Ask Graeme?

[Matt Morrison]

There is only one instance of two episodes having the same R1 selection and the same R2 selection. These were episodes 153 and 154, so it was probably a shuffling failure rather than a remarkable coincidence.

And worth mentioning the two R3s were 8/9 matching. Utter madness. Someone got shuffling in the first numbers round.

[Tom S]

3 of Conor Travers' prelim opponent's have since re-appeared as contestants on the show. Is this the most re-appearing contestant's from a particular octochamp's prelim run?

[Sam Cappleman-Lynes]

Has there ever been an episode in the 15-round era in which every letters selection contained only 3 vowels?

[Graeme Cole]

3 of Conor Travers' prelim opponent's have since re-appeared as contestants on the show. Is this the most re-appearing contestant's from a particular octochamp's prelim run?

I first misinterpreted this question as "which opponent of an octochamp has had the most separate runs", so I might as well answer that, which is Barbara Wylde with 3 appearances.

The answer to the actual question asked here is that there are two octochamps for whom three of their prelim opponents later reappeared - they are Kevin Thurlow (Shelagh Addis, Philip Jarvis, Peter Lee) and Richard Pay (Sue Babb, Kirk Bevins, Sue Booton).

Perhaps I'm missing something - as far as I can tell only two of Conor's prelim opponents returned (Jane Capie and Judy Bursford). Who's the third?

[Graeme Cole]

Has there ever been an episode in the 15-round era in which every letters selection contained only 3 vowels?

There have been six:

http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_3876
http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_3954
http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_4381
http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_4682
http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_4956
http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_7002

In all of these except episode 3954, the conundrum also had no more than three vowels. In episode 4956 it only had two.

[Tom S]

Perhaps I'm missing something - as far as I can tell only two of Conor's prelim opponents returned (Jane Capie and Judy Bursford). Who's the third?

Andrew Christley, but he went on on his 2nd appearance as Andy Christley. Don't think the wiki notes it.

[Rhys Benjamin]

Perhaps I'm missing something - as far as I can tell only two of Conor's prelim opponents returned (Jane Capie and Judy Bursford). Who's the third?

Andrew Christley, but he went on on his 2nd appearance as Andy Christley. Don't think the wiki notes it.

Are you sure? The image on the wiki looks too young. If that's confirmed for sure I will happy merge the two articles.

[Gavin Chipper]

What is the longest DC guest run? Phil Hammond just did eight.

[Johnny Canuck]

What is the longest DC guest run? Phil Hammond just did eight.

Kenneth Williams’ gig in Series 1 and 2 comes to mind but that might not be it.

[Tom S]

What is the longest DC guest run? Phil Hammond just did eight.

Kenneth Williams’ gig in Series 1 and 2 comes to mind but that might not be it.

Paul Zenon is to do 10 in a row soonish.

[Ben Wilson]

Gyles surely had the longest continuous run sometime in the eighties?

[Adam Dexter]

What is the longest run of teapots there have been? There have been 5 in a row (and counting) at present.

Getting rather expensive in the porcelain dept!

[Patrick Thompson]

Apologies if it’s already been asked but what is the longest valid word that’s come out in the selection stage?

[James Robinson]

Apologies if it’s already been asked but what is the longest valid word that’s come out in the selection stage?

LOUNGED certainly came out in one of Julian Fell’s games.

[L'oisleatch McGraw]

Are there any Apterous users who have played at least one game every month since August 2008?

[Thomas Cappleman]

Which octochamp has the smallest range of scores? Which has the smallest coefficient of variation?

And the answer to Sam's implicit question (where is he in the lists), which I'm sure he's already worked out: Joint second on range with 13, and 3rd on CV with 4.24

[Gavin Chipper]

Which octochamp has the smallest range of scores? Which has the smallest coefficient of variation?

And the answer to Sam's implicit question (where is he in the lists), which I'm sure he's already worked out: Joint second on range with 13, and 3rd on CV with 4.24

What about standard deviation? (The better one.)

[Thomas Carey]

Are there any Apterous users who have played at least one game every month since August 2008?

Ian Volante has september 2008 which I assume is the best you'll get

[Sam Cappleman-Lynes]

I also did the same thing for the Nasty large numbers:

4 Large - 27492: 316 = ((62 * 12 - 1) * 37 + 1) / 87
3 Large - 32451: 877 = ((62 * 6 + 1) * 87 - 2) / 37
2 Large - 22950: 918 = (62 * 37 * 10 + 10) / (5 * 5)
1 Large - 10440: 580 = 87 * 8 * (8 + 7) / (9 + 9)

I briefly wondered what the results would be if you were allowed *any* large numbers, Aegilops-style. But a quick estimate tells me it would take a few months to exhaustively check every case. The main problem is that I've had to turn off the optimisation where I throw away partial calculations if there are multiple ways of reaching the same value with the same numbers, because here we genuinely care about the difference between (100 + 75) - 50 and 100 + (75 - 50).

Update: I decided to do the Aegilops version of this question - namely, what is the highest unavoidable intermediate result to a numbers solution when the large numbers can be anything in the range 11-100? The results are:

1 Large - 15600: 975 = 26 * 6 * 10 * 10 / (8 + 8)
2 Large - 93600: 975 = 52 * (9 + 9) * 10 * 10 / 96
3 Large - 106596: 987 = 94 * 81 * (7 + 7) / (99 + 9)
4 Large - 855360: 972 = 96 * 90 * 99 / (89 * 10 - 10)

I almost can't believe the size of the answer to 4L.

[Ian Volante]

Are there any Apterous users who have played at least one game every month since August 2008?

Ian Volante has september 2008 which I assume is the best you'll get

Sad isn't it?

[L'oisleatch McGraw]

How many times has an error been made in dictionary corner, whereby they allowed a word not in the relevant dictionary, or disallowed a word that was...?

[Tom S]

Is 82 the biggest range in terms of scores in which a player has got in any 15 rounder? Thinking about how Sam's 1st opponent got 115 the game before and then 33 the next. Wondering if that is the largest range?

[Matt Morrison]

How many times has an error been made in dictionary corner, whereby they allowed a word not in the relevant dictionary, or disallowed a word that was...?

justice for heather

[Rhys Benjamin]

How many times has an error been made in dictionary corner, whereby they allowed a word not in the relevant dictionary, or disallowed a word that was...?

44 times a word has been wrongly allowed, I know that much since I've just edited them all in the wiki.

[Rhys Benjamin]

How many 9-letter words have appeared on the show exactly once (both including and excluding as a conundrum)? I’m thinking of DIARRHOEA for a start.

[Ben Wilson]

One thing I've been wondering- who's played the most number of old 15 rounders without having ever played any other format? I'd be surprised if it wasn't Jack Hurst. Similarly, who's played the most number of old 9 rounders without having ever played any other format, including 14 rounders or masters games? That one's a bit harder to figure out.

[Rhys Benjamin]

who's played the most number of old 9 rounders without having ever played any other format, including 14 rounders or masters games? That one's a bit harder to figure out.

I thought I'd have a go at this myself, manually... (i.e. I'm going to have a guess and get it wrong).

My immediate thought was the Supreme Championship, but since almost all of those players have done a GF, Coc GF, a Masters, or a 2003-15 special, then they're more or less out.

What you want, really, is a 9-round octochamp that got to the semi final, returned for a COC and, again, got to a semi final, since as far as I can work out there's no one at all in the SC other than Satbir Gupta who didn't play any other format.

So with that in mind, I'm going to make a guess at 12, tied between Terry Knowles, Simon Pryde (on account of the fact a lack of an 8th heat game is made up for by having a then non-standard 16-player COC), Suzanne Miles, and Lindsay Denyer.

But it's just a guess.

[Thomas Carey]

One thing I've been wondering- who's played the most number of old 15 rounders without having ever played any other format? I'd be surprised if it wasn't Jack Hurst. Similarly, who's played the most number of old 9 rounders without having ever played any other format, including 14 rounders or masters games? That one's a bit harder to figure out.

new 15 has to be zarte right, surely?

[Tom S]

Was looking at this game: http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_6645, and the champ stops scoring from R7-onwards. Has any champ stopped scoring points before that point?

[JackHurst]

Was looking at this game: http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_6645, and the champ stops scoring from R7-onwards. Has any champ stopped scoring points before that point?

I would say this game is more notable for the winning word in rd 8.

[Tom S]

Was looking at this game: http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_6645, and the champ stops scoring from R7-onwards. Has any champ stopped scoring points before that point?

I would say this game is more notable for the winning word in rd 8.

If I recall correctly, Noel was completely composed when he was declaring it. Think you'd have to be if you were a secondary school teacher declaring FAPS!

[Noel Mc]

I would say this game is more notable for the winning word in rd 8.

Spotted it after about 2 seconds. Spent the next 28 seconds panicking, desperately trying to find something else.

[JackHurst]

I would say this game is more notable for the winning word in rd 8.

Spotted it after about 2 seconds. Spent the next 28 seconds panicking, desperately trying to find something else.

Brilliant. Good job there wasn't another F for SPAFF

[Charlie Reams]

I would be interested to see some stats along the lines of "max % for top seed versus max % for the other seven seeds" for each series. This might be one way to evaluate players who were most "ahead of their time" in comparison to other strong players from the same era.

[Gavin Chipper]

I would be interested to see some stats along the lines of "max % for top seed versus max % for the other seven seeds" for each series. This might be one way to evaluate players who were most "ahead of their time" in comparison to other strong players from the same era.

It might just suggest a weak series. To be ahead of their time, they'd have to be breaking new ground for max % compared to previous series. I don't think looking at someone's own series in isolation tells you that much. If you look at octochamps, you've probably got Harvey Freeman, Julian Fell and Elliott Mellor as the best examples.

But octoruns don't tell the whole story. Elliott Mellor didn't really break new ground in terms of performance overall, because of Conor Travers's performances in the 30th birthday thing. Also I think Helen Grayson actually had a higher max % than Freeman (and was before him) but wasn't an octochamp. She was number one seed though, so it fits your criterion actually. But then with such a low max available to her (apparently the eight games starting with her first (in her second run, because she retired early from series 1) had the lowest max ever - which is a pretty freaky coincidence), perhaps it's arguable that it's easier to get a high percentage of that max. And Allan Saldanha's overall performance in the supreme championship looked ahead of its time, even though he lost to Harvey Freeman (who had played worse in the tournament overall) in the final.

[Rhys Benjamin]

I would be interested to see some stats along the lines of "max % for top seed versus max % for the other seven seeds" for each series. This might be one way to evaluate players who were most "ahead of their time" in comparison to other strong players from the same era.

This is actually how I tend to predict series winners, and led to me correctly predicting Ed McCullagh would beat Adam Gillard.

[Graeme Cole]

What is the longest DC guest run? Phil Hammond just did eight.

Kenneth Williams’ gig in Series 1 and 2 comes to mind but that might not be it.

This is it. Kenneth Williams was the DC guest in 39 episodes in a row spanning most of series 1 and some of series 2.

The next longest run is 17, on two occasions, both by Gyles Brandreth. They were in series 4 and series 8.

[Graeme Cole]

What is the longest run of teapots there have been? There have been 5 in a row (and counting) at present.

Getting rather expensive in the porcelain dept!

If you only count heat games and ignore intervening finals, seven teapots in a row is the record. It's happened on three occasions:

• Episode 2902 at the tail end of series 43 to episode 2915 in the following series.
• Episode 3492 to episode 3498 in series 49.
• Episode 4667 to episode 4673 in series 59.

These all happen to be after the teapot was introduced as a prize in about 1998 or so, but the answer is unchanged if you also look at before then. I'm counting a teapot as being awarded if a player won a heat game and that was the first episode of their run.

[Graeme Cole]

Apologies if it’s already been asked but what is the longest valid word that’s come out in the selection stage?

LOUNGED certainly came out in one of Julian Fell’s games.

I don't have a definitive word list, but I'd expect this is it (round 8 in this game), possibly along with other equally-long words. If there had been an eight-letter tnetennba I think it would have been remarked upon when transcribing the historical recaps years ago.

[Graeme Cole]

How many times has an error been made in dictionary corner, whereby they allowed a word not in the relevant dictionary, or disallowed a word that was...?

I can't claim credit for this, but I think what you want here is the category on the wiki entitled Episodes affected by administrative errors. However, this includes all kinds of mistakes unrelated to word adjudication like when a vowel comes out of the consonant box.

There's also a narrower category called Episodes critically affected by administrative errors, when an error affected the result of the game or the seedings for the finals.

[Matt Morrison]

cool page. someone add Heather's! http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_4984

[Graeme Cole]

Is 82 the biggest range in terms of scores in which a player has got in any 15 rounder? Thinking about how Sam's 1st opponent got 115 the game before and then 33 the next. Wondering if that is the largest range?

According to the database which only goes up to series 81, the largest min-max range by a player in new 15-rounders was 76 by Jill Thwaites (103 and 27), so the range of 82 this series is the new record.

In old 15-rounders it was 80 (134 and 54) by Hamish Williamson.

[Graeme Cole]

How many 9-letter words have appeared on the show exactly once (both including and excluding as a conundrum)? I’m thinking of DIARRHOEA for a start.

I'm taking "appeared on the show" to mean "either or both of the contestants offered the word", mainly because I can't do it if I define it as anything else - the database doesn't record DC offerings. If both contestants offered it in the same round, that only counts as once.

Disregarding conundrums, there are 641 valid nine-letter words which have been offered in exactly one round ever, up to the end of series 81.

If we count conundrums as well (an "appearance" is when the word was the conundrum's solution, regardless of whether it was solved), there are 1,948.

[Graeme Cole]

One thing I've been wondering- who's played the most number of old 15 rounders without having ever played any other format? I'd be surprised if it wasn't Jack Hurst. Similarly, who's played the most number of old 9 rounders without having ever played any other format, including 14 rounders or masters games? That one's a bit harder to figure out.

Exclusively 9 rounders: Lindsay Denyer, Suzanne Miles, James Martin, Simon Pryde, Bhavin Manek and Terry Knowles (12).
Exclusively old 15 rounders: Mark Tournoff and Jack Hurst (17).
Exclusively new 15 rounders: Zarte Siempre (21).

[Thomas Carey]

One thing I've been wondering- who's played the most number of old 15 rounders without having ever played any other format? I'd be surprised if it wasn't Jack Hurst. Similarly, who's played the most number of old 9 rounders without having ever played any other format, including 14 rounders or masters games? That one's a bit harder to figure out.

Exclusively 9 rounders: Lindsay Denyer, Suzanne Miles, James Martin, Simon Pryde, Bhavin Manek and Terry Knowles (12).
Exclusively old 15 rounders: Mark Tournoff and Jack Hurst (17).
Exclusively new 15 rounders: Zarte Siempre (21).

Well timed, since Jack's about to lose this 'record' in a couple months

[Graeme Cole]

Was looking at this game: http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_6645, and the champ stops scoring from R7-onwards. Has any champ stopped scoring points before that point?

If you're talking about 15-round heat games and only counting players not in the first game of their run, no. That's the only 15-round game where a champion scored nothing after R7.

[Tom S]

Was looking at this game: http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_6645, and the champ stops scoring from R7-onwards. Has any champ stopped scoring points before that point?

If you're talking about 15-round heat games and only counting players not in the first game of their run, no. That's the only 15-round game where a champion scored nothing after R7.

Thanks- was what I was inferring at.

[Graeme Cole]

I would be interested to see some stats along the lines of "max % for top seed versus max % for the other seven seeds" for each series. This might be one way to evaluate players who were most "ahead of their time" in comparison to other strong players from the same era.

I think this is vaguely similar to what you want...

This table is for all series since the 15-rounder started (series 46). First column is the series number, second column is the top seed's name, third column is their max percentage for their heats, fourth column is the average max percentage for the other seven seeds in that series. The "other seven seeds" are all the players who played a quarter-final in that series except the top seed, so anyone who would have qualified for the finals but didn't turn up for whatever reason isn't counted.

A maxed round is when the player scored the most points possible in the round (including, say, unbeaten 2-away numbers solves when the max was 1-away).

"Average max percentage" of the other seven players is worked out by dividing the total number of rounds those players maxed divided by the total number of rounds those players played, so players who played fewer than 8 heats have less weight in the average. Only the heat games for the relevant contestant run are considered.

Code: Select all

                             SEED 1  SEEDS 2-8
 SER  TOP SEED                MAX %    MAX %
  46  Ben Wilson            46.6666     44.0
  47  Chris Wills           65.8333  49.1666
  48  Julian Fell           78.3333  50.8641
  49  John Davies           51.6666  42.2764
  50  Chris Cummins         59.1666  47.8014
  51  Stewart Holden        71.6666  46.4052
  52  Paul Gallen              65.0  49.6296
  53  John Brackstone       54.1666  51.7283
  54  Conor Travers         66.6666  50.1818
  55  Steven Briers         55.8333  40.9696
  56  Aaron Webber          58.3333  44.4444
  57  Craig Beevers         74.1666     47.5
  58  David O'Donnell       68.3333  44.1509
  59  Charlie Reams         55.8333  45.6296
  60  Kirk Bevins           70.8333  48.5714
  61  Andrew Hulme          63.3333  51.7283
  62  Oliver Garner            65.0  42.1794
  63  Jack Hurst            75.8333  54.8809
  64  Adam Gillard             65.0  52.1088
  65  Mark Deeks            55.8333  43.2142
  66  Jonathan Rawlinson    74.1666  43.8095
  67  Paul James            55.8333  44.4047
  68  Giles Hutchings          77.5     50.0
  69  Dylan Taylor          84.1666  58.3030
  70  Mark Murray           69.1666  47.3202
  71  Dan McColm            79.1666  52.9696
  72  Thomas Cappleman      78.3333  51.9753
  73  Thomas Carey          78.3333  57.8616
  74  Paul Erdunast         70.8333  44.0522
  75  Martin Hurst          53.3333  40.1282
  76  Stephen Read          70.8333  45.4761
  77  Tom Chafer-Cook       68.3333  43.3333
  78  Zarte Siempre         74.1666  45.1572
  79  Martin May               52.5  39.4047
  80  Elliott Mellor           85.0  39.7333
  81  James Haughton           65.0  40.3571

[Charlie Reams]

Very interesting, thank you. So the biggest absolute differences are Elliott Mellor (+45%), Jonathan Rawlinson (+30%), and Zarte (+29%). My expectation was that more recent series are generally stronger and therefore it would be harder for the top players to maintain such a large advantage, but there's clearly no correlation. In fact the correlation between max rate and series number is very weak, so my whole premise is probably wrong.

[L'oisleatch McGraw]

Hi Graeme, Remembering my wife's amazing comeback against Neil Stephenson, 21 behind with 4 rounds to go and winning by 22 points, is there any other players that have come from behind better than that.

The biggest ever comeback in terms of the biggest deficit in the game by the eventual winner was by Richard Pay in this game, where he won despite being 40 points behind with 6 rounds left.

The furthest behind the eventual winner has been with four rounds left is 33 by Rory Coleman against Graham Harrison. For three rounds left, it's 26, in the same game. [url=http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_2163]

So if Paul had buzzed in with DECANTING before the human dictionary got it, he'd now hold the "3 rounds to go" record... Gotta be a candidate for one of the greatest "if onlys".

[Rhys Benjamin]

How many times has the max been 100 or more, and how many times has at least one contestant hit 100 or more?

(Basically, "century success rate", please.)

I know no one ever got a century in 9-rounders but I'd like to see how often it was possible...!

[Paul Anderson]

So if Paul had buzzed in with DECANTING before the human dictionary got it, he'd now hold the "3 rounds to go" record... Gotta be a candidate for one of the greatest "if onlys".

Pros: I'd have made the finals and I'd possibly be eligible for next CoC
Cons: Wouldn't have made all the friends that enabled ZD or even had the same desire to maybe

But yeah, I had convinced myself it wasn't going to be an -ing

[Gavin Chipper]

How many times has the max been 100 or more, and how many times has at least one contestant hit 100 or more?

(Basically, "century success rate", please.)

I know no one ever got a century in 9-rounders but I'd like to see how often it was possible...!

I don't think a max of less than 100 has ever happened in a televised 15-rounder.

[James Robinson]

How many times has the max been 100 or more, and how many times has at least one contestant hit 100 or more?

(Basically, "century success rate", please.)

I know no one ever got a century in 9-rounders but I'd like to see how often it was possible...!

I don't think a max of less than 100 has ever happened in a televised 15-rounder.

I think the lowest was just in the high 100’s...

[JackHurst]

Not really one for Graeme to answer, but more a bit of fun for the community at large to try and have a guess at.

Which contestant(s) has been seen from below the waist in most episodes?

I know e.g. for myself the answer is three (s63 final, 30BC QF Hug with DoD, 30BC Final). I think for Conor the answer is at least three (s54 final, 25th Birthday, 30BC final)

I don't know if Rachel has been a contestant in some special scenario before in which case she would obviously win.

[JackHurst]

Continuing in the spirit of asking questions which are awkward to find an answer to and which I think I may appear in the answers for:

Who is the soberest aptoholic to appear on the show? Defined by:
- Given somebody who had recorded an episode and also played at least 1 game on apterous (or we could limit it to subscribed to apterous)
- Who has the greatest gap in time between a recording date of any of their episodes and the game they had most recently played on apterous prior to that recording.

For example, when I filmed the xmas specials earlier this month, it was more than 6 years since I played on apterous (which I find nuts!!!)

I would imagine for most aptoholics the answer is <24hrs since it must be pretty common to be practising online the day before you record.

[Rhys Benjamin]

Not really one for Graeme to answer, but more a bit of fun for the community at large to try and have a guess at.

Which contestant(s) has been seen from below the waist in most episodes?

I know e.g. for myself the answer is three (s63 final, 30BC QF Hug with DoD, 30BC Final). I think for Conor the answer is at least three (s54 final, 25th Birthday, 30BC final)

I don't know if Rachel has been a contestant in some special scenario before in which case she would obviously win.

I think the answer is Carol Vorderman. She did more episodes than Rachel, and was a contestant in the 1997 Christmas special.

[L'oisleatch McGraw]

In light of the 18-11-2020 daily duel, I wonder which apto daily duel had:
a) the most 1st places awarded
b) the greatest percentage of 1st places awarded (if different)

?

[James Nguyen]

For example, when I filmed the xmas specials earlier this month, it was more than 6 years since I played on apterous (which I find nuts!!!)

Definitely tuning in for this

[Tom S]

Any non-finalist who averaged over 90 in their games? (excluding those who couldn't make the finals)