Spoilers for Wednesday 25th June 2025 - S91 SF1

[Philip A]

These finals have remained true to the seeds so far. The final four and the top four remain. First up, Rhys Jones VS Amy Berry for a place in Friday’s Grand Final.

[Philip A]

5 vowel 7 in Round 11: AUREOLA https://www.google.com/search?q=define% ... irefox-b-m

[Gavin Chipper]

BORONIAS was the word DC couldn't bring themselves to spell.

There's been discussion before on conundrums like OURSELVES. Not simply sticking an S on the end of course but I seem to remember some controversy. I'll have a look later.

[Fiona T]

BORONIAS was the word DC couldn't bring themselves to spell.

There's been discussion before on conundrums like OURSELVES. Not simply sticking an S on the end of course but I seem to remember some controversy. I'll have a look later.

Guidelines as of May last year said -

"The conundrum will never end in ‘S’ to make a plural of a singular word, so words BUNGALOWS will not be used. Some CAN end in ‘S’, but they will not be plurals, ie DIAGNOSIS, HEARTLESS etc."

So not a plural of a singular word, but definitely a plural, and the guideline is somewhat unclear

[John Garcia]

4th Numbers. A bit of a toughie to spot:

100/25 = 4; 4 + 3 = 7; 50 - 1 = 49; 49 x 7 = 343; 343 + 75 = 418

[Ryan Lam]

Consider this an International contest (that is, if you consider Wales to be a separate country from England vs the United Kingdom, don't get me started on this topic) where Rhys Jones is hoping to be the first Welsh Grand Champion since the late Huw Morgan back in March 1997 and Amy Berry aiming to be the first ever Filipino in that position and to make it to the Grand Finals of course. It's so exciting that Bob Harris doesn't get introduced at all in the Introduction as noted in the Daily Chat, maybe it was cut out perhaps. Both contestants are terrified at their opponents' performance in the Quarter Finals and for the right reasons, so let's see if nerves will get the better of them, or not!

First Third: Amy's good at the letters, but she takes a misstep and goes for the proper noun elations which some in the Daily Chat hoped she would not fall for this trap, but she did, allowing Rhys to gain a solid eight points At least she gets off the ground in R2, and now comes R3. As predicted, Rhys goes for his 6 Small selection, let's see if Amy will falter here. Oh no, two "1"s, and 752 as the target??!! No thanks, we all instantly gave up in the Daily Chat, and the blank faces (get it? ) on both contestants along with Rhys' declaration of 12 afterwards surely must have made you chuckle or laugh at least. Amy must have considered herself lucky that she dodged a bullet there, phew.

Second Third: Many 7"s in R5 make you go dizzy, and no surprise, Amy wants to play 1 Large in R6, hoping CECIL will be nice to her. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be with Rhys finding the only way to get a perfect solution, widening the gap! The rest in the Anecdote recharged Amy and she beats Rhys with DORMANT in R7 along with a great spot of FANTOD to tie him in R8, nice! Here we go, 6 Small again, and let's hope this target is possible. In the end, it was possible to gain points if you know how to spot 90 × 9 just like Rhys, but Amy draws a blank and scores nothing on the numbers up to this point, oh dear.

Last Third: This segment here is the last chance for Amy to make a comeback. Unlucky to Rhys as he had UNDERPLOT in R10 which would almost certainly have been the fatal blow for Amy if he had gone with that word However, Amy ties with him, and with her doing so in terms of points for all three letters rounds subsequently (great spot of AGORAE by the way from Rhys in R11), it's do or die in R14! Everyone in the Daily Chat cheered when just like Christine yesterday, Amy decided to end with 4 Large, so let's see if this is where CECIL will be kind. Tricky puzzle indeed, and with both contestants getting 420 the same way, the game was over and Rhys is through to the Grand Final with Amy redeeming herself with at least seven points! See? Who says a 4 Large puzzle has to be mean to someone who's only played 1 Large all this time? It might not be a crucial conundrum here, but can either of them RESOLVE this and get US out of a sticky situation? Nope, no one buzzes in, and when everyone saw the answer, it's a case of "now you see it, it looks terribly easy", oh well.

Guidelines as of May last year said -

"The conundrum will never end in ‘S’ to make a plural of a singular word, so words BUNGALOWS will not be used. Some CAN end in ‘S’, but they will not be plurals, ie DIAGNOSIS, HEARTLESS etc."

So not a plural of a singular word, but definitely a plural, and the guideline is somewhat unclear

Ah yes, the controversy just like SECATEURS in QF4 of Series 89 this time last year. Quick searches from me online (and using AI as a last resort) all suggest ourself is indeed valid, so it begs the question, does ourself fit the criteria of a "singular" word in everyone's eyes? Definitely food for thought, and of course we welcome your views about this too!

Sadly, I predicted Amy's road would end here and Rhys would have won by a huge margin of 40 points in huge part due to the Numbers, but that didn't happen because of him missing the nine-letter word and the margin was much narrower at 18 points. Amy, nevermind about your nervousness especially with you not being confident with Numbers and repeatedly saying "Just a (length of word)" which annoys some people. Your children and family in the Philippines (if you have any still residing there) must be very proud of what you have achieved, and that you have given Asians like me (yes, if you can't tell by now) the hope that this show will continue to inspire more people from there in the future. You can now show off the Finalist plaque online now that this episode has aired, and we definitely need more people like you, to show care and grace, just like your hug to Christine during the credits of yesterday's show.

Rhys is definitely going to face Tim, but of course, which one is it? Whatever happens, I'm guessing this next match is much harder to predict than today's outcome. Which of them will prevail and set up the final battle on Friday, the one whose surname starts with a "B" or a "J"? Who will have the better brain power and make it through?

Progress:
QF1 (19 June 2025): Rhys Jones (#1) vs Michael Kane (#8) (97 - 64)
QF2 (20 June 2025): Tim Bridgstock (#2) vs Tom Page (#7) (99 - 90)
QF3 (23 June 2025): Tim James (#3) vs Matt Fife (#6) (75 - 70)
QF4 (24 June 2025): Amy Berry (#4) vs Christine Smith (#5) (101 - 61)
SF1 (25 June 2025): Rhys Jones (QF1 Winner) vs Amy Berry (QF4 Winner) (84 - 66)
SF2 (26 June 2025): Tim Bridgstock (QF2 Winner) vs Tim James (QF3 Winner)
GF (27 June 2025): Rhys Jones (SF1 Winner) vs (SF2 Winner)

[Rhys Benjamin]

Really not sure about Rachel's dress today. Very "I'm sending a letter to daddy".

Amy fell into the ELATIONS^ trap (as did I on TV!) although it was once allowed by Mark Nyman (we've been down that road of horrendous dictionary rules pre-2003 before).

I felt both picked defensively at times - a lot of 3-vowel and 5-vowel picks.

Quite proud of myself for spotting UNDERPLOT and also the NSFW SHARTED in Round 13.

[Gavin Chipper]

BORONIAS was the word DC couldn't bring themselves to spell.

There's been discussion before on conundrums like OURSELVES. Not simply sticking an S on the end of course but I seem to remember some controversy. I'll have a look later.

Guidelines as of May last year said -

"The conundrum will never end in ‘S’ to make a plural of a singular word, so words BUNGALOWS will not be used. Some CAN end in ‘S’, but they will not be plurals, ie DIAGNOSIS, HEARTLESS etc."

So not a plural of a singular word, but definitely a plural, and the guideline is somewhat unclear

Looking at some discussion on Apterous from 2012, I interpreted then as no plurals that end in S:

"The conundrum will never end in 'S' to make a plural of a singular word, so words BUNGALOWS etc will not be used. Some CAN end in 'S', but they will not be plurals, ie DIAGNOSIS, HEARTLESS etc."

...

So I'd interprert that as no plurals ending in an S at all, including if the plural of APE was QWERTYUIS. Not that Apterous should strictly follow Countdown anyway.

There's discussion elsewhere, but more than anything it's just a badly worded rule that's been allowed to exist for over a decade.

[Rhys Benjamin]

DROPPINGS is the one I have particular issue with.