four rounds left then you need a nine letter word, either in this round or the next, to win. So if you've got a plausible nine it makes perfect sense to go for it. Nicki may have been defeated today, but it's good to see a contestant that knows the game well enough to realise this - so many times you see a challenger automatically pick 1 large for the last numbers game despite being 15 behind, for example.


Round 13: P B Y N U I O A M

C1: AMINO (5)
C2: PUNY (4)
DC: MOPANI (6) BUNYIP (6)
OT: MYOPIA (6) PAYNIM (6) YAUPON (6)
Score: 107–47 (max 111)

A MOPANI is a southern African tree. The word BUNYIP comes to us from Australia and is a mythical amphibious monster said to live in inland waterways (or slang for an impostor), a PAYNIM is an archaic word for a non-Christian, especially a Muslim (so the opposite of the derogatory GIAOUR), MYOPIA is short-sightedness and YAUPON is a type of north American holly.


Round 14: 25, 1, 1, 5, 6, 5. Target: 931.

C1: 925.
C2: 931. (25+1)*(5+1)*6-5 (10)
Score: 107–57 (max 121)

This one's tricky, and at first glance looks like it might be impossible, but Nicki grabs ten points from it.


Round 15: M A R C O M U N D

C1 buzzes on 4 seconds to say COMMUNARD which is correct.
Final Score: 117–57 (max 131)

Tom spots in four seconds a difficult word that isn't even in apterous's conundrum list. This isn't necessarily true of all the conundrums in the tournament, of course, but expect them to be harder than average.

Nicki started well, but was forced into a few risks that she wouldn't take ordinarily. Tom was the better player today, but Nicki didn't deserve to lose by 60 points. Tom takes his place in the first round proper against series 58 champion David O'Donnell - I'll be recapping that on 4th February.

And this is just the start. Four more preliminaries this week: tomorrow it's series 56 champion Nick Wainwright against series 28 runner-up Wayne Kelly, who might have become champion if it hadn't been for some bloke from Blackpool. Join some other bloke from Blackpool for tomorrow's recap. Wednesday sees the eagerly-awaited clash between series 63 champion Jack Hurst and series 65 total awesomeness Mark Deeks. Thursday is Ben Wilson (who I've drawn in the sweep) against favourite Conor Travers. Then on Friday it's Mark Tournoff and Nick Deller. At the tail-end of the Last 32 stage in February, Tuesday's winner will play Wednesday's winner and Thursday's winner will play Friday's winner. Got that?

See you next Monday then, when series 6 champion Darryl Francis takes on series 22 semi-finalist David Webb.


Further summaries are at:
http://www.apterous.org/cdb

[Kevin Thurlow]

Well done Tom! You would obviously still win against me...

[Zarte Siempre]

Playing against the TV, I beat Nicki easily on this one. Tom, alas, got me on the conundrum. Curse missing purloins and sludgier.

[Andy Platt]

Playing against the TV, I beat Nicki easily on this one. Tom, alas, got me on the conundrum. Curse missing purloins and sludgier.

I heard James Robinson got a MAX GAME !!!

[Tom]

Cheers Graeme, nice review and I look forward to you doing my next one too.

Good to hear from yourself too Kevin and hope you're keeping well and Andy, was good to meet in you in the evening up at the snooker place - best of luck for when you record and hope to catch you again sometime!

Was a nervy start and what I didn't want to do is fall behind at any stage in the game. VIRAGOS I had seen but was unsure as I thought it might only be allowable under OES. MUSKIER I had also seen but wasn't 100% sure and as Nicki declared 6 first and thought I was capable of pulling away, I thought not to chance it. The last numbers game she solved was brilliant and I think Rachel would have been pleased in solving that.