Spoilers for Monday 9 January 2023 - CoC XVI, Prelim 6

[Philip A]

The search to find Countdown’s 16th Champion of Champions continues with three more 1st-round matches this week, followed by two quarter-finals. Martin May, the runner-up of Series 79 from over 4 years ago, makes his 19th Countdown appearance. He’s up against Luke Johnson-Davies, who won the longest ever, year-long series in 2020 (suspended and extended due to the pandemic) and enters the tournament with a run of 31 maxed letters rounds so far.

[Gavin Chipper]

Luke Johnson-Davies is the unofficial number 1 seed for this tournament so it will be interesting to see how he goes.

[Gavin Chipper]

You hope it's more of a challenge than the first numbers? I'd say it was quite hard actually!

[Gavin Chipper]

Second TTT went missing. Maybe it was due to recent news events like the pope dying. POPEMEEL. If music be the meal of the pope, play on, Heather.

[Toby McDonald]

Congrats Luke, some excellent spots in there. Commiserations Martin.

Can't wait for Ahmed v Luke, should be a belter.

ABUTTER in R2

[Philip A]

Congrats Luke, some excellent spots in there. Commiserations Martin.

Can't wait for Ahmed v Luke, should be a belter.

ABUTTER in R2

I had ABUTTER too. And yes, Ahmed V Luke will be almighty close. Given their form, I think it’ll likely come down to a crucial conundrum.

Never heard of a tomatillo. Hardest conundrum package so far.

[Tom S]

Congrats Luke, some excellent spots in there. Commiserations Martin.

Can't wait for Ahmed v Luke, should be a belter.

ABUTTER in R2

I had ABUTTER too. And yes, Ahmed V Luke will be almighty close. Given their form, I think it’ll likely come down to a crucial conundrum.

Never heard of a tomatillo. Hardest conundrum package so far.

Weirdly, was the first one that I spotted and can define...

[Philip A]

13 maxima as well, which is the most by anyone in this championship so far.

[Andres Sanchez]

What's been the maxes on each one this far

[Ryan Lam]

Wow, spicy backstory to this episode I must say thanks to Fiona and Ahmed's conversations in the Daily Chat, because Rachel mentioned her favourite contestant in the Introduction was someone with a questionable background (I will not mention who to protect all involved) . Cue Rachel intermittently swearing the F word afterwards off-camera with the directors thinking "Why the hell would you say such a thing on television?" Had that portion aired, I think it would have been the most scandalous episode in recent memory (A retake was done with her mentioning Matt O'Connor instead, but I personally feel favouritism was why it was cut especially since he's coming back soon).

Speaking about that, the second Teatime Teaser was cut mysteriously too, so if anyone who was present during the recordings and can remember what it was, do voice it out here! On to the main part now with Luke's achievement of a max game in his Quarter-Finals was mentioned. I still recall all of us going wild and crazy in the Daily Chat when it happened, has it really been two years since end-2020? Susie's back too with her Origins of Words as her voice has improved (although it's still clearly not her normal one just yet), that is great!

Letters: The gap opens up in R4 when markies was disallowed, but a fast spot by both Martin and Luke in R5 allows them to gain 18 points each thanks to NODALISES! Cheeky for Luke to go for a rhyming word in R7, and he picks up the pace after the second break with ELEGIAC (although his pronunciation led me to initially think he meant alegiac) in R10, NAVETA in R11 and ROMAJI in R12! That is crazy, and to think Dictionary Corner has still yet to beat him despite an opportunity in R2 with ABUTTER!

Numbers: Good first solve from both as Martin eases us into a new week with 1 Large. Luke then decides to use his Grand Final tactics of 6 Small, but it's so easy thanks to the two 10s that Rachel doesn't bother. The same choice again, but this time from Martin in R9, but it doesn't help him as Luke got the best solution (I was in vain in terms of finding a way to make 101 × 8) Finally, even though Luke's victory is confirmed, let's have some rest with 1 Large in R14. Well, here it is with a simple target!

Conundrum: I admit I chuckled at Luke's attempt of milototal, because Milo is an actual drink brand and I like it a lot, so thanks for that unintentional reference anyways I pity myself though, because I did make out the word "Tomato" one second before the time ran out, but simply could not think of a nine-letter word with that inside.

19 appearances Martin, wow, that is prolific for sure as mentioned by Colin, and of course I'm sure you meant Series 79 rather than 78 at the start. It's a shame just like Stephen Read who was the sole contestant of Series 76 in the last CoC and got knocked out, you now face the same fate by being the sole contestant from Series 79. However, I'm sure your 15 years of experience have not all gone to waste. Despite having to wait for four years just for this moment, you still had your skills worked out for you and finishing on 90 points to make a double century game is something you should be proud of, a far cry from when you were beaten by Mike Daysley in December 2018. All the best in your restaurant business and hopefully, some of us would patronise it in the not too distant future!

I think Rachel may be right when she said the Championship of Champions Winner may come from the third Quarter-Final next Monday, both Ahmed and Luke have strong potential apart and of course, we'll know the answer either by next Thursday or Friday. Two more preliminaries to go then, and I'd like to term the next match the alternative to the Series 85 Grand Final, because this is what would have happened if Steve Hyde had defeated Matt O'Connor in the second Semi-Finals last June. Will he have a shot against the Series Champion Dan Byrom and give a run for his money like Matt did? The outcome, no matter what will guarantee a Series 85 contestant in the Quarter-Finals here, so best of luck as we have a glimpse of an "unwritten" version of the show!

Progress:
Preliminary 1 (02 January 2023): Florence Cappleman-Lynes (Series 84 Runner-Up) vs Leo Smith (Series 82 Semi-Finalist) (100 - 69)
Preliminary 2 (03 January 2023): Dinos Sfyris (Series 80 Grand Champion) vs Elliott Mellor (Series 80 Runner-Up) (88 - 110)
Preliminary 3 (04 January 2023): Ahmed Mohamed (Series 84 Grand Champion) vs Edward Byrne (Series 86 Runner-Up) (121 - 76)
Preliminary 4 (05 January 2023): Stu Harkness (Series 84 Semi-Finalist) vs James Haughton (Series 81 Grand Champion) (97 - 111)
Preliminary 5 (06 January 2023): Tom Stevenson (Series 86 Grand Champion) vs Adam Latchford (Series 83 Grand Champion) (95 - 97)
Preliminary 6 (09 January 2023): Martin May (Series 79 Runner-Up) vs Luke-Johnson Davies (Series 82 Grand Champion) (90 - 117)
Preliminary 7 (10 January 2023): Steve Hyde (Series 85 Semi-Finalist) vs Dan Byrom (Series 85 Grand Champion)
Preliminary 8 (11 January 2023): Matt O'Connor (Series 85 Runner-Up) vs Sam Cappleman-Lynes (Series 82 Runner-Up)
Quarter-Finals 1 (12 January 2023): Florence Cappleman-Lynes (Preliminary 1 Winner) vs (Preliminary 8 Winner)
Quarter-Finals 2 (13 January 2023): Elliott Mellor (Preliminary 2 Winner) vs (Preliminary 7 Winner)
Quarter-Finals 3 (16 January 2023): Ahmed Mohamed (Preliminary 3 Winner) vs Luke Johnson-Davies (Preliminary 6 Winner)
Quarter-Finals 4 (17 January 2023): James Haughton (Preliminary 4 Winner) vs Adam Latchford (Preliminary 5 Winner)
Semi-Finals 1 (18 January 2023): (Quarter-Finals 1 Winner) vs (Quarter-Finals 4 Winner)
Semi-Finals 2 (19 January 2023): (Quarter-Finals 2 Winner) vs (Quarter-Finals 3 Winner)
Championship Final (20 January 2023): (Semi-Finals 1 Winner) vs (Semi-Finals 2 Winner)

[Gavin Chipper]

I think Rachel may be right when she said the Championship of Champions Winner may come from the third Quarter-Final next Monday, both Ahmed and Luke have strong potential apart and of course, we'll know the answer either by next Thursday or Friday.

I thought it was a bit harsh on the rest of them when she said this! But also, I think she's forgetting Elliott anyway.

[Rhys Benjamin]

Would love to know what that teaser was and why it was ditched.

[JackHurst]

I think Rachel may be right when she said the Championship of Champions Winner may come from the third Quarter-Final next Monday, both Ahmed and Luke have strong potential apart and of course, we'll know the answer either by next Thursday or Friday.

I thought it was a bit harsh on the rest of them when she said this! But also, I think she's forgetting Elliott anyway.

Elliott: Elite level player who is yet to prove his ability to perform under pressure on the show.
Luke: Elite level player who has proven his ability to perform under pressure
Ahmed: The only god level player in the competition. The only player who I back to be able to solve most of these very tough conundrums. Unknown how he will perform under pressure on the show though.

Any of these three can win it. If they were in separate quarters of the draw originally I would happily have bet a lot of money on one of the three winning the whole thing.

I Sam wins his last 16 game I make him statistically the overall favourite in the from the QF stages onwards due to the way the draw has worked out.

But yeah I agree with Rachel (sorry!)

[Gavin Chipper]

So you'd say Ahmed is god tier but not Elliott? Is this based on Apterous max percentages? I noticed Ahmed's got ridiculously high recently (probably behind the level only Conor, Rob and Jack W reach) but the lists are transient so can't be looked at later and I can't remember exactly. I wouldn't call his performance in his series god tier though even if he is better now. Elliott's octorun was probably the second best run of games on TV ever, behind only Conor's in the 30th. I'd have called that god tier, though as you say he didn't perform as well under pressure later on.

[Philip A]

Would love to know what that teaser was and why it was ditched.

As pointed out by Gevin, likely out of respect of recent events such as Pope Benedict XVI sadly passing away after recording and before broadcast – like when the pandemic began, every reference to it in any of the programmes was cut from broadcast.

[JackHurst]

So you'd say Ahmed is god tier but not Elliott?

Ahmed's word knowledge is god tier. I think for a long time WTF have been the three players clearly ahead of everybody else, but since he came back Ahmed has managed to start knocking on the door too.

Elliott will get to God Tier if he wants to, he's very close! If he wins CofC in strong fashion he might be God Tier

I 100% have bias to do with how much I've seen of a player and how well I know them. Pub chats with Ahmed have definitely helped him get into my god tier list

[Philip A]

If you have so much word knowledge, you need the letters to fall for you as well. That’s the thing. These killer conundrums have to fall for you as well.

[Gavin Chipper]

Would love to know what that teaser was and why it was ditched.

As pointed out by Gevin, likely out of respect of recent events such as Pope Benedict XVI sadly passing away after recording and before broadcast – like when the pandemic began, every reference to it in any of the programmes was cut from broadcast.

Maybe, but just to be clear but this:

Second TTT went missing. Maybe it was due to recent news events like the pope dying. POPEMEEL. If music be the meal of the pope, play on, Heather.

(which had the answer EMPEOPLE) was made up.

[Philip A]

Would love to know what that teaser was and why it was ditched.

As pointed out by Gevin, likely out of respect of recent events such as Pope Benedict XVI sadly passing away after recording and before broadcast – like when the pandemic began, every reference to it in any of the programmes was cut from broadcast.

Maybe, but just to be clear but this:

Second TTT went missing. Maybe it was due to recent news events like the pope dying. POPEMEEL. If music be the meal of the pope, play on, Heather.

(which had the answer EMPEOPLE) was made up.

Yeah I get the teaser was made up, but the recent events thing was still a reasonable possibility (also Pele passed away in between recording and broadcast). I know quiz shows have cut questions for similar reasons.

[Rhys Benjamin]

As pointed out by Gevin, likely out of respect of recent events such as Pope Benedict XVI sadly passing away after recording and before broadcast – like when the pandemic began, every reference to it in any of the programmes was cut from broadcast.

Maybe, but just to be clear but this:

Second TTT went missing. Maybe it was due to recent news events like the pope dying. POPEMEEL. If music be the meal of the pope, play on, Heather.

(which had the answer EMPEOPLE) was made up.

Yeah I get the teaser was made up, but the recent events thing was still a reasonable possibility (also Pele passed away in between recording and broadcast). I know quiz shows have cut questions for similar reasons.

It's almost certainly the reason, but I'd still like to know what it was...!