Spoilers for Thursday 19 January 2023 - CoC XVI, SF 2

[Philip A]

Now only unbeaten players remain. Whatever happens from now, someone will walk away unvanquished in 15 games, and become the 7th person to achieve the ‘Triple Crown’ of Octochamp, Series Champion and Champion of Champions.

Vying for a place in the ultimate final against James Haughton are Dan Byrom and Ahmed Mohamed. Dan already a giant killer. Ahmed maxed every letters game last time. Can they maintain their impressive form once again?

[Johnny Canuck]

NEARLY as the English anagram of ANERLY

[Steve Hyde]

Only the second 15-rounder in history where both players have scored in the first 14 rounds, and one point off a max for Ahmed. Magic Countdowning from both

[Philip A]

Not even a conundrum can fool Ahmed. So unlucky, Dan. Both exceptional players who have upped their game since their regular series, as many other players have done. We’re in for a worthy final showdown tomorrow.

[Philip A]

I’m also going to go against Rachel’s prediction for the final and say it’ll come down to the conundrum.

[Rhys Benjamin]

TIMEOUTS
DOMAIN
519 = 75 x (4 + 3) - (100 + 50) / 25
townier x
EMPIRE
566 = (75 + 8 - 2) x 7 - 1
GUSSETS
MANLY
499 = 100 x (2 + 75 / 25) - 1
TANKERS
ROGUES
WIFE, was toying with unwife x
BRIDGE, rejected ABRIDGE
975 = 25 x (8 x 6 - 6 - 2 - 1)
not even close

So I lost 68-111 to Dan and 68-121 to Ahmed.

Also, Rick, do not have a partner who’s better than you at everything - or thinks they’re better than you at everything. Dreadful advice, all that does is leaving you feeling inadequate and useless. Sorry but that’s an appalling anecdote.

Was that the only conundrum? Infamously I had 3 conundrums reduced to 1 in my first game.

[Sam Cappleman-Lynes]

Was that the only conundrum? Infamously I had 3 conundrums reduced to 1 in my first game.

Yep, it was the only one, no other conundrums edited out.

[Philip A]

I guessed popillate x at the conundrum, so at least I got the first 3 letters right.

[Steve Hyde]

I guessed popillate x at the conundrum, so at least I got the first 3 letters right.

I was 100% sure it was papillote, as in "en papillote", but it isn't in the dictionary separately. Beat Ahmed to the buzzer and everything

[Philip A]

I guessed popillate x at the conundrum, so at least I got the first 3 letters right.

I was 100% sure it was papillote, as in "en papillote", but it isn't in the dictionary separately. Beat Ahmed to the buzzer and everything

An interesting trap there.

[Tracey Anne Mills]

What a cracking game it was !

[JackHurst]

Brilliant game. Dan was superb but Ahmed held his nerve and produced the goods on the conundrum. Conundrum difficulty has got a little bit less crazy since Chatoyant.

I actually sent POPLITEAL as a con to Ahmed on WhatsApp this Monday. Thankfully he just answered it without giving me any spoilers

There's all this talk about Ahmed being scared of the numbers. This is BS. He's just as good at the rest of them. He simply doesn't need to take the risk of tricky numbers because he knows he has the edge on the letters.

[Toby McDonald]

Outstanding game guys! Incredible standard from both. Very well done Ahmed, and very unlucky Dan. DOMANIAL and ANERLY were great spots. And that conundrum solve from Ahmed was insane. Should be a great final tomorrow.

I had ANTERNES written down in Round 10, but wasn't sure if I'd have risked it. Thought I was confusing it with ALTERNES.

R3 Alt.: (100+75-50/25)*3 = 519

[Johnny Canuck]

Is 232/234 the best joint haul by percentage? I don’t remember any double-maxes-minus-1 offhand.

[Ryan Lam]

How rare is it when the host actually introduces both contestants together another time after Florence and Sam last week. I didn't know each contestant was allowed to bring one person to the studio as the audience beforehand (I thought it was more), and the fact that Dan and Ahmed chose each other respectively given that they became friends at Co:Lon 2022 makes me respect them even more. It's time to put aside the North-South rivalry and play the match! Dan has admitted that he's never won against Ahmed either at Co:Lon or on Apterous, let's see if today is his lucky day or if not, how close can he come to defeating him.

Letters: First highlight of the game, and they clinched maximum points here in all but one of the rounds. The stakes are high and so is the standard of play. Commendable spots in the first-third were Ahmed's TITMOUSE in R1, DOMANIAL in R2 by both, GESSOES by Ahmed in R7 and AVERLY in R8 by both in the second-third, and finally in the last third, BIGARADE by both in R13. And that last word too, despite having no nines in this match, takes the both of them over the century line as we await the outcome of the last numbers round afterwards!

Numbers: Second highlight of the game, with both of them grabbing all 40 points available here! Dan, who has the first opportunity to select the numbers, goes for 4 Large in an attempt to try to break the tie, but it's too easy for a match of this calibre as Ahmed found a method to hit the target. Rachel by now doesn't need to ask what Ahmed wants , 1 Large it is for R6 and they both get it. Dan tries 4 Large again but CECIL is too kind and throws up a simple 499. Finally, Ahmed goes 1 Large again and with 975 simply being 25 × 39, it's a tie for all 14 Rounds up to this time! Damn, 111 points a piece, time to calm down for a moment before we come to the final section!

Conundrum: I couldn't bear to watch the end, someone has to go because we cannot end in a stalemate and have the conundrum unsolved. I see the conundrum and start thinking, I hear Ahmed's buzzer after 1.5 seconds and he says the answer is POPLITEAL with confidence! IT IS CORRECT and he goes through to the Championship Final!!

Yep, it was the only one, no other conundrums edited out.

WOW, I bet that moment left all of us on the edge of our seats right until the very end! Thanks Sam for also clarifying this was the one and only conundrum used with none edited out in case some of you had doubts whether they cut out unsolved or incorrect answers to other conundrums due to time constraints!

You can't deny this has been the best game ever so far for this Championship, tying all the way, something that has not happened since the first semi-final of Championship of Champions XIV back in January 2016 and I believe this is highest score in terms of ties before the conundrum since Zarte Siempre and Philip Aston's first encounter in June 2018 (Do correct me if I'm wrong)! What an exhilarating match it has been against the two champions when Anne Robinson was the host and what an ending that was! Dan, 111 points on any typical match would be enough to see you through, but it was not enough and considering this is the highest losing score of the Championship yet. You fought well to the very end, forced Ahmed into his first crucial conundrum ever and perhaps this must have been your best game against him, a personal best for you! It's ok if you don't have a full-time job as Anne kept questioning you last year , for you're now a PhD student and not many people can say they want to go down that path! All the best in the rest of your studies and hope we see you as Dr. Dan Byrom someday Thanks for all the times you've been in the Daily Chat too watching your own games and commenting what was going through your mind at the time as well!

One last show, the grand finale will be airing in a few hours from now, which of the two Series Champions will clinch the prestigious title and become only the 16th person in history to do so? Who of the players with 14 wins each will take their 15th? Someone's got to win, someone's got to lose sadly. Will James or Ahmed (aka Rachel's bet to win) be the person in the former? Don't miss it as we close this Championship, hopefully with a bang!

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) (70 - 108)
Preliminary 8 (11 January 2023): Matt O'Connor (Series 85 Runner-Up) vs Sam Cappleman-Lynes (Series 82 Runner-Up) (78 - 101)
Quarter-Finals 1 (12 January 2023): Florence Cappleman-Lynes (Preliminary 1 Winner) vs Sam Cappleman-Lynes (Preliminary 8 Winner) (95 - 93)
Quarter-Finals 2 (13 January 2023): Elliott Mellor (Preliminary 2 Winner) vs Dan Byrom (Preliminary 7 Winner) (102 - 106)
Quarter-Finals 3 (16 January 2023): Ahmed Mohamed (Preliminary 3 Winner) vs Luke Johnson-Davies (Preliminary 6 Winner) (132 - 100)
Quarter-Finals 4 (17 January 2023): James Haughton (Preliminary 4 Winner) vs Adam Latchford (Preliminary 5 Winner) (109 - 102)
Semi-Finals 1 (18 January 2023): Florence Cappleman-Lynes (Quarter-Finals 1 Winner) vs James Haughton (Quarter-Finals 4 Winner) (91 - 100)
Semi-Finals 2 (19 January 2023): Dan Byrom (Quarter-Finals 2 Winner) vs Ahmed Mohamed (Quarter-Finals 3 Winner) (111 - 121)
Championship Final (20 January 2023): James Haughton (Semi-Finals 1 Winner) vs Ahmed Mohamed (Semi-Finals 2 Winner)

[Dan Byrom]

It might sound crazy, but out of all my fourteen games on TV, despite losing this one, it's the one I'm most proud of, and the one where I left the studio happiest! I really was buzzing and on a big high when I left the studio!

I couldn't ask for anything more. I played Countdown to the absolute peak of my ability, including finding some tough spots (DOMANIAL and BIGARADE) and not missing anything I knew - It felt like a bonus to even be there in the first place as I wasn't expecting to get through the quarter final so I was able to come at this without any pressure and just enjoy the experience to the full for one final time, with someone who I get along with really well.

Ahmed deserved to win and I was really pleased for him to get through, and I'm really glad we were able to put on such a high quality game (and mean people won't feel like they missed out so much on the spicy (1) vs (2) Ahmed vs Elliott game!)

I love both Ahmed and James but rooting for Ahmed in the final now - think he deserves it and then I can say I lost to the winner!

[Dan Byrom]

There's all this talk about Ahmed being scared of the numbers. This is BS. He's just as good at the rest of them. He simply doesn't need to take the risk of tricky numbers because he knows he has the edge on the letters.

His weakness at numbers has definitely been exaggerated. Ahmed is strong at the numbers and has barely slipped up.
But when Ahmed's letters and cons are so far above the rest of the field, the attention has to shift to the numbers as the only realistic way to stop him, and although he's not nearly as bad as might be suggested on TV, he isn't just as good as the rest. I'd back myself against him in a numbers attack 90% of the time.

Having said that, numbers is the thing that I struggled with most when adapting from apto to TV and I did miss some, so that confidence might not transfer to the studio.

In the end it didn't matter!

[Fiona T]

It might sound crazy, but out of all my fourteen games on TV, despite losing this one, it's the one I'm most proud of, and the one where I left the studio happiest! I really was buzzing and on a big high when I left the studio!

I couldn't ask for anything more. I played Countdown to the absolute peak of my ability, including finding some tough spots (DOMANIAL and BIGARADE) and not missing anything I knew - It felt like a bonus to even be there in the first place as I wasn't expecting to get through the quarter final so I was able to come at this without any pressure and just enjoy the experience to the full for one final time, with someone who I get along with really well.

Ahmed deserved to win and I was really pleased for him to get through, and I'm really glad we were able to put on such a high quality game (and mean people won't feel like they missed out so much on the spicy (1) vs (2) Ahmed vs Elliott game!)

I love both Ahmed and James but rooting for Ahmed in the final now - think he deserves it and then I can say I lost to the winner!

Brilliant stuff Dan. Was so chuffed for you at the time and again watching yesterday - you were fantastic! No-one can ask for better TV countdown than yesterday's game, and the mutual friendship and respect between you both made the game a pleasure to watch.

[Gavin Chipper]

One of the great games for this semi-final. I was hoping for a double max.

I had ANTERNES written down in Round 10, but wasn't sure if I'd have risked it. Thought I was confusing it with ALTERNES.

So this was the one thing that stopped it then it seems.

[Gavin Chipper]

Only the second 15-rounder in history where both players have scored in the first 14 rounds, and one point off a max for Ahmed. Magic Countdowning from both

What was the other one? I probably should know.

[Johnny Canuck]

Dylan Taylor & Giles Hutchings' CoC semifinal

[L'oisleatch McGraw]

Great performances from both.
This surprised me. I expected this from the Ahmed / Luke QF... but no, it was the Dan game!
(Note to self: underestimating Dan is an error.)

Ahmed was right though.
To say that Dan has only won numbers-based games in their H2H is not a correct statement.
https://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=3155132
Not a 15R win, but still definitely proof that Dan has bested Ahmed at the strongest part of his game at least once.