Thanks, Graeme, and my notes seem to concur. They also mention that M21 was the first-ever and that M33 was the second and third (by Clive Freedman, twice). I've added a note to 954 (in the wiki) as I think it deserves the recognition for its place in Countdown history. Follow-up question: what was the first 4-large round solved for 10 points by a contestant?Graeme Cole wrote:Episode 954 was the first in a non-Masters game.Mike Brown wrote:Given that I missed very little of Series 1 and 2 (even though I didn't start recaps straight away), I'm pretty certain that this is the first ever occurrence, especially as I noted "MB's dream" next to it at the time (sad, I know). What was the first 4 large in a non-Masters game? (sorry if I've missed it in the veritable sea of stats!)Graeme Cole wrote: According to the database, the show was nearly seven years old before anyone thought to pick 4 large. The caveat to this is that series 1 and 2 have hardly any round details associated with them, so we can't say for certain that it didn't happen then.
Great stuff, Graeme, loving it...
Ask Graeme?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Round 3 of the series 19 final.Mike Brown wrote:Thanks, Graeme, and my notes seem to concur. They also mention that M21 was the first-ever and that M33 was the second and third (by Clive Freedman, twice). I've added a note to 954 as I think it deserves the recognition for its place in Countdown history. Follow-up question: what was the first 4-large round solved for 10 points by a contestant?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Just because I have no interest in solving the arithmetic rounds in Countdown, doesn't mean I'm not interested in Maths and statistics...Okay. Who are you, and what have you done with Matt?
Thanks for the thorough answer to the question!
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Thanks; and nice to see it being solved (and chosen) by Gino Corr, one of the Countdown legends of yesteryear.Graeme Cole wrote:Round 3 of the series 19 final.Mike Brown wrote:Thanks, Graeme, and my notes seem to concur. They also mention that M21 was the first-ever and that M33 was the second and third (by Clive Freedman, twice). I've added a note to 954 as I think it deserves the recognition for its place in Countdown history. Follow-up question: what was the first 4-large round solved for 10 points by a contestant?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Q. What is the shortest word declared in any round, I've seen a three, surely no one has ever declared a two?[/quote]
I refer the honourable gentleman to... [/quote]
Ah, of course, silly me!
Cheers Graeme, you're a legend!
I refer the honourable gentleman to... [/quote]
Ah, of course, silly me!
Cheers Graeme, you're a legend!
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Graeme, It says on Wiki the following about perfect games, obviously this hasn't been updated (recently):
"Perfect game - A game in which the maximum possible score is achieved in every single round. There are currently five known perfect games, one under the 15 round format and the rest in the 9 round format. Maximum scores are noted in the "Max" column of games tables on the wiki; perfect games are shown in bold."
I've found:
Jenny Haldane
Darren Shacklady
and Allan Saldanha
Who is the fourth 9-Round-Era 'perfect game-ster'?
"Perfect game - A game in which the maximum possible score is achieved in every single round. There are currently five known perfect games, one under the 15 round format and the rest in the 9 round format. Maximum scores are noted in the "Max" column of games tables on the wiki; perfect games are shown in bold."
I've found:
Jenny Haldane
Darren Shacklady
and Allan Saldanha
Who is the fourth 9-Round-Era 'perfect game-ster'?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
The target was just one different as well.Graeme Cole wrote:Episode 954 was the first in a non-Masters game.Mike Brown wrote:Given that I missed very little of Series 1 and 2 (even though I didn't start recaps straight away), I'm pretty certain that this is the first ever occurrence, especially as I noted "MB's dream" next to it at the time (sad, I know). What was the first 4 large in a non-Masters game? (sorry if I've missed it in the veritable sea of stats!)Graeme Cole wrote: According to the database, the show was nearly seven years old before anyone thought to pick 4 large. The caveat to this is that series 1 and 2 have hardly any round details associated with them, so we can't say for certain that it didn't happen then.
Great stuff, Graeme, loving it...
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Re: Ask Graeme?
It might be an error.Dave Preece wrote:Graeme, It says on Wiki the following about perfect games, obviously this hasn't been updated (recently):
"Perfect game - A game in which the maximum possible score is achieved in every single round. There are currently five known perfect games, one under the 15 round format and the rest in the 9 round format. Maximum scores are noted in the "Max" column of games tables on the wiki; perfect games are shown in bold."
I've found:
Jenny Haldane
Darren Shacklady
and Allan Saldanha
Who is the fourth 9-Round-Era 'perfect game-ster'?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
What's the most amount of conundrums needed to find a winner? Have there been more than two tie-break conundrums for a game?
(I appreciate there may have been a game with 6 tie-break conundrums or whatever and for time constraints they would maybe only show a couple, so basically, what's the most been televised?).
(I appreciate there may have been a game with 6 tie-break conundrums or whatever and for time constraints they would maybe only show a couple, so basically, what's the most been televised?).
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Re: Ask Graeme?
No more than 2 tie-breaks have been televised (i.e. 3 conundrums altogether).Ryan Taylor wrote:What's the most amount of conundrums needed to find a winner? Have there been more than two tie-break conundrums for a game?
(I appreciate there may have been a game with 6 tie-break conundrums or whatever and for time constraints they would maybe only show a couple, so basically, what's the most been televised?).
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Re: Ask Graeme?
I heard somewhere ("somewhere" is a very reliable source, I know) that this match in Series 60 actually featured four conundrums, but the middle two were cut from the broadcast. The answer to one of the cut conundrums, not that anyone cares, was PUPPETEER.Ryan Taylor wrote:What's the most amount of conundrums needed to find a winner? Have there been more than two tie-break conundrums for a game?
EDIT: "Somewhere" = here.
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?
Question:
Graeme, who is the best Countdown Contestant ever, and what is the most accurate way to rank them all, in your opinion?
Graeme, who is the best Countdown Contestant ever, and what is the most accurate way to rank them all, in your opinion?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
How about we have a knock-out tournament where some of the best Countdown contestants ever play each other and see who wins?Dave Preece wrote:Question:
Graeme, who is the best Countdown Contestant ever, and what is the most accurate way to rank them all, in your opinion?
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?
LOL - Good one!
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Oops, that was actually a mistake on my part. In Mike Brown's notes for this game, LUTEOUS isn't mentioned, so I assumed Harvey Freeman had gotten a perfect score.Dave Preece wrote:Graeme, It says on Wiki the following about perfect games, obviously this hasn't been updated (recently):
"Perfect game - A game in which the maximum possible score is achieved in every single round. There are currently five known perfect games, one under the 15 round format and the rest in the 9 round format. Maximum scores are noted in the "Max" column of games tables on the wiki; perfect games are shown in bold."
I've found:
Jenny Haldane
Darren Shacklady
and Allan Saldanha
Who is the fourth 9-Round-Era 'perfect game-ster'?
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?
This is even harder than Gevin's question about his weird scoring system (and because it's Gevin, I need to give clarification about which scoring system), which I haven't even started on yet.Dave Preece wrote:Question:
Graeme, who is the best Countdown Contestant ever, and what is the most accurate way to rank them all, in your opinion?
I'm never going to come up with an answer to "what is the most accurate way to rank them all" to anyone's complete satisfaction, even my own, so I'm not going to attempt it.
This.Adam Gillard wrote:How about we have a knock-out tournament where some of the best Countdown contestants ever play each other and see who wins?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Graeme: you remarked in today's recap about Rachael's long wait to resume her position in the champion's chair - and I think we're all looking forward to that. But which contestants took the longest time on screen between starting and concluding a) an octochamp run and b) any champion's run?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
What numbers game had the best solution that was the furthest away from the correct solution? IE 25 1 1 2 2 3 with a target of 999 (You can only possibly get 399 away from the target)!
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Re: Ask Graeme?
I can get 324 away
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Happy Birthday Graeme!
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Couple of gender-related questions:
- What's the average max percentage for each gender?
- What percentage of series finalists have been female? (A table of female series finalists ranked by max percentage would be cool.)
And a couple of non-gender-related questions (not sure if anyone's asked these):
- What's the vowel pick breakdown? (In fact, could you do a graph similar to the 'numbers picks over time' one, but by number of vowels picked in letters rounds over time instead?)
- How many times has a word been disallowed because it was invalid at the time, but has become valid since? (For example, R3 in this game)
- What's the average max percentage for each gender?
- What percentage of series finalists have been female? (A table of female series finalists ranked by max percentage would be cool.)
And a couple of non-gender-related questions (not sure if anyone's asked these):
- What's the vowel pick breakdown? (In fact, could you do a graph similar to the 'numbers picks over time' one, but by number of vowels picked in letters rounds over time instead?)
- How many times has a word been disallowed because it was invalid at the time, but has become valid since? (For example, R3 in this game)
"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?
Good one, but you know what I meanGrant Waters wrote:I can get 324 away
PS Im 324 away now youve pointed it out to me, LOL!
Re: Ask Graeme?
Dear Graeme....
Apologies if this question has already been asked as I'm too lazy to trawl through the rest of this content, but if you can answer, who are the youngest people in the 30 year history of Countdown to have made a series final as I'm keen to see where I would be in the list?
I was 17y and 1 month when my series final broadcast and obviously Conor was younger and I also know the 2 Saldahna brothers were younger than me too but other than that, I don't know of anyone else and would be interested to know where I was in the standings.....
Apologies if this question has already been asked as I'm too lazy to trawl through the rest of this content, but if you can answer, who are the youngest people in the 30 year history of Countdown to have made a series final as I'm keen to see where I would be in the list?
I was 17y and 1 month when my series final broadcast and obviously Conor was younger and I also know the 2 Saldahna brothers were younger than me too but other than that, I don't know of anyone else and would be interested to know where I was in the standings.....
Probably the second tallest ever series finalist.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Eoin Monaghan was younger than Conor when he made the final in series 63.
"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?
I think Andrew Perry was 11 or 12 when he reached the final.Jennifer Steadman wrote:Eoin Monaghan was younger than Conor when he made the final in series 63.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Allan Saldanha was sub 10 when he reached his final.Ben Wilson wrote:I think Andrew Perry was 11 or 12 when he reached the final.Jennifer Steadman wrote:Eoin Monaghan was younger than Conor when he made the final in series 63.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
I've heard people saying before that he was 9 when he was on, but I'm pretty sure he was 10, and 19 for the supremes, which would have been impossible if he had been 9. I'd say he was born some time in the middleish of 1977.James Robinson wrote:Allan Saldanha was sub 10 when he reached his final.Ben Wilson wrote:I think Andrew Perry was 11 or 12 when he reached the final.Jennifer Steadman wrote:Eoin Monaghan was younger than Conor when he made the final in series 63.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Is it possible to get a letter distribution frequency for each letter over the data you have?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
I can confirm he was 10 when he filmed Series 15. Where did you get your info from, James? I hope it wasn't me.Gavin Chipper wrote:I've heard people saying before that he was 9 when he was on, but I'm pretty sure he was 10, and 19 for the supremes, which would have been impossible if he had been 9. I'd say he was born some time in the middleish of 1977.James Robinson wrote:Allan Saldanha was sub 10 when he reached his final.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
I was getting the info from Mr. Whiteley himself in the episode where he introduced Tanmay Dixit, as you can see here (at about 3 minutes in): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhI_-2BgOycMike Brown wrote:I can confirm he was 10 when he filmed Series 15. Where did you get your info from, James? I hope it wasn't me.Gavin Chipper wrote:I've heard people saying before that he was 9 when he was on, but I'm pretty sure he was 10, and 19 for the supremes, which would have been impossible if he had been 9. I'd say he was born some time in the middleish of 1977.James Robinson wrote:Allan Saldanha was sub 10 when he reached his final.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Is it possible to work out the most consecutive letters rounds an individual contestant has gone without having a nine available? I've gone 95 and counting and I was wondering if this was close to a record.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Ah, a reliable source, then! Well remembered, though, or did you happen to watch it recently?James Robinson wrote:I was getting the info from Mr. Whiteley himself in the episode where he introduced Tanmay Dixit, as you can see here (at about 3 minutes in): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhI_-2BgOyc
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Re: Ask Graeme?
No, remembered this time, for once.Mike Brown wrote:Ah, a reliable source, then! Well remembered, though, or did you happen to watch it recently?James Robinson wrote:I was getting the info from Mr. Whiteley himself in the episode where he introduced Tanmay Dixit, as you can see here (at about 3 minutes in): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhI_-2BgOyc
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Re: Ask Graeme?
I've taken this as the longest gap between two preliminary games by the same player, that have no other preliminary games featuring that player in between. This causes a bit of ambiguity, though. Sometimes players are invited back many years after their first apperance (e.g. Peter Lee, Philip Jarvis), but that can't realistically be considered a continuation of the same run. Occasionally, though, a player gets invited back because it was found they may have lost unfairly, e.g. they had a word wrongly disallowed, or their opponent had a word wrongly allowed. Often in these cases it's unclear whether the player's wins or points total carries over to their new run.Nick Deller wrote:Graeme: you remarked in today's recap about Rachael's long wait to resume her position in the champion's chair - and I think we're all looking forward to that. But which contestants took the longest time on screen between starting and concluding a) an octochamp run and b) any champion's run?
So here are some notably long breaks:
Monica Sutcliffe holds the record for the longest break between consecutive appearances in heats. She appeared in series 14 and again in series 66 nearly 25 years later - 8,929 days, to be precise. While this isn't a continuation of a single run, I still think it's interesting so I've included it here.
Martin Howell lost his first game in series 26, and appeared again 337 days later in series 28. This is the longest break in what might have been treated as a single run. The wiki explains that his first opponent Andrew Perry was allowed a dubious (and unspecified) word. All his words look fine to me though, so I've no idea what was going on there.
The next longest break, if we disregard cases where a player lost under controversial circumstances and was invited back, was by octochamp Clive Freedman. He won his first game in the last preliminary of series 6, and 216 days later he won the first preliminary of series 7. However, due to a silly rule in place at the time, he wasn't allowed to carry over his win in series 6 towards his total, so you could argue that this isn't one single run.
Martin May won two games in series 56 then had to retire for unknown personal reasons. He was allowed to continue his run in the following series, 191 days later.
The longest "natural" break in a run, if you don't count Clive Freedman, was 144 days, by Mark Kingston, who won the last preliminary of series 9 and came back for the first preliminary of series 10 five months later.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Can't do this one I'm afraid. The database table I made doesn't include the optimal solutions, only the highest number of points available.Dave Preece wrote:What numbers game had the best solution that was the furthest away from the correct solution? IE 25 1 1 2 2 3 with a target of 999 (You can only possibly get 399 away from the target)!
Same goes for this, the database doesn't know who's male and who's female.Jennifer Steadman wrote:Couple of gender-related questions:
- What's the average max percentage for each gender?
- What percentage of series finalists have been female? (A table of female series finalists ranked by max percentage would be cool.)
The database doesn't have contestant ages in it either, and nor, in general, does the wiki, so I don't think we'll ever have this information. However, James and Mike seem to have provided some good answers on this one.Tom wrote: Apologies if this question has already been asked as I'm too lazy to trawl through the rest of this content, but if you can answer, who are the youngest people in the 30 year history of Countdown to have made a series final as I'm keen to see where I would be in the list?
Throughout the late eighties and nineties, three vowels was king. Now four vowels is by far the most popular selection. Note that although nowadays you've got to pick between three and five vowels, that rule hasn't always applied.Jennifer Steadman wrote: And a couple of non-gender-related questions (not sure if anyone's asked these):
- What's the vowel pick breakdown? (In fact, could you do a graph similar to the 'numbers picks over time' one, but by number of vowels picked in letters rounds over time instead?)
Series 66 had the highest proportion of five-vowel picks of any series since 1985, because Jonathan Rawlinson was in it. (No, really - 43 of the 82 five-vowel letters rounds in that series were in his games.)
I'm going to answer the slightly easier "how many times has a word been disallowed for being invalid, which is valid on apterous now?"Jennifer Steadman wrote: - How many times has a word been disallowed because it was invalid at the time, but has become valid since? (For example, R3 in this game)
The answer is 474, from over 46,000 letters rounds.
Re: Ask Graeme?
I suspect Series 68 might break the record. In the semifinal between Jack Hurst and Jonathan Rawlinson there were 5-vowel picks in 8 out of 11 letters rounds. Is this the most five-vowel-tastic game ever?Graeme Cole wrote: Series 66 had the highest proportion of five-vowel picks of any series since 1985, because Jonathan Rawlinson was in it. (No, really - 43 of the 82 five-vowel letters rounds in that series were in his games.)
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Re: Ask Graeme?
In what proportion of games (separately for 9 and 15 rounders) are all the numbers games rendered "worthless", by both contestants maxing them all? Actually I know you can only go by points rather than true maxes so yo uwon't be able to get whether a 7 is the true max. So maybe two separate stats - one for all max scores (erring on the side of inclusivity), and one for all 10s (erring on the side of exclusivity).
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Re: Ask Graeme?
By the way, I think when percentage of max score came out for everyone, it was "revealed" that Chris Wills's octorun wasn't actually that great based on max score available, and that it was worse than Tom Hargreaves's from the same series. Well, this puts a different spin on that.Graeme Cole wrote: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. Jonathan Rawlinson 89 4. Craig Beevers 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. Graeme Cole 79 12. Chris Wills 79 14. George Greenhough 78 14. Oliver Garner 78 14. Adam Gillard 78 14. Paul Gallen 78 14. John Mayhew 78 19. Jack Welsby 77 20. Andrew Hulme 76 20. Paul Howe 76 20. Innis Carson 76 23. Peter Lee 75 24. Daniel Pati 74 25. Marcus Hares 73 26. Martin Bishop 72 26. Jimmy Gough 72 28. Tom Barnes 71 28. Ryan Taylor 71 30. Grace Page 70 30. Aaron Webber 70 30. Chris Cummins 70 33. Richard Heald 69 33. Jon Corby 69 35. Matthew Shore 68 35. Lee Hartley 68 37. Neil Zussman 67 37. Mark Deeks 67 37. Charlie Reams 67 37. Mark Tournoff 67 37. Steven Briers 67 37. Paul James 67 43. Jack Worsley 66 44. James Hurrell 65 44. Tom Rowell 65 44. Andy McGurn 65 44. John Brackstone 65 44. Jeffrey Hansford 65 49. Tom Hargreaves 64 49. Stuart Earl 64 51. Scott Gillies 63 51. John Hunt 63 53. Stuart Solomons 62 53. Wendy Roe 62 53. John Davies 62 53. Junaid Mubeen 62 57. Jon O'Neill 61 57. Jean Webby 61 59. Richard Brittain 60 59. Martin Gardner 60 59. Shane Roberts 60 62. Cate Henderson 59 62. Michael Bowden 59 62. Ross Allatt 59 62. Steven Moir 59 62. Jonathan Coles 59 62. John Gray 59 68. Mike Pullin 58 68. Stu Horsey 58 68. David Edwards 58 68. Brian Selway 58 72. Jim Bentley 57 72. Danny Hamilton 57 72. Liam Shaw 57 72. Keith Maynard 57 76. Nik Von Uexkull 56 77. Rupert Stokoe 55 78. Tim Reypert 54 78. Sweyn Kirkness 54 78. David Von Geyer 54 78. Jeffrey Burgin 54 82. James Roberts 53 82. Paul Keane 53 82. Kai Laddiman 53 82. Nick Wainwright 53 86. Ned Pendleton 52 86. Amey Deshpande 52 86. Jayne Wisniewski 52 89. Carl Williams 51 89. Michael Macdonald-Cooper 51 89. Dave Taylor 51 92. Judith Young 50 92. Gary Male 50 92. Julia Wilkinson 50 95. Danny Pledger 49 96. Tony Warren 48 97. James Doohan 46 98. Joe Zubaidi 44 99. Tia Corkish 43 99. Brenda Jolley 43 101. Chris Marshall 42 101. David Thirlwall 42 103. Steve Wood 37 103. Suzi Purcell 37 103. Chris McHenry 37
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Thanks for the thorough answer on "longest duration of championhood", Clive Freedman and Mark Kingston best reflect what I was looking for but the other contestants of note are interesting too. No idea what's going on with the Andrew Perry/Martin Howell game.
Intuitively, it's likely to be a six-small game with a target above 900. Does that offer up a manageable set of candidates for hand-checking?Graeme Cole wrote:Can't do this one I'm afraid. The database table I made doesn't include the optimal solutions, only the highest number of points available.Dave Preece wrote:What numbers game had the best solution that was the furthest away from the correct solution? IE 25 1 1 2 2 3 with a target of 999 (You can only possibly get 399 away from the target)!
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Can we do - what's the lowest highest number that's come out in a selection? So in 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, the highest is 3, and that would be the lowest possible. Or, how often has no number been higher than 5?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
According to my rival database, the answer is round 8 in this game.Graeme Cole wrote:Can't do this one I'm afraid. The database table I made doesn't include the optimal solutions, only the highest number of points available.Dave Preece wrote:What numbers game had the best solution that was the furthest away from the correct solution? IE 25 1 1 2 2 3 with a target of 999 (You can only possibly get 399 away from the target)!
Not including the masters series (WIP) there have been 13 cases where the nearest to the target is over 100 away, and 31 in all where it was impossible to score.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Great thread, very interesting to see all these facts and figures. Ok, here's a question:
What is the highest winning score posted by a challenger who's gone on to lose in their second game?
What is the highest winning score posted by a challenger who's gone on to lose in their second game?
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Can't see it being a century, definitely maybe in the 90s?
Great question!
Great question!
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Re: Ask Graeme?
I can remember one striking example from my series: John Drinkwater. I'd expect this to be the highest, and surely the biggest slump from one game to the next.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Graeme, I hope you don't mind but I have cherry-picked the awesome facts from this thread to freshen up the "Did you know..." box on the homepage of the Wiki.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Remembering Sue Drinkwater, who was beaten by Tanmay, I just checked the wiki and there have been three Drinkwaters on Countdown. What are the odds (Graeme)?Innis Carson wrote:I can remember one striking example from my series: John Drinkwater. I'd expect this to be the highest, and surely the biggest slump from one game to the next.
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?
And who was the most arrogant? Because anyone to drink water on Countdown can only be arrogant.
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?
Didn't Rawlo have about 10 sips a round in the 30BC?Mark Deeks wrote:And who was the most arrogant? Because anyone to drink water on Countdown can only be arrogant.
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?
Jonathan Drinkwater-Rawlinson
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Another contestant who got 108 in his first game and lost his second:Innis Carson wrote:I can remember one striking example from my series: John Drinkwater. I'd expect this to be the highest, and surely the biggest slump from one game to the next.
http://wiki.apterous.org/Richard_Woodward
Re: Ask Graeme?
There's no reason why Graeme in particular should know the answer to this, but it seems like a good a place as any to ask it:
Can you press the conundrum buzzer at any time? Would it ring and light up if Nick was just chatting away at the start? Or would it stop the clock in normal rounds? Can't believe it never occurred to me to try this.
Can you press the conundrum buzzer at any time? Would it ring and light up if Nick was just chatting away at the start? Or would it stop the clock in normal rounds? Can't believe it never occurred to me to try this.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
They told me that it would only activate in sync when Nick presses the conundrum scramble reveal button and wouldn't have any effect before that
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Re: Ask Graeme?
I asked that question several years ago and I'm still waiting for an answer. Corby asks and gets an answer in 18 minutes. Not on.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Wait, what? Nick has a button which actually reveals the conundrum? I assumed it was all just stagehands turning levers and stuff on cue. That's pretty hi-tech.Andy Platt wrote:They told me that it would only activate in sync when Nick presses the conundrum scramble reveal button and wouldn't have any effect before that
(Dave, anything else you'd like me to ask?)
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Re: Ask Graeme?
I'm going to skip ahead to this one even though I know there are older questions I haven't answered yet. Because I can.Jon Corby wrote:There's no reason why Graeme in particular should know the answer to this, but it seems like a good a place as any to ask it:
Can you press the conundrum buzzer at any time? Would it ring and light up if Nick was just chatting away at the start? Or would it stop the clock in normal rounds? Can't believe it never occurred to me to try this.
I don't know exactly how it's set up, so I'm only speculating. I would think the most likely answer is that it works whenever the clock is running. That was the case in the Countdown Gotcha episode, although it's possible they did something specially to allow it on that occasion.
As far as I know there isn't a "conundrum scramble" button, at least not on Nick's desk. There's one button to start the clock, and the conundrum is revealed by someone behind the board manually turning the flippything.
I'd be surprised if the buzzers had to be manually enabled for the conundrum round only, as that's one extra thing they have to remember to do, which if they forget could give a contestant legitimate cause for complaint if they tried to buzz in for the conundrum and couldn't. It's be easier to leave the buzzers enabled for all rounds and assume nobody's going to try to buzz in during a letters or numbers round, and excepting the Gotcha episode, as far as I know nobody has.
The same goes for buzzing in after you've already got the conundrum wrong. There's no reason to disable the buzzer of the person who answered wrongly. If they buzz in a second time, Nick just has to tell them they aren't allowed to buzz again and restart the clock. All they're doing is giving extra time to their opponent.
Another interesting question, which I have no idea about the answer to, is this. Suppose your opponent buzzes in with half a second left, then you realise what the answer is. Your opponent gives the wrong answer. So now you've got half a second to buzz in. If you hold down the buzzer before Nick restarts the clock, so you're already holding it down when the clock restarts, would that count as a buzz? Or does the actual press have to be while the clock is running? In technical jargon, the question is does the thing that detects buzzer presses while the clock's running detect a high voltage or a rising edge? Could be important in this situation.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Cheers Graeme - that would have been my guess as well, but is completely at odds with Andy's answer.
Charlie did a couple of very late buzzes after late guesses against Junaid and Steve in the CoC, at least one of which I'm sure had hardly any time left at all in which to buzz, so maybe he can offer something here.
Charlie did a couple of very late buzzes after late guesses against Junaid and Steve in the CoC, at least one of which I'm sure had hardly any time left at all in which to buzz, so maybe he can offer something here.
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Re: Ask Graeme?
OK so could it be that Nick's button both starts the clock and enables the contestant buzzers?
Edit: I could just have invented this from somewhere
Edit: I could just have invented this from somewhere
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Re: Ask Graeme?
Yes, that's what I mean. I think the buzzers are enabled whenever the clock is running.Andy Platt wrote:OK so could it be that Nick's button both starts the clock and enables the contestant buzzers?
Edit: I could just have invented this from somewhere
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Re: Ask Graeme?
I buzzed when I wasn't supposed to when filming The Chase - at the point where I was down to just me on the team and joked that I was annoyed because I wouldn't get to press the buzzer any more.
My name rung out around the studio and it broke the display on the front of the desk, filming was delayed by about 5 minutes while they fixed it. Oops.
My name rung out around the studio and it broke the display on the front of the desk, filming was delayed by about 5 minutes while they fixed it. Oops.
Re: Ask Graeme?
Think you meant to post that on the 'The Chase' forum mate.