Countdown recap for Wednesday 4 August 2021.
Anne tells us it's Barack Obama's 60th birthday. That's aged well. Rachel comments that Trump's orangeness was as important as Obama's blackness. Unintentional racism, perhaps?
C1: Champion Jason Dias (2 wins, 190 points.) Apterite who specialises in floor furniture.
C2: Challenger Brigid Brennan. Retired solicitor. Her heritage is completely Irish but her Irish accent is even worse than mine.
DC: Susie Dent and Julian Clary.
RR: Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.
R01: M F T O E O T G R
R02: S D N L E A A N U
R03: 100, 7, 4, 8, 2, 2. Target: 669.
TTT: ELFTOAST - "The man spoke very highly about the fake ice cream cone."
R04: K G M T I E E P O
R05: L R W O A U P T G
R06: 25, 75, 3, 10, 5, 6. Target: 969.
R07: W T N I E O D R A
R08: H S V N O E E O Y
R09: 25, 100, 75, 50, 8, 8. Target: 301.
TTT: SALESOUP - "It's nothing to do with the sale of soup, but it does involve bachelors."
R10: S R T B A E O O N
R11: S N R A E I H M T
R12: P C S L O U A A D
R13: Z R D E I I C T G
R14: 25, 50, 100, 9, 1, 10. Target: 183.
R15: N I C H E T H U D (conundrum)
And now a brief interlude before our main feature:
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Round 1: M F T O E O T G R
Jason: TOOTER (6) (try)
Brigid: mottoed (try) (phantom D, but is valid)
DC: GROTTO (6) FOOTER (6)
OT: FOETOR (6) FOREGO (6) FORGET (6) FORGOT (6) MOGOTE (6) MOOTER (6) REFOOT (6) REMOOT (6)
Score: 6–0 (max 6, jos 6)
Darren-o-meter: 0/1 (0%)
Would have been a great start for Brigid had there been a D there. No jokes please.
Round 2: S D N L E A A N U
Jason: SANDAL (6)
Brigid: LANDS (5)
DC: ANNUALS (7)
OT: ANNEALS (7) DUENNAS (7) LANDAUS (7) SUNLAND (7) UNLADEN (7) UNLADES (7) UNLEADS (7)
Score: 12–0 (max 13, jos 13)
Darren-o-meter: 0/2 (0%)
Jason doubles his lead, but no max today as he misses all the sevens, all of them.
Round 3: 100, 7, 4, 8, 2, 2. Target: 669.
Jason: 669. 100 × 7 − 8 × 4 + 2 ÷ 2 (10)
Brigid: -
Score: 22–0 (max 23, jos 23)
Jason comes very close to being timed out but gets the 10 points.
Teatime teaser: ELFTOAST -> FALSETTO
JUST ONE FALSETTOOOOOOOO.... GIVE IT TO MEEEEEEEEEEEE............
Round 4: K G M T I E E P O
Jason: TEMPO (5)
Brigid: TOME (4)
DC: peetime EPITOME (7)
Score: 27–0 (max 30, jos 30)
Darren-o-meter: 1/3 (33%)
Not a classic round as Jason only sees five and Brigid four. But DC see the darren.
Round 5: L R W O A U P T G
Jason: OUTLAW (6)
Brigid: PORTAL (6)
DC: RAGOUT (6) GROUT (5)
OT: POLUGAR (7)
Score: 33–6 (max 37, jos 36)
Darren-o-meter: 2/4 (50%)
Brigid finally gets off the mark, but Julian and Susie drop a point.
R5-6 Anne asks Brigid about her career as a solicitor. She was a high street solicitor, who says she preferred to reach out-of-court settlements. Anne asks about London's divorce lawyers... was she trying to imply something there?
Round 6: 25, 75, 3, 10, 5, 6. Target: 969.
Jason: 969. (10 + 3) × 75 − 6 (10)
Brigid: 955.
Score: 43–6 (max 47, jos 46)
Jason is already staring a second win in the face as Brigid doesn't see this fairly easy numbers game.
Julian is going on tour in The Dresser as Norman. Learning the lines apparently helps, although he says it's odd to play something with a straight bat when he's spent all of his life being funny. He's also just written another book about dogs, which comes out in October (a plug that's about as subtle as a trainwreck). As someone who has a phobia of dogs, I am not buying that book. And don't you dare buy it for me for Christmas if there's a C4C secret Santa. And, naturally, he reads part of it, before revealing that he always pats the ashes on the way out... which sounds weird to me.
Round 7: W T N I E O D R A
Jason: RATIONED (8)
Brigid: RATIONED (8)
DC: DANEWORT (8) DERATION (8) DOWNRATE (8)
OT: NADORITE (8) ORDINATE (8) RATIONED (8) RODENTIA (8) TEARDOWN (8)
Score: 51–14 (max 55, jos 54)
Darren-o-meter: 2/5 (40%)
Lots of straightforwardnesses here. What is the flattest round of 8s you can possibly have, because this can't be far off? Julian reads out Susie's words for her... so was he playing the game properly in other rounds? Seems very good if so.
Round 8: H S V N O E E O Y
Jason: ENVOYS (6)
Brigid: ENVY (4)
DC: HONEYS (6)
OT: HOOVES (6) SHEENY (6) VENOSE (6)
Score: 57–14 (max 61, jos 60)
Darren-o-meter: 2/6 (33%)
Brigid is the only person in the studio not to see a six.
We get Jason's career story now, and he's designed a piece of floor furniture for a major London retailer, but unfortunately given the fact no one wants to do any brand names, it just sounds like he's forgotten everything.
Round 9: 25, 100, 75, 50, 8, 8. Target: 301.
Jason: 300. 50 × 8 − 100 (7)
Brigid: 300. 50 × 8 − 100 (7)
RR: 301. (100 × 75 + 50) ÷ 25 − 8 ÷ 8 (10)
Score: 64–21 (max 71, jos 70)
I... the obvious way was 100 x (3) + (1), surely? Rachel decides to show off, maybe because of how rubbish the contestants were on this one.
Teatime teaser: SALESOUP -> ESPOUSAL
All4 moaning: I've had an ad for Birkbeck's University of London campus for the THIRD time this episode.
Round 10: S R T B A E O O N
Jason: BOOSTER (7)
Brigid: BOASTER (7)
DC: basoon batoon BARONETS (8) AEROBOTS (8)
Score: 71–28 (max 79, jos 78)
Darren-o-meter: 2/7 (29%)
BOASTER and BOOSTER for seven is beaten by BARONETS and AEROBOTS, which Julian just thinks is a fancy name for a drone.
Round 11: S N R A E I H M T
Jason: REMAINS (7)
Brigid: SHAMER (6)
DC: HAIRNETS (8)
OT: MISHANTER (18)
Score: 78–28 (max 97, jos 87)
Darren-o-meter: 3/8 (38%)
RETAINS+H+M = a nine, but no one is aware of that. Jason is perhaps the second ever Apterite not to know the RETAINS stem, following in the footsteps of yours truly.
Susie goes jargonbusting. In 1952, The Daily Telegraph described this as "bafflegab", the definition of which was an example, so much so I can't type it all out or I'll be a week writing this. She then gives us the origin of "jargon" itself, which is related to birdsong: much like birdsong, it's important to some more than it is to most.
Not going to lie, one of the best OOW slots for a long while.
Round 12: P C S L O U A A D
Jason: CLOUDS (6)
Brigid: CLOUDS (6)
DC: UPLOADS (7) CUPOLAS (7)
OT: COPULAS (7) PASCOLA (7) POUSADA (7) SCAPULA (7) SCOPULA (7)
Score: 84–34 (max 104, jos 94)
Darren-o-meter: 3/9 (33%)
Not much to say here. Jason is over the line once again.
Round 13: Z R D E I I C T G
Jason: TRICE (5)
Brigid: CREDIT (6)
OT: DITZIER (7)
Score: 84–40 (max 111, jos 100)
Darren-o-meter: 4/10 (40%)
A nice way to round off the day for Brigid with a good letters win, but it's now too little too late.
Round 14: 25, 50, 100, 9, 1, 10. Target: 183.
Jason: 183. 100 + 50 + 25 + 9 − 1 (10)
Brigid: 184.
Score: 94–40 (max 121, jos 110)
Rachel just draws plusses and a minus at the top of the whiteboard: "that one plus that one plus that one..." Lazy.
Round 15: N I C H E T H U D
Jason buzzes on 10.5 seconds to say UNHITCHED which is correct.
Final Score: 104–40 (max 131, jos 121)
So Jason caps off another excellent performance with a good conundrum solve. That's 3 wins and he looks fairly unstoppable.
Rachel asks Anne if she's going to Barack Obama's party - that aged well!
Join us again for Countdown. Goodbye.
Further summaries are at:
http://cdb.apterous.org/series.php?series=84