Ask Graeme?
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Ask Graeme?
I propose this topic to be used to ask Countdown related questions for Graeme (Cole) to answer. I've not OK'd this with him yet, but I'm sure he'll love this.
Q: Has there ever been a contestant on Countdown whose full name is an anagram of another contestants full name? If not, what's the closest we've come?
Q: Has there ever been a contestant on Countdown whose full name is an anagram of another contestants full name? If not, what's the closest we've come?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Haha, that's an amazing one. Get your matrices of comparative letters programming out.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
There is this page for wikipedia articles that are anagrams of each other, so is this page created quite easily or would this list have taken a lot of time to compile?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
This has happened twice, if you exclude pairs of people whose names are exactly the same, e.g. Chris Davies and Chris Davies.Ryan Taylor wrote:Q: Has there ever been a contestant on Countdown whose full name is an anagram of another contestants full name? If not, what's the closest we've come?
They are series 5 quarter-finalist Jane Smith with series 47 contestant Jean Smith; and series 64 contestant Dave Roome with series 67 contestant Dave Moore.
It's three if you also count Dick King and King Dick.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Yeah, it's not an anagram if it's the same.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Sorry,that's amazing.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Q: Has there been a game in the 15-round era when a player has declared valid words of the same length in all 11 letters rounds? If not, how close have we got?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Up to 19th October 2012 (the limit of the data I have), nobody has offered eleven valid words of the same length in a game, but ten people have had nine.Nick Deller wrote:Q: Has there been a game in the 15-round era when a player has declared valid words of the same length in all 11 letters rounds? If not, how close have we got?
Seven of these got nine sevens: Simon Cartwright, Grace Page, Danny Hamilton, Bob Beckett, Richard Heald, Edward McCullagh and Paul James. Ed could have had ten had he not gone for ARTSCAPE^.
![Smile :-)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
Incidentally, the record for the most valid eights in one game is seven. Charlie Reams and Brian Selway share this honour.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
I think what he means is, has any game seen the two players match each other's score in all 11 letters rounds. And if that's not what Nick meant, it's what I mean.
Eoin Monaghan wrote:
He may not be liked on here, but you have to give some credit to Mark
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Might as well add the numbers on too.Mark Deeks wrote:I think what he means is, has any game seen the two players match each other's score in all 11 letters rounds. And if that's not what Nick meant, it's what I mean.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Graeme's answered what I meant - and thank you! - but Mark's question's interesting too.
And Gavin's.
And Gavin's.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
In episode 3268, the players matched each other in every round except the second numbers round.Nick Deller wrote:Graeme's answered what I meant - and thank you! - but Mark's question's interesting too.
And Gavin's.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Q: Is it possible to program CECIL so that it eliminates impossible targets?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
What is your favourite film?
Edit: aww shit, Ryan said it had to be Countdown related.
Has there ever been a Countdown-related film?
Edit: aww shit, Ryan said it had to be Countdown related.
Has there ever been a Countdown-related film?
Re: Ask Graeme?
I'm not Graeme, but I know that 'About a Boy' had a couple of references. Hugh Grant's character was a daily watcher, and he's seen watching it with Nicholas Hault later with the kid laughing at one of Richard Stilgoe's bad jokes, much to Grant's annoyance.Andy Platt wrote:Has there ever been a Countdown-related film?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Great questions so far, and excellent answers! Graeme is up to scratch!
My next one: What is the highest consecutive amount of maxes on the show by a player? By this, I mean, say for instance someone maxed the last 9 rounds of the show and then proceeded to max the first 10 rounds of their next show this would be 19 consecutive maxes. I'm guessing Kirk Bevins may be the record-holder due to his max games but this might not be the case. Would be interesting to know!
My next one: What is the highest consecutive amount of maxes on the show by a player? By this, I mean, say for instance someone maxed the last 9 rounds of the show and then proceeded to max the first 10 rounds of their next show this would be 19 consecutive maxes. I'm guessing Kirk Bevins may be the record-holder due to his max games but this might not be the case. Would be interesting to know!
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Ask that one at the end of the 30th Championships to be fair
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Re: Ask Graeme?
So unlikely not to be KB. He is also in a great position to break his own record.Ryan Taylor wrote:Great questions so far, and excellent answers! Graeme is up to scratch!
My next one: What is the highest consecutive amount of maxes on the show by a player? By this, I mean, say for instance someone maxed the last 9 rounds of the show and then proceeded to max the first 10 rounds of their next show this would be 19 consecutive maxes. I'm guessing Kirk Bevins may be the record-holder due to his max games but this might not be the case. Would be interesting to know!
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Great though Graeme's efforts are, he's still limited by the quality of the data. I think I'm right in saying that most historical recaps use the dictionary current at the time the recap was created (usually ODE2r or ODE3). A minority have then been adjusted to remove words not available when the game was played, though I doubt whether any method was available to add in any American spellings that may have been available at the time. So the max data for old games is unreliable.
I did a bit of analysis (in the days when I cared deeply about such things) and found that approximately one round in ten has been given a higher max than it probably should - without of course taking into account the Americanism issue which should be an influence in the opposite direction.
I did a bit of analysis (in the days when I cared deeply about such things) and found that approximately one round in ten has been given a higher max than it probably should - without of course taking into account the Americanism issue which should be an influence in the opposite direction.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
The Recap Writer uses the closest available dictionary that it has, which means ODE2r for all historical recaps.Clive Brooker wrote:I think I'm right in saying that most historical recaps use the dictionary current at the time the recap was created (usually ODE2r or ODE3).
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Do you remember which series you did this testing on?Clive Brooker wrote:I did a bit of analysis (in the days when I cared deeply about such things) and found that approximately one round in ten has been given a higher max than it probably should - without of course taking into account the Americanism issue which should be an influence in the opposite direction.
I don't think it would be crazily infeasible to get copies of the old dictionaries and check the DC-beaters in every game. Then worry about the Americanism issue afterwards.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
It was series 31 I think - certainly a COD9 series.Jon O'Neill wrote:Do you remember which series you did this testing on?
I don't think it would be crazily infeasible to get copies of the old dictionaries and check the DC-beaters in every game. Then worry about the Americanism issue afterwards.
I did this about 18 months ago, as the historical recap project was careering towards its unexpectedly early conclusion. I hoped at the time that I would inspire the sort of enthusiasm you've just shown, thinking that extracting word-lists from the old dictionaries would be meat and drink to a team of out of work historical recappers. I failed. Perhaps, with Graeme's new initiative, the time is now right.
I do remember Charlie (Reams) telling me in no uncertain terms that if I wanted to do the job properly I should start from scratch, not try to adapt an existing list. My feeling was that to get a good rapid start, slimming the NODE list (that does exist, doesn't it?) down to a COD10 list would be pretty easy, since the latter was effectively a precis of the former. Maybe that process is more susceptible to error, but it should be close enough to make a big improvement to what we have now.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Ideally that's what we'd do. IMO the best way to do it in theory would be to start from scratch with the ODE7 and go from there.
However, for the purposes of significantly improving the data we have, it would surely be enough to just go back and check all the DC beaters? Just looking at the dictionaries page on TCP, this is how many days each dictionary was in force for:
Dictionary - Days
COD7 - 2791
COD7 in reg, COD8 in Masters - 23
COD8 - 1898
COD9 - 1460
COD10 - 7
COD9 - 164
NODE - 1271
NODE in Specials, ODE2 in reg - 511
ODE2 - 359
ODE2r - 1663
Stupid metric I know. But gives some idea of how many rounds would need to be checked so we can compare that to starting new dictionary files. NODE for example - about 1,000 episodes, so 11,000 letters rounds, with (and this number has been plucked from my arse) a DC beater every five rounds means checking 2,200 words. I reckon that's about 30 man-hours... not a lot.
Mods: perhaps this tangent should be split into another thread.
However, for the purposes of significantly improving the data we have, it would surely be enough to just go back and check all the DC beaters? Just looking at the dictionaries page on TCP, this is how many days each dictionary was in force for:
Dictionary - Days
COD7 - 2791
COD7 in reg, COD8 in Masters - 23
COD8 - 1898
COD9 - 1460
COD10 - 7
COD9 - 164
NODE - 1271
NODE in Specials, ODE2 in reg - 511
ODE2 - 359
ODE2r - 1663
Stupid metric I know. But gives some idea of how many rounds would need to be checked so we can compare that to starting new dictionary files. NODE for example - about 1,000 episodes, so 11,000 letters rounds, with (and this number has been plucked from my arse) a DC beater every five rounds means checking 2,200 words. I reckon that's about 30 man-hours... not a lot.
Mods: perhaps this tangent should be split into another thread.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
I think it will be good to see what the record is currently at, and then after the 30BC see if anyone has surpassed that. This record could help sway people's opinions about greatness too. Because at the end of the 30BC I am really hoping I can have a definitive #1 Countdowner of all time. And I'm also hoping that this potential #1 Countdowner of all time is largely agreed upon, unlike at present where we have such a wide and varied opinion on who is the best ever. Obviously the issue won't ever be settled unanimously.Andy Platt wrote:Ask that one at the end of the 30th Championships to be fair
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Re: Ask Graeme?
A really talented data miner could probably compare every DC beater per era against every word verified on screen in that era, and spit out an alphabetical list of beaters that were never verified. That would then be a comparative breeze to do a manual checking process on.Jon O'Neill wrote:Ideally that's what we'd do. IMO the best way to do it in theory would be to start from scratch with the ODE7 and go from there.
However, for the purposes of significantly improving the data we have, it would surely be enough to just go back and check all the DC beaters? Just looking at the dictionaries page on TCP, this is how many days each dictionary was in force for:
Dictionary - Days
COD7 - 2791
COD7 in reg, COD8 in Masters - 23
COD8 - 1898
COD9 - 1460
COD10 - 7
COD9 - 164
NODE - 1271
NODE in Specials, ODE2 in reg - 511
ODE2 - 359
ODE2r - 1663
Stupid metric I know. But gives some idea of how many rounds would need to be checked so we can compare that to starting new dictionary files. NODE for example - about 1,000 episodes, so 11,000 letters rounds, with (and this number has been plucked from my arse) a DC beater every five rounds means checking 2,200 words. I reckon that's about 30 man-hours... not a lot.
Mods: perhaps this tangent should be split into another thread.
Perhaps we should leave this tangent in this thread.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Yeah, that is clever.
Re: Ask Graeme?
The words in the old dictionaries (ignoring Americanisms for now) aren't subsets of the current word list, are they? (e.g. AGRESTAL and DRIFTAGE) So, for total total completeness we'd need an electronic word list of each of the old dictionaries.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Definitely - but inaccuracies as a result of those cases are far outweighed by the reverse (I think?) The jump in size between the CODs and the NODs is pretty big, no?
Re: Ask Graeme?
Yeah. The current edition of the COD has 240,000 entries, and the ODE has somewhere around 355,000.Jon O'Neill wrote:Definitely - but inaccuracies as a result of those cases are far outweighed by the reverse (I think?) The jump in size between the CODs and the NODs is pretty big, no?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Don't forget that some recappers (notably Mike Brown) did exclude words spawned by the recapping tool which were invalid at the time, whereas most just accepted what it produced. For what it's worth, I think the latter approach was more appropriate as it would have ensured a consistency of approach, and it made sure the main phase of the project was completed in the shortest possible time. Further refinements, with complete listings for each dictionary being the ultimate aim, can be addressed if and when the enthusiasm is there.
Just in case there is any doubt, no criticism of any recapper is intended - you all rock!
There is a PDF version of the complete COD8 around. I have a local copy but I can't remember where I originally found it. Is it possible to parse this in such a way that it can be reasonably quickly moulded into a list?
Just in case there is any doubt, no criticism of any recapper is intended - you all rock!
There is a PDF version of the complete COD8 around. I have a local copy but I can't remember where I originally found it. Is it possible to parse this in such a way that it can be reasonably quickly moulded into a list?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Graeme, what is the worst ever conundrum guess? Just came to mind with all this talk about HORSEMEAT at the moment, someone guessed ATMOSPHERE in the audience (10 letters) and I just noticed that in one of Darryl Francis's heat games his opponent went for a 7 (DEFTEST) when the solution was STEADFAST. So, basically, what's the shortest and longest word that a player has guessed for a conundrum? Also, if possible, what's the furthest removed from the actual solution that someone has guessed (probably OUBLIETTE -> GANDISEEG)?
Mike Brown: "Round 12: T N R S A E I G U
C1: SIGNATURE (18) ["9; not written down"]
C2: SEATING (7)
Score: 108–16 (max 113)
Another niner for Adam and yet another century. Well done, that man."
C1: SIGNATURE (18) ["9; not written down"]
C2: SEATING (7)
Score: 108–16 (max 113)
Another niner for Adam and yet another century. Well done, that man."
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Re: Ask Graeme?
FWIW, as an owner of a NODE, I can remember some recappers sending me words that they thought doubtful. I don't think it happened much, and I don't think I ever had to reject one.
When they first changed to the NODE they made a big deal about how many more words were in the NODE than in the COD. However by far the biggest difference was the inclusion of proper (i.e. capitalised) nouns. On cursory inspection the Countdown-eligible words were much the same.
When they first changed to the NODE they made a big deal about how many more words were in the NODE than in the COD. However by far the biggest difference was the inclusion of proper (i.e. capitalised) nouns. On cursory inspection the Countdown-eligible words were much the same.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
OK, some real numbers.
In the 64 9-round games in series 31 there were, self-evidently, 384 letters rounds in total.
In 44 of these, the recap shows at least one OT word better than any offered on the show. I looked in further detail at these 44 only since I was mainly interested in cases where the max may have been overstated.
Now the telling statistics. Of 62 OT words, 30 were not in the COD9 (subject to confirmation of course), and in 19 rounds the max was affected. That's 5% rather than the 10% I hinted at earlier - sorry about that. Amongst them is one niner (WATERDOGS).
In the 64 9-round games in series 31 there were, self-evidently, 384 letters rounds in total.
In 44 of these, the recap shows at least one OT word better than any offered on the show. I looked in further detail at these 44 only since I was mainly interested in cases where the max may have been overstated.
Now the telling statistics. Of 62 OT words, 30 were not in the COD9 (subject to confirmation of course), and in 19 rounds the max was affected. That's 5% rather than the 10% I hinted at earlier - sorry about that. Amongst them is one niner (WATERDOGS).
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Looking at just letters, Conor Travers and Paul Howe maxed all the letters so tied on all 11 letters rounds in this game. (Sorry, I know I'm not Graeme.)Graeme Cole wrote:In episode 3268, the players matched each other in every round except the second numbers round.Nick Deller wrote:Graeme's answered what I meant - and thank you! - but Mark's question's interesting too.
And Gavin's.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
In theory yes, if there were some way of telling it what the numbers were. The Instant variant on apterous does this.Jojo Apollo wrote:Q: Is it possible to program CECIL so that it eliminates impossible targets?
Edit: actually, it's not as easy as this. If the numbers are 1 1 2 2 3 3 then it can't. Presumably Instant throws the numbers away and picks new ones if it turns out no target between 101 and 999 is possible.
17. Six people have done this:Ryan Taylor wrote:What is the highest consecutive amount of maxes on the show by a player? By this, I mean, say for instance someone maxed the last 9 rounds of the show and then proceeded to max the first 10 rounds of their next show this would be 19 consecutive maxes. I'm guessing Kirk Bevins may be the record-holder due to his max games but this might not be the case. Would be interesting to know!
Allan Saldanha, with 17 consecutive maxes up to and including round 8 of a Supreme Championship semi-final;
Mark Tournoff, up to round 11 of the CoC XII final;
Craig Beevers, up to round 8 of Episode 4472;
Kirk Bevins, spanning three games up to round 1 of Episode 4771;
Jack Hurst, up to round 8 of the series 63 final;
Jonathan Rawlinson, up to round 10 of Episode 5505.
I've counted "maxing a round" as scoring the most points available in the round, so if someone's numbers solution is two away and they're not beaten, but the best is one away, that's still a maxed round. If you say that to max a numbers round you have to get the closest possible solution, that eliminates Allan Saldanha.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
17? OK. We'll review that in 3 weeks' time.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
What's the probability of six people who have all maxed 17 rounds in a row to not max the 18th?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
14 players have buzzed in with a seven-letter word. Jimmy Gough is recorded as buzzing in with a six-letter answer, but I don't think we can count that. The longest conundrum answer was 12 letters, which was done four times: episodes M25, 1401, 3530 and 3744.Adam Gillard wrote:Graeme, what is the worst ever conundrum guess? Just came to mind with all this talk about HORSEMEAT at the moment, someone guessed ATMOSPHERE in the audience (10 letters) and I just noticed that in one of Darryl Francis's heat games his opponent went for a 7 (DEFTEST) when the solution was STEADFAST. So, basically, what's the shortest and longest word that a player has guessed for a conundrum? Also, if possible, what's the furthest removed from the actual solution that someone has guessed (probably OUBLIETTE -> GANDISEEG)?
The conundrum answer with fewest letters in common with the selection appears to be in the last round of a Masters game - FROTTIFY, which has two letters in common with the selection PRANGMAGI. No, I've got no idea what's going on there either.
GANDISEEG from ELITEBOUT is next with three common letters, and three conundrum answers had five letters in common with the answer: they're in episodes 856, 1007 and 5488.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
I know it was a dickish thing to do but I was laughing so hard at those 12-letter guesses. Love it.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
If Graeme doesn't get the best girlfriend ever on the back of this thread, the world is not fair.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
I'm sure I've gone with CONSCIOUSNESS on apterous before.Andy Platt wrote:I know it was a dickish thing to do but I was laughing so hard at those 12-letter guesses. Love it.
Might have been UNCONSCIOUSNESS.
But definitely not UNCONSCIOUSNESSES. I mean, I'm not daft or anything.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
This is definitely my favourite thread ever.
"There's leaders, and there's followers, but I'd rather be a dick than a swallower" - Aristotle
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Graeme's my new hero. I don't understand the questions or answers but I'm loving the authoritative manner in which these various mosquitoes are being swatted.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Cheers GraemeGraeme Cole wrote:In theory yes, if there were some way of telling it what the numbers were. The Instant variant on apterous does this.Jojo Apollo wrote:Q: Is it possible to program CECIL so that it eliminates impossible targets?
Edit: actually, it's not as easy as this. If the numbers are 1 1 2 2 3 3 then it can't. Presumably Instant throws the numbers away and picks new ones if it turns out no target between 101 and 999 is possible.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
May not be as useful as the rest of the trivia, but I like coming up with random questions and seeing the scope of your amazing stats, so here goes:
What are the alphabetically first and alphabetically last letters selections that have ever come up on the show? With regard to the latter, Round 1 of this episode must be pretty close.
What are the alphabetically first and alphabetically last letters selections that have ever come up on the show? With regard to the latter, Round 1 of this episode must be pretty close.
I'm not dead yet. In a rut right now because of stress from work. I'll be back later in S89. I also plan to bring back the Mastergram - if I can find a way to run a timer or clock through pure MediaWiki without having to upload to Vimeo every time.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
That one is the last. The first is round 6 in episode 816.Johnny Canuck wrote:May not be as useful as the rest of the trivia, but I like coming up with random questions and seeing the scope of your amazing stats, so here goes:
What are the alphabetically first and alphabetically last letters selections that have ever come up on the show? With regard to the latter, Round 1 of this episode must be pretty close.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Which octochamp was the most consistent in terms of score in their octorun (i.e. lowest standard deviation)? Who was the least consistent?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
I'd guess Tom Hargreaves for most.Innis Carson wrote:Which octochamp was the most consistent in terms of score in their octorun (i.e. lowest standard deviation)? Who was the least consistent?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Please list every 15-round octochamp in order of maximums out of 120. Do it for 9-rounders as well (but not out of 120). And a separate xicount list. Or at least top tens. That would be gruesome.
Edit - I want pro rata scores for top potential octochamps like John Clarke and Helen Grayson.
Edit - I want pro rata scores for top potential octochamps like John Clarke and Helen Grayson.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
The most difficult bit about this question is excluding heat games that aren't part of someone's octochamp run, if someone played before and was invited back years later. I've considered only 15-round games, which helps avoid most of this problem, but I've had to manually exclude Peter Lee and Kirk Bevins' first games.Innis Carson wrote:Which octochamp was the most consistent in terms of score in their octorun (i.e. lowest standard deviation)? Who was the least consistent?
Anyway, the 15-round octochamp with the lowest standard deviation in their heat game scores was Kai Laddiman, with a good grouping of 93, 95, 95, 91, 89, 97, 91 and 105, giving a standard deviation of 4.6637. At the other end of the scale, Steve Briers' octorun had scores ranging from 76 to 136, with a standard deviation of 16.4388.
Here's what I hope is a list of all the 15-round octochamps and how (in)consistently they scored. Gevin, you were close with your guess.
![Smile :-)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
Code: Select all
1. Kai Laddiman 4.6637
2. Tom Hargreaves 4.7368
3. Jack Welsby 5.5099
4. Innis Carson 6.5753
5. Joe Zubaidi 6.8088
6. John Davies 6.8145
7. Jack Hurst 6.8328
8. Eoin Monaghan 6.8875
9. Rose Boyle 6.9090
10. Jack Worsley 7.0843
11. Shane Roberts 7.2758
12. Tom Rowell 7.5125
13. Paul Howe 7.5405
14. Brenda Jolley 7.5457
15. Cate Henderson 7.5622
16. Tim Reypert 7.5818
17. Edward McCullagh 7.6485
18. Jon O'Neill 7.6811
19. Amey Deshpande 7.7419
20. David Von Geyer 7.8422
21. Paul James 7.9017
22. Jeffrey Burgin 7.9520
23. Richard Heald 7.9677
24. Nick Wainwright 8.0429
24. Conor Travers 8.0429
26. James Doohan 8.1202
27. David Barnard 8.1844
27. Craig Beevers 8.1844
29. Keith Maynard 8.2831
30. Steve Wood 8.3507
31. David Thirlwall 8.3815
32. Adam Gillard 8.4029
33. Richard Brittain 8.4261
34. George Greenhough 8.4474
35. Michael Bowden 8.5723
36. Chris Marshall 8.6132
37. Marcus Hares 8.7571
38. Stuart Solomons 8.7607
39. John Mayhew 8.9713
40. Gary Male 9.0243
41. Jonathan Rawlinson 9.2162
42. Heather Styles 9.2390
43. James Roberts 9.2601
44. Grace Page 9.2728
45. Judith Young 9.2862
46. Ross Allatt 9.3533
47. John Gray 9.3800
48. Stu Horsey 9.5786
49. David O'Donnell 9.6954
49. Neil Zussman 9.6954
51. Julian Fell 9.8869
52. Chris McHenry 9.9239
53. Jeffrey Hansford 9.9718
54. Danny Pledger 10.0491
55. Andrew Hulme 10.2439
56. Steven Moir 10.3070
57. Scott Gillies 10.3169
58. Chris Cummins 10.3531
59. Ned Pendleton 10.3682
59. Rupert Stokoe 10.3682
61. Danny Hamilton 10.4694
62. James Hurrell 10.5919
63. Mike Pullin 10.6301
64. Kirk Bevins 10.6646
65. Jean Webby 10.7325
66. Paul Keane 10.7355
67. Martin Bishop 10.7870
68. Jon Corby 10.8628
69. Daniel Pati 10.9202
70. Graeme Cole 11.0673
71. Jayne Wisniewski 11.0842
72. Stuart Earl 11.1740
73. Chris Wills 11.1908
74. John Brackstone 11.3220
75. Aaron Webber 11.3791
76. Mark Tournoff 11.3846
77. Richard Pay 11.4127
78. Mark Deeks 11.5758
79. Wendy Roe 11.5967
80. Matthew Shore 11.7659
81. Paul Gallen 11.7978
82. Liam Shaw 12.0520
83. Martin Gardner 12.2245
84. Michael Macdonald-Cooper 12.2678
85. Julia Wilkinson 12.2984
86. Jim Bentley 12.4599
87. Suzi Purcell 12.4875
88. Chris Davies 12.5897
89. Junaid Mubeen 12.6763
90. Oliver Garner 12.8136
91. Tom Barnes 12.8623
92. Tony Warren 12.8744
93. Ryan Taylor 12.9711
94. Nik Von Uexkull 13.1143
95. Andy McGurn 13.1315
96. David Edwards 13.1761
97. Sweyn Kirkness 13.2847
98. John Hunt 13.4257
99. Peter Lee 13.7244
100. Brian Selway 13.9799
101. Jonathan Coles 14.1134
102. Lee Hartley 14.4303
103. Tia Corkish 14.6581
104. Carl Williams 15.3867
105. Charlie Reams 15.5885
106. Stewart Holden 15.8568
107. Dave Taylor 15.9212
108. Jimmy Gough 16.2999
109. Steven Briers 16.4388
110. Kevin Thurlow 17.8005
Last edited by Graeme Cole on Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Here's the first bit - 15 round octochamps ordered by the number of maxes out of 120 in heat games. A maxed round is where the player got the most points available. Tiebreaks aren't counted.Gavin Chipper wrote:Please list every 15-round octochamp in order of maximums out of 120. Do it for 9-rounders as well (but not out of 120). And a separate xicount list. Or at least top tens. That would be gruesome.
Edit - I want pro rata scores for top potential octochamps like John Clarke and Helen Grayson.
The 9-rounder one is going to need a bit more thought to exclude people who had more than one run, so I'll come back to that one another day.
Code: Select all
1. Edward McCullagh 95
2. Julian Fell 94
3. Jack Hurst 91
4. Craig Beevers 89
4. Jonathan Rawlinson 89
6. Stewart Holden 86
7. Kirk Bevins 85
8. Chris Davies 84
9. David O'Donnell 82
10. Eoin Monaghan 81
11. Conor Travers 80
12. Chris Wills 79
12. Graeme Cole 79
14. Adam Gillard 78
14. George Greenhough 78
14. John Mayhew 78
14. Oliver Garner 78
14. Paul Gallen 78
19. Jack Welsby 77
20. Andrew Hulme 76
20. Innis Carson 76
20. Paul Howe 76
23. Peter Lee 75
24. Daniel Pati 74
25. Marcus Hares 73
26. Jimmy Gough 72
26. Martin Bishop 72
28. Chris Cummins 71
28. Ryan Taylor 71
28. Tom Barnes 71
31. Aaron Webber 70
31. David Barnard 70
31. Grace Page 70
34. Jon Corby 69
34. Richard Heald 69
36. Lee Hartley 68
36. Matthew Shore 68
38. Charlie Reams 67
38. Mark Deeks 67
38. Mark Tournoff 67
38. Neil Zussman 67
38. Paul James 67
38. Steven Briers 67
44. Jack Worsley 66
45. Andy McGurn 65
45. James Hurrell 65
45. Jeffrey Hansford 65
45. John Brackstone 65
45. Tom Rowell 65
50. Stuart Earl 64
50. Tom Hargreaves 64
52. John Hunt 63
52. Kevin Thurlow 63
52. Scott Gillies 63
55. John Davies 62
55. Junaid Mubeen 62
55. Stuart Solomons 62
55. Wendy Roe 62
59. Jean Webby 61
59. Jon O'Neill 61
59. Martin Gardner 61
62. Richard Brittain 60
62. Shane Roberts 60
64. Cate Henderson 59
64. John Gray 59
64. Jonathan Coles 59
64. Michael Bowden 59
64. Ross Allatt 59
64. Steven Moir 59
70. Brian Selway 58
70. David Edwards 58
70. Mike Pullin 58
70. Stu Horsey 58
74. Danny Hamilton 57
74. Jim Bentley 57
74. Keith Maynard 57
74. Liam Shaw 57
74. Rose Boyle 57
79. Nik Von Uexkull 56
80. Richard Pay 55
80. Rupert Stokoe 55
82. David Von Geyer 54
82. Jeffrey Burgin 54
82. Sweyn Kirkness 54
82. Tim Reypert 54
86. James Roberts 53
86. Kai Laddiman 53
86. Nick Wainwright 53
86. Paul Keane 53
90. Amey Deshpande 52
90. Jayne Wisniewski 52
90. Ned Pendleton 52
93. Carl Williams 51
93. Dave Taylor 51
93. Heather Styles 51
93. Michael Macdonald-Cooper 51
97. Gary Male 50
97. Judith Young 50
97. Julia Wilkinson 50
100. Danny Pledger 49
101. Tony Warren 48
102. James Doohan 46
103. Joe Zubaidi 44
104. Brenda Jolley 43
104. Tia Corkish 43
106. Chris Marshall 42
106. David Thirlwall 42
108. Chris McHenry 37
108. Steve Wood 37
108. Suzi Purcell 37
Last edited by Graeme Cole on Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Julian Fell getting 94/120 is disgusting. How? How!
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Re: Ask Graeme?
What is the greatest number of consecutive episodes in which the conundrum has been correctly solved? What is the greatest number in which it has gone unsolved?
I'm not dead yet. In a rut right now because of stress from work. I'll be back later in S89. I also plan to bring back the Mastergram - if I can find a way to run a timer or clock through pure MediaWiki without having to upload to Vimeo every time.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Also George Greenhough seems like the unluckiest guy on here, to have such a shit QF performance when he was clearly the nuts.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Matt Morrison wrote:If Graeme doesn't get the best girlfriend ever on the back of this thread, the world is not fair.
Judging by the fact that Ryan has uttered the words "I fucking love Graeme Cole" on at least 3 occasions in the last 24 hours, I think he might be interested in this position.
- Graeme Cole
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Re: Ask Graeme?
It turns out this isn't a problem, as there are no octochamps from the 9-round era who had appeared previously except Darryl Francis, and the round details for his first game aren't in the database anyway so it's all fine.Graeme Cole wrote:The 9-rounder one is going to need a bit more thought to exclude people who had more than one run, so I'll come back to that one another day.
However, the fact that some games' round details aren't in the database poses another problem. We've only got round details for seven of Stephen Deakin's eight heat games, and the same goes for Sharon Bridge. Also, Lindsay Denyer has half a game missing. For those players I've taken the number of maxes they were known to get divided by the number of rounds for which the max is known.
Clive Freedman would probably feature highly on this list, but we can't include him. He won the last prelim of series 6 and continued in series 7. We don't have any round details for his series 7 games, only the one game he won in series 6. In that game he got 7/9 maxes, which would put him top of this table with 78%, but this is obviously too small a sample to be meaningful. Furthermore, according to the wiki there was a curious rule in place at the time which meant Clive's win didn't carry over to the next series - he had to start again on zero, which is why he played eight prelims in series 7. So the only heat game of his for which we have details is the one that didn't count.
Nevertheless, here's the table for maxes scored by 9-round octochamps as a proportion of rounds where we know the max. Draws are included. As before, a maxed round is where you score the most points available, even if a closer numbers solution was possible, and tiebreaks aren't counted.
Code: Select all
MAXES %
1. Terry Knowles 49/72 68.06
1. Harvey Freeman 49/72 68.06
3. Richard Campbell 48/72 66.67
4. David Acton 46/72 63.89
4. Kevin McMahon 46/72 63.89
6. Jonathan Anstey 51/81 62.96
7. Bhavin Manek 44/72 61.11
8. Tim Morrissey 49/81 60.49
9. David Williams 43/72 59.72
10. Scott Mearns 42/72 58.33
10. Derek Coombs 42/72 58.33
10. Gareth Williams 42/72 58.33
10. Don Reid 42/72 58.33
14. Darryl Francis 40/72 55.56
14. Allan Saldanha 40/72 55.56
16. Graham Nash 39/72 54.17
17. Sanjay Mazumder 38/72 52.78
17. Melvin Hetherington 38/72 52.78
17. Nic Brown 38/72 52.78
17. Anthony Jenkin 38/72 52.78
21. David Ballheimer 37/72 51.39
22. Sharon Bridge 32/63 50.79
23. Dag Griffiths 36/72 50.00
23. Lucy Roberts 36/72 50.00
25. Chris Waddington 35/72 48.61
25. James Martin 35/72 48.61
25. Satbir Gupta 35/72 48.61
28. Stephen Deakin 30/63 47.62
29. Peter Hutchings 34/72 47.22
29. Simon Cooper 34/72 47.22
31. Margaret Foster 33/72 45.83
31. Natascha Kearsey 33/72 45.83
31. Michael Calder 33/72 45.83
31. Richard Evans 33/72 45.83
31. Mark Nyman 33/72 45.83
36. Lew Schwarz 40/90 44.44
36. William Bradford 32/72 44.44
36. Dick Green 32/72 44.44
36. Ray McPhie 32/72 44.44
40. Norman Christian 31/72 43.06
40. Glynn Leaney 31/72 43.06
40. Kate Ogilvie 31/72 43.06
40. Maria Boyes 31/72 43.06
44. Lawrence Pearse 30/72 41.67
44. Suzanne Miles 30/72 41.67
44. David Trace 30/72 41.67
47. Phil Jordan 29/72 40.28
47. Steve Williams 29/72 40.28
49. John Hadfield 27/72 37.50
50. Terence O'Farrell 26/72 36.11
50. John Wallace 26/72 36.11
52. Jon Marsh 26/81 32.10
53. James Sinclair 23/72 31.94
54. Lindsay Denyer 17/64 26.56
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Question: At CO events numbers rounds can be awkward when you have to use those flimsy numbers thingys to get a target which can sometimes be 081 or something, so my question to Graeme is this: Could you make at least 10 more of those electronic numbers gadgets of yours and bring them to future CO events so all tables can have one?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
That would be brilliant. I'd certainly love to have one at COHUD2.Andy McGurn wrote:Question: At CO events numbers rounds can be awkward when you have to use those flimsy numbers thingys to get a target which can sometimes be 081 or something, so my question to Graeme is this: Could you make at least 10 more of those electronic numbers gadgets of yours and bring them to future CO events so all tables can have one?
![Cool 8-)](./images/smilies/icon_cool.gif)
![Cool 8-)](./images/smilies/icon_cool.gif)
- Graeme Cole
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Some episodes have more than one conundrum, so I'll take this as the greatest number of consecutive (un-)solved conundrums.Johnny Canuck wrote:What is the greatest number of consecutive episodes in which the conundrum has been correctly solved? What is the greatest number in which it has gone unsolved?
32 consecutive conundrums were solved during the Masters series between this episode and this episode. If we disregard Masters episodes, the longest streak of consecutive solves was 24, between episode 4094 and episode 4117, which spanned some of Jon Corby's and Tony Warren's heat games, the series 54 finals, and the first five games in CoC XII. The streak was only broken by the tricky conundrum SNOWFABLE.
The most consecutive unsolved conundrums is six, which has happened on three occasions: the conundrums up to and including episodes 261, 2103 and 5338.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
I wonder if there's any possible screen time for Countdown's version of Benedict.
Eoin Monaghan wrote:
He may not be liked on here, but you have to give some credit to Mark