Birthday Championship Spoilers For Monday January 7th 2013

[James Robinson]

So, Happy New Year everyone. 2013 might not have an Olympic Games, a Ryder Cup, or even a Huddersfield Town promotion, but these next 8 weeks are scheduled to be 8 of the greatest weeks in the 30 years of Countdown.

After long arguments and ramblings, combined with Damian Eadie's seeming reluctance to hold a Champion of Champions tournament, we now have something that can easily rival the Supreme Championship of 1996, and while neither of the finalists of that match are participating in this tournament, the 41 lucky souls who will be taking part in this cacophony of greats will be taking part in what we hope will be a collection of 40 of the greatest matches to ever grace your television screen.

So, in case you aren't aware of how this tournament has been arranged, where the heck have you been for the last 2 months But, for those people, the first 9 matches, so from today upto a week on Thursday, are qualifying preliminary matches. Then that will drop to 32 people, which will make it a simple knockout that I'm sure that everyone can follow, but more on that later.

Our 1st match of this tournament is a match between 2 series runners-up: the Series 47 runner-up, Tom Hargreaves and the Series 62 runner-up, Nicki Sellars.

Here are some stats (with big thanks to the statistical compilation provided by Graeme Cole ):

Firstly, Series 47 Runner-Up & CoC XI Semi-Finalist Tom Hargreaves - 14 Games, 12 Wins, 1463 Points (Average: 104.50)
Highest Score: 131 vs. Ben Wilson (CoC Quarter-Final)
Lowest Score: 67 vs. Chris Wills (Grand Final)
9's Achieved: 4/9
Total Points/Max/%: 1463/1792 (82%)
Letters Points/Max/%: 1000/1232 (81%)
Numbers Points/Max/%: 383/420 (91%)
Conundrum Points/Max/%: 80/140 (57%)

Secondly, Series 62 Runner-Up Nicki Sellars - 11 Games, 8 Wins, 901 Points (Average: 81.91)
Highest Score: 100 vs. Danny Pledger (Quarter-Final)
Lowest Score: 62 vs. Oliver Garner (Grand Final)
9's Achieved: 0/2
Total Points/Max/%: 901/1338 (67%)
Letters Points/Max/%: 599/898 (67%)
Numbers Points/Max/%: 262/330 (79%)
Conundrum Points/Max/%: 40/110 (36%)

Back in DC for his 2nd spell this week is the Hairy Biker, Dave Myers.

So, join Graeme for the first of what promises to be an almost endless amount of brilliant matches to come in the next few weeks.

[Adam Gillard]

cacophony of greats

What?

[Heather Styles]

CoCophony, maybe?

[Adam Gillard]

Like it, Heather!

[Thomas Carey]

TRAVOIS R1

Also, why the new numbers tile backgrounds?

[Jordan F]

OUTDANCE as an equaller in the UNCOATED round.

[Richard Priest]

YAUPON as an equaller in round 13.

[Adam Gillard]

Well played Tom! Nice numbers at the end there, Nicki. First conundrum is a non-Ascension one, could be a sign of things to come!

[Jordan F]

And I think something like this is going to define what the standard is going to be this whole series. Very well done Tom, had a very consistent performance throughout. Unlucky Nicki, her instincts were there, just some risks that didn't work; that last numbers solve by her was also brilliant. Looking forward to some more of the same throughout.

[Jack Worsley]

Great performance there, Tom. You've set a very good standard for the rest of us to follow. Let's hope for another 39 games of a similar standard.

DELTOID to equal DILATED in round 4.

Last numbers: ((5+1)x25+5)x6+1 = 931

[Countdown Team]

First conundrum is a non-Ascension one, could be a sign of things to come!

If it's not an apterous Conundrum then that's coincidence (and unusual, given that it's an everyday word). The conundrums for the whole event are done and they've not been compiled with apterous in mind at all. There are no catches !

Edit to add - it is on apterous, i must have misunderstood you. Non-Ascension?

[Jojo Apollo]

Great to see the return of Countdown and an excellent return to the game by Tom, it's like no time has passed at all, still playing at a very high standard. DAEMONISE was a good try by Nicki.

Roll on the rest of the series.

[Martin Long]

Great start to the series.

I would have gone for DAEMONISE too.

[David O'Donnell]

Very well done, Tom. I'm now officially bricking our encounter!! Very unlucky for Nikki with DAEMONISE because I'm sure DAEMONIC is fine though not DAEMONIAC. Great last numbers from her too; she was so chuffed getting it too.

[Adam Gillard]

First conundrum is a non-Ascension one, could be a sign of things to come!

If it's not an apterous Conundrum then that's coincidence (and unusual, given that it's an everyday word). The conundrums for the whole event are done and they've not been compiled with apterous in mind at all. There are no catches !

Edit to add - it is on apterous, i must have misunderstood you. Non-Ascension?

There's a thing on apterous called Ascension, which has around 9,000 conundrums on it that are used in the normal games. COMMUNARD isn't one of them. Wasn't suggesting you'd looked at apterous! I was simply hoping that there would be some 'non-Ascension' conundrums in this tournament, and the first game didn't disappoint.

[James Robinson]

A brilliant debut, Tom, very well done. Just the sort of brilliance I'd expect from a Huddersfield Town fan.

GEARBOX in round 8, DOMINEES in round 12 and MYOPIA in round 13.

I must admit that I amazed myself by maxing it, and even though I saw COMMUNARD, I didn't even know it was a real word. I just thought it was a made-up name, something that Jimmy Somerville and Richard Coles put together in their heyday.

Also, since Nick mentioned it was Series 68, I'm switching all the 30th Birthday Championship pages to Series 68, also because the previous Supreme Championship was actually called Series 33, i.e. taking the actual number of the next series.

So, Rachael Moran will be back with us in Series 69.

[Gavin Chipper]

Good first game. Tom's looking in good form, and along with many of you above, I too would have gone for DAEMONISE (if I'd seen it).

[Tom]

Thank you to those who have posted here this evening. Really appreicate your kind comments.

Was great to be back and admittedly was bricking it at the time which to me showed when I watched it back this evening! Just glad I could still play and put in a good performance as I admittedly only had about 6 weeks practice before accepting and filming and had probably watched no more than about 40 shows in the last 8 years.

Nicki was a lovely lady who I think is far better than her score of 57 suggests; she was very unlucky with DAEMONISE and a couple of other words and her getting the final numbers round at the end I think was the least she deserved.

Onwards and upwards now and David if you're reading, I've been bricking it all along! But seriously I very much look forward to meeting you on Friday (will be up Thursday evening and will prob be in Spoons so if you're around come say hi.

Lovely spots as well James of GEARBOX and MYOPIA - I like it my fellow Terriers fan! TH

[Johnny Canuck]

Left school early for this; was totally worth it! Great stuff Tom; unlucky Nicki.

At first, did anyone else think the conundrum was CONUNDRUM?

[Andy Platt]

Good game that, enjoyed it, first time I've watched countdown without knowing the result or selections for what seems like ages.

Well done on the conundrum, I've certainly never heard of it. You had me with BORGATE too. I should get that, especially having studied Italian.

it's an everyday word

Really?!

[Rhys Benjamin]

At first, did anyone else think the conundrum was CONUNDRUM?

No, but I though round 11 was at first....

[James Robinson]

Since we've got the 30th Birthday Championships back on screen, I'd thought I'd do a comparison of words that would've been available now, compared to 7 years ago when these were first broadcast on screen.

In terms of max score, it would still have been 131, although rounds 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 12 and 13 had more different maxes available now than in 2013.

R1: AGISTOR, ORGIAST, OVATORS
R2: OUTHELD, OUTLIED
R4: MELODIA
R6: MUSIKER
R7: EPISTOLAR, PELOTARIS, POSTERIAL
R8: FATBERG
R12: NOMADISE
R13: OYABUN, PINBOY

[Gavin Chipper]

Weird that they kept putting up that note saying it was filmed before COVID-19, but not once did they have a warning that this would be played using the constipated version of the 15-rounder with just three numbers games.

[Jack Worsley]

Since we've got the 30th Birthday Championships back on screen, I'd thought I'd do a comparison of words that would've been available now, compared to 7 years ago when these were first broadcast on screen.

In terms of max score, it would still have been 131, although rounds 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 12 and 13 had more different maxes available now than in 2013.

R1: AGISTOR, ORGIAST, OVATORS
R2: OUTHELD, OUTLIED
R4: MELODIA
R6: MUSIKER
R7: EPISTOLAR, PELOTARIS, POSTERIAL
R8: FATBERG
R12: NOMADISE
R13: OYABUN, PINBOY

I've had a look through the wiki and found that 12 words that were disallowed for contestants during the series would now be allowed. 13 if you count duplicate answers twice. How many can you name? The answers are listed below, which you can highlight to see better.


Match 3: OUTLEAPT - Mark Deeks
Match 4: UPVOTE - Ben Wilson
Match 7: UNPOSTED, LADYFIES - Jackie MacLeod; MISDIET - Barry Grossman
Match 9: OVERWORN - Ed McCullagh; OVERSOW - Jonathan Rawlinson
Match 11: MASTING - Kai Laddiman and Jon O'Neill
Match 12: YAWNIEST - Chris Hawkins
Match 22: SPOUSING - Jack Hurst
Match 24: GROUPLETS - Darryl Francis
Match 25: UNMIXES - Andrew Hulme

Also, Neil Zussman's SUBPRIME in his Second Round game was briefly allowed on Apterous until the recent March update.