Birthday Championship Spoilers For Monday January 21st 2013

[James Robinson]

So, we're now into week 3 of 8, and already the applicants for the title of 30th Birthday Champion have been cut by a quarter (more or less ), but today will be a tough lesson in life for one of the two younger members of the select group of 41.

Our 2 contestants today have a combined age of 39 years old, but they also have 19 Countdown wins, a huge army of fans, and (probably down to one of the two) a whole selection box of 4 large solutions to shake a stick at.

I of course refer to Kai Laddiman and Jon O'Neill, who will try to get one step closer to the final on March 1.

Here are the stats of the prodigies:

Firstly, Series 59 Semi-Finalist & CoC XIII Quarter-Finalist Kai Laddiman - 13 Games, 10 Wins, 1,176 Points (Average: 90.46)
Highest Score: 105 vs. Richard Pascoe (8th Game)
Lowest Score: 70 vs. Charlie Reams (Semi-Final)
9's Achieved: 3/8
Total Points/Max/%: 1176/1640 (72%)
Letters Points/Max/%: 796/1123 (71%)
Numbers Points/Max/%: 280/387 (72%)
Conundrum Points/Max/%: 100/130 (77%)

Secondly, Series 53 Semi-Finalist & CoC XII Contestant Jon O'Neill - 11 Games, 9 Wins, 1,076 Points (Average: 97.82)
Highest Score: 114 vs. Theresa Turrell (7th Game)
Lowest Score: 87 vs. Steve Smith (1st Game)
9's Achieved: 2/7
Total Points/Max/%: 1076/1401 (77%)
Letters Points/Max/%: 701/965 (73%)
Numbers Points/Max/%: 305/326 (94%)
Conundrum Points/Max/%: 70/110 (64%)

Back in DC for her 2nd stint in DC, is Nick's other other other half, if you get what I mean, Margaret Mountford.

Because of a possible clash with recording by Graeme or Jack, who play their game next week, I have switched recaps with them this week, so it'll be me entertaining and informing you all.

[Tony Atkins]

The missing figure seems to be 1076/1401 which is about 77%

[Bob De Caux]

MORELLO in R3, CAVENDISH for a nine in R9

[szodiac]

CAVENDISH in round 9 (Surprised it was a valid word)

Mauro

[Tony Atkins]

Amortise as an alt in r12 and curtain alt in r6

[Jordan F]

Well done Jon, strong throughout, and a slight shame that the 4 larges didn't really allow you to be too playful with them. Commiserations Kai, you played well, I think better than the score implied.

[Jojo Apollo]

Well played lads, good game, Jon still strong on the numbers.

So is STOWAGES now valid? Also the new numbers/score blue on blue displays will take a bit of time to get used to.

[James Robinson]

CAVENDISH in round 9 (Surprised it was a valid word)

Yeah, apparently it's some sort of tobacco cake.

STAMINA in round 3 and MEDUSOID in round 11.

[Martin Bishop]

That was Adam Gillard's sister with the conundrum. I'm told she also got CAVENDISH.

[Eoin Monaghan]

Great game guys! Thought Jon was rock solid and Kai was unlucky with the ECHIDNAS round. Great stuff to watch, think Jon could be a dark horse!

[Gavin Chipper]

Great game etc. etc. (You have to start with that)

I think the STOWAGE/STOWAGES thing shows how ridiculous the mass noun thing has got. So Susie isn't sure whether she'd allow it?! It didn't affect anything here, but what if one player risked it and the other stuck with STOWAGE? Susie is then left in a position where she effectively gets to decide on a whim who wins the round. Time something was done about this rule...

[Rhys Benjamin]

This post has been made by the Conservative Party's Harrow West headquarters, as Rhys has been taken into hospital having suffered from shock after seeing the new "CECIL".

He asked me to post this for him:

Great game lads. Either it was my sound system or Kai had the clearest voice on Countdown for absolutely ages!

He also asked me to post his thoughts on "CECIL":

Surely they could have used the Digital font? I often use that. And couldn't they have put it on a black background?

[Jack Worsley]

Another really good game, well played both!

[Matt Morrison]

Jon could be a dark horse!

Now that he's dyed his hair you mean.

[Matt Morrison]

I liked the new modern lettering, feels like the game catching up with the world and that. The scores needed to be white (maybe just our TV but they looked more like a bluey off-white) but hey, colours and shit.

[Gavin Chipper]

Jon could be a dark horse!

Now that he's dyed his hair you mean.

I didn't notice. Has he? Or is some joke I don't get?

Edit - Went on YouTube, and he's definitely still ginger.

[Graeme Cole]

Surely they could have used the Digital font? I often use that. And couldn't they have put it on a black background?

A "digital" font on an ordinary display would just look gimmicky. When they invented the motor car, they didn't spend time and effort making it crap all over the road just because that's what horses did.

[Jon O'Neill]

Surely they could have used the Digital font? I often use that. And couldn't they have put it on a black background?

A "digital" font on an ordinary display would just look gimmicky. When they invented the motor car, they didn't spend time and effort making it crap all over the road just because that's what horses did.

BRILLIANT.

Yeah STOWAGES, I dunno what to think. Maybe it's good, if Susie doesn't like you it's no good... fuck knows.

Cheers for all the positivity guys! Matt you're a prick.

[Richard Priest]

Liked the knuckle bump at the end.Different

[Gavin Chipper]

Surely they could have used the Digital font? I often use that. And couldn't they have put it on a black background?

A "digital" font on an ordinary display would just look gimmicky. When they invented the motor car, they didn't spend time and effort making it crap all over the road just because that's what horses did.

It craps in the atmosphere instead. And the clock music ticks, and digital cameras make a pretend camera noise.

[Graeme Cole]

Surely they could have used the Digital font? I often use that. And couldn't they have put it on a black background?

A "digital" font on an ordinary display would just look gimmicky. When they invented the motor car, they didn't spend time and effort making it crap all over the road just because that's what horses did.

It craps in the atmosphere instead. And the clock music ticks, and digital cameras make a pretend camera noise.

Digital cameras make that noise for a reason - to let you know that you successfully took a picture.

[Jon Corby]

I thought the player's scores should be centred rather than right-justified.

[Jon Corby]

I think the STOWAGE/STOWAGES thing shows how ridiculous the mass noun thing has got. So Susie isn't sure whether she'd allow it?! It didn't affect anything here, but what if one player risked it and the other stuck with STOWAGE? Susie is then left in a position where she effectively gets to decide on a whim who wins the round. Time something was done about this rule...

Yeah, I'd be interested to know what would happen in this kind of situation. I think there's precedence of Susie allowing [mass noun plural], then rejecting it at a later date (though I can't remember it, so am likely wrong) which would make it doubly harsh if somebody had it disallowed while their opponent didn't pluralise. I've wondered whether the best thing to do is re-shoot with both players declaring the same, but I can imagine lots of people not being happy with that (and it being quite bewildering for the studio audience). It's a minefield all right.

(Of course, I'm not actually complaining that Susie finds it a difficult judgement call, because it is, or even that she later decides that an earlier decision months previous was incorrect. Just that it makes it horribly unpredictable for the contestants, and in games like this it could easily be pivotal.)

[David Williams]

Happy days!

[Heather Styles]

For what it's worth, I am inclined to think that it would be fairer on contestants to say that all mass nouns in plural form will be disallowed, without exception. This would remove the elements of unpredictability and subjectivity.

For example, in one of my heat games, I declared SPOILAGES, which was disallowed. I believed that this would be acceptable, going by the list in ODE3 of particular groups of mass noun that can take a plural form in certain circumstances (the ODE3 defines spoilage as "the action or process of spoiling, especially the deterioration of food and other perishable goods.") In this particular game, my margin of victory was such that it did not matter whether the word was allowed, and it did not affect my seeding, so I have no cause for complaint. I mention it now only in the context of the STOWAGE/STOWAGES discussion.

[Michael Wallace]

The obvious solution is to have apterous assign each player a measure of how much Susie likes them, and then allow/disallow slightly dodgy rules according to some probability distribution. I assume she'd be delighted if we wrote to her with a list of all the active apterous players (perhaps with a summary of their personalities) and asked for a score out of 100 for each.

[Jon Corby]

So essentially what we're saying is that Susie didn't like Heather Styles, right?

[szodiac]

CAVENDISH in round 9 (Surprised it was a valid word)

Yeah, apparently it's some sort of tobacco cake.

When Jessica got home I told her and she said "Yeah, it's a drug"

So what we have is CAVENDISH, which is a drug. And ARMSTRONG*, (which is listed but capitalised) isn't

Mauro

[Paul Erdunast]

Good game!

I managed to spot CAVENDISH - but are ANURETIC and MORTALIZE allowed in the shorter OED? MORTALIZE is definitely fine in the larger OED, and ANURETIC in CSW.

[Kirk Bevins]

Good game!

I managed to spot CAVENDISH - but are ANURETIC and MORTALIZE allowed in the shorter OED? MORTALIZE is definitely fine in the larger OED, and ANURETIC in CSW.

When you say "shorter OED" do you mean the ODE3 currently used on the show? If so, both are no good.

[Mark Deeks]

Good game!

I managed to spot CAVENDISH - but are ANURETIC and MORTALIZE allowed in the shorter OED? MORTALIZE is definitely fine in the larger OED, and ANURETIC in CSW.

TRANSUDE

[Mike Brown]

I liked the new modern lettering, feels like the game catching up with the world and that. The scores needed to be white (maybe just our TV but they looked more like a bluey off-white) but hey, colours and shit.

This might be in another thread, but the numbers on the scoreboards *are* white. There seems to be some kind of weird thing going on when they're shown on-screen (including those in the studio) that makes them appear a kind of pale cyan. Interestingly, it doesn't affect the CECIL display, though.

[James Robinson]

First Round Game 2 2020 Word Update

The max would have increased by an astonishing TWENTY-TWO points (from 132 to 154) if played today thanks to 8's available in Rounds 2 and 4, plus TWO NINE's in Rounds 11 and 12, that weren't around in 2013.

Also, both players would've gained another 7 points, as MASTING, which they both had disallowed in R4 is fine now too, so it should've been 108-83 to Jon.

New Words Now Allowed:

R1: UNRIPED
R2: STOWAGES (increases the MAX from 7 to 8)
R4: AGMATINS (increases the MAX from 7 to 8)
R6: CARNIER, CUNTIER, NACRITE, NECTRIA, REINCUR, RINCEAU, RUINATE, TRACEUR, URANITE
R8: GREYFISH
R11: MODULISED (increases the MAX from 8 to 18!!!)
R12: MORTALIZE (increases the MAX from 8 to 18!!!)

[Gavin Chipper]

R2: STOWAGES (increases the MAX from 7 to 8)

Slightly debatable since Susie said she probably would have allowed it! (But also said that Jono was right not to go for it.)

[Rhys Benjamin]

Lexico lists it as both a count noun and a mass noun, but I don't think it was given as a count noun in ODE3 and tbh I can't be bothered to go downstairs and check. There are some that keep flipping mass/count definitions (gauze/gauzes).