Thursday 19th November 2009 (Series 61, Prelim 89)

[James Robinson]

Welcome one and all to the first James Robinson Thursday Recap

Having said that, the celebrations don't stop there. Today is Jeff & Rachel's 200th edition of Countdown

Set off the fireworks

Countdown recap for Thursday 19 November 2009.

C1: Champion Charlie Khoo (2 wins, 179 points.) The rugby playing medical student from Bray, near Maidenhead, Berkshire. He enjoys cooking and has 2 cats called Moocow and Mouse. His favourite place is Praa Sands (pronounced pray, not prah as Jeff suggested), Cornwall.
C2: Challenger Anne Durham. (Known on here of course as Annie Hall.) From Chingford, London. She works as a ticket seller in the London Underground. Her hobbies include playing online Scrabble, where she has played nearly 2,500 games to date. Jeff describes her as an "adventure girl", mainly because she has climbed mountains in Italy, rode horseback in Mexico and crossed the Arctic Circle on a cruise ship in a Force 10 gale. She did get a certificate afterwards saying that she survived. She told some of her Australian Facebook friends that she was coming on the show, but in Australia, their version of Countdown is like our version of The X Factor
DC: Susie Dent and Amanda Lamb.
RR: Rachel Riley.
OT: Other words or solutions.

R01: C B K M A E A N C
R02: H S O A R T E S I
R03: G T D R E O I A D
R04: E N D S O T E N O
R05: 100, 75, 4, 7, 9, 3. Target: 948.
TTT: LARDYELF - "It sounds like it's not the youngest of insects"
R06: G T P E I D X A O
R07: N S N E E O L M I
R08: S P E T U B R O I
R09: L P T A I E Y T W
R10: 25, 4, 7, 5, 2, 3. Target: 801.
TTT: BADHORNS - "Easy to beat, in fact, very one-sided"
R11: R D Q N I A E F L
R12: C F A N E G O U S
R13: L R N E I A W R I
R14: 50, 4, 7, 5, 1, 9. Target: 494.
R15: M Y T O Y L E G O (conundrum)


And now a brief interlude before our main feature:

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Enjoy the show.

Round 1: C B K M A E A N C

C1: BACK (4)
C2: BACK (4)
DC: cakeman bakeman CABMAN (6)
OT: CABMEN (6) EMBANK (6)
Score: 4–4 (max 6)

Slow start for both with a rubbish set of letters.

Round 2: H S O A R T E S I

C1: SHORTIES (8)
C2: roaches
OT: HOARIEST (8) HOARSEST (8) HOISTERS (8) HORSIEST (8)
Score: 12–4 (max 14)

Charlie's risky 8 combined with Anne's phantom C, gives Charlie a nice early gap.

Round 3: G T D R E O I A D

C1: TRIAGED (7)
C2: RADIOED (7)
DC: GOITRED (7) GODETIA (7)
OT: DODGIER (7) GOATIER (7) ROADIED (7) TOADIED (7)
Score: 19–11 (max 21)

Round 4: E N D S O T E N O

C1: STONED (6)
C2: DENOTES (7)
DC: ENDNOTES (8)
OT: SONNETED (8)
Score: 19–18 (max 29)

Round 5: 100, 75, 4, 7, 9, 3. Target: 948.

C1: 949. Mistake in working.
C2: -
RR: 948. ((100 - 3) x 9) + 75 (10)
Score: 19–18 (max 39)

The numbers sees a whiteout and a mistake leaving the gap stuck at 1.

Amanda tells of her time as the woman in the Scottish Widows ads, where they never filmed in Scotland. She then tells the time of a celebrity edition of A Place In The Sun, which she did with the legend of Countdown himself, the late, great Richard Whiteley. He and Kathryn Apanowicz took Amanda to Portugal and to this fabulous restaurant on the Algarve, which turned out to be a chicken and chip shop

Teatime teaser: LARDYELF -> ALDERFLY

Round 6: G T P E I D X A O

C1: POTAGE (6)
C2: DOTAGE (6)
DC: TEPID (5) GATED (5) GODETIA (7) OPIATED (7)
Score: 25–24 (max 46)

Amazingly, both contestants miss GODETIA picked out by Susie in Round 3.

Round 7: N S N E E O L M I

C1: LEONINE (7)
C2: MELONS (6)
DC: LINESMEN (8)
OT: LIMONENE (8) NOMINEES (8)
Score: 32–24 (max 54)

A LIMONENE is a hydrocarbon, specifically a terpene, which itself is made from conifer resin.

Round 8: S P E T U B R O I

C1: POUTERS (7)
C2: RUBIES (6)
DC: BRUISE (6) POSTURE (7)
OT: BUSTIER (7) OBITERS (7) PERITUS (7) PISTEUR (7) PETROUS (7) PROTEUS (7) SPOUTER (7) TROUPES (7) PITEOUS (7) POUTIER (7) PROBITS (7) RIPOSTE (7) ROPIEST (7) SOUPIER (7)
Score: 39–24 (max 61)

Charlie extends his lead to 15 as Anne misses one of a plethora of 7's.

Round 9: L P T A I E Y T W

C1: WATTLE (6)
C2: pattie
OT: PETTILY (7)
Score: 45–24 (max 68)

Even with the support of Jeff, who claims that he had patties all the time, in the North-East, it's just not in the dictionary, putting Anne further behind.

Susie's Origin Of Words tells of the origins of "dog days".

Round 10: 25, 4, 7, 5, 2, 3. Target: 801.

C1: 800. ((7 x 5) - 3) x 25 (7)
C2: 800. (2 x 4) x (7 - 3) x 25 (7)
RR: 801. ((25 - 2) x (5 x 7)) - 4 (10)
Score: 52–31 (max 78)

Teatime teaser: BADHORNS -> BODHRANS

Round 11: R D Q N I A E F L

C1: landfire
C2: FAILED (6)
DC: FLARED (6)
OT: AFIELD (6) ALDRIN (6) DARNEL (6) LANDER (6) DENIAL (6) NAILED (6) DERAIL (6) LAIRED (6) RAILED (6) REDIAL (6) RELAID (6) FAIRED (6) FARDEL (6) FERIAL (6) FINALE (6) FINDER (6) FRIEND (6) LARNIE (6) LINEAR (6) NAILER (6) RAINED (6) RIFLED (6)
Score: 52–37 (max 84)

Charlie's risky 8 comes to nothing as Anne gets back in the game.

Round 12: C F A N E G O U S

C1: CONGAS (6)
C2: CANES (5)
DC: CONFUSE (7)
OT: FUNGOES (7)
Score: 58–37 (max 91)

A FUNGO is a baseball bat mainly used for practice purposes.

Round 13: L R N E I A W R I

C1: RAINIER (7)
C2: WARREN (6)
DC: AIRLINER (8) WAILER (6)
Score: 65–37 (max 99)

Charlie's 7 seals win No.3 for him.

Round 14: 50, 4, 7, 5, 1, 9. Target: 494.

C1: 494. ((1 + 9) x 50) - (7 - (5 - 4)) (10)
C2: 495.
Score: 75–37 (max 109)

Round 15: M Y T O Y L E G O

C1 buzzes on 3 seconds to say ENTOMOLOGY which is incorrect.
C2 buzzes on 26 seconds to say MYTHOLOGY which is incorrect.
The answer was ETYMOLOGY.
Score: 75–37 (max 119)

A slight mistake with Charlie's declaration is not picked up by Anne who declares something completely different. It's left up to Anne's son in the audience to give the correct answer.

So, Charlie has won 3 on the spin. Will he be a celebrating octochamp by this time next week. Only he and the people who were in the audience that day know the answer.

Join me next Wednesday for the start of the Robinson Recap Double Bill.

So, until next week, bye bye.

Statistics Corner

Charlie:
Total score - 75
Raw score - 81
Total % of max - 63
Raw % of max - 68
Total average score per round - 5.0
Raw average score per round - 5.4
Number of maxes - 4

Anne:
Total score - 37
Raw score - 67
Total % of max - 31
Raw % of max - 56
Total average score per round - 2.5
Raw average score per round - 4.5
Number of maxes - 2

Further summaries are at:
http://www.apterous.org/cdb/series.php?series=61

[Phil Reynolds]

Round 15: M Y T O Y L E G O

C1 buzzes on 3 seconds to say ENTYMOLOGY which is incorrect.
C2 buzzes on 26 seconds to say OMYHOLOGY which is incorrect.

Charlie's guess was ENTOMOLOGY and Anne's was MYTHOLOGY. I've corrected the wiki.

[Charlie Reams]

Even with the support of Jeff, who claims that he had patties all the time, in the North-East, it's just not in the dictionary, putting Anne further behind.

Obviously PATTIES is valid though, it's just that the singular is PATTY.

[Kirk Bevins]

Will he be a celebrating octochamp by this time next week. Only he and the people who were in the audience that day know the answer.

And also the people at the finals know if he was an octochamp.

[Marc Meakin]

You're just rubbing it in now, Kirk.

[Ian Fitzpatrick]

C1: Champion Charlie Khoo (2 wins, 179 points.) The rugby playing medical student from Bray, near Maidenhead, Berkshire. He enjoys cooking and has 2 cats called Moocow and Mouse. His favourite place is Praa Sands (pronounced pray, not prah as Jeff suggested), Cornwall.

There is both a Praa Sands and a Prah Sands in Cornwall. The former is a surfing beach but the latter could cause problems for surfers as it has a sunken forest which is visible at very low tides.

[James Robinson]

Even with the support of Jeff, who claims that he had patties all the time, in the North-East, it's just not in the dictionary, putting Anne further behind.

Obviously PATTIES is valid though, it's just that the singular is PATTY.

I was just pointing out the fact that Jeff said the singular version that he knew was PATTIE.

[Martin Smith]

Amanda tells of her time as the woman in the Scottish Widows ads, where they never filmed in Scotland.

I take it you're surprised that Amanda isn't Scottish or a widow either? Incidentally, Scottish Widows originally was set up to support widows of manual workers in Scotland, but has diversified a bit since then.