Spoilers For Tuesday August 25th 2009

[James Robinson]

Well, Paul remains in the chair. For how long, no-one knows, except him, the people in the audience that day (not me unfortunately), the production team and a few others etc.

Still, as Kai and I think Oliver pointed out yesterday, if he is still champ by Thursday, we'd have the first consecutive octochamps since Kai & Junaid nearly a year ago.

[Dinos Sfyris]

Since Davies follows his potential Octorun I think the probability of getting 3 consecutive octos is practically the same!

[Kai Laddiman]

Since Davies follows his potential Octorun I think the probability of getting 3 consecutive octos is practically the same!

Maybe whoever did yesterday's recap should have mentioned that..

[Oliver Garner]

Since Davies follows his potential Octorun I think the probability of getting 3 consecutive octos is practically the same!

Doesn't Jeff Burgin follow soon after as well.

[Ian Dent]

Exciting times.

[James Robinson]

Since Davies follows his potential Octorun I think the probability of getting 3 consecutive octos is practically the same!

Doesn't Jeff Burgin follow soon after as well.

He starts on September 16th, so still 3 weeks away.

EDIT: I say "starts", he could "finish" on the same day too!

[Davy Affleck]

Since Davies follows his potential Octorun I think the probability of getting 3 consecutive octos is practically the same!

Who is Davies?

[Ben Wilson]

The champ may well struggle though as today's challenger is Ed Rossiter, one of Britain's very best Scrabblers, so it's going to be an absolute battle today.

[Ian Dent]

A scrabbler?

Big game in prospect.

[James Robinson]

Since Davies follows his potential Octorun I think the probability of getting 3 consecutive octos is practically the same!

Who is Davies?

Chris Davies, currently one of the top players on Apterous. Many say he'll break a few records on the show. (I actually know the answers, but I'd better not divulge on here!) He's on this forum as well actually.

[Douglas Wilson]

Surely if the scrabbler was that good they wouldn't have put him in a position where he will face Davies in his run.

Damien was on apterous regularly at the time so would know how could Chris was even if he didn't excel at the audition, so surely the players we see in the next few days and during his run will be fairly weak.

[JimBentley]

Nice late method by the Rachel, there.

Also ((9x8)-4)x9)-(100/2), but way after time was up.

[Daniel Turner]

Got 562 for rd 5 in time:

4x100+(9x9x2)

Also, good bleeping on round 7.

[John Douglas]

Why did they bleep BASTARDS? Surely that is a respectable word.

[JimBentley]

I was quite surprised that they had to bleep that. It's not really offensive these days, is it?

[Derek Hazell]

For the same reason as they remove "Basterds" from all the pre-watershed trailers for Quentin Tarantino's new film, and even some of the post-watershed ones too.

That's not even spelt the same and they still remove it!

Edit: Oh yeah, and Damian said that they are more inclined to beep words during the school holidays: http://www.c4countdown.co.uk/viewtopic. ... 683#p15683

[JimBentley]

Highly efficient stuff from Ed and it was Paul's best game by a distance too. Good stuff.

Ed vs. Chris on Friday (for surely it will come to pass) is looking like it could be a classic.

[Douglas Wilson]

I was quite surprised that they had to bleep that. It's not really offensive these days, is it?

Might be something to do with it being the school holidays?

Anyway to the game really disapointed for Paul as really got to like him over the last few games, but he's got at least half a chance of coming back for the quarter finals.

[Kai Laddiman]

Why would they bleep a word meaning children of unmarried parents? Nonsense!

Also ESTROGEN as DC beater.

[Michael Wallace]

Anyone else think BRESTADAS sounds like a word?

[Phil Reynolds]

Ed has a look of Daniel Boys about him.

[Michael Wallace]

Ed vs. Chris on Friday (for surely it will come to pass) is looking like it could be a classic.

I was about to take issue with this, then checked the recap and realised he hadn't done as badly as I thought - he only dropped 12 points (6 on raw score), including 3 from a pretty tricky numbers (although admittedly 1 away was fairly straightforward). PILOTED is only the real glaring miss, imo, which isn't bad for your first show. That said, I think he'll only give CD a run for his money if it's a sufficiently flat game (a la the zuss/bevins semi), although given how little data are available, I'm probably talking rubbish.

[James Doohan]

Why would they bleep a word meaning children of unmarried parents? Nonsense!

Also ESTROGEN as DC beater.

Isn't that the American spelling?

[Jeffrey Burgin]

Since Davies follows his potential Octorun I think the probability of getting 3 consecutive octos is practically the same!

Doesn't Jeff Burgin follow soon after as well.

I fail to see what correlation my appearance has with the probabilities of Octochampdom.

(I'm secretly very pleased you said that though!)

[Kai Laddiman]

Why would they bleep a word meaning children of unmarried parents? Nonsense!

Also ESTROGEN as DC beater.

Isn't that the American spelling?

Oh yeh

[Gavin Chipper]

The champ may well struggle though as today's challenger is Ed Rossiter, one of Britain's very best Scrabblers, so it's going to be an absolute battle today.

Not that I've seen it since the return this week, but given what I saw of the champion before, if this Ed Rossiter is very good, then surely it would not be an absolute battle.

[Oliver Garner]

The champ may well struggle though as today's challenger is Ed Rossiter, one of Britain's very best Scrabblers, so it's going to be an absolute battle today.

Isn't Phil Robertshaw (who got whupped by James Hurrell) suppossed to be one of Britain's very best Scrabblers.

[Matthew Green]

Its 'whooped' Oliver. Tut tut.

[Ben Wilson]

The champ may well struggle though as today's challenger is Ed Rossiter, one of Britain's very best Scrabblers, so it's going to be an absolute battle today.

Isn't Phil Robertshaw (who got whupped by James Hurrell) suppossed to be one of Britain's very best Scrabblers.

Yep, on a par with messrs Holden and Beevers. To be fair though, he was having a bad day and playing a player the quality of Hurrell.

Before apterous, I'd have picked Phil to have won a rematch though.

[Oliver Garner]

The champ may well struggle though as today's challenger is Ed Rossiter, one of Britain's very best Scrabblers, so it's going to be an absolute battle today.

Isn't Phil Robertshaw (who got whupped by James Hurrell) suppossed to be one of Britain's very best Scrabblers.

Yep, on a par with messrs Holden and Beevers. To be fair though, he was having a bad day and playing a player the quality of Hurrell.

Before apterous, I'd have picked Phil to have won a rematch though.

Yeah, looking at the game, he struggled on the numbers which is slightly surprising as didn't Craig Beevers argue on his website that anagramming is a numerical sill? Also, he offered some SOWPODS only words but if, like Holden and Beevers, he took time to learn the dictionary omissions, he could have beaten James Hurrell.

[Phil Reynolds]

Phil Robertshaw (who got whupped by James Hurrell)

Its 'whooped' Oliver. Tut tut.

If you're going to attempt pedantry, at least get it right.

[Craig Beevers]

Yeah, looking at the game, he struggled on the numbers which is slightly surprising as didn't Craig Beevers argue on his website that anagramming is a numerical sill? Also, he offered some SOWPODS only words but if, like Holden and Beevers, he took time to learn the dictionary omissions, he could have beaten James Hurrell.

Phil will have spent a long time practising his anagramming skills just through playing Scrabble or studying for Scrabble. I don't see any reason why if he'd practised sufficiently he couldn't have been just as strong at the numbers game. Practice makes you better basically, however everyone has limiting factors that mean they can't get improve beyond a certain level or learn at a certain pace. Generally speaking if you can get good at anagramming you can get good at the numbers game, the things that govern the potential, learning speed etc. would be similar across the two disciplines. Things like dyscalculia or dyslexia can obviously change that.

Also doing the numbers game for the first time in the studio (or on Apterous for that matter) can throw people, that may have made a difference. It certainly was a factor for me in my first few heats.

[Junaid Mubeen]

Endocarp was a beater in the last letters round.

Ed looks a decent player...I'm sure he'll warm the champs' seat just nicely for Mr Davies.

[Kirk Bevins]

What a shame to stick Ed in a few days before Chris. I have no idea if they play each other, although it looks very likely after today's performance - I was very impressed! But it's now guaranteed that both Ed and Chris can't be octochamps which seems to be a shame. I wonder if one of them had a crap audition?

Edit: Ed looked very relieved towards the end - he must have been pooing himself watching Paul up his game. I wonder if Chris was pooing himself watching Ed playing so well and damning at the luck of the draw.

Edit 2: Oh, I had ENDOCARP as a beater in round 13.

[James Hurrell]

Phil was unlucky in that I played probably my best game of the 8 against him. Another time he may have had the better of me. But, thanks to Apterous I am far better than when on the program (did little practice other than watching it before going on, never looked at the dictionary, hadn't seen this website (or predecessors), etc) so would like a rematch if the chance was there!

[Matthew Green]

Phil Robertshaw (who got whupped by James Hurrell)

Its 'whooped' Oliver. Tut tut.

If you're going to attempt pedantry, at least get it right.

I stand corrected. Does one also open up a can of whupp-ass though? Surely not?

But please dont accuse me of pedantry, I never touched that boy.

[Sue Sanders]

Anyone else think BRESTADAS sounds like a word?

Sounds like a pet name - for those so inclined.

[Richard Priest]

Surely if the scrabbler was that good they wouldn't have put him in a position where he will face Davies in his run.

Damien was on apterous regularly at the time so would know how could Chris was even if he didn't excel at the audition

I think Chris told me he didn't actually have to audition.

Only just caught up with this after a week away - my aunt told me there was a word bleeped out in one of the games and challenged me to spot it.I'm proud to say that I didn't.