Spoilers for Thursday 12th December 2024 (Series 90, QF1)

[Philip A]

The quarter-finals begin. Among the finalists are 3 returnees, 2 of which have appeared in a previous series finals, and 1 Apterite in Chris Kirby who today plays the wild card Neil Holland (James Swinnteron was on holiday, so couldn’t be at these finals). Kirby hasn’t been in Apterous for a while, but still the favourite.

[Philip A]

R1 alt: URETHANE (albeit too late, admittedly)

[Philip A]

A good contest. Well done to Neil for taking a couple of rounds off the winner (as well as taking the lead), and proving to be a worthy finalist.

Good numbers from Chris Kirby. I think he’ll face two equally good opponents to beat in order to win, we’ll see.

Got the conundrum in 1.75 seconds.

[Gavin Chipper]

Good game. WEATHERLY for 9 in round 11. I don't think DC mentioned it - you'd think it would be an obvious one to check.

[Ryan Lam]

Happy Holidays, but not just yet in the Countdown studio as the Christmas decorations are not up yet. Hey, everyone's wearing Christmas sweaters already, let's see if this trend continues for the other six episodes! Oh, it seems like we'll be treated to some Christmas Carolers again as per what Colin mentioned in the Intro, could it be in the Grand Final on "Go Caroling Day" and making my prediction last year come true? We'll just have to wait. Here comes the anticipated first Finals match, between "The Grip, New Father and a Huge Fan of the Inverted "T" Selection" Chris Kirby and, wait a minute, it's not James Swinnerton, because he is on holiday at the time of filming as per what Colin mentioned (thanks for not leaving us up in the air unlike what happened to Robin Johnson all those years ago with Nick Hewer not mentioning a single word)! Instead, taking his place is the #9 Seed, "Never expecting to be here and stopped by a Messiah perhaps via Divine Intervention" Neil Holland, making it the first time in six years someone outside the Top 8 battles it out!

Letters: Now, I would have expected with the ODP Cull, there would be less things for me to comment here and the competition would be less exciting. How wrong I was. Chris, having appeared just barely a week ago on screen appears to hold his grip especially in the first few rounds with MANROPE in R4, but Neil doesn't buckle around pressure and ties him with their scores. Alas, the former is forced to take a backseat in the next round with the invalid escewing, allowing Neil to take over! Very unlucky to Neil who spots endnotes but there's not enough "E"s in R7 to make that after the anecdote The last third was really where both contestants shined with one word each, with LUMBAGO in R10 and FEMICIDE in R13, the latter being extremely commendable since Chris failed to secure an automatic victory by that point!

Numbers: An easy start to the Finals in R3 with a low target, with me dreading CECIL generates too easy numbers rounds with 1 Large in play every time recently for Finals matches. R6 wasn't that easy compared to the last pick, but still manageable, and Chris manages to take the lead with Neil not hitting the bullseye here! Then, Chris decides to deploy his "unusual tactic" of 4 Large to throw Neil off in R9, but alas, the target was too easy to get. Finally, R14, Neil decides to gamble with 6 Small and to try to force Chris into the difficult state of the Crucial Conundrum, unfortunately, luck was not on his side with Chris using the 2^9 method to get the answer (which many of us thought was a clever solution in the Daily Chat)!

Conundrum: Again, with the ODP killing off many bombastic words in the past, let's see how hard it is to unscramble RUGBINOSE. Turns out it was way harder to the point I blanked out, along with everyone in the studio. So, if there's one answer to the question "Has the Conundrum Difficulty gotten easier thanks to the ODP Cull?", the answer is "No". Let's hope I can try to get at least two or more in subsequent days.

With this being the first Series since the ODP Cull, I had predicted this match was going to be way tighter than say compared to an Octochamp facing someone with five wins in the past. I had predicted Chris to win by a margin of around 40 points, but it was narrower at 28 points. What an epic showdown by Neil, the wild card who never expected to be called up. I bet you gave those at home a nice episode to watch and you were definitely a great substitute for James in terms of your skill. Enjoy cooking all those holiday feasts this Christmas season, and I'm sure you're happy you got an early Christmas present in the form of the Finalists plaque!

Tomorrow's match is going to be exciting, because how often do we have two female Finalists facing off each other right? We have "Serial Countdown Player with 34 Years of experience to her name" Fiona Wood against "Probably the most luckiest player in terms of available "9"s in their Preliminaries and appearing immediately before another Octochamp" Helen McGivern. Don't discount either of them because they are both strong players in their own right, we'll just have to see who advances and who sadly has to leave!

Progress:
QF1 (12 December 2024): Chris Kirby (#1) vs Neil Holland (#9) (96 - 68)
QF2 (13 December 2024): Fiona Wood (#2) vs Helen McGivern (#7)
QF3 (16 December 2024): Rob Barkess (#3) vs Terence Newnham (#6)
QF4 (17 December 2024): David Roe (#4) vs Alex Call (#5)
SF1 (18 December 2024): Chris Kirby (QF1 Winner) vs (QF4 Winner)
SF2 (19 December 2024): (QF2 Winner) vs (QF3 Winner)
GF (20 December 2024): (SF1 Winner) vs (SF2 Winner)

[Tracey Anne Mills]

I think Chris will win this series but there are a few outside chances like Fiona Wood Rob Barkess or even David Roe that could be contenders for the series 90 crown.